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According to the prophecies, the Messiah must be from the lineage of David. The Gospels provide the genealogies of Jesus through Joseph. There is no genealogy of Mary. But Joseph is not the father of Jesus; His father is the Holy Spirit! How then can He be from the lineage of David? Everything falls into place if Joseph is His actual father, but what then of His divine (from the Holy Spirit) origin? One must choose one or the other. Which is to be chosen?

The problem is simpler than it seems at first glance. In Gospel times (and in other times as well), adoption was taken very seriously. Jesus is called the son of Joseph because Joseph adopted Him and became His adoptive father. This is sufficient to consider Jesus a descendant of David, especially since the Old Testament contains the prophecy of Jeremiah, according to which the descendants of the royal line will not sit on the throne of David after the captivity (Jer 22:30) – therefore, it cannot be a matter of direct succession... Until the end of the 19th century, an interpretation was also popular according to which the Blessed Virgin also descended from the lineage of David. Modern biblical scholarship prefers the aforementioned version of legal adoption.

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