Genealogies of Jesus Christ
The key to understanding the difference between the genealogies in the Gospels actually begins with Genesis. Most English translations have a conflict between Genesis 5:10-12 and Luke: 35-36. The conflict is resolved through a reading of the original languages. The Genesis 5 and 11 genealogies are unique (amongst other OT geneologies) in their use of the Hiphil form of the Hebrew Verb "to beget." What this means is that fathers (in Genesis 5 and 11) "caused" their sons to be born, meaning something happened to initiate a chain of events that would result in the begetting of another son. As a result, there are likely many generations in-between Arpachshad and Shela, and so Luke has not problem inserting in Cainan in his Gospel.
Greek and English do not have a "causal" form of verbs like Hebrew. Hence the confusion in the Gospels to us non-Hebrews. Thus the Gospels, written by Hebrew authors are simply making the best use of what they got. The same translation method was used in the LXX, for example.
Incidentally, through the resolution of this conflict, the so-called Young Earth view is unsustainable (i.e. - the Earth cannot possibly be 6000 years old), if you understand what the genealogies in Genesis 5 and 11 are saying (in their original text). If you download the slides, you can see what is going on. Please see link below.
In Christ, Marty
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