genealogy becomes necessary because of the bar that was set up to any of the

seed of Coniah.  The crown rights being forfeited, Nathan's line succeeds and

so, although attacked from within and without, the Saviour that was born at

Bethlehem has the full right to the throne of David.  We now consider one or

two subsidiary evidences that go to confirm this line of teaching.  Dr.

Lightfoot draws attention to the genealogy given in Genesis 36:2:

'Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon'.

Every reader not made aware of the problem, would naturally assume upon

reading this entry that Anah was the daughter of Zibeon.  But Anah was a man

(Gen. 36:24,25), Anah was the father of Aholibamah.  In like manner, the

title 'The Son' in Luke 3:23, is never again used in the genealogy, the words

throughout being in italics, and the genealogy reads:

Jesus was the legal son of Joseph

Jesus which was the son of Matthat

Jesus which was the son of Levi

until the end of the record which does not tell us that Adam was the son of

God, but

(Jesus) which was the Son of God.

We are familiar with the blessed words of Revelation 22:16 where the

Saviour declares His Divine and Human nature, being not only the 'Offspring'

but the 'Root' of David, but we may not have given sufficient heed to the

prophetic statement of Isaiah 11:1.

'There shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch

shall grow out of his roots'.

These words do not suggest a straightforward growth, but rather picture

a 'stem', i.e. the 'stock' of a tree that had been cut down, sending forth a

'sucker' not from the stem of the tree in the normal way, but from the roots,

as though making a fresh start.  Job uses this figure saying:

'For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout

again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease.  Though the

root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock (same word "stem")

thereof die in the ground' (14:7,8).

The only other occurrence of the word translated 'stem' in Isaiah 11:1

is in chapter 40:24, where once more the figure is that of a tree cut down

whose 'stock shall not take root in the earth'.  So, the stock of Jesse was

cut down when the judgment fell upon Coniah, but a sucker came forth from

that cut down stock, like a branch grown out of its roots, the line from

Solomon ceasing to carry the right to the throne, that dignity reverted to

Nathan and is carried down through Mary to her infant Son.  We have no

specific explanation in the Scriptures for settling the problem of the

appearance of Salathiel and Zerubbabel in both genealogies, but everything

points to a Levirate marriage (Deut. 25:6), and such would clear up many

We do not pretend to have provided a watertight solution to the

problems presented by these genealogies, but feel sure that there is every

reason to believe that these two genealogies were called for owing to the