In the era of the Messianic King, when his kingdom will be established and all of Israel will gather around him, all of them will have their pedigree determined by him, by means of the Holy Spirit that will rest upon him, as it is said, “He will sit as a refiner and purifier.” First he will purify the descendants of Levi, saying “This one is a legitimate Kohen (priest), and this one is a legitimate Levite,” while diverting those of improper lineage to the [rank of] Israelites. Thus it is said, “The governor [Nehemiah] said to them… until there will rise a Kohen with the Urim and Tumim;” from this you can infer that the determination of presumed pedigree and the public declaration of lineage is by means of the Holy Spirit.
As for the Israelites, he will only determine their tribal lineage, that is, he will inform that “this one is of such-and-such a tribe and that one is of such-and-such a tribe.” He will not pronounce on those presumed to be of legitimate ancestry that “this one is a mamzer [corrupt/illegitimate child] and that one is a ‘slave’;” for the law stipulates that once a family is intermixed [with the Jewish community at large] it remains intermixed.
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Author: Moses Maimonides
Keywords: Messiah, Messianic prophecies, Messianic passages, Messiah in the Old Testament, Maimonides, Genealogy of Messiah, Genealogy, Genealogy of Jesus, Genealogy of Christ, Mamzer, Tribal lineage, Lineage, Lineage of Jesus, Lineage of the Jews, Jewish lineage, Urim, Thummim, Urim and Thummim, Sons of Levi, Priests, Levite
Bible reference(s): Ezra 2:63, Nehemiah 7:65, Psalm 87:6 , Isaiah 11:9, Habakkuk 2:14, Malachi 3:3
Source: Mishneh Torah, Hilchos Melachim, Chapter XII.¹
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