How Were Elisheva and Miriam Related? Does It Matter?

First, you ask, “who in the world are Elisheva and Miriam”? Welcome to the Hebrew names of Elizabeth and Mary. These are the names by which they were known.

And speaking of names, did you know that we refer to Yochanan the Immerser as John the Baptist? And if you read my blog regularly, you already know that Yeshua is what everyone would have called Jesus.

There’s one more name you need to know before we move on – Pinchas, known to us as Phinehas. Before you ask, ‘Who?’, his story can be found in Numbers 25:1-13. (At this point, for the sake of simplicity, I’ll use the Greek names, which are more familiar to us.)

So in Numbers, we see the Israelites were in the desert, being led into idolatry by the Midianite women. Because of this, a plague was killing the people. While most of Israel was weeping about this whole thing, a man came prancing by with a Midianite woman for his family. Phinehas (the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest and brother of Moses) ran after them and killed them, thus ending the plague that was destroying the camp because of idolatry. God rewarded his zeal by giving him a covenant of shalom (peace) and stating that he and his descendants would serve in the office of priest forever.

(Wow! who needs daytime soaps?)

Okay, so now that we have sorted that out, I have a question that I’ve been pondering and something I read this morning brought it back to my mind. (It’s not pertinent what it was.)

So the high priest was to be from the line of Aaron – Eleazar – Phineas. And Yeshua, from the line of David, from the tribe of Judah, is considered the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. I know this, and believe it. Yet still, the Word tells us that Mary is somehow related to Elizabeth, who according to Lev 21:13 and Luke 1:5 was a descendant of Aaron, from the tribe of Levi.

Hmmmm.

So here is my question: were they related only through marriage (their parents intermarried), or was there some Levitical blood in Mary and therefore in Yeshua?

It’s one of those questions that I have, while not important to salvation, I’d like to ask the Lord when we are face to face.