Perhaps chronologicaly this item would fit better much earlier in this presentation. it was felt that leaving it until later would allow the reader to be better prepare to fairly consider this topic as it may have been summarily dismissed at a earlier stage.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie taught that all of God's prophets are in various ways were types of the Messiah (The Promises Messiah, p. 448). Certainly being God's earthly representative to man and working by, through and in the power of God would immediately associate any prophet with being near to God, representing God and as an example of what God may be considered as. But prophets are always mortals and just as subject, yet by the righteous lives they live not as likely, to sin and its temptations. Prophets are not perfect and when not directly standing to represent God's word, they are just 'every day folk' like any other righteous living person among God's children.

Yet prophets do take upon themslves the 'mantal' and persona of being so connected to the divine. And the lives of some of God's prophets have in vast detail paralleled the events of the life of the Messiah. These seem to be those from whom the Savior was to come. For example, Abraham was such and one of the most pointed parallels is when Abraham was called upon to sacrifice his son Isaac in similitude of the Father's sacrifice of his anointed son, the Savior of the world. The relationship between Jacob and Joseph is another such parallel of events. And Joseph's entire life, as set out previously, is in a vast many ways the foreshadowing of the promised Messiah. And Joseph's life did so detail and parallel the life of the Messiah that even the Rabbis put forth that Joseph was a type of the Messiah ben Joseph to come.

Then there was Moses and Joshua. Moses in many respects was the very samilitude of God. To the Israelites he was often even look to as God, so tight was the word and works of Moses associated with God. Thus Moses was just such a foreshadow and tupe. But then also was Joshua. And in ways which only a Christian could appreciate.

Moses was the Levite predicessor to Joshua. John the Baptist was the Levite predicessor to Jesus (Jehoshua/Joshua) Christ. Moses was and still is mistaken for being Messiah as was John the Baptist mistaken as being the Messiah before Christ. As stated, both Moses and John the Baptist where Levites. As we have herein presented with much cooborative evidence, Jesus Christ was of Ephraim as was Joshua. And we have shown by the ancient records which include the book of Jasher and the Old Testament that both Joshua and Jesus Christ were both Ephraphites. David the recognized predecessor to Jesus Christ, was the son of Jesse, that Ephrathite of Bethlehem in Judah. And Joshua was the son of Nun the Ephrathite.

Many baulk at the idea of Christ being of Ephraim stating that there is no evidence of such. We have presented such evidence. And we have shown to the discredit of the Jewish compilers of the Old Testament, that they did circumvent placing in their 'Stick of Judah' record any such detail of the detailed genealogies of Joseph which would have so disclosed such to be the case. This ranges over many facts. which begin with the fact that the brass plates record as kept by Laban and his fathers did contain such detailed records of the genealogies of Joseph to allow Lehi of 600 BC to connect himself back to being of the tribe of Manasseh the first born son of Joseph of Egypt. Where are those detailed genealogies of Joseph to be found in the Jewish Old Testament. They aren't. They have been left out. And then this can be carried on to such an example as the fact that Joshua was an Ephrathite as recorded in the Book of Jasher, but that was aparently deleted from the Jewish record as well. And not least of all, there is the fact that the Ephrathite family of Elimelech and Mahlon, which Mahlon by right of the Law of Moses, which was the Law of God, was not properly presented as being the ancestor of Obed. Mahlon the Ephrathite was the legal and proper father of Mahlon by law, not Boaz who performed the vicarious surrogate obligation of a near kinsman to Ruth and the house of Mahlon and Elimelech.

This brings one to corectly consider just why it was that Jesus was to named by the name of Joshua? That Joshua who lead all of Israel into the promised land. Will not Christ at his second coming so lead all of the sons and daughters of God into just such a promised land of eternal life and immortality? Certainly the work and life of Joshua foreshadowed the work of the Lord in his Mellennial Reign in ruling and governing all the earth as Joshua so governed all of Israel. But is there not more to the relationship between Joshua and his name sake Jesus Chirst?

One asks for an Ephraimite genealogy of Jesus Christ. Would not Joshua, who Christ was named after be just such a nominee possibility? After all Joshua's father was Nun an Ephrathite and Nun would be very closely descended from Ephraim his near if not immediate ancestor. And then Elimelech, that Ephrathite of Bethlehem would not be far removed from Joshua if indeed the term 'Ephrathite' did so identify a single 'clan' of Israelites of the family of Nun and Joshua. And then of course that brings it right down to the father of king David being Jesse, that Ephrathite of Bethlehem, that Bethlehemite of Bethlehem-Judah.

Now considerng the suggested possible ancestry of Obed, Jesse, David and thus Jesus Christ as shown at the right, lets do a considered comparison to that now considered appended genealogy supplied as Boaz being the father to Obed given in Ruth chapter four. That ancestry gives 8 names from Judah to Boaz being thus, Judah, Pharez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, and Boaz. The Ephraimte suggested ancestry gives but 6 names, which agreeably likely misses a couple of generations names, as being Joseph, Ephraim, Nun, Josahua, Elimelech, and Mahlon with Nun, Joshua, Elimelech, and Mahlon all being recorded as Ephrathites as was Jesse the father of David. Yet depending upon how one reads and interprets 1 Chronicles 7:20-27, as many as 6 or more generations may be added to this Ephraimite ancetry of Obed as the names of the ancestors of Joshua and his father Nun are given there as being many. And this far out numbers the generations from Judah and yield even a far more detailed ancestry for Ephraim than that of Judah for Obed.

But rather than attempting to get further into unraveling the endless and questionable genealogies of 1 Chronicles, lets come back to the immediate relationship between Jesus and his name's sake Joshua. Just why did Gabriel, whom we know to be Noah, command Mary from God that the name of her divine child be 'Joshua'? Jesus is just one of the various forms of the name Joshua, the others being Jehoshua, Hoshea, Jeshua and of course Jesus. Joshua means 'God is help' or stated another way, 'God's help'. And of course Jesus Christ is God's provided redeemer by which man can be saved. Jesus is God's help offered to fallen man, whereby they may be redeemed from the fall. So the name seems very appropriate in its meaning why God would have Mary name her divien son, the Son of God, Joshua. Thus his name becomes from Jesus Christ, 'God's help the anointed one'.

But is there not more to the naming of Mary's son by the name of Joshua? Would it not be appropriate to name one after a family name and if Joseph the carpenter was not the genetic father of Christ, by what other father's name could Christ be called? The only other scripturally great ancester whose name may be used, in whose life the savior was so well typed, would have been Joshua.

Joshua, Ephraphite Ancestor to the Messiah

While Rabbinic Midrash does persist in the dividing the Messiah into two individuals, there seems to be some truth in what they believe in relation to Messiah ben Joseph in relation to who we understand to be the one divine Messiah, Jesus Christ. And there are a number of statements to the effect that the ancestor to 'Mashiach ben Yosef (Messiah ben Joseph) is Joshuah ben Nun.

" . . . Mashiach ben Yosef is in the line of Joshua bin Nun." ~ Kol Hator 2:27

" 'horns of an ox' -- as is written, (Deut. 33:17) [His (Joseph's) glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns (wild ox): with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh. ~ Deut. 33:17] 'his horns are like those of an ox, with them he gores nations.' The main idea refers to Mashiach ben Yosef, as the Gaon explains at length in his remarks on this verse (in his work Aderet Eliyahu), for Mashiach ben Yosef is in the line of Joshua, who took part in the war 'the Lord wages against Amalek from generation to generation.' . . . " ~ Kol Hator 2:131

In addition to this reference derived from the Kol Hator as it references the work Aderet Eliyahu in conjunction with Joseph's blessing by Moses, there is the fact that Targum Yehonathan speaking on Exodus 40:11 does state that the MESSIAH SON OF JOSEPH is descended from Joshua the son of Nun from the Tribe of Ephraim. Now these are according to the 'traditions' of Rabbinic interpretations perhaps based upon such understandings of the Jewish people that from Joseph would come the shepherd and stone of Israel and even upon lost scriptural information which would state that the Messiah ben Joseph is also in the line of Yosef ben Rachel. And according to Jeremiah 31, it is Rachel who weeps for her children in exile who one day should return. And it is this same Rachel who weeps for the babes slaughtered by the command of Herod in the land regions of Bethlehem and Ramah of Ephraim. And it is this Rachel who prophesied that Joseph would be the ancestor of the Messiah who would arise at the end of days.

Like Joseph, Joshua was a type and foreshadow to the life and mission of the promised Messiah. Joshua set out and administered all the afares of all of Israel in the promised land. Jesus the returning Christ will do the same for all of his children in his Millennial Reign. And like Joseph, Joshua is understood in the Hebrew traditions to be the ancestor to the promised Messiah of the last days. And while the Rabbis do persist in their imagined division of the Messiah into two individuals, we should know and understand enough to not do the same. Jesus is the one and only Messiah that we should recognize. And we should not attempt to associate any of the scriptures which speak of Him, with some other just because the Rabbis do not understand how Christ can be both Messiah ben David and Messiah ben Joseph, having on the one hand hid from themselves the dual mortal ancestry of Jesus through their envy of Joseph and wanting to claim such only to themselves as the tribe of Judah.