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Zerubbabel is called "the son of Shealtiel or Salathiel" (Ezra 3: 2, 8; Hag. 1: 1;
Matt. 1: 12; Luke 3: 27), but in I Chron. 3: 19 he is called the son of Pedaiah, the
brother of Salathiel (17, 18). We may not know just exactly what occurred, but that
something of importance happened we gather by consulting the genealogy given in
Luke 3: There, we read once more of Zorobabel and Salathiel (Luke 3: 27). At first
one may see nothing remarkable in this fact. Are not Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and David
found in both genealogies? Why should not these two men figure in both?
The answer is that David had two sons, Solomon and Nathan. The line that is pursued
in Matthew's genealogy is that through Solomon, but the line pursued by Luke is that
through Nathan. Now no man can be the son of his father's brother, and consequently
when we read in Luke that Salathiel was the son of Neri who was in direct descent from
Nathan, we must understand the expression to mean "son-in-law" and this is
substantiated by examination of the passage:
"Jesus Himself began to be about thirty years of age, being legally reckoned (nomizo)
the son of Joseph, who in his turn was legally reckoned the son of Heli. Heli was the
father of Mary (Dr. John Lightfoot quoting Hieros, Chagigah) and Joseph the son of
Jacob (Matt. 1: 16) became his son by marriage."
There is, however, more in this genealogy than meets the eye. To illustrate our point,
let us turn back to Gen. 36: It is clear from verses 24 and 25 that "Anah" was a man.
"He" fed his father's asses, and was "the father" of Aholibamah.
With this knowledge let us read Gen. 36: 2:
"Aholibamah, the daughter of Anah, the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite."
To the uninstructed this reads as though "Anah" a man, is called "the daughter of
Zibeon". The truth is of course that the genealogy should read:
"Aholibamah was the daughter of her father Anah, and so Aholibamah was also the
daughter of Zibeon, not that her father Anah was the daughter of Zibeon."
So, when we read in the genealogy of the Saviour, the words "which was the son of"
that recur throughout, refer always to Christ:
"Jesus (as was legally reckoned) the son of Joseph, and so the son of Heli, and at
length the son of Adam and finally the son of God."
Luke does not teach here the Adam was the son of God although this is not denied, the
phrase is a continuous and unbroken succession from Jesus Christ to God His Father,
Joseph at one end of the scale and Adam at the other being but human links in the chain.
Owing to the failure of Jechoniah who was written "childless", it appears that a
marriage took place uniting the line of Zerobabel through Solomon, with the line that
descended from Nathan, and so to Mary the mother of the Christ, the Woman's seed.
Both Matthew and Luke speak of the virgin birth of Christ, but this is too solemn a