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.

Ahaziah

Here we have several missing generations, the first of which is Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, the Ioram of this list in verse 8. His mother was Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab. Many claim that Athaliah was a daughter of Ahab by Jezebel, but that is simply not true. While there is no explicit mention of Athaliah's mother, a close inspection of Scripture reveals that Athaliah was certainly the daughter of Ahab by a wife other than Jezebel. For Jezebel became Ahab's wife rather late in his life, and Ahab had 70 sons, and many daughters, by many different wives. Two of Ahab's sons by Jezebel did become kings in Israel, but they did not rule long – only a couple of years between them. However Athaliah was wicked nonetheless, and she tried to destroy all of the sons of the royal household of Judah upon Ahaziah's death – but Joash was preserved. Athaliah tried to reign herself as a queen, but she was slain and Joash took the throne by the age of seven.

Joash and Amaziah

Joash, and his son Amaziah, are also missing in this genealogy, which picks up again with the son of Amaziah, which was Uzziah – the Ozias of verse 8 here in Matthew. So we see that while Matthew goes from Joram to Uzziah, the Old Testament takes us from Joram to Ahaziah to Joash to Amaziah to Uzziah, and three generations are wanting in Matthew's listing. Joram is Uzziah's great-great-grandfather!

Jehoiakim

Jehoiakim is also missing, who by all Old Testament accounts is the father of Jeconiah. An interesting fact about Jehoiakim is that he was anointed king upon the death of Josiah his father by the Egyptian pharaoh Nechoh, after Nechoh captured his older brother Jehoahaz, for which see 2 Kings chapter 23. Yet here again we see that the Scripture has no problem reckoning a grandson as a son, for Josiah was the grandfather of Jeconiah.

Curse of Jeconiah

Now Jeconiah, the man who was king when he with the remnant of Jerusalem had all been taken to Babylon, he was cursed. In Jeremiah 22:28 we read:

“Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not? 29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD. 30 Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.”

While the sons of Jeconiah obviously survived to return to Judaea, none of them ever ruled again. The Maccabees were Levites, a family of the high priests, who became the civil rulers of the nation until they were usurped by Herod and his Edomite kin.

Yet Matthew provides sufficient genealogical evidence to show that Yahshua Christ indeed stood in line and inherited the rightful claim to rule from Joseph – his lawful father. Christ not being the physical son of Joseph, allowed Him to circumvent the curse of Jeconiah.

Time of Ezra to the Maccabees

The Gospel of Matthew provides 13 generations after Jeconiah to the Christ. Little is known of the history of Judaea from the days of Ezra and the prophets Zechariah and Malachi, to the time of the Maccabees and the accounts illuminated in the history of Josephus which began circa 160 BC. Josephus himself says very little about that 300-year period from Ezra to the Maccabees, aside from a brief account of Alexander's entry into Jerusalem and his conquest of Tyre

Inheritance by Law

When Joseph accepted Christ in the womb of Mary, He then became the lawful heir of Joseph even though He was not Joseph's genetic son.

If one thinks about it, this is exactly the way in which the children of Cain came to claim the inheritance of Adam, long beforetime in the Garden of Eden. In fact all of the circumstances of the birth of the Christ mirror those of the birth of Cain which caused a need for the Christ! When Adam accepted Eve, he accepted Cain in her womb and Cain became his first-born heir. When Joseph acceded to the instructions of the angel and accepted Mary, he accepted Christ in her womb as his first-born heir!

From The Lost Books of The Bible and The Forgotten Books of Eden, “The Protevangelion” 10:1-10:

“1 And when her sixth month was come, Joseph returned from his building houses abroad, which was his trade, and entering into the house, found the Virgin grown big: 2 Then smiting upon his face, he said, With what face can I look up to the Lord my God? or, what shall I say concerning this young woman? 3 For I received her a Virgin out of the temple of the Lord my God! and have not preserved her such! 4 Who has thus deceived me? Who has committed this evil in my house, and seducing the Virgin from me, hath defiled her? 5 Is not the history of Adam exactly accomplished in me? 6 For in the very instant of his glory, the serpent came and found Eve alone, and seduced her. 7 Just after the same manner it has happened to me. 8 Then Joseph arising from the ground, called her, and said, O thou who hast been so much favoured by God, why hast thou done this? 9 Why hast thou thus debased thy soul, who wast educated in the Holy of Holies, and received thy food from the hand of angels? 10 But she, with a flood of tears, replied, I am innocent, and have known no man.”

No matter what we think about this apocryphal book, it can surely be demonstrated to be of great antiquity, and its author knew the story of the Bible.

Explanations for Errors

There are many diverse theories concerning the discrepancies between Matthew and Luke's geneaologies, with the most logical being that Matthew incorporated kinsman redemption in an officlal line to the throne of David, while Luke gave a more literal line of physical descent.

Missing Generations in Matthew

It is evident that Matthew organized the geneaology into three equal sets of fourteen generations for the purpose of poetic effect.