’The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2.  Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren; 3.  And Judas begat Phares and Zara of Thamar; and Phares begat Esrom; and Esrom begat Aram; 4.  And Aram begat Aminadab; and Aminadab begat Naasson; and Naasson begat Salmon; 5.  And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse; 6.  And Jesse begat David the king; and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the wife of Urias; 7.  And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa; 8.  And Asa begat Josaphat; and Josaphat begat Joram; and Joram begat Ozias; 9.  And Ozias begat Joatham; and Joatham begat Achaz; and Achaz begat Ezekias; 10.  And Ezekias begat Manasses; and Manasses begat Amon; and Amon begat Josias; 11.  And Josias begat Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon:  12.  And after they were brought to Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel; and Salathiel begat Zorobabel; 13.  And Zorobabel begat Abiud; and Abiud begat Eliakim; and Eliakim begat Azor; 14.  And Azor begat Sadoc; and Sadoc begat Achim; and Achim begat Eliud; 15.  And Eliud begat Eleazar; and Eleazar begat Matthan; and Matthan begat Jacob; 16.  And Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.’—­MATT. 1. 1-16.

To begin a Gospel with a genealogy strikes us modern Westerns as singular, to say the least of it.  To preface the Life of Jesus with an elaborate table of descents through forty-one generations, and then to show that the forty-second had no real connection with the forty-first, strikes us as irrelevant.  Clause after clause comes the monotonous ‘begat,’ till the very last, when it fails, and we read instead:  ’Jacob begat Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus.’  So, then, whoever drew up this genealogy knew that Jesus was not Joseph’s son.  Why, then, was he at the pains to compile it, and why did the writer of the Gospel, if he was not the compiler, think it important enough to open his narrative?  The answer lies in two considerations:  the ruling idea of the whole Gospel, that Jesus is the promised Jewish Messiah, David’s son and Israel’s king; and the characteristic ancient idea that the full rights of sonship were given by adoption as completely as by actual descent.  Joseph was ‘of the house and lineage of David,’ and Joseph took Mary’s first-born as his own child, thereby giving Him inheritance of all his own status and claims.  Incidentally we may remark that this presentation of Jesus as Joseph’s heir seems to favour the probability that He was regarded as His reputed father’s first-born child, and so disfavours the contention that the ‘brethren’ of Jesus were Joseph’s children by an earlier marriage.  But, apart from that, the place of this table of descent at the beginning of the Gospel makes it clear that the prophecies of the Messiah