Chapter II.—An Explanation of the Sense in Which Christ is the Son of David, Although
He Was Not Begotten in the Way of Ordinary Generation by Joseph the Son of David.
4. Thus, too, even if one were able to demonstrate that no descent, according to the laws
of blood, could be claimed from David for Mary, we should have warrant enough to hold
Christ to be the son of David, on the ground of that same mode of reckoning by which also
Joseph is called His father. But seeing that the Apostle Paul unmistakably tells us that “Christ
was of the seed of David according to the flesh,”668 how much more ought we to accept
without any hesitation the position that Mary herself also was descended in some way, ac-
cording to the laws of blood, from the lineage of David? Moreover, since this woman’s
connection with the priestly family also is a matter not left in absolute obscurity, inasmuch
as Luke inserts the statement that Elisabeth, whom he records to be of the daughters of
Aaron,669 was her cousin,670 we ought most firmly to hold by the fact that the flesh of Christ
sprang from both lines; to wit, from the line of the kings, and from that of the priests, in the
case of which persons there was also instituted a certain mystical unction which was sym-
bolically expressive among this people of the Hebrews. In other words, there was a chrism;
which term makes the import of the name of Christ patent, and presents it as something
indicated so long time ago by an intimation so very intelligible.
668 Rom. i. 3.
669 Luke i. 5.
670 Luke i. 36.
An Explanation of the Sense in Which Christ is the Son of David, Although He Was Not Begotten in the Way of Ordinary Generation by Joseph the Son of David.
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An Explanation of the Sense in Which Christ is the Son of David, Although…