deliberately passed over an entire Fourteen, which is made up of these nine descendants of Zorobabel, of the father of the same Phaidaiah, of three descendants of Joram, and of the father of Jechoniah, and that this is not without mystery for the con struction of the three periods of time, which he then computes according to his own pleasure. We will give his own words. ' Between Jehoram and Abiud, St Matthew omits in all fourteen generations ; see section IX. ; and though he only mentions three fourteens for the sake of the number of the periods from Abraham to Christ, he nevertheless implies, in accordance with his system, that there were really four.' !
" Greatly and sadly do we fear lest the credit of Holy Scripture should be brought into danger by this fictitious systematizing,2 a danger not to be averted by any distinction between implied or expressed meaning. Even if the Book of Chronicles expressly mentioned Abiud, this hypothesis would still be inadmissible (since many men have undoubtedly borne the same name) ; and it will appear utterly inexcusable to any one who carefully considers with himself, both what tortures must be employed to transform Abiud into Plodaiah, and also how very much the divine credit of the Book of Chronicles must be imperilled, if it be laid down (the only argument by which the conjecturers support their improbable opinion), that no genealogy is earned further in that book, than the genealogy of the Messiah, of which the writer of Chronicles must certainly have been igno rant without a special revelation."
What follows in the Programm^'has nothing to do with me. To the objections quoted above, I reply :
(1.) I have computed the three periods of time, not according to my own pleasure, but from the observations which occur in the text of St Matthew. For the first and second periods are
1 See § x., and footnote. — (I. B.)
2 " Ficta concinnitate," alluding to BengeFs use of the cognate adverb, "concinne." See § x., and footnote. — (I. B.)
3 " Programm" (Programma) must not be confounded with " Programme-" it is used here in a peculiar and technical sense, and signifies, " An introduc tory dissertation, generally on some religious or classical subject, read by the Rector, Sub-rector, or some Professor of a German University, at the com mencement of their lectures. — (I. B.)