The Conception Clause

The more and more I read Matthew's Gospel the more I have come to appreciate the timing of what we know to be the "Incarnation" and how this timing relates to the permanence of marriage...one man and one woman for life! I did write a post about this topic on September of 2015 entitled, "Sarcastic Exceptions? The Gospel in Betrothal". In this post I make a claim that it would seem to be a reasonable assumption that the timing of  the birth of the Messiah coinciding within the betrothal period of Joseph's marriage to Mary would have some substantial significance. In that post I wrote:

"There should be very little argument against the Holy Spirit conceiving the Lord during the betrothal period. What seems to be lacking is any commentary as to this timing and how this timing corresponds with what the Lord has to say on divorce. If the Lord chose Mary, why did He choose her when she was betrothed to Joseph? Did the Pharisees of this time know that Joseph was betrothed to a pregnant woman? Did the Pharisees believe that the Lord was a bastard child? What was adoption like in the Old Testament?"

Before you read the remainder of this post, I suggest you read  "Sarcastic Exceptions? The Gospel in Betrothal" in its entirety as I plan to go into greater detail as to the understanding of what the Pharisees knew of Joseph and Mary, Zachariah and Elizabeth, and John the Baptist.

John 7:25 So some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, “Is this not the man whom they are seeking to kill? 26“Look, He is speaking publicly, and they are saying nothing to Him. The rulers do not really know that this is the Christ, do they? 27“However, we know where this man is from; but whenever the Christ may come, no one knows where He is from.” 28Then Jesus cried out in the temple, teaching and saying, “You both know Me and know where I am from; and I have not come of Myself, but He who sent Me is true, whom you do not know. 29“I know Him, because I am from Him, and He sent Me.”

It is very clear that the Pharisees knew where Jesus came from and that He was the son of Joseph the carpenter and Mary. (Matthew 13:55 "Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not His mother called Mary, and His brothers, James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?) We also would not have a hard time understanding that Mary was a relative of Elizabeth and that Elizabeth was married to one of the chief priests in the Temple, Zacharias, who was a descendant of Aaron. (Luke 1:5) The Pharisees would know this information as well.

It would be no mystery to any of the Pharisees of His day that John the Baptist was the son of Zacharias and Elizabeth and that he would grow up to be a prophet of the people. But John claimed to be much more, the one crying in the wilderness proclaiming the way of the Lord..even to the point of fulfilling scripture. (Is 40:3) It was John the Baptist who said, "He must increase, but I must decrease. (John 3:30) 

We also know through scripture that the Pharisees of His (The Lord Jesus Christ) day knew the timing of His birth and most importantly, where He was born. It is no mystery that there was a census at the time of the Lord's birth (Luke 2:1-4) and that He was born in the town of His parent's tribe, which was the tribe of Judah in the town of Bethlehem.(Luke 2:4) When they say, "we know where this man is from" they must know too where He was born. There is no mystery to the Pharisees that the Messiah would come from the city of David.(Micah 5:2) Thus, it would be very easy for the Pharisees to trace the birth of Jesus to the city of David, as his age would coincide with the date of His birth during the census (Luke 2:1). 

 Then there is the account of Matthew 2 and more fulfilling of scripture. I believe it would not be a mystery to the whole land of Israel for years that Herod put to death all the boys two years and under in the town of Bethlehem. (Matthew 2:16-18) Would the Pharisees see this fulfillment as a sign of the Messiah? Would they equate this time period with the Nazarene, the man Jesus, knowing that He was born in Bethlehem at this time? Again, we do not have clear scripture telling us the Pharisees knew everything pertaining to the Lord, but that they say, "we know where this man is from". We can certainly deduct from scripture that it was possible that the Pharisees and scribes knew a lot about Jesus of Nazareth, to the point also that He was rejected in His own land for fulfilling even more scripture.

 Luke 4: 16-21 And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

We also know that the Pharisees would know that John the Baptist was imprisoned by Herod and beheaded for calling Herod to repent of his adulterous, unlawful "marriage" to his brother's "wife". Mark 6:18 For John had been saying to Herod, "It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife." And that John had already handed over his ministry to Jesus. It should be very apparent to the Pharisees that John the Baptist was paving the way for the Messiah...and the Pharisees did not like it.

Also, we must consider that the Pharisees may have known that Jesus was conceived while betrothed to Joseph. Mary's visit to Elizabeth confirms that both Elizabeth and Zacharias knew that Mary was pregnant with child during the betrothal. While I will be careful not to add to scripture, we can still make a logical deduction that Mary's pregnancy was not a secret. It is obvious that a "righteous" Joseph knew she was pregnant and that he was very troubled by this, though he did want to put her away privately. (Matthew 1:19)We can also make a  deduction that others also knew of this pregnancy to the point that Joseph had to register for the census while betrothed to a pregnant Mary. (Luke 2:5) 



But let us also look in detail at the history of John the Baptist and the manner of his death.  

John 1:19 This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” ²⁰ And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” ²¹ They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” ²² Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” ²³ He said, “I am a voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
²⁴ Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. ²⁵ They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” ²⁶ John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. ²⁷ It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” ²⁸ These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The Pharisees and Scribes were basically asking John if he was the Messiah. When they ask, "Who are you?", we must not assume that they did not know who his parents were. If they knew Jesus' parents, they must have known John's parents. Now of course the scriptures do not account for this, but we need to account for deductive reasoning to understand that the Pharisees knew where John came from and who his parents were, but rather we need to understand whether he did or did not claim to be the Messiah. The Pharisees wanted to know the depth of his ministry and if he was claiming to be the Messiah.

We can deduct from scripture that the Lord Jesus Christ considered John the Baptist to be one of the greatest men born of a woman, and yet he was not even the least of those in heaven. (Matthew 11:11,Luke 7:28) (That alone should tell us that John the Baptist was even greater than Moses...) But what we must consider is how the Pharisees saw John the Baptist.

Luke 20:1 On one of the days while He was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders confronted Him, ² and they spoke, saying to Him, “Tell us by what authority You are doing these things, or who is the one who gave You this authority?” ³ Jesus answered and said to them, “I will also ask you a question, and you tell Me: ⁴ Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” ⁵ They reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ ⁶ But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” ⁷ So they answered that they did not know where it came from. ⁸ And Jesus said to them, “Nor will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

The priest and scribes could not escape the truth that John was a prophet of some sort becasue John had great influence on the people even to the point that condemning John would incite enough anger for the people to stone the Pharisees to death (At least this is what they believed would happen...). The Pharisees had to know the manner of John's death, just as we know the manner of his death. Thus, it was in the priests and scribes favor that Herod beheaded John, rather than their seeking to silence him themselves.  

So what does all this information have to do with marriage? I believe John's death and the timing of Christ's birth was specifically related to why the Lord uses the exception clause in Matthew 5 and 19...EXCEPT FOR PORNIEA. The Lord's appointed earthly father was a righteous man from the tribe of Judah. Joseph forsake the law of Moses for the spirit of the law...love thy neighbor as thyself...and took the pregnant Mary to be his wife. The Lord was conceived during the betrothal year of marriage and the Pharisees and the scribes would need to rest on the fact that Joseph either impregnated Mary during this year, or Mary was raped, or Mary committed fornication willingly with another man...or that Mary was a virgin, conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit during betrothal as a sign that God has come down to save mankind by becoming a man!

And Mary said:
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant." (Luke 1:46-48)

Also, this "conception clause" is only recorded in Matthew's gospel, all which include the timing of Christ's birth (Matthew 1), John's ministry, and the Lord's baptism (Matthew 3). It is worth mentioning too that the baptism of the Lord included the Holy Spirit in the dove and the voice from heaven proclaiming the Lord to be the Son of God. It was a voice, which means that those who witnessed the baptism of the Lord also heard the voice. This puts extreme power to the question to the pharisees. "Was the baptism of John from heaven or from men?” (Luke 20:4)

The Gospel's of Mark (Mark 10:11,12) and Luke (16:18) do not include the "exception clause" for the same reason that marriage is one man and one woman for life as it was in the beginning, just as the Lord states to the Pharisees and scribes (Matthew 19:4-6;Mark 10:6-9) ; those who wanted to trick the Lord. So when anyone uses Matthew's account to validate divorce and remarriage, they are twisting scripture and saying things the Lord and Paul NEVER said! Paul sums up what he believed about what the Lord taught on marriage by what he wrote to the Corinth church: 

But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife. (1 Cor 7:10,11)

I am starting to see that the exception clause was specifically directed to the Pharisees and reiterating the fact to them that marriage is one man and one woman for life. The Lord Jesus Christ was conceived during the year of betrothal, fulfilling the coming of the Messiah. John the Baptist was beheaded for calling Herod to repent...and repenting from an unlawful marriage ALL unlawful marriages, requires leaving this unlawful marriage and never, ever calling this unlawful anything other than a state of adultery! If the Lord Jesus Christ considered John to be the greatest man ever born of a woman, then what should we think of the idea of divorce from a marriage that the Lord says no man may put asunder?


In Christ's love,

Neil