Background
These pages are primailry a genealogy of Jesus, but they have certain sidelines to support
other work.
(i) The link between Herod and Esau was used in a bible study relating to Balaam's 4th Oracle.
(ii) Other important figures in the bible, e.g. Moses, The twelve tribes of Israel,
Saul.
(iii) The Finley Family genealogies.
References
Differences between Chronicles, Matthew and Luke
Matthew - Chronicles
In Matthew A Commentary, Vol. 1, The Christ Book, Chapter 1
Ferederick Dale Bruner says:
"He [Matthew] turns dull genealogy into evangelism and a birth story into a lexicon for the names of the Son of God."
He explains how Matthew made minor modifications to the genealogies
to teach lessons with them. "Matthew is fascinated by the three stages in
Israel's history with fourteen generations each":
The first stage Israel advances from Abraham to King David, Matthew demonstrates
the doctrine of divine mercy thru his selection of the four women to list.
Bruner states: "One gets the impression that Matthew pored over his
Old Testament Records until he could find the most questionable ancestors
... to preach the gospel that God can overcome and forgive sin, and can use
soiled but repentant persons for his great purposes in history.
The second stage Israel declines from Solomon to Jechoniah and the Babylonian Exile.
Bruner speculates that Matthew changed the names of Asa to Asaph, a psalmist
and Amos to Amon, a prophet to help demonstrate the doctrine of divine judgment.
The last stage advances from the Babylonian Exile (Jechoniah) to the birth of Christ and demonstrate the doctrine
of divine good faith. God had promised Abraham a universally blessed Seed
(Gen 12:1-3; 22:18) and he fulfilled this promise in Christ.
Matthew has 14 generations in each stage (David is counted twice for this to work), although he eliminated some names to make it work.
Several explanations have been proposed for this. 1. It made it easier to memorize, 2. It used multiples of 7 a magic number in hebrew numerology.
See Why Fourteen Generations, The Alpha and the Omega
Luke - Matthew-Chronicles - differences.
Following David Luke has an entirely different line leading to Jesus.
Several explanations have been put forth:
1. Luke lists Mary's genealogy Even though in Luke 3:23-27 he says it's Joseph's.
Mary's name was omitted because "ancient sentiment did not comport with the mention of the mother as the genealogical link".
2. Another explanation was that Matthew's genealogy symbolizes christs royalty and Luke's his priesthood.
Special Numbers
7 (a number indicating perfection or completness. e.g. 6 days of creation plus 1 day of rest) and 40 (a number indciating a long time [lifetime]) had special significance and we see them used in the genealogies.
When in doubt 40 seemed to be a good number to use for a lifetime or reign of a king.
Seven is used in Matthew's and Luke's genealogies. Matthew gives devides the genealogies into groups of 14 generations (2 times 7); Luke gives 21 (3 times 7)
generations from the time of David to the exile.
Authors/Dates
Gen. 1446-1406 BC - Moses
Historically, Moses has been held to be the author/compiler
of the first 5 books known also as the Pentateuch or Tora.
Chr. 400 BC - Jewish tradition is that Chronicles was penned by Ezra.
Kings, Samuel and Chronicles are actually one literary work,
called in Hebrrew tradition simply "Kings".
There is little evidence as to the author.
1. Dates (Chronologies)
There are several systems for determining dates in the bible . Creation can be calculated to be
various dates from 3760 BC to 5501 BC
and the Exodus is placed anywhere from 1211 - 1552 BC.
* Note: Many dates are counted from the creation of the world (anno mundi; AM).
This scheme is the basis of the Jewish calendar which came into popular
use about the 9th century AD. However this period of biblical chronology
abounds in intractable problems caused by discrepancies between versions of the old testament.
See Bible Dates and Timeline.
Note: "CE" means "Common Era" (or alternatively, "Christian Era") and refers to the same dates as "AD" or "Anno Domini" does. (Except that "AD" goes before the year number and "CE" goes after it: e.g. "AD 1996" is the same year as "1996 CE".).
BCE is "Before Common Era".
In 1 Timothy 1:4 Paul says:
"You should command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer
nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies.
These promote controversies rather than God's work - which is by faith."
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Genealogy and Priesthood claims Ezra 2:61, 62; Neh. 7:63, 64
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Gal. 3:16 - Christ as a promise to Abraham
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See Also:
Genealogy:
Wes Patterson's Genealogy
Norman Tew's Bible Genealogy
Genealogy at StillVoices
CREDENTIALS & LINEAGE OF JESUS THE MESSIAH
Chronology:
The History of the World from a Biblical Perspective
(The Kings and Prophets of Israel)
Judaism Cronology at NorthPark Univ.
CREATION AND CATASTROPHE CHRONOLOGY
Bible Insight
Hebrew Chronology at ucsfca.edu
Population:
World Population since Creation
last updated 25 Mar 2005
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Adam-Abraham |
Abraham-Isaac-Jacob |
Judah-Jesus |
Others 