Stephen C. Carlson and the Matthean genealogy.

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Interesting idea. They would have been using any source they could find on Herodian Palestine, so it's not unreasonable. Do you think tracing ancestry back to Babylon could have been an indicator of status in the vein of Americans tracing ancestry from the Mayflower? Perhaps such a pedigree would have been seen as making Davidic heritage more secure.

I think it really is an open question as to how both Matthew and Luke developed their non-Biblical genealogical stretches. Your idea does make sense.

[Charles Wilson]

Interesting idea. They would have been using any source they could find on Herodian Palestine, so it's not unreasonable.

Thank you oh honored Diogenes, you Cynic ,you.

Do you think tracing ancestry back to Babylon could have been an indicator of status in the vein of Americans tracing ancestry from the Mayflower? Perhaps such a pedigree would have been seen as making Davidic heritage more secure.

Herod comes onto the scene at war with the Hasmoneans. Herod's last speech is concerned with how Herod accomplished more in his reign than the Hasmoneans did in their previous 125 years. The Hasmoneans have jimmied the Order of the Priestly Groups to place Jehoiarib in the lead position (1 Chronicles 24) so activity such as manufacturing a Genealogy is not an oddity. Nicholas of Damascus is the Political Control Officer for Rome and he plays a VERY active role in the Reign of Herod and also of Archelaus. NoD argues in front of Caesar and ALWAYS wins - as in "The Fix is In". Think "Winston Wolf" from "Pulp fiction". He is that important in the scheme of things and may also come to us as Nicodemus, as in "Nic-o(f)-D'mus". Phony up a Genealogy? Piece o' cake.

I think it really is an open question as to how both Matthew and Luke developed their non-Biblical genealogical stretches. Your idea does make sense.

I still haven't found a good candidate for Luke's Genealogy. Matthew? Pretty good possibility here.

Thanx, Diogenes.

CW

[John2]

Ben,

The Du Tillet Hebrew Matthew has 42 names, as Trimm notes here:

Now the DuTillet Hebrew manuscript of Matthew contains the missing name "Abner" which occurs between Abiud and Eliakim in the DuTillet Hebrew text of Mt. 1:13. In Hebrew and Aramaic "d" and "r" look very much alike and are often misread for each other. In this case a scribe must have looked back up to his source manuscript and picked back up with the wrong name, thus omitting "Abner" from the list. The Greek text must have come from a Hebrew or Aramaic copy which lacked the name "Abner." There is amazingly clear evidence for this. The Old Syriac Aramaic version of Matthew was lost from the fourth century until its rediscovery in the 19th century. This ancient Aramaic text has "Aviur" where the Greek has "Aviud" thus catching the error in a sort of "freeze frame" and demonstrating the reliability of the reading in the Hebrew.

http://nazarenespace.com/profiles/blogs ... hew-part-1

Just food for thought.