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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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bians , even a tenth lineal descendant , by the description of a son , either through ignorance of the intermediate descendants , or because they knew the person named to be in the line , or for some other reason .
As genealogy was so very important among the Eastern nations , in their family traditions > their civil property , and their general history , they studied various means to assist and facilitate
the memory of their ancestors , one of which was , to divide a pedigree of many generations into different sections , each containing a round , or perhaps sacred , number of 7 or 10 or 14 , &c , and in
order * to make that tally , it was their practice to cut off one or more generations . St . Matthew adopts this method , in dividing the sacred genealogy into three sections , each of fourteen generations , probably because he could find no more than that number in
Moses and the book of Ruth , for his first section , though there must have been more . In the second section , from Iteivid exclusively to the Babylonish Captivity , three are omitted , ver . 8 . Whether
any are omitted m the third , from the Captivity to Christ , cannot be precisely affirmed or denied . In the 530 years , from the return from Babylon to Christ , sixteen generations mi g ht be expected , according to the usual computation - j but admitting some late marriages , and some in the line to have been born late , we may extend the generations to forty years , and so need
not suppose any omission . In vers . 3 and 4 , Juda begat Pharez , and Pharez begat Esrom . When he removed from Palestine into Egypt he took one or perhaps both with him . The Israelites dwelt in Egypt 430 years , and when they left it Naason was the head of the tribe of Judah . Here were
evidently some omissions , in which St . Matthew was authorized by Moses , who named only the sons and grandsons * of Jacob * who went out , and then their offspring who returned with their immediate fathers , leaving out the intermediate generations . That Safiion begat Boaz by Rahab , is not warranted iir the Old Testament , n € rt L ? *? tIjte book of R * H **» bu # Matthew might receive it from a family tradition ) perhaps recorded marginally bfeeAfee of that tribe . He
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might be one of the spies protected by Rahab , and might have a son by her , from whom Boaz descended , the chasm between whom and his ancestor Salmon is accountable from the oriental manner above-mentioned .
In ver . 8 is an omission of three kings between Joram and Ozias , upon the principle of reducing the number , for the convenience of memory , to fourteen in the section . In ver . 11 is an omission of a
different sort , not by St . Matthew , but by the Greek translator , who , having a defective Hebrew copy before him , neglected to count the numbers , which would have led him to the deficient generation . Matthew most probably
wrote thus in Hebrew : Josias begat Jehojahim and his brethren , and Jehojakim begat Jekojakin ( Jechonias ) about the time they were carried away to Babylon .
Zorobaftel , in ver . 12 , is the famous head of the tribe of Judah , who led the people back from Babylon , as mentioned in the book of Ezra * and the Prophet Haggai . The Zol-obabel in Luke iii . 27 , is a different person from
him , notwithstanding his father was likewise called Salathiel , as appears from their ancestors and descendants , the one being traced up to David , through Solomon , and the other through Nathan , another son of David . We likewise find a third Zorotoabel in
1 Chron . iii . 19 . The ancestors of our Lord , in the third section , from Abiud , occur not at all in the Old Testament , nor even in the books of Maccabees , where the
sovereignty itself is so transferred to the priesthood ; , as if the hous « of Daxfid and their pretensions were sunk in oblivion . Nor are they mentioned by Josephus . Ther ^ is ; - indeed , a register of some descendants of Jechonias in
1 Chron . iii . 18 , which ? brings them down to the tenth generation from him , and so below the time of Alexander the Great , but tMs was another branch foreign to St . Matthew's genealogical table ,, nor doe ® it belong to Zorbbabel , th £ celebrated teader , nor , therefore , to any ma » it * that Hire
declining m history . In St . Luke * s genealogy . Hi . 3 f > we find a Caiftait not extant In Geiiesi * * % but ? inserted th&re fcy the Seventy , from who * fte tdok te Tfee Se £ -
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76 On the Genealogies of Mtittketo and Luke .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Feb. 2, 1820, page 76, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2485/page/12/
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