noah

As per your suggestion Lee, I have opened a thread here to discuss the issue of whether JC was descended from David. Specifically, I asked you why you believe this when the Jews do not and what it is you know about their texts and traditions that they do not.
Since I have posed and posted the questions I will assume the ball is in your court and you will post an answer to me here and then I will respond to you and so on.

Best,

noah

Johnny Skeptic

Lee Merrill: What is your evidence that Jesus was born in Bethlehem?

lee_merrill

Hi Noah and Johnny,

I would first mention that some Jewish people believe in Jesus! One of my Christian friends on the west coast is Jewish, actually, and there have been two Jewish members (at least) in my church. More and more of them seem to be believing, actually, so apparently they are finding some convincing reasons to accept the claim that he is the Messiah, descended from David.

Now about their texts, I hold that Matthew was Jewish! So this would be a Jewish text, declaring Jesus to have the right credentials. Not only that, but all the first 12 disciples were Jewish, as were most if not all of the first believers, up to the point where Peter was sent to Cornelius.

So they apparently had good reasons to believe this was the promised Messiah, and that his claim to be a son of David was valid.

And similarly about Jesus being born in Bethlehem, if these early disciples thought there was a difficulty on these points, that Jesus probably did not fulfill all such requirements, I would expect they would be unlikely to be quite willing to die for a poser, an imposter, a probable fraud.

Blessings,
Lee