There is no prophecy that the messiah will be a descendant of זְרֻבָּבֶ֤ל / Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel). Chaggai / Haggai 2:23 is speaking of Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) -- not any of his descendants. "On that day, says the L-rd of Hosts, I will take you, O Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, My servant; says the L-rd, and I will make you as a signet; for I have chosen you, says the L-rd of Hosts." Chaggai / Haggai 2:23. You. Not a descendant. You. Let's examine the context. Chaggai / Haggai lived during the reign of the King Persia, who was the son of Queen Esther and Achashverosh of Purim fame, Remember: a prophet is a person in direct communication with G-d through visions and dreams. G-d spoke to Haggai and gave him a message for Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) -- who was not a king. Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) was the son of P'daiah (Pedaiah) and the grandson of Sh'altiyel (Shealtiel) and he became the governor of Judah under Persian control. Chaggai / Haggai also had a message for Y'hoshuah / Joshua, son of Y'hotzadak, the kohein gadol (high priest). His message: rebuild the Temple. G-d tells Chaggai / Haggai that the Persian Empire will fall, to be replaced with the Greek Empire (and the Greeks highly influenced the Jewish people -- particularly the Hasmoneans who came to rule Judah. They were highly Hellenized (influenced by the Greeks). G-d says when this happens, G-d will raise Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) up, making him like the signet of a ring. (This is in contrast to Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel)'s ancestor Jeconiah, king of Judah, (Y'rmiyahu / Jeremiah 22) whom G-d removed from power using the analogy of a man removing a signet ring. But even if this were a messianic prophecy (and it is not) it could not fit Jesus. According to the Christian bible Jesus was not a descendant of Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel), King David, King Solomon or any other line of descent. Which brings up another interesting point. Luke mangles his genealogy of Joseph. He claims that Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) is in the line -- but then he claims that Joseph's line descended from King David via his son Nathan (not Solomon). Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) was a descendant of Solomon, not Nathan. The messiah must be descended from Solomon, not Nathan. Luke 2:23 - 32 "the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel. . . the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, 3the son of Jesse." Totally wrong. Thus even if Joseph (Mary's legal husband) had fathered Jesus biologically, Jesus would not have been in line to the throne (messiah). . . Luke's lineage goes through Nathan, bypassing Solomon. This alone disqualifies Luke's lineage. The inclusion of Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) is flat out wrong. Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) was a descendant of Solomon, not Nathan. The Christian bible gives two different and conflicting lineages for Joseph. Does the lineage of Joseph given by Matthew and also by Luke put Jesus in the running to be the messiah? Matthew does include Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) as descended from Solomon (correct), but then his lineage also falls apart as a messianic claim for Joseph (Jesus had no claim at all). Matthew skips four kings in his lineage: Ahaziah son of Jehoram, Jehoash son of Ahaziah, Amaziah son of Jehoash and Uzziah son of Amaziah (also called Azariah. Why does Matthew eliminate 4 kings representing 81 years of leadership? Matthew 1:17 states "so all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations, and from David to the Babylonian exile are 14 generations, and from the Babylonian exile until the messiah are 14 generations" This is inaccurate. There were 18 generations -- Matthew eliminated four of them. The T'nach lists the list of lineage in three separate places in the T'nach. Link. Eliminating four generations still might put Joseph, and his sons, in line to claim kingship, but Mathew makes one more and far more serious error in his list. Matthew left out a generation and the names given after Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) don't match Divrei Hayamim Alef / 1 Chronicles 3. The last list given by Matthew seems to be mostly fiction. Matthew says “ After the exile to Babylon:
Look at the third one in this list: Zerubbabel father of Abihud.
Tribal lineage (and thus descendant) is only by a biological Jewish father (think "sperm") impregnating a Jewish woman who is his wife or concubine. The Christian bible claims that Jesus had no "earthly" biological father and thus he was not a descendant of Zerubbabel. In any case, the lineage as it pertains to this claim is not even important: the passage is about Zerubbabel (Z'rubavel) himself, not a messianic prophecy.
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