Intro

This blog gains its name from the book Steele's Answers published in 1912. It began as an effort to blog through that book, posting each of the Questions and Answers in the book in the order in which they appeared. I started this on Dec. 10, 2011. I completed blogging from that book on July 11, 2015. Along the way, I began to also post snippets from Dr. Steele's other writings — and from some other holiness writers of his times. Since then, I have begun adding material from his Bible commentaries. I also re-blog many of the old posts.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The Genealogy of Mary

QUESTION: Why should we not have the genealogy of Mary instead of Joseph, who was not an ancestor of Jesus?


ANSWER: It was the practice of the Jews to exclude the names of women from their genealogical registers and to put the husband's name instead. Mary was the daughter of Heli and Joseph was his son-in-law in Luke's list of Mary's natural descent. Matthew gives her legal genealogy. Many difficulties in respect to names of persons and the number of generations arise from the fact that some men had more than one name, and the names of bad ancestors were dropped out of the list. See Methodist Quarterly Review, October, 1852.

— From Steele's Answers p. 17.