The corruption of the understanding of God is another such corruption of the apostate Christian church of the great apostasy. Some said and do say the Bible does not teach this or that. But Christ in his teaching did proclaim even such as was known in the Old testament as well, which included the truth of the nature of God and that he, Jesus Christ, was the literal Son of God and that he and his Father were two separte beings though both were divine and of the status of God as John pronouced at the beginning of his gospel in parallel with that renoun opeing of the Old Testament in Genesis. And Jesus did teach what David in the Psalms did know and which many of the common Jews also knew and understood:

"And Jesus answered and said, while he taught in the temple, How say the scribes that Christ is the Son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, The LORD said to my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore himself calleth him Lord; and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly." ~ Mark 12:35-37 (also:Psalms 110:1, Luke 20:41-44, Acts 2:32-36, Hebrews 1:13-14)

Jesus Christ, the Son of David, was and is the same as Jehovah, the Lord of the Old Testament. David knew that Jehovah had a greater LORD or Father over him under whose direction Jehovah was the ministering God of this second estate. And David in his day called him Lord, while he referenced God the Father as LORD, or by a higher title showing that Jehovah, the 'Lord' of David, was directed and governed by God the Eternal Father. Yet if David called him Lord in his day, then certainly Jehovah, who was the same as Jesus Christ, was God Jehovah before David was. How then was it that Jehovah became David's son in the flesh? This answer we know and understand, for Jesus as Jehovah of the Old Testament was yet a Spirit Being, not yet having been born of the flesh to obtain his physical body. And it is he physical body, which David was the 'natural' father of through Mary. And he was the 'legally adopted son of Joseph the Carpenter' by Jewish law, who was also of the House of David. Thus Jesus was the Son of David both by 'natural birth' through Mary and by adoption by Joseph the Carpenter. Of course, God the Father was the Father of His Spirit as well as the literal father of his earthly birth, Jesus being the Only Begotten of the Father in this respect.

Now in the same frame of reference and in the same spirit in which the Lord inquired how it was that he was considered David's Son, let us ask the question how it is that Jesus Christ is the Son of Ephraim, that is Messiah ben Ephraim. And while we will come to the same conclusion eventually by that same logic, let us start by place Jesus as Jehovah in his rightful relationship to Ephraim in the Old Testament perspective. For it is Jeremiah who first places Ephraim as being the 'Son', even the 'firstborn son' of the Lord, that is Jehovah, the same is Jesus Christ.

"They shall come with weeping, and with supplication will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn." ~ Jeremiah 31:9

Here Jehovah, as recorded by Jeremiah, states plainly that Ephraim is to be considered his 'firstborn'. And just as Jehovah places himself as a father to all of Israel, all of Israel is to look to Ephraim as the 'firstborn son' of the covenant, that is the Covenant of God with Israel. This is also pointed out in the record of Chronicles in a bit different perspective, it being from a skewed Jewish perspective.

"Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler, but the birthright was Joseph's:)" ~ 1 Chronicles 5:1-2

Now the information is stated here but it must be 'sorted out from the skewed Jewish perspective'. We must realize that the record of Chronicles was most likely compiled from the other records of the Jews during the Babylonian captivity. By that time the Kingdom of Israel had been scattered and 'lost' from the perspective of the Jews. And only Judah or the tribe of Judah 'remained' as a people, though they themselves were in bondage in Babylon. This then is one aspect by which the Jews claim to have prevailed. The other aspect of this 'prevailing' likely comes from the time when David himself selected Judah over Israel, he selected his blood line over the covenant birthright line of Ephraim, or Israel, even though as the scriptures so state, Israel, that is Ephraim had the greater claim in, through and to David. Thus the Jews like to point out that the 'genealogy', that is of David, is to be reckoned after David's bloodline back through Boaz to Judah, even though the 'birthright' of David's right to be the ancestor of the Messiah came by way of the Liverite Marriage of Boaz to Ruth, and even though Obed and his house was legally and rightfully that of Mahlon and Elimelech and not Boaz. And of course Mahlon and Elimelech were Ephrathites, meaning Ephraimites, even the heir line of the covenant and birthright. This the Jews well understood, and thus is why they pointed it out thus in the record of Chronicles.

Yet the truth of the matter is not what is stated here in Chronicles by the Jewish scribes, but as stated by Jacob in his blessing of Joseph and Ephraim. In respect to Joseph, Israel, that is Jacob, stated of Joseph's posterity:

"The blessings of thy father [Joseph] have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren." ~ Genesis 49:26

Thus it was Joseph who prevailed in obtaining the blessings of the covenant, the blessings of the fathers. Members of the LDS Church fully understand this as they are fulfilling a great part of those covenant blessing even unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills. Those hills are Zion in the tops of the mountains. And those mountians are literal and also literally representative of the 'Mountains of the Lord', that is the many Temples and House of the Lord in which those blessings are being fulfilled unto the benefit of all the nations of the earth. Yes Joseph and his sons, Ephraim first and also Manasseh, have prevailed in Israel, NOT Judah as the skewed perspective of the Jews so recored it in their record of Chronicles.

Now the further perspective that it is Ephraim through whom the birthright continued is well set out in the sequence of the blessing of Jacob of the two sons of Joseph. Jacob set Ephraim before Manasseh and gave him the birthright, the greater blessing. The Joseph Smith tranlations more particularly points this out especially in verses 5-11 of that inspired translations wherein Ephraim is given the covenant name Israel. And thus it is Ephraim, the House of Israel and his companions who became the Kingdom of Israel and is also such today, as the LDS Church is best represented as being 'Ephraim, the House of Israel and his companions today in fulfilling that great and grand everlasting covenant which was preserved through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph (D&C 27:10).

Thus we may state by asking, 'Who is the Head of Ephraim?' And of course to that we may well answer that it is the Lord, even Jehovah, who is the same as Jesus Christ. For Ephraim is His Firstborn of the covenant, the very covenant which defines all of Israel as God's promised people.