were His first cousins, not His half-brothers. It is needless to attempt, as some have done, to prove the consanguinity of Joseph and Mary from their marriage : for even if David be their . nearest common ancestor, St Matthew's object is attained. St Matthew then has traced the genealogy of Joseph, but still so as to do no violence to truth : for he does not say that Jesus is the Son of Joseph, but he does say that He was the Son of Mary ; and in this very sixteenth verse he intimates, that this genealogy of Joseph, which had its use for a time, would after wards become obsolete. Mary's descent from David was equally well known at that time, as appears from St Luke.
X. Either Matthew gives the genealogy of Mary, and Luke that of Joseph ; or Matthew thai of Joseph, and Luke that of Mary.
This clearly follows from the preceding sections.
XI. The genealogy in Matthew is that of Joseph ; in Luke, that of Mary.
St Matthew traces the line of descent from Abraham to Jacob : he expressly states that Jacob begat Joseph, and ex pressly calls Joseph the husband of Mary. Joseph therefore is regarded throughout this genealogy as the descendant of those who are enumerated, not on Mary's account, but on his own. Matthew, indeed, expressly contradistinguishes Joseph from Mary as the son of Jacob ; but in St Luke, by a less strict mode of expression, Heli (Luke iii. 23) is simply placed after Joseph. Since, then, Joseph is described in Matthew as actually the son of Jacob, St Luke cannot mean to represent him as actually the son of Heli. The only alternative which remains, therefore, is to conclude that he is the son of Heli, not in his own person, but by virtue of another, and that other his wife. Mary, then, is the daughter of Heli. The Jewish writers mention a certain "h]3 D3 D^IE, Mary, the daughter of Heli, whom they describe as suffering extreme torments in the infernal regions. — See Light- foot1 on Luke iii. 23, and Wolfius2 on Matt. i. 20. St Luke
1 John Lightfoot, D.D. Born in Staffordshire, 1602. Educated at Christ Church, Cambridge. One of the Assembly of Divines during the Commonwealth. In 1648 was made Master of Catherine Hall, Cambridge, and served the office of Vice- Chancellor : and died in 1675. He excelled in rabbinical learning. — (I. B.)
2 John Christopher Wolfius, a learned Lutheran divine, pastor and Pro-