Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 87:348 (Oct 1930)
Article: Some New Testament Problems In The Light Of Rabbinics And The Pseudepigrapha
Author: Chaim Kaplan

BSac 87:348 (Oct 1930) p. 465

Some New Testament Problems In The Light Of Rabbinics And The Pseudepigrapha

The Generation Schemes In Matthew 1:1–17, Luke 3:24ff.

Chaim Kaplan, Ph.D.

Professor Moore (Harvard Theological Review, XIV: 97ff, 196) discusses the generation scheme in Matthew 1:1–17 whereby he offers a solution based on the assumption that the author counted thirty-five years to a generation, fourteen generations making up the total of four hundred and ninety years. This figure comes near the true length of the period from David to the exile,1 but it is at variance with the traditional chronology which assigns four hundred years to the period from Abraham to the Exodus (Genesis 15:13) and 480 years from the Exodus to the building of the temple (1 Kings 6:1). According to the Biblical data the period from Abraham to David extended to more than eight hundred years, so that the discrepancy between the Biblical numbers and Matthew would be too large if the fourteen generations represented 490 years.

The ten weeks in Enoch 93–91 are interpreted in the same manner; 490 years constitute one week.2 This mode

If the author of Enoch considered 500 year weeks (a figure coming very near the 490 weeks suggested by Moore), all history would extend over a period of 5, 000 years. See “Messianic Speculation in Israel,” by Rabbi Silver, regarding the current belief at the beginning of the present era that the world had reached its end— the apocalyptic 5, 000 years (Messianic Speculations in Israel, pp. 6, 60).

BSac 87:348 (Oct 1930) p. 466

of reckoning presupposes complete ignoring of the Biblical chronology by the author of Enoch; Abraham, e. g., would come at about 1470 Anno-Mundi—a date standing in flagrant contradiction to all systems of chronology, Masocretic LXX or Samaritan.

The rabbinic passages corresponding to Matthew 1:1–17 suggest another interpretation of the latter. Pe-sikta Kahana (Buber Lyck, 1868, p. 53), Pesikta Rabbati 76b, Lekah Tob 1:49–8, Zohar II :144b (Livorno), Midrash Ruth I (Warsaw, 1865) initial word “Rabbi Azariah,” Exodus Rabbah 15—all these sources draw a parallel between the thirty days of the lunar month and the thirty3 generat...