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Document Details : Title: The Generation of the Deportation to Babylon Subtitle: Matthew 1,17 as the Key to Counting Matthew's Genealogy Author(s): HUGGINS, Ronald Vincent Journal: Ephemerides Theologicae Lovanienses Volume: 97 Issue: 2 Date: 2021 Pages: 293-312 DOI: 10.2143/ETL.97.2.3289259 Abstract : In his genealogy Matthew tells us that there are 42 generations from Abraham to Christ (3×14). Yet the actual names reckoned there add up to only 41. Traditional solutions have tried to restore the missing generation by suggesting that (1) a name was inadvertently left out of the genealogy, (2) Matthew intended one of the hinge-point figures (e.g., David or Jechoniah) to be counted twice, or (3) the missing generation is somehow present but not immediately obvious. A survey of these solutions as argued from early times reveals their essential inadequacies. The first solution lacks sufficient manuscript support and founders on details when attempted, the second requires Matthew to have failed to adhere to the genealogical pattern he himself has established, and the third, to quote Stephen C. Carlson, requires 'overly subtle inferences'. The path forward is given by Matthew himself in verse 17 which informs us that the hinge between the second and third tables of the genealogy is not the generation of a person (e.g. Jeconiah), but of an event: the deportation to Babylon. |
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