Mary Was a Bigamist

According to the Roman Church

Such a bold statement about the mother of the Messiah, right?

It’s blasphemy, isn’t it?

But, it is what modern Scripture tells us.

The common foundational belief about the Bible — a word that literally means, “book” — is that it is infallible, that there is no error contained within, that it is the Divinely inspired, perfect Word of the Father.

But is it?

First, let’s define bigamy. This is where one person has multiple spouses. One man with multiple wives or one woman with multiple husbands. It can be multiple spouses in both directions — at the same time. It is illegal today in all non-Islamic countries worldwide (although practiced). While not forbidden in Torah, it is never endorsed throughout the Tanakh, but it does violate both Messiah’s and Paul’s words on marriage.

In Matthew 1:16 we reach the end of the Messiah’s genealogy where we are introduced to Joseph, the son of Jacob, the husband of Mary, who is the mother of Messiah. Matthew then provides us with numerical counting of the generations from Abraham to David, David to the Babylonian exile, and from exile to Messiah’s birth. Each segment in 14 generations.

But in Luke 3:23–38, Luke provides us the genealogy of Messiah all the way back to Adam. Here Mary is married to Joseph ben Eli, the son of Eli.

→ Yaakov… Eli… Eli… Yaakov… Hmmm?

If Scripture is infallible and the Divinely inspired, perfect Word of YHWH, then Mary was married to two separate Josephs.

This is a problem, right?

Because although Jacob had two wives and two concubines, by the time of Messiah, it was genuinely illegal, both by Hebraic law (and tradition), and Roman law (the ruling party of the land). Therefore, the infallible Divinity of Scripture teaches us that Mary was a bigamist, a polygamist, an adulterer!

→ Wait a second! This can’t be right, can it?

All Scripture was written by Hebrew men…

…to a Hebrew audience, with the exception of Sha’ul’s epistles, which were written by a Hebrew to newly converted believers in the Hebrew Messiah, be they Hebrew or other.

That means that no matter what we read in Scripture, we must constantly remember the audience of the original author. He, being the one and only Elohim, I AM, Asher Eyah Asher, was, is, and will always be the Elohim of the Hebrews — those who have crossed over. Ezekiel discusses that we, non-Hebrews, become grafted into the house (the tribe) of Israel (Ezk 37:15–28; Rom 2:28–29). Sha’ul also tells us we are engrafted into the house (the tribe) of Israel.

So, what’s really going on here?

Is Mary really a bigamist?

Let’s look at how this terrible injustice occurred on the character of Miriam.

If you follow the genealogy of Messiah in Luke back to the time of David, you will find something very interesting. Joseph ben Eli (Joseph, the son of Eli) is from David’s first (eldest) son, Nathan (Natan, in Hebrew) and there are four Josephs in that line of down just from David forward.

But, if we follow the genealogy of Messiah presented in Matthew, Yoseph ben Yaakov (son of Yaakov) is in the line of Solomon the King, the second born son of David, and in the kingly line.

→ WAIT! These are two different Josephs for certain!

But does this solve our bigamy issue? More to the point, how does this prove the infallibility of Scripture — or rather, the fallibility of scriptural translations?

Men, as a species, are flawed. We sometimes make mistakes, sometimes we deliberately change things to present a different picture of the situation. This can often be accomplished by changing only a single word, sometimes even a couple of letters.

I did steal the comic book. I didn’t steal the comic book. I am late. I am not late.

Remember who wrote the Scriptures — Hebrews, primarily writing to other Hebrews. Matthew was of the tribe of Levi. We are not told if he was a priest, but he may have undergone that training. (If you are wondering, Priests only worked two weeks and the two week-long Feasts each year. They had other jobs.) He needed to find his own steady income. Unfortunately, he found a good paying job working for the occupying Roman authority as a collector of tolls on the road.

→ Wait, the Bible says he was a tax collector!

Context, context, CONTEXT!

The study of history plays a significant factor in our study of His Word. If we assume every word means exactly that same today as it meant 2000 (or more) years ago, we are unable to correctly interpret Scripture. More modern translations of Scripture rightly identify Matthew as a collector of tolls (through of the use of more material, not changing terminologies).

The Romans did not have its citizens or conquered file 1040 tax returns to the Internal Revenue Service. They collected taxes in the form of tolls and fees. If you used their road, you paid a toll. If you bathed in the public bath house, you paid a fee. When you utilized a public health or public service or petitioned a government agency, you paid a toll or fee. If you imported product, you paid tariff tax, if you exported you paid an excise tax.

Matthew collected tolls on the road for the Roman government. In the days during which Scripture was being written, one could say Matthew was a tax collector and any reader knew he collected tolls. But, no matter how one views his profession, Matthew was a Hebrew, and an educated one at that! The Romans did not hire uneducated fishermen or laborers to collect taxes. Matthew was educated. He was an elite amongst his Hebrew brethren.

** The Romans also liked those who were corruptible and the priesthood was highly corruptible in those days. Even the high priest was assigned by the Roman authority, sometimes not even a Levitical priest (per Josephus).

In a study of scriptural history, one will find that Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew. Not Aramaic or Greek or Latin, but his own native tongue, Hebrew. 75 (or more) attestations in early church writers to this, not one that it was written in Greek.

The Gospel of Matthew was written by a Hebrew man to his Hebrew brethren about the Hebrew Messiah foretold of in Hebrew prophecy. It is the gospel most predominately filled with specific, cultural Hebrew idioms that make zero sense in Greek or English.

As 2000 years ago no man on earth had yet heard English (the language is less than 1000 years old and as a clearly developed language with grammar and structure, only about 600–700 years old), Matthew’s Gospel was not written in English. And since in that day it would have been more acceptable for a Hebrew — particularly a Levite — to eat a port roast at Passover than learn Greek or Latin, it is unfathomable that Matthew wrote in any language other than Hebrew. (Why not Aramaic? That’s the equivalent of the American dialect of English. It’s the gutter version of the native language.)

Matthew was a Levite, likely a studied man, possibly even a priest with 10-years at the feet of an elder priest. This would also explain why his was the first gospel recorded and why it was the only one quoted by both Sha’ul and Ya’akov. It traveled into the Far East with Nathaniel as early at 48 C.E.

By now you are asking, this is such a long way to go for this one point, could you just make it now? Okay.

As translations of the gospels spread throughout the Roman empire, they were translated into various other languages. Greek, primarily, was — because of the conquests of Alexander the Great — the predominant language spoken through the Mediterranean, near Middle East, and Northern Africa. The Old Testament, called the Tanakh (an acronym for Torah, Nebi’im, and Ketubim — Teaching and instruction, Prophets, and writings), was translated — give or take — around 200 B.C.E. at the order of Alexander into Greek. This is the Septuagint.

It was translated by 70 (thus the septu in the name) HEBREW scholars. Not Greek scholars, but Hebrew scribes. If the original Septuagint is read aloud in a room of Greeks, it is gibberish, they know the words, but there is no grammatical structure — it’s plain nonsensical words in no particular order. If the same is read in a room of Hebrew speakers that understand Greek, it reads almost as a word-for-word translation of the Hebrew Tanakh. This is because although the Septuagint is presented in Greek, it is still a Hebrew document.

The gospels fall into this same characterization.

Matthew wrote his gospel in Hebrew. In the translation process, within this genealogy, a single word was mistranslated — likely deliberately to strip away the divinity of Messiah and besmirch the character of Mary. What word?

In ALL English translations of Matthew — with a single exception — Matthew 1:16a says: “And Ya‛aqoḇ brought forth Yosĕph the husband of Miryam, of whom was born יהושע who is called Messiah.” Or in the KJV, “Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, by whom Yeshua was born, who is called Messiah.”

We jump to Matthew 1:19, which says, “And Yosĕph her husband… KJV, “And Joseph her husband…” The Hebrew word for husband is ba’ala. The Hebrew word for mighty man is gevra, a father. Into Greek, only a single word is used for both Hebrew words, aner, which simply means a person of full age. Then the translators put their own meaning to this word when translating from the Greek into new languages. Now, if you wanted to strip away the divinity of Messiah, what is the easiest way to do this?

Change the parentage of Messiah.

To do this, a single word was mistranslated — gevra — the mighty man of Miriam, the mother of Messiah.

In order to completely understand the meaning of this, one must first understand the Hebraic context of “mighty man”. When placed in a sentence relating to war, battle, strength, or military, a mighty man is a warrior, typically resembling our imagination of the Arthurian class of Knight. Not every bowman or armor barer was a mighty man, only those that carried the sword, wore the armor, and fought in the battle and led in the battle.

When mighty man is used in the context of “family” or genealogy, it means “father”.

→ Oh… right?

If Matthew 1:16 were translated correctly, it would read, “Jacob (Yaakov) the father of Joseph (Yoseph), the father of Mary (Miriam), by whom Yeshua was born, who is the Messiah.”

Remember I mentioned Matthew provides us a count of the generations being 14 from Abraham to David, 14 to exile, and 14 from exile? If you count these generations, you will indeed find 14 from Abraham to David, 14 from David to exile, but only 13 from exile to Messiah (He being the 13th generation).

Why?

Because if the Joseph of verse 16 is Miriam’s husband, then they are both of the same generation, thus the 12th generation, and do not each count as a separate generation.

Thus, to confirm the error in the translation, we count the generations.

Conversely, to prove the corrected translation, we count the generations.

The father of Miriam, Yoseph, is the 12th generation, Miriam is the 13th, Messiah the 14th.

Now the count works accurately, the original Hebrew word is correctly translated, and we have a clear and correct understanding of the genealogy of Messiah. His biological mother comes from the direct descendance of King Solomon, whereas her husband, the son of Eli, comes from the line of David through the son Nathan — not the kingly line. If Messiah is to be born the King, he must be of the direct lineage of the king. Yoseph ben Eli is not.

Per the research by Dr. Miles Jones and his team working on the 1st century Hebrew manuscripts of the Gospels, this counting method was a Hebrew tool used as a verification method. If someone who did not understand the reason for the counting fouled it up, the count would be wrong and the text would be demonstrated as a fraud (or a poor copy). It was an encoded textual verification code — a captcha, if you will — within the manuscripts. It is evident that the Greek translations are indeed translations because they fail the counting verification test.

If Scripture is infallible, then Miriam — Mary — the mother of Messiah Yeshua — is a bigamist. Married to both Yeho’seph son of Eli AND Yeho’seph son of Yaakov.

Was Messiah the original star of “My Two Dad”?

What is the lesson here?

No matter the perfection with which the original Scripture was given and recorded, the dogma and doctrine of man has wheedled its way into the very Word of Elohim, distorting it, misrepresenting it, and, in the end, misleading His followers into believing lies.

The lesson here, like in so much of life, is: DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOUR HEAR OR READ BECAUSE SOMETIMES IT’S JUST PLAIN WRONG — OR LIES. This applies to THIS LESSON, too. You need to study this for yourself, not just take my word for it.

The application of this lesson is this: STUDY not only the words in Scripture, but also the history of that time, the culture of the Hebrews, the context of the writer, written to whom, when, where, and under what circumstance. Use a Biblical dictionary to clearly define words you are slightly less certain about. Use a concordance (or quality study Bible) to find all the corresponding cross reference verses and passages. Use a lexicon to dig deeper into the word for better understanding of the meaning of the word. Allow Scripture to define Scripture.

And ALWAYS remember, Scripture, every word of it, was written by Hebrew men listening to the Divine Voice (the Ruach haChodesh) of YHWH, the Elof Abraham, Isaac, and Israel — Hebrews all of them.

If you think that the Old Testament was written only to Jews (a modern word) and the New Testament only to Christians, the previous lesson should have upturned your apple cart and caused you to start questioning EVERYTHING you have learned in doctrine class and Christian sermons.

Originally published at https://aminoapps.com.