I just began an eleven-week course Kingdom Builders.
Auspicious.The Father was very careful about whom He selected to become the Mother of His Son.
Pragmatist revelation leads me to believe that Archelaus HEROD was likely bedding Levite maidens when afforded the opportunity, as a mentally ill King of Israel. (I remind the reader that Herod THE GREAT's three sons were Archelaus (KING), Antipas (TETRARCH) and Philip (TETRARCH). Somebody blurted out in a Bible Study that Christmas (December 25) was Jesus' "conception birthday". I did not inquire how but being born September 11, 3 BC, December 25, 4 BC would put Mary about two weeks overdue - which is entirely possible.
This indicates the timeline to be that pregnant Mary was dumped on Joseph ARIMATHEA*, a wealthy and politically active silver miner to raise the unwanted bastard. During Jesus' birth Jupiter went into retrograde motion and in conjunction with Regulus not only caused the brightest star the people had ever seen in their lifetimes, caused it to linger for several nights that way. Then fifteen months later a delegation of three dignitaries traveled to Jerusalem from Babylon during the retrograde motion of Venus moving backward in the sky and alerted Archelaus that the next King of Israel would be that toddler he had sired from the virgin priest-maiden from a few years earlier.
In a rage Archelaus began a campaign of infanticide that got him exiled by 6 AD and so we find him thirty years later still King of Israel but living in the wilderness with John BAPTIST as his Prophet (channeling the Spirit of Elijah) and finally accepting Jesus' coronation as King of Israel.
Regards,
David Merrill.
* Albeit there are degrees of freedom unmentioned, the strict reading indicates that Joseph, Jesus' adopted father was Joseph of Arimathea on the premise that parents would not name two of their sons by the same name Joseph.
Reply With Quote