(I) Bt. Lnke felt lhRt this wa1 the most emin,ml mn<lorn sd1nbn whn ncr,~pt it, I l!llifoble plo.ce in his narrative for 1uch a wonld instance Professor Go<let an<l Denn table. His work w111 cvidenUy most care- Plumptre. The arguments in favour or fully and ekil fully arranged npon the line■ this view-viz. that the genealogy is Mary's, of formal hiatory. Up to this point the not Joeeph'-e.re the following. atory wae IDJinly concerned with other per• The table begins as follows : " And Jesus sonage-wJWi the parents of the great fore- •.• being (as was supposed) the BOD or runner John, with Mary the Virgin and Joseph, which was the son of Heli, which Joseph, with the angels, with the ehephe..te, we.s the BOn of Matthai," etc. In the original with Simeon and with Anna, e.nd especially Greek all the older authorities, before the with the work of John the Baptist. But name Joseph, omit the article Tov, of the. from henceforth a.II the minor persons of Thie article is found before all the name• the Divine story pass into the background. in the long list with this solitary exception. There is now one central figure upon whom This absence of the article Tov certainly the whole interest of the Divine drama. pnts the name of Joseph in e. Hpccial posi- centres-Jesus. This, the moment of his tion in the series of names, an<l leads ua to real introdjction on the world's stage, we.a, suppose that the genealogy is not that of ae St. Luke rightly judged it, the time to Joseph, bnt of Heli. (Heli being the father give the formal table of bis earthly ancestry. of Mary, the omission of her name will be (2) Different from the Hebrew evange- treated later on.) The twenty-third verse list St. Matthew, whose thoughts were cen- wonld then read thus: '' And J eaua, ... tred on the chosen race, e.nd whose horizon (being aa wa..s supposed the son of Joseph)," was bounded by Pa.lestine,or e.t lea.at by those after which pl\rentheeis the fi:rat link in the cities where his countrymen of the disper- chain would be Jesus, the he:i, e.nd grand- sion lived e.nd worked, and who only ea.red son, e.nd in that sense the ,on of Heli. to show that his Messiah had sprnng from It is by no means unnanal in the Old the great patriarch, the father of the tribes Testament to find the grandson termed the of Israel, St. Luke, feeling that the scene "son " of his grandfather (compare, for in- of the work of his Messiah was bounded by stance, I Chron. viii 1 and 3 with Gen. no Jewish horizon, traces up his Lord's xlvi. 21 ; Ezra v. 1 and vi. H with Zech. reputed line of earthly ancestors to the first i. 1, 7). On the omission of Mary's name, father of the human race. The Jesus of Godet quotes from the Talmud (' Treatise Luke was the Saviour, not only of the chil- Bava Bathre.,' llO, a), and urges with great dren of Abraham, but of the children of truth that not only among the Hebrews did Adam. The noble Isaiah-prophecy, which ancient sentiment not accord with the men- we feel we.a one of the great mainsprings of tion of a mother as the genealogical link. Paul's life and work, was the real ree.aon of The Talmud treatise most eingularly comes Luke, the disciple of Paul, tracing up Mes- to our help a,,<>-e.i.n by mentioning that Mary siah's family line to Adam. "It is a light the mother of JeJJu.s wa., called th.e daughter of thing that t!Jou ahouldest be my servant to Heli. We have before dwelt upon the fact ro.ise up the tribes of Ja.cob, e.nd to restore that not only genera.I ancient tradition, but the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee the pie.in sense of the gospeutory, a.scribed for e. Light to the Gentiles" (Isa. xlix. 6). to Mary e. royal Dav,t!ic descent. 'Bava Luke a.lone records the incident e.ud the Bathra' (quoted by c;oclet), with great force, words of Simeon in the temple. asks (though with 11 ,lilfere11t deaigu), what (3) Tho genealogy given by St. Luke sensible me.n, after declaring at the com- differs from that presented by St. Mo.tthew, mencement of the list that the relationship because St. Luke h11s extrico.t,d from family of J0scp!J and Jeana we.a destitute of all records the line of Mary, while St. Matthew reality (C:.s lvoµ.((•ro), could take pleasure has elected to ohroniole the family of in drawing up suoh e. list of ancestors? Joseph. 'fhis solution of the differences This most pertinent question can only be between the two lists WllB e.ppe.rently firot answered by showing that the list i.:l a list, suggeete<l by Annius ofViterho, at the close not of Joseph's ancestors, but of Ma.ry'11, wl.o of the fifteenth century. Among the me.07 wu in very truth U1e mother of Jt'llua. i2 TUE GOSrEL ACCORDINO TO ~T. tURE [Ml. 111. 1-18,
Tn ooming t.o eny oonoluaion 'l'eBpecting narrative■ pNlllerved a.mong~t these penon~ I.he real history of the drawing up the two might ea.Uy rca.oh the ea.re of the author of di~tinet geneA.lngi11e.l table&, the one of the First Gospel, who doubtless live<l in the Jo,..;ph, the nther of Me.ry, it will be ever midst of thi1 flock. Dut a oyole of narra- wull t.o bear in mind that the early ohapten tives mUBt also ha.ve Conned itself round ,,f the two nerrntiveB of SS. MRtthew e.nd Mary. These doubtl0BB are those whioh Luke, where the evente of the birth and in- Luke has preserved. fa11~y of the Lord are t.old, were most pro- The genealogy, then, of St. llfotthew, l,aLly based on memories written and oral, which has Joseph in view, must havo pr,1- prOOllding /mm t,oo dutinot oe,it,-u or oirclce ceeded from hie fo.mily. That given, on tho nf believere, eye-witnea.se■ many of them or other hand, by St. Luke, no duubt issu"d the thing5 they related or of which they from the circle of which Mary wu the preserved a faithful memory in writing. The centre. one circle.-to Ul!e Godet'a word~f which Tho other differences in the two genea- Joseph W&8 the et>ntre, and which wo sup- logies are minor and of far less iuterest; they pose oon,isted of Clt>opas, his brothers are exhaustively discussed in the variou1 J11.m013 and Jude the sons of Joseph, of whom monographs which have been written on one wu the first bishop of the flock in this subject, and to which reference has been Jerusalem, induded, too, Simeon a son of made abova. Cleopas, the first euoc6S80r of Jamea. The