Shortly after coming to Christ, Sean and I listened to a pastor explain the reason for the difference between the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3. He said that the genealogy in Matthew comes through the line of Joseph while that in Luke comes through the line of Mary. While this is a common explanation, the below video gives another possible explanation, based on the writings of Eusebius, a third-century historian.
And on the same topic of the genealogy of Jesus, here’s another video from the same channel that explains how the Jechonias in Matthew 1:11 is a different Jeconiah from the one whose line was cursed in Jeremiah 22:28-30.
As Sean and I were discussing yesterday evening, the Bible is so beautifully written, not only for those who believe but also for all unbelievers. In other words, what appears on first reading to be a contradiction will always work together for the good of those who love God (Romans 8:28) because, through diligent searching of the scriptures (Acts 17:11), believers come to a more solid understanding of God’s word. On the other hand, unbelievers latch onto these “contradictions” as proof that God’s word cannot be true. They wrest the scriptures, just as Peter wrote in his second epistle: concerning Paul’s writings:
As also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things; in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction. (2 Peter 3:16)
Amen, and Amen!
