His “Beloved Son,” Luke proceeds to tell who Jesus was by physical descent. That, of course, implied a line of male ancestors through His mother Mary. Now Luke carries our Lord’s descent backward instead of forward as does Matthew. There is in Luke’s exhibit nothing artificial in form, making Jew ish historical and national features no- ticeable. Indeed, great care is shown to include accurately every human gen eration in the chain of Jesus’ ancestry clear back to God through the first cre ated man. Some names are thus in cluded which are otherwise lost to us, notably the name of Cainan in verse 36. And, while the line runs through David and Abraham, yet those names are not exalted above any others. Jesus, therefore, is by Luke intro duced racially, not nationally, the Son of God in the Son of man, the “last Adam,” “The everlasting Father.” Clearly then—it seems to the author— this is Jesus’ natural line, though not of legal and royal descent. Notice, that the line of succeeding kings of Judah, is by Solomon’s brother Nathan. This is, then, the line of Jesus’ ancestry by human origin and physical birth through Mary. * Come, join the shepherds on their way, To Bethlehem’s manger bed, For lo, God’s Son in Mary’s arms, Rests there His infant head; Thq stupid kine that crunch and drowse Heed not a Baby’s cry, They see no light, they hear no song Of angels in the sky. Come, join the wise men on their way Past Bethlehem’s lowly inn, And know the meaning of the joy That makes the whole world kin. Dull are the eyes that cannot see A star, a single star! Dead are the hearts that cannot thrill At wise men from afar! Come, join the angels in their shout On Bethlehem’s quiet plain, And carol till the echoes roll Beyond the farthest main. There is no song for those who doubt The story of that birth, But to the souls that find that Babe The gladdest joy on earth. —Cora Mae Turnbull. Gist,tLesson 1949 Bu R.A.TORREY vk \ Insist on the ORIGINAL. Forty- *<»•'•»\ nine years’ supremacy. Never il \ equalled. Condensed thought. Di- \ l \ gest and text of lesson. Full ex* position. Other features. Cloth Bound 60f Postpaid F. H. REVELL CO., 158-5th Ave., New York 10 ★ CHRISTMAS JO Y
Z i lie ( je n e a fo ÿ ie ô o f ffeôuô C^hriót
By W . C . Stevens
T HE literature upon the subject of the genealogies of Jesus Christ is very voluminous and not a little uncertain and perplexing in con clusions. We are, therefore, left ex actly at our true starting-point; namely, at a quite independent and first-hand reliance upon the simple records of the Gospel writers them selves; that is, upon Matthew and Luke directly and alone. MATTHEW'S GENEALOGY OF JESUS Matthew 1:1-17 Matthew manifestly intends to show Jesus Christ to be the lawful heir to the Messianic covenants of God with Da vid and Abraham. He is legal successor to the throne of David, also to the Abrahamic inheritance as that “Seed, which is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). And He is introduced by Matthew as such by virtue of being bom to Joseph by Mary (1:16), for Matthew’s genealogy is clearly that of Joseph. But, as Matthew proceeds to show, Jesus was not by physical nativity the son of Joseph. On the supposition that Mary’s yet unborn child was of natural origin, Joseph, although being the espoused husband of Mary, yet as an upright man was purposed “to put her away,” not, however, as “a public ex ample,” but “privily.” This plan was intercepted by God through an angel by a dream, in which Joseph was in formed convincingly that the unborn child was of supernatural origin and was indeed the long-promised incarna tion of God Himself, in which dream Joseph was also directed fearlessly, and in faithfulness to Mary and the child, to face the world as the lawful husband of a pure wife and the lawful father of a legitimate child. This act secured the honor of Mary, who never theless has had the shame attributed persistently to her of bearing an il legitimate child. Joseph’s act legalized not only the birth of Jesus, but also His succession to the throne of David and to the Abrahamic inheritance. This, succession is by Matthew plainly shown to have been effected in full legality through Joseph by virtue of his publicly taking Mary, as physical mother of Jesus, as his wife before Jesus was born. This was sound and incontestable law. But notice, that the unimpeachable title of Jesus as the designed Restorer of the fallen house of David hinged upon the fact of the virgin birth and incarnate origin of Jesus Christ. To question this fact is both to flout the integrity of Matthew’s record and to impeach the legitimacy of Jesus’ title to the Davidic D E C E M B E R , 1 9 4 8
throne and to the Abrahamic inher itance. We will not in this treatment of the subject discuss certain puzzling de tails involved in the make-up of his genealogy, su6h as the omission of some generations from the list, the un accustomed inclusion of two female names, and the evident artificial con struction of the tripartite list on the principle of fourteen generations to each member of the triplet. The Jews were fond of cunning and symmetrical forms, and they considered such means
to that end as perfectly legitimate. The evident object of Matthew was to throw strikingly before his readers the nota ble outline of the history of the house of David in its three periods of prepara tion, prevalence and perdition, the Saviour of which ruined house now comes forth as long before promised to David the original head. LUKE'S GENEALOGY Luke 3:23-38 This genealogy stands in salient fea tures entirely apart from Matthew’s. To a great length and in vivid pictur esqueness the story, not merely the fact of Jesus’ virgin birth, divine incarna tion. and royal destiny, have already been portrayed by the expert historian Luke. Not in association therewith is Jesus’ genealogy introduced by Luke, but as the immediate preface to our Lord’s public ministry. After reaching the most impressive point where, according to 3:22, God the Father by the Dove and the voice from heaven publicly acknowledged Jesus as
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