Post by Mark on Oct 19, 2009 5:21:21 GMT -8
If we compare the genealogical record in Matthew 1:1- 16 the account given in Luke 3:22-38, we find that it doesn’t line up in neat and tidy little boxes for us. There are gaps and inconsistencies in Matthew’s account that are sometimes five generations deep. The names in the account don’t necessarily match equally between the accounts. To make things worse, Luke will use Greek and Hebrew names interchangeably.
Let’s be honest, though. If you’re not a champion race horse or something, whose pedigree doesn’t have some gaps or questions in it? Yet, what appears to us as exclusions or deletions or replacements really is designed to gives two levels of emphasis to the same story.
The father of Joseph, Matthew refers to as Jacob. Yet Luke chooses to call him Heli (the lofty one or exalted). This may not be a name at all; but rather a title, just as Jethro, Abraham’s father-in-law was also named Raguel (Numbers 10:29). The explanation is that "Jethro" is probably a title of honor, meaning "his excellence".
Luke’s genealogy is more complete because his audience is less intimate with the particulars while Matthew, addressing a Jewish audience, is giving the lineage with a particular purpose in mind.
See thread: theloveofgod.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=appologetics&action=display&thread=1521
The names listed in Matthew’s account are grouped together around names specifically listed in the Jewish Tanakh (the Old Testament) charting the course of required to prove the pedigree of Messiah.
The "fourteen generations" that Matthew refers to cannot be literal (or Matthew has no concept of the basic principles of math). The usage of numerical terms, particularly in Hebrew, may carry a variety of explanations. When we begin to investigate from different sources, it becomes clear that a lot of the definitions for numerology are wild guesses at best. The truth is that we really don’t know what Matthew meant.
