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III.
But in order that what I have said may be made
evident, I shall explain the interchange1042
| 1042 The
reading of the Codex Regius is ἀκολουθίαν
, i.e., succession; the other leading mss.
give ἐπολλαγήν,
i.e. interchange or confusion. | of the generations. If we reckon the
generations from David through Solomon, Matthan is found to be the
third from the end, who begat Jacob the father of Joseph. But if,
with Luke, we reckon them from Nathan the son of David, in like manner
the third from the end is Melchi, whose son was Heli the father of
Joseph. For Joseph was the son of Heli, the son of
Melchi.1043
| 1043 But in
our text in Luke iii. 23,
24, and so, too, in the
Vulgate, Matthat and Levi are inserted between Heli and Melchi.
It may be that these two names were not found in the copy used by
Africanus. | As Joseph,
therefore, is the object proposed to us, we have to show how it is that
each is represented as his father, both Jacob as descending from
Solomon, and Heli as descending from Nathan: first, how these
two, Jacob and Heli, were brothers; and then also how the fathers of
these, Matthan and Melchi, being of different families, are shown to be
the grandfathers of Joseph. Well, then, Matthan and Melchi,
having taken the same woman to wife in succession, begat children who
were uterine brothers, as the law did not prevent a widow,1044
| 1044 Here
Africanus applies the term “widow” (χηρεύουσαν)
to one divorced an well as to one bereaved. | whether such by
divorce or by the death of her husband, from marrying another. By
Estha, then—for such is her name according to
tradition—Matthan first, the descendant of Solomon, begets Jacob;
and on Matthan’s death, Melchi, who traces his descent back to
Nathan, being of the same tribe but of another family, having married
her, as has been already said, had a son Heli. Thus, then, we
shall find Jacob and Heli uterine brothers, though of different
families. And of these, the one Jacob having taken the wife of
his brother Heli, who died childless, begat by her the third,
Joseph—his son by nature and by account.1045
Whence also it is written, “And
Jacob begat Joseph.” But according to law he was the son of
Heli, for Jacob his brother raised up seed to him. Wherefore also
the genealogy deduced through him will not be made void, which the
Evangelist Matthew in his enumeration gives thus: “And
Jacob begat Joseph.” But Luke, on the other hand, says,
“Who was the son, as was supposed1046
| 1046
Two things may be remarked here: first, that Africanus
refers the phrase “as was supposed” not only to the words
“son of Joseph,” but also to those that follow, “the
son of Heli;” so that Christ would be the son of Joseph by legal
adoption, just in the same way as Joseph was the son of Heli, which
would lead to the absurd and impious conclusion that Christ was the son
of Mary and a brother of Joseph married by her after the death of the
latter. And second, that in the genealogy here assigned to Luke,
Melchi holds the third place; whence it would seem either that
Africanus’s memory had failed him, or that as Bede conjectures in
his copy of the Gospel Melchi stood in place of Matthat (Migne).
[A probable solution.] | (for this, too, he adds), of Joseph, the
son of Heli, the son of Melchi.” For it was not possible
more distinctly to state the generation according to law; and thus in
this mode of generation he has entirely omitted the word
“begat” to the very end, carrying back the genealogy by way
of conclusion to Adam and to God.1047
| 1047
Other mss. read, “Adam the son of
God.” | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
