whilst contemplating the future as coming nearer and nearer their own times.1
VIII. St Matthew makes the three periods equal with each other. This is evident from his repeating the number FOURTEEN three
times with the utmost deliberation. — See Section IV.
IX. He makes up both the third and the second Fourteens by omitting several links in the pedigree : in the first, however, he makes no such omission.
In the second period, he, after Jehoram, passes over Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah, and, after Josiah, he leaves out Jehoiakim : in the third period, after Salathiel, he omits Pedaiah. Nor, in deed, was Zorobabel the immediate father of Abihud ; for, whereas his sons are Mesullam and Hananias, each of these two names differs from Abihud. Hiller enumerates nine links omitted after Zorobabel, and shows that Hodaiah and Abihud are the same individual. The descendants of David from Solomon to Hodaiah are enumerated in 1 Chron. iii. 5, 10—24. Now, since neither the second nor the third Fourteen consist in them selves of exactly fourteen generations, the first must of necessity have that number : for otherwise the number Fourteen, by which the three periods are arranged and represented as equal, would be without any foundation in fact, and the number fifteen, or some greater still, would have to be substituted for it. Four teen generations are clearly enumerated in the Old Testament from Abraham to David. — See 1 Chron. i. 34, ii. 1, 4—15. Whence Rabbi Bechai2 says, that King David was the four teenth from Abraham, according to the number of the letters of his name Ttt» which make fourteen.3 In early ages men gene rally became fathers at a more advanced period of life, than they did in later times. Hence it is that the first Fourteen stands on its own foundation, the second is produced by a less, the third by a greater omission. And though some generations, with
1 The original runs thus : " In psalmis et in aliis prophetiis regum tern- pore latis sermo fere per comparationem status prsesentis et futuri incede- bat : sed post migrationem Babylonis potius per oppositionem incedit, futura prospiciens subinde propius." — (I. B.)
2 Rabbi Bechai. There were two Rabbis of the name of Bechai ; one flourished about 1100, the other about 1290; both were natives of Spain. — See DE Rossi.— (I. B.)
3 Sc. n = 4, 1 — 6, 1 = 4 : therefore n + 1 -j- 1 = 14.— (I. B.)