Biblical commentary on the New Testament - The Christian ...

Matthew I. 17. 171
way. That reckoning appears the most convenient, according to
which David and Josiah are reckoned twice,* (at the close of one
and the beginning of another division), and Jesus omitted. If the
person of Jesus is to be reckoned as forming the close of the third
division, David only ought to be reckoned twice. The former plan
appears to me, however, preferable. It is fitting not to include
Jesus himself in the generations, as we ordinarily refrain from
doing in reckoning a person's ancestry. Besides, since Matthew, as
was remarked, has omitted some links, it cannot be his inten-
tion to lay stress on the number fourteen, nor ought this arrangement
to be regarded as a mere help for the memory. Rather
it is his purpose, by means of the equal number, to point out
the inward symmetry and regularity of the historical development.f
As the whole history of the world moves foi-ward in its development
by measured periods, and as, in general, every greater or lesser
whole, in the wide creation of God, has its inward gradations ot
progress, through which it advances to its completion, so there is a
regularity in the development of that family also, as it were the inmost
life-pulse of mankind, from which the Messiah was to come.
Bcngel recognized correctly this fundamental view (in his Grnomon
but the particulars which he adds, as weU as his
on the passage) ;
whole chronological system, which he brings into connexion with it,
appear to me untenable. (Compare further remarks on this sub-
ject in the Commentary on the Revelation of John.)
We must notice too the extraordinary phenomenon of a fam-
ily table of three times fourteen generations, and seventy-five ancestors
extending through 2000 or 4000 years, with which the Evan-
gelists open the life of Christ. The possibility of exhibiting such a
genealogical table, always proceeding in the directest line of descent
from father to son, and that, too, of a family long living in the
deepest obscurity, would be inexplicable (since even the distin-
it might be difificult to decide. Such a supposition might, however, agree well enough
with the complexion of Matthew's whole description. The number fourteen is moreover
to be regarded as twice seven—a number which the Scriptures treat as a sacred one.
The three times fourteen thus become six times seven, and the seventh seven opens with
the person of Christ.
* Similar modes of reckoning are met with in other cases. A simple Nazarite vow
lasted thirty days, a double one not sixty but only fifty-nine days, because the day in the
middle was reckoned twice. The Germans call a week eight days, "acht Tage," but two
weeks, fourteen days, "vierzehn Tage;" while the French call two weeks, "quinze
jours."
f The omission of some links may be ascribed to the authors of the genealogy in
Joseph's family. Matthew took it as he found it, without making any alteration in it,
and, of course, his remarks upon it could only apply to its existing form. The want of
some of the links can have no influence on the truth of the remarks themselves, inasmuch
as the fundamental thought, that all things unfold themselves in God's world by
measure and number, applies no less to the complete genealogy than to the shortened
one.