MKS. A. S. LEWIS, ON THE GENEALOGIES OP OUR LORD. 31 



which Mrs. Lewis deals ; but there need be no hesitation in 

 assuming that these genealogies were derived by the Evangelist 

 from written, and possibly official, records. 

 Dr. Margoliouth writes : — 



" The genealogies of our Lord," which yoa have kindly sent me, 

 I am unfortunately not able to study closely at present, being rather 

 in bad health just now. From the cursory perusal, however, of it 

 which I have been able to make, I gather that the subject is treated 

 in it in a very interesting and instructive way. One point that 

 struck my attention was this : If the report of Julius Africanus 

 that Herod the Great caused most of the Temple registers to be 

 burnt be true, is it likely that such a document as the genealogy 

 given in St. Matthew would have escaped destruction if it had been 

 one of the records preserved in the Temple at that time 1 



Mr. E. J. Sewell writes : — 



Mrs. Lewis is of opinion (p. 14) that St. Luke gives us Mary's 

 genealogy. 



So far as this rests upon the statement on the same page that — 

 " the Talmud tells us that Mary's father was Heli," it is, I think, open 

 to very grave doubt. Dr. Gore, now Bishop of Oxford, in his 

 Dissertation on the Virgin-birth of our Lord says (p. 39) that the 

 statement — " ... is based on a quite untenable translation." 

 He quotes the Hebrew of the citation from the Talmud referred to 

 by Mrs. Lewis. It is, of course, unpointed. Lightfoot adopted one 

 possible pointing and rendered it : He saw Miriam the daughter of 

 Heli among the shades. " But," says Dr. Gore (p. 40), " I am assured 

 that the only legitimate translation is : He saw Miriam, the daughter 

 of Onion-leaves (a nickname of a kind not uncommon in the Talmud) ; 

 and there is no reason to suppose any reference to our Lord's 

 mother." 



Without the support of this statement from the Talmud there is 

 very little reason to connect Heli with Mary. This is not, of course, 

 urged as any reason for doubting that the Virgin Mary was, in fact, 

 descended from David. Mrs. Lewis' very interesting and important 

 statement that " the Sinai Palimpsest tells us that Joseph and Mary 

 . . . were both of the lineage of David " and that the Armenian 

 version of the Diatessaron has the same reading strongly support the 

 inference which one would draw independently of them from 

 St. Luke i, 32 ; Eom. i, 3, and other passages that through His 



