Genealogy Problems

From the Errancy discussion list, 9/11/97:

TILL

If Lenny ever decides that he can feel comfortable discussing them, I will be happy to show him that the two genealogies of Jesus result in a biblical discrepancy.

LENNY

Post away big boy,  I would like to see your argument.

TILL

Well, the problem is quite obvious. Matthew and Luke both recorded a genealogy of Jesus. Both recorded the descent from Abraham through Isaac through Jacob through Judah through Perez through Hezron through Ram through Amminadab through Nahshon through Salmon through Boaz through Obed through Jesse through David, but suddenly at David, the pedigrees go in different directions.

Matthew claimed that Jesus descended through Solomon (1:6), but Luke says that he descended through Nathan (3:31), who was Solomon's brother. Thereafter, the genealogies are necessarily different, except that for some strange reason Shealtiel and Zerubbabel are in both genealogies (Luke 3:27; Matthew 1:12). But if Shealtiel and Zerubbabel were direct descendants of Nathan, they couldn't have been direct descendants of Nathan's brother, Solomon.  Furthermore, 1 Chronicles 3:17 indicates that Shealtiel was the son of Jeconiah, as Matthew also claimed (1:12), but Luke claimed that Shealtiel was the son of someone named Neri (3:27), who is mentioned nowhere else in the Bible. If that were not bad enough, 1 Chronicles 3:19 indicates that Zerubbabel was the son of Pedaiah, who was Shealtiel's brother, but Luke claimed that Zerubbabel was the son of Shealtiel (3:27). So I am posting away, Lenny, and what I see are some serious discrepancies in the genealogy of Jesus as reported by Matthew and Luke.

(btw, Lenny never replied)
Farrell Till