Who was the father of Joseph?? according to bible?

Question

There is a contradiction in bible about this

MAT 1:16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

LUK 3:23 And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was
the son of Heli.

If bible is a word of God which is not altered then how come these contradictions came into it??

Answer 1

Good question. Before I answer your first question I want to clarify what is meant by the Bible being the word of God.

The "Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation" (Vat. 11, Ch. 3.11) of the Catholic Church says that "all that the inspired, or sacred writers, affirm should be regarded as affirmed by the Holy Spirit, we must acknowledge that the books of Scripture firmly, and without error, teach that truth which God, for the sake of our salvation, wished to be confided to the sacred Scriptures." This is the Church's teaching on the matter after twenty centuries of Christian discernment.

Biblical inerrancy, then, is the Bible's privilege of never teaching error. Does this mean that every statement in the Bible is divine teaching? Of course not. The Bible does not always teach. There are many statements in its various books that are there for historical, geographical, poetic or other reasons. However, whenever a biblical author intends to teach us something, then the Holy Spirit intends that too. Everything that the Bible teaches is without error, but everything in the Bible is not meant as teaching. Each author was left free by the Lord to express himself according to the ideas of his own day. It is the revelation contained in the Scriptures that is important.

This contradiciton has not been resolved although there have been many theories. Some say Matthew and Luke had different sources. Others say Luke traced the lineage of Jesus from Mary. I personally think it is a scribal error. In any case this error has nothing to do with our salvation so it is not really important.

Peace and blessings!

Edit: The Catholic Church has never said the Bible is inerrant. In fact, it admits that there are many contradictions but they have nothing to do with our salvation.

Answer 2

When the record is read carefully it becomes obvious that one line is the line of the stepfather, Joseph while the other is the mother's line, Mary's.

The giveaway is here in Luke: "being the son, as the opinion was"
Luke 3:23 23 Furthermore, Jesus himself, when he commenced [his work], was about thirty years old, being the son, as the opinion was, of Joseph, [son] of Heli,

When the account in Matthew is read, verse 16 shows this to be Joseph's line:
Matthew 1:16 Jacob became father to Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ.

This way a person seeking the truth may easily find it. While those seeking to condemn the Bible have their say and their judgment and damnation. Let each person do as their hearts demand.

There is a lot of material in the Bible that the opponents jump upon and point fingers at. However, this is as it should be. Let the chaff be identified so as to burn it easier.

The faithful find that such seeming contradictions are just that -- in appearance only.

Answer 3

Joseph, the adoptive father of Jesus, was the son of Jacob (Matthew 1:16), and the adopted or legal son of Heli (Luke 3:23), both of the family of David. He lived in Nazareth and worked as a carpenter. Betrothed to Mary, he married her at the instigation of an angel, who informed him of her pregnancy by the Holy Spirit.

Answer 4

Jacob and Heli are one in the same person. Here is what my Bible dicionary says about it.. Heli-(He'li) Hebrew personal name meaning "high". The son of matthat and father of Joseph, Jesus earthly father (Luke 3:23-24) His relationship to jesus is variously explalined by bible students in light of Matt. 1:16, which makes Joseph';s father to be jacob. He has been seen as the father of Joseph, a more remote anscestor of Joseph, or an anscestor of Mary. Either Jacob or Heli are variant names of the same person ("son of" means "decendant of " as in other genealogies), or Luke precerved the genalogy of Mary rather than of Joseph. A totally satisfactory answer to the question has not been found. The name probably represents a Greek form of the Hebrew Eli. Eli-From H5927; lofty; Eli, an Israelitish high priest: - Eli. Heli-Of Hebrew origin [H5941]; Heli (that is, Eli), an Israelite: - Heli.

Answer 5

Be careful that you interpret this accurately. Sometimes, things are not what they first appear to be. Many people mistakenly jump to a conclusion without careful consideration of the importance of a few details.

1) In the Bible, the word "son" could mean son, grandson, great-grandson, or even beyond. The equivalent is also true of the word "father." This is not inaccurate, only reflective of the culture at that time. Neither does it mean that every time you see the word "son" it means "grandson," etc.

2) Notice the words in Luke given in parentheses: "as was supposed." Usually, when we use this kind of terminology, what does it mean? It means that people believed something that was not necessarily fact.

My understanding of this is that Heli was the grandfather of Jesus, being the father of Mary who was Jesus' mother. The text rightly, therefore, refers to Jesus as Heli's "son." (Which was true in that culture.) Luke, in other words, gives the lineage of Jesus' mother's side of the family. Matthew gives Joseph's side. The "which" in the verse you quoted in Luke may not refer to Joseph, but rather to Jesus Himself.

Answer 6

These are two separate genealogies - one through Jacob who begat Joseph, and the other in which Joseph is "of Heli" -- "son" is not in the original Greek. "Joseph of Heli" is believed to mean Joseph, son-in-law of Heli (or alternatively Joseph, step-son of Heli). In either case, Heli is not the begetter of Joseph.

Answer 7

Answer: Jesus' genealogy is given in two places in Scripture, Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3, verses 23-38. Matthew traces the genealogy from Jesus to Abraham. Luke traces the genealogy from Jesus to Adam. However, there is good reason to believe that Matthew and Luke are in fact tracing entirely different genealogies. For example, Matthew gives Joseph's father as Jacob (Matthew 1:16), while Luke gives Joseph's father as Heli (Luke 3:23). Matthew traces the line through David's son Solomon (Matthew 1:6), while Luke traces the line through David's son Nathan (Luke 3:31). In fact, between David and Jesus, the only names the genealogies have in common are Shealtiel and Zerubbabel (Matthew 1:12; Luke 3:27). What is the explanation for these differences?

Some point to these differences as evidence of errors in the Bible. However, the Jews were meticulous record keepers, especially in regards to genealogies. It is inconceivable that Matthew and Luke could build two entirely contradictory genealogies of the same lineage. Again, from David through Jesus, the genealogies are completely different. Even the reference to Shealtiel and Zerubbabel likely refer to different individuals of the same names. Matthew gives Shealtiel's father as Jeconiah while Luke gives Shealtiel's father as Neri. It would be normal for a man named Shealtiel to name his son Zerubbabel in light of the famous individuals of those names (see the books of Ezra and Nehemiah).

Another explanation is that Matthew is tracing the primary lineage while Luke is taking into account the occurrences of "levirite marriage." If a man died without having any sons, it was tradition for the man's brother to marry his wife and have a son who would carry on the man's name. While possible, this view is unlikely as every generation from David to Jesus would have had a "levirite marriage" in order to account for the differences in every generation. This is highly unlikely.

With these concepts in view, most conservative Bible scholars assume Luke is recording Mary’s genealogy and Matthew is recording Joseph’s. Matthew is following the line of Joseph (Jesus’ legal father), through David’s son Solomon, while Luke is following the line of Mary (Jesus’ blood relative), though David’s son Nathan. There was no Greek word for "son-in-law," and Joseph would have been considered a son of Heli through marrying Heli's daughter Mary. Through either line, Jesus is a descendant of David and therefore eligible to be the Messiah. Tracing a genealogy through the mother’s side is unusual, but so was the virgin birth. Luke’s explanation is that Jesus was the son of Joseph “so it was thought” (Luke 3:23).

Answer 8

I can't belive that you have found an actual contradiction in the Bible. How could you? - I'm shattered, my life is now in total collapse. To even contemplate that the "Word of God" might have inconsistencies is just beyond belief.....be still my beating heart!

Sorry, to answer your question, you have a couple of choices:-

MATTHEW SAYS / LUKE SAYS
Jesus / Jesus
Joseph / Joseph
Jacob / Heli
Matthan / Matthat
Eleazar / Levi
Eliud / Melchi
Achim / Jannai
Zadok / Joseph
Azor / Mattathiah
Eliakim / Amos
Abiud / Nahum
Zerubbabel / Esli
Shealtiel / Naggai
(15 more generations) / (30 more generations)
David / David

I figure that AT LEAST one of them is telling fibs.
Perhaps BOTH of them are mishandling the truth?

Are they the ONLY contradictions you found? Look again !

Answer 9

I can explain this one, it has to do with the translation. The words are exactly right, but the meaning of the words are different now than they were when originally written.

Begat, "son of", "father of", etc. ... had no separate meaning back then. You could say "son of" and mean literally father/son or you could also mean great great great grandson.

I've always thought (and this is just my opinion btw) that they didn't have separate words for these because bloodline was so important back then. I think because they knew so much about their own ancestors they felt a kinship to them as father to son. I dunno, maybe it just never occurred to them it'd matter lol.

Answer 10

I will get back to you as soon as i check the bible. Right now i am going form my work. I hope the others will answer you, and strengthen your faith towards the God. This is an interesting questions. I will check it tonight, okay. Ho, i think maybe you have to read the whole chapter, maybe it's referring to the other Joseph. God bless.