Irenaeus of Lyons · a new plain-English translation from the original language
A proof that, had the Lord been Joseph's son, kingship would have been closed to him. Beyond even this, he could not have reigned as king at all, supposing him to be Joseph's son, nor could he have inherited, according to Jeremiah's word. For Joseph is traced to Jehoiakim and Jeconiah, exactly as Matthew likewise lays out his lineage. Now Jeconiah, together with all descended from him, was barred from the throne, Jeremiah stating it thus: As surely as I live, declares the Lord, even were Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, a signet ring upon my right hand, I would tear him off from there and hand him over to those seeking his life. And again: Jeconiah has been treated with contempt, like a vessel no one wants, cast off into a country he never knew. Earth, listen to the Lord's pronouncement: record this man as rejected, for none of his line will prosper, none will occupy David's throne, ruling again over Judah. And further God declares regarding Jehoiakim his father: For this reason, thus speaks the Lord about Jehoiakim his father, king of Judah: none of his descendants will occupy David's throne, and his corpse will be flung out to lie exposed by day's heat and by night's frost; and I will turn my gaze upon him and upon his offspring, and I will bring down upon them, upon Jerusalem's inhabitants, and upon the whole territory of Judah, every calamity I have pronounced against them. Those, then, who claim he was fathered by Joseph, and who fix their hope on that, disqualify themselves from the kingdom, falling under the very curse and censure pronounced against Jeconiah and his line. These words concerning Jeconiah were spoken for this reason: the Spirit, foreseeing what false teachers would later assert, meant them to learn that the eternal King is not born from that lineage, that is, from Joseph, but is raised up according to God's own promise from David's womb-line — he who sums up all things within himself. Chapter 30. A proof that through the very means by which man was driven from Paradise, through those same means he is brought back into Paradise, and that Christ, in himself, recapitulated the original forming of man. For just as sin entered through one man's disobedience, and death gained its grip through sin, so likewise righteousness was brought in through one man's obedience, producing life for those who had once been dead. And just as that first-formed man, Adam, drew his substance from earth that was unworked and still virgin soil (since God had sent down no rain as yet, nor had man begun tilling the ground), and was shaped by God's own hand, that is, by the Word of God, since all things came into being through him — the Lord having taken clay from the ground and fashioned man — so too the Word, in recapitulating Adam within himself, fittingly received a birth that mirrored Adam's own generation, being born of Mary, who remained still a virgin.