are counted not to Jechoniah, but to the Babylonian captivity. Vallesius1 (p. 454) thinks Jechoniah, as it were, a double person ; you might assert that with greater correctness of David.
V. In each case, his object was to prove that Jesus was truly called, and was, the Christ.
He proceeds in a marked manner from the name Jesus to the surname Christ, in verses 16, 17, 18 ; and he marks the dis similarity in the character of the periods, and the equality in the number of the generations. That dissimilarity, and that equality, whether taken apart or together, tend to the one object of proving Jesus to be the Christ, as we shall immediately perceive.
VI. The three periods are dissimilar to each other.
If St Matthew had merely intended to compose a genealogy, he might have omitted all this Congeries2 of names, or at any rate, have confined himself to the mention of proper names, and said, " From Abraham to David," " from David to Jechoniah," " from Jechoniah to Jesus." Instead of so doing, however, after the other matters preceding, he says, " to the Captivity ;" and again, "From the Captivity to Christ." The land-mark, limit, standing-point, therefore, of the first period is David, of the second the Captivity, of the third Christ. The first period, then, is that of the Patriarchs ; the second, that of the Kings ; the third, for the most part, of private individuals.
VII. This dissimilarity strikingly proves that Jesus is the Christ.
The diiferent heads under which St Matthew reduces the three periods, show, that the time at which Jesus was born, was the time appointed for the birth of the Christ, and that Jesus Himself was the Christ. The first and the second fourteen have an illustrious commencement ; the third has one, as it were, blind and nameless. Hence is clearly deduced, and brilliantly shines forth, the end and goal of the third, and all the periods, namely, the CHEIST. The first period is that of promise, for in it Abraham stands first, and David last, to each of whom the
1 Vallesius, or Valles, Francis, a native of Spain, physician to Philip II. He wrote a treatise, "De iis quse scripta sunt physice in libris sacris, sive de sacra philosophia." — (I. B.)
2 See Appendix on this figure. The enumeration of the parts of a Whole.— ED.