Tis the season. So I thought I would throw something in there for you to reflect on while you go about your usual holiday traditions whatever they may be.
AS you are well aware the bulk of Jews and Muslims do not accept Jesus as a messiah or the savior of mankind. Christians view this as a sin of sorts obviously and give many reasons for it.
Recently, I was re-reading the book of Mathew (Don't you from time to time?) and I came upon a realization. The Jews were expecting a messiah from the line of David to save them from their oppressors (Jeremiah 23:5). As you well know the New Testament describes Jesus as being conceived by the holy spirit so technically Jesus doesn't carry David's blood. Jesus was adopted by a member of the house of David (Joseph) and unless Joseph married a relative, Mary probably did not descend from the house of David either.
Think about this, even though Moses was adopted by Pharaoh, he is not considered Egyptian so why is it stated that Jesus descended from the Davidic line?
With that said there are two conclusions that I have drawn.
1. The virgin birth never occurred as written in the scripture which I believe is the accepted modern scholarly view.
and
2. Joseph was indeed the genetic father of Jesus (no immaculate conception required) but this implies that his birth was no more special than mine or yours which puts Jesus in the same class of people as Ghandi or Martin Luther King both mortal men that are greatly revered and had many followers, but I would not go as far as saying they are "worshiped".
Today we condemn anyone that claims to be the son of god as a nut or lunatic (ie:
http://www.allaboutcults.org/jose-jesus-miranda-faq.htm ) and yet these people still have followers. So what does that say about them? .
Just some food for thought.
Merry Xmas
The programmers you will one day be looking to hire are the ones reading the tech news sites right now.
And they will remember...
~George Hotz @ $ony