the Son of the Virgin Mary, who is also the Son of God, was born to Joseph, the fruit of his
piety and love.
31. But why does St Matthew reckon in a descending, and Luke in an ascending order?
I pray you give attentive ear to what the Lord may help me to say on this matter; with your
minds now at ease, and disembarrassed from all the perplexity of these cavillings. Matthew
descends through his generations, to signify our Lord Jesus Christ descending to bear our
sins, that in the seed of Abraham all nations might be blessed. Wherefore, he does not begin
with Adam, for from him is the whole race of mankind. Nor with Noe, because from his
family again, after the flood, descended the whole human race. Nor could the man Christ
Jesus, as descended from Adam, from whom all men are descended, bear1797 upon the ful-
filment of prophecy; nor, again, as descended from Noe, from whom also all men are des-
cended; but only as descended from Abraham, who at that time was chosen, that all nations
should be blessed in his seed, when the earth was now full of nations. But Luke reckons in
an ascending order, and does not begin to enumerate the generations from the beginning
of the account of our Lord’s birth, but from that place, where he relates His Baptism by
John. Now, as in the incarnation of the Lord, the sins of the human race are taken upon
Him to be borne, so in the consecration of His Baptism are they taken on Him to be expiated.
Accordingly, St. Matthew, as representing His descent to bear our sins, enumerates the
generations in a descending order; but the other, as representing the expiation of sins, not
His own, of course, but our sins, enumerates them in an ascending order. Again, St. Matthew
descends through Solomon, by whose mother David sinned; St. Luke ascends through
Nathan1798 another son of the same David, through whom he was purged from his sin.1799
For we read, that Nathan was sent to him to reprove him, and that he might through repent-
ance be healed. Both Evangelists meet together in David; the one in descending, the other
in ascending; and from David to Abraham, or from Abraham to David, there is no difference
in any one generation. And so Christ, both the Son of David and the Son of Abraham, comes
up to God. For to God must we be brought back, when renewed in Baptism, from the abol-
ition of sins.
32. Now, in the generations which Matthew enumerates, the predominant1800 number
is forty. For it is a custom of the Holy Scriptures, not to reckon what is over and above certain
round numbers.1801 For thus it is said to be four hundred years, after which the people of
1797 Pertinere.
1798 St. Augustin corrects this confusion of Nathan, the son of David, with the prophet Nathan, in his Retract.
B. ii. c. 16.
1799 2 Sam. xii. 1.
1800 Eminet.
1801 Certos articulos numerorum.
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Of the agreement of the evangelists Matthew and Luke in the generations…