Question: The children of Israel had some strict rules about intermarriage, do you think that was something to do with Jesus being born?
Answer: Yes, let’s look a little deeper: Adam means “man.” so when Christ is called the Son of Man the entire generating line all the way from Adam down to Jesus is being recalled. Christ is the second Adam with a direct link to Adam himself. Of course there were generations in between; when Christ is called the second Adam it doesn’t mean that he was born straight after the first Adam, no, but something that God put into Adam made its way through the line of generations to Jesus. God’s breath or spirit deposited something into Adam so that he was called a living soul. The Hebrew word for soul is nephesh; it’s used in the Bible for animals as well as humans. What’s important about Adam’s nephesh is that God breathed into him and he was called “living.”
There were other creatures who were also living but Adam was called living in a special way because of God’s breath. We don’t read of God breathing into any of the other creatures, even when man was made in Genesis 1. Other humans had God’s breath, but it seems the garden was an illustration of what was happening in the world at large. Humans outside the garden were made with spirit inside them; we know this because they were made in God’s image and part of that image includes spirit because God is Spirit.
God’s breath is what separates us from the animal kingdom. Job 32:8 says that, “It is the spirit in a man, the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.” Adam was taking part in an object lesson; we all have God’s breath but the act of God breathing into Adam was highlighted.
Adam stood out because of God’s breath transforming his body into a living organism that would stay alive for 930 years; his body was a superb piece of biological hardware. Hebrews 10:5 says, “when Christ came into the world, he said . . . a body have you prepared for me.” Jesus Christ’s body was to be the perfect sin offering, it was to be a sacrifice without spot or blemish.
Adam and his line had the mark of sin because he was the first man to break the law that God gave. So the Son of Man carried the sins of men in his body on the tree (1 Pet 2:24). When Christ is called the second man (“The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is of heaven” 1 Cor 15:47) it doesn’t mean that he was the second man, just the same as when Adam is called the first man, it doesn’t mean he was the first man created. Adam was the first man in the line to Christ.
We know along the way that Adam’s offspring lost their length of years. Adam was an ordinary human taken from the ground just like all the rest of us, but God chose him to demonstrate something and to give us eternal life through his offspring. However, it was important that Adam’s progeny didn’t get filled with pride; they needed to remain humble and remember they were flesh like all humankind. That’s why God said, “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh.” yes, he also is flesh, the same as all men. God needed to remind Adam’s line of their true position. Though God had blessed them with advantages regular humans did not enjoy, they were in fact ordinary humans. This lesson was brought home to them very strongly with a shortening of their life span. “his days shall be an hundred and twenty years” (Gen 6:3).
The story would lead all the way to Jesus being born of a human woman. a baby, which couldn’t be born a baby, which couldn’t be born blind, or infirmed, or with learning disabilities or any other disability, he had a job to do, he had to walk many miles, and speak to multitudes of people, he needed God’s breath in him to speak such powerfully sharp words that they would slice through disingenuous hypocrisy. As a boy of twelve he astounded the learned men in the Temple. This child was destined to help us, lead us, shepherd us, heal us, and to save us. He was the seed of the woman, born and grown into an adult.
So God took care that the line from Adam to Christ remain good and free from genetic problems that may hinder his work.
And let’s remember that Christ’s body had to withstand the rigours of being slapped, punched, whipped, a crown of thorns, and nails in his hands and feet. He was the perfect sacrifice—a lamb without spot or blemish.
We see the importance of Christ’s line being protected in various ways: Abraham would have told Isaac that he shouldn’t get married to a local girl; Yahweh had specifically said that Isaac was the seed-bearer “for in Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Gen 21:12). So Abraham gave the job of finding a wife for Isaac to his trusted servant. But this was too important to over-emphasize so he made the servant take an oath promising he would only get a wife from Abraham’s relatives.
Gradually all the attributes (and negative aspects like weak eyes) of being in the line to Christ faded away. long life, strength, and beauty faded as Christ’s birth got closer; once Christ was born he was all of those things. The attributes were actors in the drama and now the reality was among us. The signs were no longer needed.
Jacob instructs his sons upon his death to take his body and place it in the cave of Machpelah; all those who were buried there so far were seed bearers in Christ’s line. Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Leah, and Jacob would follow. Although Jacob loved Rachel she was not buried there, Leah had finally taken her place in death as Jacob’s first wife and in the line to Christ.
There would attempts to destroy what God had planted in Christ’s biological line in various books of the Bible. Revelation presents us with a summarising tapestry: “the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, ready to devour her child as soon as she gave birth. And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was caught up to God and to His throne” (Rev 12:4–5).
But what we have learned in Genesis informs us that God who began the good work is able to take it on to completion. God has a way of keeping a rescue plan safe and secure for when it’s needed.
When Mordecai was encouraging Esther to speak to the king he said, “if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place.” The line to Christ will be protected and overshadowed by God’s hand; he is always able to get things back on track.
To those looking on it seemed like Judah might wreck the plan by marrying a Canaanite, but God had Tamar in reserve. There would be other reservists too.
The scenario of Lot’s daughters being impregnated by their father seems too imprudent to be useful and yet the close family genetic ties may be useful for being kept in reserve. The eldest son of Lot’s daughters was named Moab, father of the Moabites. six generations along the line from Judah’s son Perez we get a man called Boaz from Judah who married a woman called Ruth who was a Moabite, taking her place in the line to Christ.
Yahweh first breathed into a man, which began the links in the genetic chain to Christ, then the Holy Spirit and power of the Most High overshadowed a woman, Mary, and she gave birth to a Son. The work was completed; God started the process and finished it. And now all humankind benefit from having God with us —Emmanuel.
Genesis tells us about genes, we all had our beginnings made from the earth except he who is from above. His beginnings were not from the earth; he already existed before the universe came to be. As John the Baptist said, “The one who comes from above is above all; the one who is from the earth belongs to the earth . . . The one who comes from heaven is above all” (John 3:31).
(Shroud of Turin photo by Dianelos Georgoudis – Public Domain)