particularly well known to the Jews ; and there was, conse quently, the less need that St Matthew should repeat it in extenso. In this generation, then, concludes the scripture of the Old Tes tament. The remainder of the genealogy was supplied by St Matthew from trustworthy documents of a later date, and, no doubt, of a public character.
16. Tov avdpot Mapiag, the husband of Mary) This turn of the genealogical line is evidently singular ; ! and in this place, there fore, I must advance and substantiate several important assertions.
I. Messlas or Christ is the Son of David.
This is admitted by all. — See Matt. xxii. 42, and Acts ii. 30.
II. Even in their genealogies both Matthew and Luke teach that Jesus is the Christ.
This is clear from Matt. i. 16, and Luke iii. 22.
III. At the time when Matthew and Luke wrote the descent of Jesus from David had been placed beyond doubt.
Both Matthew and Luke wrote before the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem, when the full genealogy of the house of David, preserved in the public records, was easily accessible to all : and our Lord's adversaries did not ever make any objection, when Jesus was so frequently hailed as the Son of David.
IV. The genealogy in St Matthew from Abraham, and that in St Luke from the creation of man, to Joseph the husband of Mary, is deduced, not through mothers but fathers, and those natural fathers.
This is evident in the case of all those ancestors, whose names St Matthew and St Luke repeat from the Old Testament. Wherefore it is not said, whether Ruth had been the wife of Mahlon or Chilion ; but Obed is simply said to be .the son of his real father Boaz by Ruth [though his legal father was Mahlon. — See Ruth iv. 10, etc.] From Abraham to David the same ancestors are evidently mentioned by both Matthew and Luke ; so that there can be no doubt but that both Evangelists intend not mothers but fathers, and those, fathers by nature, from David to Joseph. Thus, in the books of Kings and Chronicles, as often soever as the mother of a king is mentioned alone, it is a sign that he whom her son is said to have immediately succeeded was his natural father.
1 ' Singularis.' i.e., unique. — (I. B.)