32 MRS. A. S. LEWIS^ ON THE GENEALOGIES OF OUR LORD. 



earthly mother our Lord was " born of the seed of David according 

 to the flesh." 



As regards our Lord's descent from David there may be added 

 to the considerations on pp. 11 and 12 of Mrs. Lewis' paper the 

 statement of Ulla, a Jewish Eabbi of the third century, that Jesus 

 was treated exceptionally because of this royal extraction. (Bishop 

 Gore quotes as authority for this the Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 

 43 {a) : cf. Derembourg, p. 349, n. 2.) See also Farrar's Life of Christ, 

 vol. i, p. 9, note, and Benan Evang., p. 60. 



Dr. Gore further quotes (Dissert., p. 380, the authorities there 

 quoted) that the great Hillel, grandfather of Gamaliel, who 

 belonged to a family of Jewish exiles in Babylon, and came to 

 Jerusalem about 50 B.C., was recognized as of David's family, and 

 that "appeal was made in vindication of his claim to a pedigree 

 found in Jerusalem." 



Eeply. 



I am asked by Archdeacon Potter why the Eevisers of our 

 English Version left out the word " wife " in Luke ii, 5 1 They 

 doubtless did so chiefly on the authority of and B; which, 

 though the oldest of our extant Greek MSS., are probably not 

 older than the Sinai Palimpsest, nor than the old Latin a and b, 

 which have " wife " always, like the Diatessaron and the Peshitta. I 

 appreciate the arguments used by Dr. Thirtle ; but yet I hold that 

 the phrase " who was betrothed to him " must convey the 

 impression, to plain English people, that Mary was not yet legally 

 married to Joseph. Probably the " his espoused wife " of the 

 Authorized Version describes the situation better than any other 

 phrase would do. 



I cannot agree that the Virgin Mary would require a fortnight to 

 travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The path was probably, as 

 now, a frequented mule-track, over soft grass. My sister and I have 

 done it, very leisurely indeed, in seven and a half days. Mary 

 perhaps thought that there would be ample time to allow of her 

 return to Nazareth before the expected event ; and the usual rate 

 of progress, three miles an hour, did not necessarily put any great 

 strain on her. 



I agree with Canon Girdlestone that we must try to understand 

 Jewish methods of registration if we wish to explain the genealogies 



