Why was Joseph not king at the time when Jesus was born?

Answer 1

The author of Mark's Gospel, the first gospel to be written, seems not evn to have known that Joseph was the earthly father of Jesus. Some have speculated that a tradition quickly grew that Jesus' father was called Joseph because Joseph of Arimathea, who was of course unrelated, took the responsibility of a father to bury Jesus after the crucifixion. However none of the gospels mentions Joseph except as the father of Jesus.

Some have speculated that this silence means that Joseph died soon after the birth of Jesus, or at least soon after the birth of his other children, the brothers and sisters of Jesus. A few scholars, noting the absence of any mention of Joseph in Mark, are uncertain whether he really existed. The other gospel writers relied directly or indirectly on Mark for everything they knew about the life of Jesus, and would appear to have had no other source on which they could base this information, apart from newly created tradition.

Answer 2

Joseph could never have been king because he was descended from the cursed line of Jeconiah: God had told Jeremiah that Jeconiah's "seed" would be cursed and not allowed to sit on David's throne. However, since Mary was descended from Solomon's brother Nathan her family line was not cursed.

Mary was a direct descendant of King David which gave Jesus the right to ascend the Jewish throne, both through Mary and through adoption by his foster father, Joseph.

Just as Joseph was "of the seed of David" but through the kingly line , so was Mary was also "of the seed of David" but through the non-kingly line. This means that Jesus was definitely of royal blood as He was descended from King David on both his (step)father Joseph and mother Mary's genealogies, making His claim to be the "king of the Jews" not just figurative but also literally correct.

It can be absolutely guaranteed that the Pharisees would have gone through Jesus' family genealogies with a very fine toothcomb looking for the slightest inaccuracy to disprove His claim to be "king of the Jews" and to then Trumpet aloud that He was a fraud: the Pharisees called Jesus a lot of things, but they never said He was not entitled to call Himself the "king of the Jews" . In fact He had the full and perfect credentials for the job, which was why the people wanted to make Him king and overthrow the hated Roman occupation.

Answer 3

Joseph had no claim on the royal succession, True, Matthew's Gospel says that he was descended from the last kings of Judah, through his father Jacob, while Luke's Gospel says instead that he was descended from King David, through his father Heli, but scholars estimate there were probably at least a million Jews in the first century who could have been descended from King David. Joseph was just one of these, if either of Matthew's or Luke's genealogy was correct.