56 ix. The genealogy of Christ from Abraham, Solomon of her that SECT. elder children, David, the celebrated king of David the king, and Israel, who was favoured with the title of "The David the king begat man after God's own heart," and had an express had been the wife of L. 6. promise that the Messiah should descend from Urias; Mat. hm; (compare 2 Sam. vii. 12-16. and Acts 7 And Solomon be gat Roboam, and RoAbia begat Asa; boam begat Abia, and 7 And, to go forward therefore with the genea- And (to omit Ahaziah, the son of that wicked woman, whose impieties and cruelties rendered her so infamous, 2 Chron. xxiv. 7. the ungrateful Joash, her grandson, who murdered Žechariah the prophet, the son of his great benefactor Jehoida, 2 Chron. xxiv. 20, 21, 22. and Amaziah, his son, who succeeded him) Jehoram, at the distance of the fourth generation, may be 9 said to have begat Uzziah the leper. And Uzziah begat Jotham; and Jotham begat that wicked Ahaz, who, instead of being reformed by the chastising hand of God, trespassed yet more and more against him, 2 Chron. xxviii. 22. and Ahaz begat the religious Hezekiah, that 10 distinguished favourite of heaven: And Hezekiah begat Manasseh, so remarkable once for his enormous wickedness and afterwards for his humble repentance; and Manasseh begat that infamous and hardened sinner, Amon; and Amon begat Josiah, that eminently pious prince, Jehoram may be said to have begat Uzziah.] It is undeniably evident, from 2 Chron. chap. xxii. and following, that three princes are here omitted. If this table was taken from any public records amongst the Jews, the Evangelist does not seem responsible for the exactness of it: but, if he himself drew it up, I think it whose 8 And Asa begat Jo begat Joram, and Joram begat Ozias; 9 And Ozias begat Joatham, and Joatham chaz begat Ezekias; begat Achaz, and A 10 And Ezekias be gat Manasses, and MaAmon begat Josias ; nasses begat Amon, and will be but modest in us to suppose that it was by some peculiar divine direction that the sin of Jehoram is thus animadverted upon even to the fourth generation; his intermediate descendants being thus blotted out of the records of Christ's family, and overlooked as if they had never been. The ¡¡ And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethey were carried away taren, about the time to Babylon. 12 And after they As recorded by St. Matthew. ix. Mat. 57 whose heart was so early and so tenderly im- sECT, And, after the Babylonish captivity commenced, 12 were brought to Baby- this Jeconiah begat Salathiel; and Salathiel len, Jechonias begat Salathiel, The successor of his son.] On the death of Josiah the people took Jehoahaz, otherwise called Shallum, though a younger brother, and made him king in his father's stead (2 Kings xxiii. 30, 31.) but PharaohNecho, in three months time, deposed him and carried him captive to Egypt, according to the prediction of the prophet concerning him, (Jer. xxii. 10-12. compared with 2 Kings xxiii. 33, 34.) And, having thus deposed him, he made Jehoiakim, the elder brother, who was formerly called Eliakim, king in his room. But this Jehoiakim was soon subdued by the king of Babylon, who, after his conquest, suffered him for a while to continue on the throne; but, on his revolt to the king of Egypt again, he was slain by the Chaldeans (2 Kings xxiv. 1, 2), and thrown out unburied, as Josephus tells us, (Antiq. lib. x. cap. 6. [al. 8.] § 3. Havercamp.) agreeable to what the prophet had foretold, Jer. xxii. 18, 19. xxxvi. 30. After his death his son Jehoiachin, by some called Jehoiakim the Second, was put in his place; and this is he who is elsewhere called Jeconiah, 1 Chron. ii. 16. and Coniah, Jer. xxii. 24. But, after a reign of three months, he was taken captive and imprisoned by Nebuchadnezzar, 2 Kings xxiv. 8-16. (according to the prophecy, Jer. xxii. 24-26) and after thirty-seven years released, 2 Kings xxv. 27. In the mean time, upon his being deposed, his uncle Zedekiah, the third son of Josiah, was raised to the throne; but, after a reign of eleven years, his eyes were put out and he was carried captive to Babylon, Jerusalem and the temple being destroyed, 2 Kings xxiv. 17, 18. xxv. 7. I have traced and stated the matter thus particularly, chiefly because it is a key not only to the paraphrase on this text, but to much of the book of Jeremiah, which, as it is plain that several chapters of it are displaced, cannot be well understood without a very exact knowledge of the preceding history. ▷ Jehoiakim begat Jeconiah.] I here begat follow the reading of the Bodleian and other manuscripts, (notice of which is taken in the margin of our Bibles) Iwala; δε εγέννησε τον Ιωακειμ Ιωακειμ δε εγέννησε τον Ιεχονίαν. And this indeed seems absolutely necessary, to keep up the number of fourteen generations; unless we suppose that the Jeconiah here is a different person from that Jeconiah mentioned in the next verse, which seems a very unreasonable supposition, since it is certain that throughout this whole table, each person is mentioned twice, first as the son of the preceding and then as the father of the following.---I am obliged to the candid animadversion of Dr. Scott for the small alteration I have made in my reading of this verse from what was published in the first edition. i Jeconiah begat Salathiel.] I cannot take upon me certainly to determine whether Salathiel was the son of Jeconiah by descent or adoption. It is certain that Luke (chap. iii. 27.) derives Salathiel from David by Nathan, and not by Solomon, whose line might possibly fail in Jeconiah. And this would be most evidently congruous to Jerem. xxii. 30. where it is said that Jeconiah should be written childless, as we render it: But, as the dispersion of Jeconiah's seed is there threatened, and at least seven sons of his are reckoned up elsewhere, 1 Chron. iii. 17, 18, (supposing Assir, as the word signifies, to be only a kind of surname of Jeconiah the captive) a greater number than one could suppose so unhappy a prince would adopt in his imprisonment, I should rather think the word, translated childless in the fore-cited prophecy, signifies (as the Seventy suppose, who have translated it) xxxpuxlov, naked, stripped, or rooted up; and the more so, because it seems harsh to suppose y should signify only be adopted: Yet I own it is something strange that Salathiel, who on this supposition was a descendant of Solomon, should be adopted by Neri, a descendant of Nathan, a younger and much inferior 58 SECT. ix. Mat. The genealogy of Christ, begat Zerubbabel, that illustrious instrument Salathiel, and Salathiel of restoring and settling the Jewish common- begat Zorobabel; wealth on their return from the captivity: 14 And Azor begat Sadoc, and Sadoc begat Achim, and Achim be- 15 And Eliud begat 1. 13. And Zerubbabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat 13 And Zorobabel 14 Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor: And Azor begat Eliakim, and Ebegat Abiud, and Abiud begat Zadok; and Zadok begat Achim; and liakim begat Azor; 15 Achim begat Eliud: And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat 16 Jacob: And this Jacob begat Joseph, who was the husband of Mary, that blessed virgin, of whom was born, by the immediate power of God, Jesus, who is commonly called Christ, as he was indeed God's Messiah, or anointed One; the great Sovereign and Prophet and High Priest of his Church, completely furnished for born Jesus, who is callthe discharge of all those offices by a most ed Christ. plentiful effusion of the Spirit which was given, not by measure, to him. 17 This is the genealogy of his reputed father so that we see, as it here stands, that all the generations, in the first interval or class of this illustrious family, from Abraham to David, when we may look it as in its rising state, are upon inferior branch of David's family; or that son. fourteen begat Matthan, and Matthan begat Jacob; 16 And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was 17 So all the gene rations from Abraham generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; to David are fourteen be not allowed, I see not how the known difficulty here can be removed unless by acknowledging that the books of Chronicles (the author of which is unknown) may have suffered by the injuries of time, so that the present reading of some passages may be incorrect; which is very consistent with owning the plenary inspiration of those books. By allowing this we should fairly get rid of two parts in three of the seeming contradictions in the writings of the Did Testament, (I speak on an accurate review of them,) and should be free from the sad necessity of such evasive criticisms, as are more likely to pain a candid heart than to satisfy an attentive and penetrating mind. The omission of a word or two in a genealogical table, and sometimes the This mistake of a letter or two in transcribing, especially with regard to names or numbers, occasions many inextricable difficulties where, in the original reading, all might be perfectly clear. On the whole, I submit so difficult a question to the determination of abler judges, and content myself with thus hint ing at what I found most material on either side. If the two genealogies do not speak of different persons that were named alike, I should conjecture that Salathiel, the son of Neri, might marry the daughter of Jeconiah, and might possibly, on that account, be also adopted by him. The attentive reader will see that this hypothesis at least softens the difficulties inseparable from either of the former. * Salathiel bezat Zerubbabel.] illustrious person, Zerubbabel, is so often said to have been the son of Salathiel, or Shealtiel, which is so nearly the same, (and accordingly the Syriac here reads Schaltiel) see Ezra iii. 2, 8. v. 2. Hag. i. 1, 12, 14. ii. 23. that I incline more and more to think, with Brennius, that the Zerubbabel mentioned, 1 Chron. iii. 17 -19, as the son of Pedaiah the brother of Salathiel, was a different person from this. As the name Zerubbabel signifies a stranger m Babylon, it is no wonder that it should be given to several children born in the captivity.---If this solution 1 Zerubbabel begat Abiud.] Rhesa, mentioned by Luke, chap. iii. ver. 27. was probably another son of Zerubbabel. Abiud might possibly be the same with Meshullam, whose name is mentioned in 1 Chron. iii. 12. or perhaps he and his descendants falling into obscurity, their names might be no where preserved but in this genealogy of Joseph's family, which the evangelist transcribed as he found it. They rations; and from the carving away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. LUKE III. 23. And Jesus himself began to be about thir was the son of Heli, As recorded by St. Luke. IX. fourteen generations: and after these, in the SECT. LUKE III. 23. Luke But, though we have thus given the legal III. 23. ty years of age, being genealogy of Christ from Abraham, as derived (as was supposed) the from Joseph his reputed father, we shall yet add son of Joseph, which another that ascends to Adam; and this is the. 24 Which account which Luke hath given us in his gospel ; where, after he had spoken of the baptism of Jesus when he was beginning [his public ministry,] and was about thirty years of age, he traces his descent in the line of Mary", whose father Heli adopting Joseph, whom he made his son-in-law, the descent of Joseph may on that account be reckoned from him, and so is in effect the same with that of Mary. Christ therefore, being born of Mary after her espousals, may be considered, upon this account, to be (as at that time he commonly was reckoned) the son of Joseph, who, by adoption, or rather by the marriage of his daughter, was the son of Heli", The son of Mat They may be counted fourteen generations.] I express it with this latitude, as it is manifest that three persons are omitted in the second class between Jehoram and Uzziah, ver. 8. and it is only by counting them as here represented that they make fourteen generations. And if, according to the reading of the Bodleian, Jehoiakim be introduced in ver. 11, and considered as the last of this class, (which seems the better reading, as Jeconiah does not appear to have had any brethren,) Jeconiah will thus be reserved for the third class, which otherwise would want one person to complete the number. n In the line of Mary.] I am aware that Mr. Le Clerc and many other learned men have thought that Joseph was begotten by Heli, and adopted by Jacob: but I much rather conclude that he was adopted by Heli, or rather taken by him for his son upon the marriage of his o Joseph, who by adoption, or rather by of 60 ix. Luke 30 The genealogy of Christ, The son of The son of 24 Which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi. which was the son of Melchi, which was the son of Janna, which was the son of Joseph, 25 Which was the son of Mattathias, which was the son of Amos, which was the son of Naum, which was the son of Esti, which was Which was the son of Semei, which was the SECT. Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannah, the son of Joseph. Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, III. 24. the son of Eli, the son of Naggia, 25 Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Shemei, 26 the son of Joseph, the son of Judah, The son 27 of Johannah, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Salathiel, the son of Neri," The 28 son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmodam, the son of Er, The son of Joses, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the the son of Nagge, 26 son of Matthat, the son of Levi, The son of Maath, which was the Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, son of Jonan, the son of Eliakim, The son of which was the son of Meleah, the son of Mainan, the son of Mattathi- son of Joseph, which as, the son of Nathan, the son of that celebrated was the son of Juda, 27 king of Israel, David, the man after God's own Which was the son of heart, The son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the Joanna, which was the son of Rhesa, which son of Boaz, the son of Salmon, the son of Naas- was the son of Zoroba33 son, The son of Aminadab, the son of Aram, bel, which was the son the son of Esrom, the son of Pharez, the son of the son of Neri, 28 34 Judah, The son of Jacob, the son of Isaac, which was the son of who was, according to the promise, the son of Melchi, which was the that honourable patriarch Abraham, the son of the son of Cosam, which 35 Terah, the son of Nahor, The son of Serug, the son of Ragau, or Reu, the son of Peleg, the 36 son of Heber, the son of Salah, The son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, 31 32 the of Salathiel which was son of Addi, which was was the son of Elmo dam, which was the son of Er, 29 Which was the son of Jose, which was the son of Eliezer, which was the son of Jorim,which was the son of Matthat, which was the son of Levi, 30 Which was the son of Simeon, which was the son of Juda, which the son of Joseph, which was the son of Jonan, which was the son of Eliakim, 31 Which was the son of Melea, which was the son of Menan, which was the son of Mattatha, which was the son of Nathan, which was the son of David, 32 Which was the son of Jesse, which was the son of Obed, which was the son of Boaz, which was the son of Salmon, which was the son of Naasson, 33 Which was the son of Aminadab, which was the son of Aram, which was the son of Esrom, which was the son of Phares, which was the son of Juda, 34 Which was the son of Jacob, which was the son of Isaac, which was the son of Abraham, which was the son of Thara, which was the son of Nachor, 35 Which was the son of Saruch, which was the son of Ragau, which was the son of Phalec, which was the son of Heber, which was the son of Sala, 36 which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Heli.] It is necessary to take the words q The son of Cainan.] There is no of in the same order as we find him here; and, as this translation was then commonly used and was more generally understood than the Hebrew, it is probable that some transcriber of this gospel added Cainan from that version, unless we suppose that Luke himself might choose, in writing this genealogy, to follow the Septuagint, as he appears to do in several other passages that he has quoted from the Old Testament. Nor is it, after all, a point of any consequence, as the design of the Evangelist was only to present us with the genealogy of Christ in its ascent to Adam, which is equally |