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



fact that everything must have an end at some time or another 

 in this transitory world. 

 We have : — 



I. Verses 8. 9, of chapter i, in the Gospel of Matthew : 



II. The difficulty of reconciling the genealogy in Matthew i, 

 1-16, with the genealogy in Luke iii, 23-38. 



Some have tried to get rid of the second difficulty by asserting 

 that Matthew i, 1-16, is a later addition to the Gospel and no 

 real part of it. Others think that the genealogy is primitive, 

 but that chapters i, 18, to ii, 23, of Matthew are a later addition. 



If both these sections be integral parts of the Gospel and 

 have suffered little at the hands of scribes, we ought not to find 

 it quite impossible to explain away discrepancies, and bring the 

 whole story into a harmonious whole. I must begin by saying 

 that the view which I intend to put before you is not originah 

 It has been published by Dr. Joseph Michael Heer in parts 

 1 and 2 of the fifteenth volume of Bihlische Studien. Dr. 

 Heer is, I am told, a Koman Catholic ; there cannot therefore 

 be perfect similarity of view between him and ourselves on all 

 points ; and I am both surprised and pleased to find so fearless 

 an investigator within that very old bottle, the Koman fold of 

 the Church Catholic. 



I. Let us look at our first problem. It is, that whilst there 

 were forty-two generations between Abraham and Jesus, the 

 name of the first progenitor, and the last-mentioned name, that of 

 the Messiah, being (in accordance with Semitic custom) counted 

 into the number, and while it is easy to divide forty-two by the 

 sacred number of three, producing three times the sacred number 

 of fourteen, or twice seven, we know from the books of ii Kings 

 and II Chronicles that the second group had seventeen, not four- 

 teen, members, and that the names of three of the Jewish kings, 

 who were actual forefathers of Joseph, are omitted from the 

 list. These names are Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah. Is this the 

 result of a blunder ? or is there any deep-seated reason for it ? 



Dr. Heer finds the explanation in the curse pronounced upon 

 the house of Ahab, king of Israel, in i Kings xxi, 21, and ii Kings 

 ix, 8. There it is declared that because of Ahab having intro- 

 duced the worship of the Baal into Israel, his male descendants 

 should be cut off. This curse, like the one which is attached to 

 the second commandment (the very commandment which Ahab 

 had so flagrantly disobeyed), extended only to the first four 

 generations of his children, and as his daughter Athaliah was 

 married to Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, the 

 priests of the temple in Jerusalem, who were also keepers of its 



