It will hardly be possible fully to explain the many reasons which led to the selection of Palestine as the land for Jesus’s birth, and especially as to just why the family of Joseph and Mary should have been chosen as the immediate setting for the appearance of this Son of God on our planet Urantia.
After a study of a special report (detailed in the Urantia Book) prepared by the Melchizedeks (divine sons created to serve between the higher and divine levels of living existence and the lower, even the material forms of life on the evolutionary worlds [as we live ourselves]), in counsel with Gabriel, the Chief Executive Officer of Michael, the Sovereign Ruler of Nebadon, the Local Universe of which our planet Urantia belongs, Urantia was finally chosen by Michael as the planet whereon to enact his final bestowal as a Son of Man and Son of God.
Subsequent to this decision Gabriel made a personal visit to Urantia, and, as a result of his study of human groups and his survey of the spiritual, intellectual, racial, and geographic features of our world and its peoples, he decided that the Hebrews possessed those relative advantages which warranted their selection as the bestowal race. Upon Michael’s approval of this decision, Gabriel appointed and dispatched to Urantia the Family Commission of Twelve – selected from among the higher orders of universe personalities – which was intrusted with the task of making an investigation of Jewish family life. When this commission ended its labors, Gabriel was present on Urantia and received the report nominating three prospective unions as being, in the opinion of the commission, equally favorable as bestowal families for Michael’s projected incarnation.
Of all couples living in Palestine at about the time of Jesus’ projected birth, Joseph and Mary possessed the most ideal combination of widespread racial connections and superior average of personality endowments. It was the plan for this Son of God and Son of Man to appear on earth as an “average” man, that the common people might understand him and receive him; wherefore Gabriel selected (detailed in the Urantia Book) just such persons as Joseph and Mary to become Jesus’ parents.
Joseph, the human father of Jesus (Joshua Ben Joseph), was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, albeit he carried many non-Jewish racial strains which had been added to his ancestral tree from time to time by the female lines of his progenitors. The ancestry of the father of Jesus went back to the days of Abraham and through this venerable patriarch to the earlier lines of inheritance leading to the Sumerians and Nodites and, through the southern tribes of the ancient blue (so-called white) man, to Andon and Fonta, the actual first two human beings, of revelatory record. David and Solomon were not in the direct line of Joseph’s ancestry, neither did Joseph’s lineage go directly back to Adam (of Adam and Eve). Joseph’s immediate ancestors were mechanics – builders, carpenters, masons, and smiths. Joseph himself was a carpenter and later a contractor. His family belonged to a long and illustrious line of the nobility of the common people, particularly emphasized at any time and in a short time by the appearance of unusual individuals who had distinguished themselves in connection with the evolution of religion on our planet, Urantia.
Mary, the earth mother of Jesus, was a descendant of a long line of unique ancestors embracing many of the most remarkable women in the racial history of our planet. Although Mary was an average woman of her day and generation, possessing a fairly normal temperament, she reckoned among her ancestors such well-known women as Annon, Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba, Ansie, Cloa, Eve, Enta, and Ratta. No Jewish woman of that period had a more illustrious lineage of common offspring or one extending back to more fortunate beginnings. Mary’s ancestry, like Joseph’s, was characterized by the predominance of strong but average individuals, relieved now and then by numerous outstanding personalities in the march of civilization and the progressive evolution of religion. Racially considered, it is hardly proper to regard Mary as a Jewess. In culture and belief, she was a Jew, but in hereditary endowment she was more a composite of Syrian, Hittite, Phoenician, Greek, and Egyptian stocks, her racial inheritance being more general than that of Joseph.
Jesus’ lifework here on our planet Urantia was really begun by John the Baptist. Zacharias, John’s father, belonged to the Jewish priesthood, while his mother, Elizabeth, was a member of the more prosperous branch of the same large family group to which Mary the mother of Jesus also belonged. Zacharias and Elizabeth, though they had been married many years, were childless.
From the earliest infancy John Was judiciously impressed by his parents with the idea that he was to grow up to become a spiritual leader and religious teacher. And the soil of John’s heart was ever responsive to the sowing of such suggestive seeds. Even as a child he was found frequently at the temple during the seasons of his father’s service, and he was tremendously impressed with the significance of all that he saw.
Gabriel appeared to Mary about the middle of November, 8 B.C., in the evening, about sundown, before Joseph had returned home, while she was at work in her Nazareth home by the side of a low stone table, and after she had recovered her composure said: “I come at the bidding of one who is my Master and whom you shall love and nurture.
Mary pondered this visitation secretly in her heart for many weeks until of a certainty she knew she was with child, before she dared to disclose these unusual events to her husband. When Joseph heard all about this, although he had great confidence in Mary, he was much troubled and could not sleep for many nights.
At first Joseph had doubts about the Gabriel visitation. Then when he became well-nigh persuaded that Mary had really heard the voice and beheld the form of the divine messenger, he was torn in mind as he pondered how such things could be. How could the offspring of human beings be a child of divine destiny? Never could Joseph reconcile these conflicting ideas until, after several weeks of thought, both he and Mary reached the conclusion that they had been chosen to become the parents of the Messiah, though it had hardly been the Jewish concept that the expected deliverer was to be of divine nature. Upon arriving at this momentous conclusion, Mary hastened to depart for a visit with Elizabeth.
Upon her return, Mary went to visit her parents, Joachim and Hannah. Her two brothers and two sisters, as well as her parents, were always very skeptical about the divine mission of Jesus, though, of course, at this time they knew nothing the Gabriel visitation. But Mary did confide to her sister Salome that she thought her son was destined to become a great teacher.
Joseph did not become reconciled to the idea that Mary was to become the mother of an extraordinary child until after he had experienced a very impressive dream. In this dream a brilliant celestial messenger appeared to him and, among other things, said: “Joseph, I appear by command of Him who now reigns on high, and I am directed to instruct you concerning the son whom Mary shall bear, and who shall become a great light in the world. In Him will be life, and His life shall become the light of mankind. He shall first come to his own people, but they will hardly receive him; but to as many as shall receive him to them will be revealed that they are the children of God.” After this experience, Joseph never again wholly doubted Mary’s story of Gabriel’s visit and the promise that the unborn child was to become a divine messenger to this world.