Matthew 1:11
Encyclopedia
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. The verse is part of the section where the genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
of Joseph
Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....
, the father of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, is listed. It is the last verse of the middle third of the listing.
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
- And Josias begat Jechonias and
- his brethren, about the time
- they were carried away to Babylon:
The World English Bible
World English Bible
The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and was known as the American Standard Version 1997...
translates the passage as:
- Josiah became the father of
- Jechoniah and his brothers, at
- the time of the exile to Babylon.
This portion is part of the listing of the Kings of Judah
Kingdom of Judah
The Kingdom of Judah was a Jewish state established in the Southern Levant during the Iron Age. It is often referred to as the "Southern Kingdom" to distinguish it from the northern Kingdom of Israel....
and covers the period from the mid-seventh century BC to the beginning of the Babylonian Captivity
Babylonian captivity
The Babylonian captivity was the period in Jewish history during which the Jews of the ancient Kingdom of Judah were captives in Babylon—conventionally 587–538 BCE....
. Josiah
Josiah
Josiah or Yoshiyahu or Joshua was a king of Judah who instituted major reforms. Josiah is credited by most historians with having established or compiled important Jewish scriptures during the Deuteronomic reform that occurred during his rule.Josiah became king of Judah at the age of eight, after...
was a prominent monarch who reigned from 641 BC or 640 BC until 609 BC. Jeconiah
Jeconiah
Jeconiah "; ; ), also known as Coniah and as Jehoiachin , was a king of Judah who was dethroned by the King of Babylon in the 6th Century BCE and was taken into captivity. Most of what is known about Jeconiah is found in the Hebrew Bible. After many excavations in Iraq, records of Jeconiah's...
came two monarchs later and is best known for being defeated and brought with his people in captivity in Babylon around 598 BC.
The main question about this passage is what it means by the word brothers. According to Chronicles, Jeconiah
Jeconiah
Jeconiah "; ; ), also known as Coniah and as Jehoiachin , was a king of Judah who was dethroned by the King of Babylon in the 6th Century BCE and was taken into captivity. Most of what is known about Jeconiah is found in the Hebrew Bible. After many excavations in Iraq, records of Jeconiah's...
only had one brother, so the plural does not make sense. A common view is to see Jeconiah's name in this section as an error. Jeconiah, who is already listed in Matthew 1:12
Matthew 1:12
Matthew 1:12 is the twelfth verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The verse is part of the section where the genealogy of Joseph, the father of Jesus, is listed....
, sometimes has his name written as Jehoiachin making it possible that the author of Matthew or a later scribe confused him with his father Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim .On Josiah's death, Jehoiakim's younger brother Jehoahaz was proclaimed king, but after three months pharaoh Necho II deposed him and replaced him with the eldest son, Eliakim, who adopted the name Jehoiakim and became king at the age of twenty-five...
. In Irenaeus
Irenaeus
Saint Irenaeus , was Bishop of Lugdunum in Gaul, then a part of the Roman Empire . He was an early church father and apologist, and his writings were formative in the early development of Christian theology...
' Latin version of this text Jehoiakim's name appears, but this is the only piece of textual evidence for this theory. All other ancient versions leave him out. Also in Iraneus the brothers are still associated with Jeconiah. This theory would also address a number of other problems. Josiah is believed to be Jeconiah's grandfather rather than father, and having the listing of Jeconiah as two separate people would correct the seeming error in Matthew 1:17
Matthew 1:17
Matthew 1:17 is the seventeenth verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The verse is the conclusion to the section where the genealogy of Joseph, the father of Jesus, is listed.-Text:...
. Jehoiakim had a number of brothers and these are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 3:15. Albright
William F. Albright
William Foxwell Albright was an American archaeologist, biblical scholar, philologist and expert on ceramics. From the early twentieth century until his death, he was the dean of biblical archaeologists and the universally acknowledged founder of the Biblical archaeology movement...
and Mann believe the author of Matthew mentioned the brothers, despite there having nothing to do with Jesus' genealogy, because they are prominently mentioned in Chronicles.
Gundry
Robert H. Gundry
Robert Horton Gundry is a Biblical scholar. He received a B.A. and a B.D. degree from the Los Angeles Baptist College and Seminary, and his Ph.D. from Manchester University in Manchester, England in 1961 and has taught for several decades at Westmont College in California...
disagrees with this view. The Septuagint, from which Matthew seems to have got his spelling, uses the spellings Jeconiah, making it less likely that the name would be confused with Jehoiakim. Moreover the repeating of Jeconiah's name in the next verse matches the repeating of names that occurs throughout the genealogy. Gundry believes that brothers refers to the Jewish people in general who were brought to Babylon with their king, not the biological brothers of Jeconiah. Fowler suggests that brothers might have simply meant family, and the word was included since Jeconiah's family did have an important role in the Old Testament reports.
Fowler believes that the omission was explicitly intended. He argues that the "at the time of the exile to Babylon" makes it clear that this is not simply a genealogy, but also a quick summary of Jewish history. As such leaving out names would simply be part of the attempt to compress thousands of years of history into seventeen verses. The story of the Babylonian captivity is a long and complicated one, with many figures involved. Fowler argues that the word brothers was included to allow Matthew to simply skip over this tangled period without being diverted from his task by mentioning the actual names.
Some manuscripts have additional reading in this verse — τον Ιωακιμ, Ιωακιμ δε εγεννησεν (Joakim, Joakim begot) — M
Codex Campianus
Codex Campianus designated by M or 021 , ε 72 , is a Greek uncial manuscript of the New Testament, dated palaeographically to the 9th century...
U
Codex Nanianus
Codex Nanianus, designated by siglum U or 030 , ε 90 , is a Greek uncial manuscripts of the New Testament on parchment, dated palaeographically to the 9th century. The manuscript has complex contents, with full marginalia . The codex is named after its last owner...
Θ Σ f1 33 258 478 661 954 1216 1230 1354 1604 Lectionary 54
Lectionary 54
Lectionary 54, designated by siglum ℓ 54 . It is a Greek manuscript of the New Testament, on paper leaves. It is dated by a colophon to the year 1470.- Description :...
syrh geo.