Tracing Family Histories

 Although the checking of personal ancestries has never been more popular than it is today with numerous magazines and web sites offering  help to trace your family roots  the idea is not new at all.

Ancestral records were vital in the ancient nation of Israel where such records were used in setting up tribal and family relationships such as land divisions and inheritances and they were particularly vital in proving the lineage of the promised Messiah.

That is no doubt why both Mathew and the physician, Luke in their accounts of the life of Jesus started out tracing the lineage of Jesus all the way back to both King David and Abraham. You will remember how Jehovah God made a promise to Abraham that through his family someone would be born who would help mankind to regain God's favour and how King David was told  that this one -- the Messiah -- would come through his family line.

The Jews of  were well aware of this as shown  at John 7:42   Where members of a crowd are quoted by John say, "Does not scrpture not say that the Christ [Messiah] is coming from the offspring of David?" So the Gospel writers  wanted to make this relationship between Abram, David and the Messiah, Jesus, clear.

But where did Mathew and Luke get their information?  Likely from an ancestral record. These took two forms. The ancestral records of priestly families which according to The Jewish Encyclopedia were given special care  and the "public registers".

These were still very accurate histories of Jewish families as seen by the fact that one Hillel, a rabbi of Jesus time was able to prove  he was a descendant of King David according to a Jewish midrash or commentary and the first century historian Flavius Josepheus  also claimed that such records proved his ancestors were priests and that through his mother's side of the family he had "royal blood".

These public archives  were maintained by family heads recording family information at centers  in their home towns such as ones  the Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar had set up during Jesus' era as recorded at Luke 2: 1-5.



 

Is The Bible Not A Book Worth Looking Into?

 Is the Bible  not a book spending time looking into  to learn more about?

Is there one that can match it's influence on the world's greatest art, its literature, its music -- and legal systems?

Is there another book that has been copied thousands of times over the centuries yet today is basically the same today as when it was written?

Is there another publication  that has inspired so  many persons to risk hardship and even death in order to translate it?

Is there another book with accurate scientific information about our earth written thousands of years ago?

Is there another book with clear predictions concerning mankind  that came true, as proved by historical facts?

And is there any other book that contains timeless principles that can help people off all races and ethnic groups to solve problems in their lives? 

How Would You Have Made Contributions?

You are quite familiar with the picture of a plate been passed around the isles of a local church for members to add their contributions -- but in the ancient Jewish temples people were not confronted by such a plate when they came to worship.

According the book The Temple -- Its Ministry and Services persons wishing to make a contribution did by dropping money into a chest built in the walls of the Court of Women.

This  Court had a colonnade and within it, against a wall, there were thirteen trumpet shaped chests. Each chest was used to collected money for different uses which were clearly marked on the chest itself. People made contributions in various amounts depending on their financial situation. This could vary widely as seen by Jesus comments about a widow who was making a voluntary contribution of a few small coins at Luke 21: 1-2 which he commended her for.

The chests were set up as follows:

• One chest for temple tax for current year
• One chest for temple tax for past year

Chest 3-8 held funds for turtledoves, wood, incense, and golden vessels.

Sometimes the person could afford more than the stipulated amounts for these temple and other contribution and had other options to choose from:

• Chest 8 was used for money left over from sin offerings.
• Chests 9 through 12  used for money left over from guilt offerings, from the sacrificing of birds, from offerings of Nazarites,  and from offerings of leppers.

Chest 13, finally was there for any voluntary offerings.

All of this was done anonymously and according to each person's financial ability.