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In an article from New Testament Studies on the names in Matthew's genealogy, Karl-Heinrich Ostmeyer suggests that the names in the last section of the genealogy are predominately priestly names. Thus, the genealogy divides into a patriarchal section, a royal section, and a priestly section, which culminates with Jesus.
Further, he notes the function of the number 40 in the genealogy: Jeconiah has to be counted both times he's named to make the total come to 42 (vv. 11-12). If you exclude Jesus also from the end of the genealogy, there are 40 generations from Abraham to Jesus, between the Abrahamic promise and its fulfillment. Jesus is the new Joshua, coming at the end of a long period in the wilderness, to take His people into the promised land.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, April 29, 2007 at 07:57 AM
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