Geneaology of Christ

The apostles were not handed the genealogies of the Christ by an angel. Neither were they recited to them by Yahweh Himself. The gospels were written by human eyewitnesses, in the case of Matthew and John, or the recorders of eyewitnesses, in the case of Luke and Mark. They themselves had to rely on very incomplete records in order to chronicle the events surrounding the coming of Christ in perspective with Hebrew history. These records were pieced together as best as their writers could do so. They were probably pieced together at least in part from unofficial sources, since Herod had long before destroyed the genealogies in the temple (which is reported by Eusebius at 1.7.13 of his Ecclesiastical History from earlier sources and which even the Talmud admits, Kiddushin 75a ), and since the Christian gospel writers were – as it is apparent - not welcome around the public offices anyway, even if they could investigate the records. There are many marvels about Scripture that prove that God is true. But the Gospels – and the ancient chronicles which the gospel writers relied upon – are far from complete.

Errors in Matthew's Geneaology

From the time of Jacob there is Pharez, Hezron, Aram, Amminadab, and then Nahshon, who was the captain of the men of Judah in the days of the Exodus. The Bible records only about 8 generations of the children of Israel in Egypt. This is also evident in the genealogy of Moses, where we see the descent recorded from Levi to Kohath to Amram to Moses, who was about 80 years old at the Exodus and therefore a few generations were born after him by that time. But Paul tells us – and it seems to be accurate – that it was 430 years from the call of Abraham to the giving of the law at Sinai, as attested at Galatians 3:17. Much of this 430 years is taken up in the life of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – who was very old when going down to Egypt. Abraham being 75 at the time of the calling to go to Canaan, he was 100 when Isaac was born. Isaac was 60 when Jacob was born, and Jacob was 130 years old when he went before the pharaoh. Kohath, the grandfather of Moses, was listed among those who were with Jacob upon his entering Egypt. This accounts for 215 of the 430 years between the call of Abraham and the giving of the law at Sinai.

At the time of the Exodus, Nahshon is an elder, a chief of Judah, so if we have an estimated 7 generations from the sons of Jacob to the Exodus, we see that encompassed no more than 215 years, the entire time of the sojourn in Egypt. Yet the gospel of Matthew records only 5 generations from Nahshon to David – a span of over 400 years! It gives us Nahshon, who was a chief of the children of Judah in the Exodus, and then it goes to Salmon, to Boaz, to Jobed, to Jesse and to David. The Book of Ruth does not give us any more than this. The lifespan of men as gleaned from Scripture at the time of the Judges period does not allow that there were only so few generations from Nahshon to David. The internal evidence of the Book of Judges and a general understanding of the history of the period prove that it had to be over 400 years from the time of the Exodus to the time of David, and the testimony at Acts 13:20 gives us the span as 450 years. It is perfectly clear that there must be generations missing from the records in the genealogy of David, and they were missing long before the time of Christ.

Many people errantly think that the sojourn in Egypt alone was 400 years, but we have just seen it proven that it was only 215 years. As an aside, many may scoff that the Children of Israel could have grown from 76 people into so many hundreds of thousands of people in only a little over two hundred years. Do the math. If you start with 35 couples, and each couple has but 7 children in a 20-year reproductive period, the end result after 160 years and 8 generations is over 1.5 million people. After 200 years and 10 generations it is over 19.3 million people.