otius asserted, Joseph's genealogy as
legal successor to the throne of David. That of Luke is Joseph's private
genealogy, exhibiting his real birth, as David's son, and thus showing
why he was heir to Solomon's crown. The simple principle that one
evangelist exhibits that genealogy which contained the successive heirs
to David's and Solomon's throne, while the other exhibits the paternal
stem of him who was the heir, explains all the anomalies of the two
pedigrees, their agreements as well as their discrepancies, and the
circumstance of there being two at all. 3. Mary, the mother of Jesus,
was probably the daughter of Jacob, and first cousin to Joseph her
husband."

A valuable contribution to the literature of this subject appears in the
_Journal of the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, or Philosophical
Society of Great Britain_, 1912, vol. 44, pp. 9-36, as an article, "The
Genealogies of our Lord," by Mrs. A. S. Lewis, and discussion thereof by
many scholars of acknowledged ability. The author, Mrs. Lewis, is an
authority on Syriac manuscripts, and is one of the two women who, in
1892, discovered in the library of St. Catherine's monastery on Mount
Sinai, the Syriac palimpsest MS. of the four Gospels. The gifted author
holds that Matthew's account attests the royal pedigree of Joseph, and
that Luke's genealogical table proves the equally royal descent of Mary.
Mrs. Lewis says: "The Sinai Palimpsest also tells us that Joseph and
Mary went to Bethlehem, to be enrolled there, because they were both of
the house and lineage of David."

Canon Girdlestone, in discussing the article, says in pertinent emphasis
of Mary's status as a princess of royal blood through descent from
David: "When the angel was foretelling to Mary the birth of the Holy
Child, he said, 'The Lord God shall give Him the throne of His father
David.' Now if Joseph, her betrothed, had alone been descended from
David, Mary would have answered, 'I am not yet married to Joseph,'
whereas she did answer simply, 'I am an unmarried woman,' which plainly
implies--if I were married, since I am descended from David, I could
infuse my royal blood into a son, but how can I have a royal son while I
am a virgin?'"

After brief mention of the Jewish law relating to adoption, wherein it
is provided (according to Hammurabi's Code, section 188), that if a man
teach his adopted son a handicraft, the son is thereby confirmed in all
the rights of heirship, Canon Girdle