Himself said, "My Kingdom is not of this world" (John xviii. 36).
42. M. But from comparing Matt. i. 12 with Luke iii. 27, we see that Salathiel
and Zorobabel occur in both genealogies, and from 1 Chron. iii. 17, 19, it is clear
that both Salathiel (Shealtiel) and Zorobabel (Zerubbabel) were descended from Jeconiah.
If Jeconiah was unworthy to hand down the temporal sovereignty to his sons, still less
could he be the ancestor of the Messiah. As Christ was a prophet, there must here
be some corruption in your Bible.
C. From Luke iii. 27 it is doubtful whether the Salathiel and Zorobabel mentioned
there are the persons of the same name who are mentioned in Matt. i. 12 and 1 Chron. iii.
17, 19. Moreover, what possible object could Christians have in corrupting the text of the
Gospel so as to introduce this difficulty 1?
43. M. In Deut. xxiii. 3 and Neh. xiii. 1 we read that a Moabite was not to come
into the congregation of the Lord "for ever." Yet both genealogies
represent Christ as descended from David, whose ancestress was Ruth the Moabitess. Here is
another contradiction.
C. Ruth iv. 21, 22 shows that the Jews (who