Who were the ancestors of Jesus of Nazareth? What dark secrets did their lives hide? What crimes did they commit? - a fascinating investigation by Grzegorz Górny in the new edition of the weekly „Sieci”.

The journalist analyses the genealogy of Jesus. He cites:

The French Catholic poet Charles Peguy did not hesitate to call the genealogy of Jesus criminal. He wrote: „Few people had so many criminals among their ancestors. They embody crime to such an extent.

But he added:

This is what partly adds to the mystery of the Incarnation all its value, all its depth

— we can read in „Sieci”.

Górny emphasizes:

[…] many researchers were intrigued by the family tree of Jesus of Nazareth, especially since there was no one who had any greater influence on the fate of the world than He had. The most eloquent example of this is the time account that applies throughout the world […]. However, the influence of Jesus and his teaching on the shape of our civilization is much deeper than would be apparent from a review of even the greatest works of art. It is Christianity that has consolidated the philosophical, legal and religious synthesis of Athens, Rome and Jerusalem, creating a concept of the person and his inalienable dignity that has enabled a notion of human rights that is foreign to other cultures, such as Chinese or Islamic. The Christian idea of vocation became the main source of Western individualism […].

As Grzegorz Górny notes:

The fact that Jesus was of David’s origin is explained in the New Testament. Two evangelists, St. Matthew and St. Luke, depicted the family tree of Christ. Both pedigrees are significantly different from each other. (…) Both St. Matthew and St. Luke wrote about the birth of Jesus of a virgin, although they knew that it would be very badly received by the Jews, for whom such a way of coming into the world was unacceptable. However, if the evangelists presented the matter in this way, it means that they considered it true.

If Matthew had wanted to invent the origin of Jesus in order to whitewash him, he would certainly not have placed among the ancestors of Christ people whose lives were a serious problem for the devout Jews. First, there were women on the list who, as already mentioned, could not have been part of the continuity of the family. Secondly, there were the pagans, i.e., people who were in principle excluded from the Jewish inheritance. Thirdly, the list included figures who were famous for their sinful lives, e.g., being involved in prostitution

— we read in the article.

Tłum. K.J.