Talk:Matthew 1:1

In the "Neutral" section Joe Wallack writes:

"The book of the generation of Jesus Christ" at the Beginning of the Genealogy Implies that this is intended to be a Complete Genealogy.

The phrase "book of the generation of Jesus" corresponds with Hebrew "sefer toledoth Yeshua", and there is actually a "sefer toledoth Yeshu" (without the final 'a') in existence from mid 1st millenium. It doesn't contain much of a genealogy - the Hebrew word "toledoth" is reported to mean both "genealogy" and any kind of "records", so it might have been used in the meaning "biography", and a biography usually does contain some genealogical info. I would say that it's a matter of taste whether Matthew (the author of the gospel by any other name) meant the genealogy to be complete. Of course, if there are 14 generations before the exile and 14 generations after, you'd be excused to think it meant as a complete genealogy, otherwise you might as well say that there were 5 generations before the exile and 8 generations after the exile and only list that many generations. Divine inspiration apparently works in mysterious ways :-)

--FreezBee 11:50, 16 May 2006 (CDT)