Females are named in genealogies when there is anything remarkable about them, or when any right or property is transmitted through them. See Gen. xi, 29 ; xxii, 23 ; xxv, 1-4 ; xxxv, 22-2G ; Exod. vi, 23; Numb, xxvi, 33 ; 1 Chron. ii, 4, 19, 35, 50, etc.
The genealogical lists of names are peculiarly liable to corruptions of the text, and there are many such in the books of Chronicles, Ezra, etc. Jerome speaks of these corruptions having risen to a fearful height in the Septuagint (Prcefaf. in Paralnp.'). In like man- ner, the lists of high-priests in Josephus are so corrupt, that the names are scarcely recognisable. This must be borne in mind in dealing with the genealogies.
The Bible genealogies give an unbroken descent of the house of David from the creation to the time of Christ. The registers at Jerusalem must have sup- plied the same to the priestly and many other families. They also inform us of the origin of most of the na- tions of the earth, and carr}' the genealogy of the Edomitish sovereigns down to about the time of Saul. Viewed as a whole, it is a genealogical collection of surpassing interest and accuracy (Rawlinson, Herodof. vol. i, ch. ii ; Burrington, Genial. Tables of Ike Old and Neio Test. London, 183G ; Selden's lFo?'As, passim). — Smith, s. V.
GENEALOGY of Jesus Christ, the only one given in the New Testament.
I. Object of this Genealogical Record. — From the fore- going article it is evident that no nation was more careful to frame and preserve its genealogical tables than Israel. Their sacred writings contain genealo- gies which extend through a period of more than 3500 years, from the creation of Adam to the captivity of Judah. Indeed, we find from the books of Ezra and Nehcmiah that the same carefulness in this matter was observed after the captivity; for in Ezra ii, C2 it is ex- pressl}' stated that some who had come up from Babylon liad sought their register among those that were reck- oned by genealogy, but were not found ; therefore were they, as polluted, removed from the priesthood. The division of the whole Hebrew nation into tribes, and the allotment to each tribe of a specified portion of the land of Canaan as an inalienable possession, rendered it in- dispensable that they should keep genealogical tables. God had, however, a still higher object than that of giving stability to property \'.\ Israel in leading suc- cessive generations of his people thus to keep an ac- curate list of their ancestry. That the}' should do this was especial!}' required from the moment that the voice of prophecy declared that the promised INIessiah should be of tile seed of Abraham, of the posterity of Isaac, of the sons of Jacob, of the tribe of Judah, and of the fam- ily of David.
The Rabbins affirm that after the Captivity the Jews Were most careful in keeping their pedigrees (^Baln/l. Gemar. Glo^.i. fol. xiv, 2). Since, however, the period of their destruction as a nation by the Romans, all their
tables of descent seem to be lost, and now they are ut- terly unable to trace the pedigree of any one Israelite who might lay claim to be their pomised and still ex- pected Messiah. Hence Christians assert, with a force that no reasonable and candid Jew can resist, that Ski- loh must have come.
The priesthood of Aaron having ceased, the posses- sion of the land of Canaan being transferred to the Gentiles, there being under the N.-T. dispensation no ditterence between circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian and Scythian, bond and free, there is but one whose genealogy it concerns us as Christians to be ac- quainted with, that of our Lord Jesus Christ. Him the prophets announced as the seed of Abraham, and the son of David, and the angels declared that to him should be given the throne of his father David, that he might reign over the house of Jacob forever. His descent from David and Abraham being therefore an essential part of his Messiahship, it was right that his genealogy should be given as a portion of gospel truth. Considering, further, that to the Jews first he was manifested and preached, and that his descent from David and Abraham was a matter of special in- terest to them, it seems likely that the proof of his de- scent would be one especially adapted to convince them ; in other words, that it would be drawn from documents which they deemed authentic. Such were the genealogical records preserved at Jerusalem. See Genealogy. Now when to the above consideration we add the fiict that the lineage of Joseph was actual- ly made out from authentic records for the purpose of the civil census ordered by Augustus, it becomes mor- ally certain that the genealogy of Jesus Christ was ex- tracted from the public registers. Another considera- tion adds yet further conviction. It has often excited surprise tliat the genealogies of Christ should both seem to be traced through Joseph, and not INIary. But if these genealogies were those contained in the public registers, it could not be otherwise. In them Jesus, the son of Mary, the espoused wife of Joseph, could only appear as Joseph's son (comp. John i, 45). In transfer- ring them to the pages of the gospels, the evangelists only added the qualifying expression "as was sup- posed" (Luke iii, 23, and its equivalent, Matt, i, 16).