Who was Jesus Christ? This is one of the most profound questions ever considered by man. In fact, many would rephrase it, changing "was" to "is." The question of who Jesus WAS concerns the identity of the historical Jesus; who was the Man of Nazareth in the 1st Century A.D. who was called Jesus? Posed in the form, 'Who IS Jesus?," concerns His eternal existence and office. There has been continual controversy for two millennia over both of these questions. Once He Himself posed the question to His apostles, "Who do men say that the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; some, Elijah; and others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets," (Mt. 16:13-14). The people, therefore, saw Jesus as extraordinary; yet, they conceded Him a status no higher than that of a mortal man. And since that day, now so long in the past, the conception of people has not changed. It is the opinion of many that Jesus was (not "is"!) a master Teacher who founded one of the major world religions; but He was nevertheless only a mortal man.
A question closely connected to those just considered is anticipated in Jesus' statement in the initial text above. From whence did Jesus come? This question was also debated during Jesus' life on earth. In Jno. 7:40-43 it is reported that "some of the multitude, when they heard (Jesus') words, were saying, 'This certainly is the Prophet.' Others were saying, 'This is the Christ.' Still others were saying, 'Surely the Christ is not going to come from Galilee, is He? Has not the Scripture said that the Christ comes from the offspring of David, and from Bethlehem, the village where David was?' So there arose a division in the multitude because of Him." Part of the Jews, marveling at the miraculous acts and superior words of Jesus, concluded that He had to be the Prophet foretold by Moses (Dt. 18:15-19) whether He came out of Galilee or not. Other Jews, however, stumbled over the apparent fact that Jesus could not be the Christ since He came from Galilee and since Mic. 5:2 required that He come from Bethlehem in Judea. They perceived another problem in that the Christ had to be of the house and lineage of David, (II Sam. 7:12-16), and seemingly this Jesus of Nazareth did not possess that ancestry.
When the inspired writers penned the New Testament scriptures, they addressed these questions which made it difficult for the Jews to believe Jesus was the Messiah, or Christ. Matthew (in chp. 2) gave testimony that Jesus had indeed been born in Bethlehem, and in the preceding chapter produced a genealogy linking Jesus to David. Luke (in chp. 3) showed that Jesus also had a second genealogy connecting Him to David, apparently through Mary. Jesus therefore fulfilled all the Old Testament prophetical requirements about where the Christ was to come from. It was necessary that they be met to verify He was the Christ and that His coming had been planned for many centuries.
The most important matters concerning where Jesus came from, however, were by no means His geographical or genealogical origin. The ultimate answer to the fundamental question is found in Jesus' declaration, "I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world." Except to fulfill prophecy, (certainly an essential matter!), it was irrelevant whether Jesus came from Bethlehem or Beth-horon, or whether He came from the family of David or of Daniel. God could have decreed Beth-horon and Daniel rather than Bethlehem and David, if it had so pleased Him. The matter of ultimate importance is that Jesus came forth from the Father when He entered the world. The power by which Jesus performed His great deeds, and the authority that validated His teaching, were not dependent on Bethlehem being His birthplace or David being His forefather. The requisite power and authority were invested in Him by God when "He came forth from the Father." The real reason people today want to discredit Jesus with some spurious account of a mundane origin is to escape that very power and authority inherent in His words, which define the limitations of beneficial human thought and conduct.
