desirable on other grounds. — See Gnomon on Acts vii. 16. Oziah was previously called Azariah, but by the omission of one Hebrew letter (l» R) his name becomes Oziah.
11. 'luffta$ & syevvriffi rbv 'li^oi/lav, But Josiah begat Jechoniah) Many transcribers both in ancient and in modern times, and those principally Greeks, have inserted Jehoiachim here, because, firstly, the Old Testament had that name in this situation, and secondly, the number of fourteen generations, from David to the Babylonian captivity, given by St Matthew, seemed to require the insertion. Jehoiachim, however, must not be inserted : for history would not suffer Jehoiachim to be put without his brothers, and brothers to be thus given to Jechoniah, who had none. Some have sought for Jehoiachim in St Matthew's first mention of Jechoniah ; Jerome1 has done so especially, when answering Porphyry's2 objections to this verse on the ground of the hiatus. No transformation, however, will produce Jechoniah (in the LXX. 'is^oviai) from the Hebrew Odin's the 'lwaxs/> (Joakim) of the LXX., so as to make them one and the same name : nor have we any more reason for supposing that Jehoiachim and Jechoniah are intended by the repetition of the former, than that two separate individuals are intended by the repetition of Isaac's name ; and so on with the other names in the genealogy. The same Jechoniah is twice introduced under his own name : he was descended from Josiah through Jehoiachim, whose name is omitted. St Matthew calls Jechoniah's uncles his brothers (cf. Gen. xiii. 8), and that with great felicity ; for Zedekiali came to the throne after the commencement of the captivity, to the exclusion of the sons of Jechoniah, whom he succeeded, and who, though his nephew, was born eight years before him. The brothers, therefore, of Jehoiachim, of whom Zedekiah was chief,
1 One of the most celebrated Fathers of the Christian Church, born of Christian parents at Stridon, on the borders of Pannonia and Dalmatia, in the year 331. Educated at Rome under the best masters. After travelling through France, Italy, and the East, he adopted the monastic life in Syria in his 31st year. He died A.D. 422.— (I. B.)
2 A Platonic philosopher, born at Tyre, A.D. 223. Studied under Lon- ginus and Plotiuus. He was a man of great talent and learning, and one of the most able opponents of Christianity. He died in the reign of Dio cletian (I. B.)