Elijah in
spirit and power..." I can not accept this idea, for many
reasons. Our Lord "sprang out of Juda" (Heb. 7:14).
But it is in order to note that His genealogy had peculiar
meaning to the Jews, and they may have understood intricacies of
genealogies that are not clear to us today.
Alford
says the two genealogies are both of Joseph, and that "the
accounts might be reconciled ... if we were in possession of
data on which to proceed; but ... we are not." He cites
many possible explanations, and concludes, "With all
these elements of confusion it is quite as presumptuous to
pronounce the genealogies discrepant, as it is over-curious and
uncritical to attempt to reconcile them. It may suffice us that
they are inserted in the Gospels as authentic documents, and
both of them merely to clear the Davidical descent of the
putative father of the Lord. His own real Davidical
descent does not depend on either of them, but must solely
derived through his mother."
———————–
Bro.. Turner:
To
whom does the number "666" of Rev. 13:18 refer? B.W.
Reply:
Hundreds
of names have been worked, Cabala style, out of this number. The
safest course is simply to take what the book says, "It is
the number of a man" or "of man" — as opposed
to and short of "7"— the perfect number. It
denotes human as opposed to Divine.
