Chapter IV.—Of the Reason Why Forty Generations (Not Including Christ Himself) are Found in Matthew, Although He Divides Them into Three Successions of Fourteen Each.

8. The matter next to be introduced, moreover, is one requiring, in order to its right apprehension and contemplation, a reader of the greatest attention and carefulness. For it has been acutely observed that Matthew, who had proposed to himself the task of commending the kingly character in Christ, named, exclusive of Christ Himself, forty men in the series of generations. Now this number denotes the period in which, in this age and on this earth, it behoves us to be ruled by Christ in accordance with that painful discipline whereby “God scourgeth,” as it is written, “every son that He receiveth;”187    Heb. xii. 6. and of which also an apostle says that “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”188    Acts xiv. 22. This discipline is also signified by that rod of iron, concerning which we read this statement in a Psalm: “Thou shalt rule them with a rod of iron;”189    Ps. ii. 9. which words occur after the saying, “Yet I am set king by Him upon His holy hill of Zion!”190    Ps. ii. 6. For the good, too, are ruled with a rod of iron, as it is said of them: “The time is come that judgment should begin at the house of God; and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be to them that obey not the gospel of God? and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?”191    1 Pet. iv. 17, 18. To the same persons the sentence that follows also applies: “Thou shall dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” For the good, indeed, are ruled by this discipline, while the wicked are crushed by it. And these two different classes of persons are mentioned here as if they were the same, on account of the identity of the signs192    Sacramenta. employed in reference to the wicked in common with the good.

9. That this number, then, is a sign of that laborious period in which, under the discipline of Christ the King, we have to fight against the devil, is also indicated by the fact that both the law and the prophets solemnized a fast of forty days,—that is to say, a humbling of the soul,—in the person of Moses and Elias, who fasted each for a space of forty days.193    Exod. xxxiv. 28; 1 Kings xix. 8. And what else does the Gospel narrative shadow forth under the fast of the Lord Himself, during which forty days He was also tempted of the devil,194    Matt. iv. 1, 2. than that condition of temptation which appertains to us through all the space of this age, and which He bore in the flesh which He condescended to take to Himself from our mortality? After the resurrection also, it was His will to remain with His disciples on the earth not longer than forty days,195    Acts i. 3. continuing to mingle for that space of time with this life of theirs in the way of human intercourse, and partaking along with them of the food needful for mortal men, although He Himself was to die no more; and all this was done with the view of signifying to them through these forty days, that although His presence should be hidden from their eyes, He would yet fulfil what He promised when He said, “Lo, I am with you, even to the end of the world.” 196    Matt. xxviii. 20. And in explanation of the circumstance that this particular number should denote this temporal and earthly life, what suggests itself most immediately in the meantime, although there may be another and subtler method of accounting for it, is the consideration that the seasons of the years also revolve in four successive alternations, and that the world itself has its bounds determined by four divisions, which Scripture sometimes designates by the names of the winds,—East and West, Aquilo [or North] and Meridian [or South].197    Zech. xiv. 4. But the number forty is equivalent to four times ten. Furthermore, the number ten itself is made up by adding the several numbers in succession from one up to four together.

10. In this way, then, as Matthew undertook the task of presenting the record of Christ as the King who came into this world, and into this earthly and mortal life of men, for the purpose of exercising rule over us who have to struggle with temptation, he began with Abraham, and enumerated forty men. For Christ came in the flesh from that very nation of the Hebrews with a view to the keeping of which as a people distinct from the other nations, God separated Abraham from his own country and his own kindred.198    Gen. xii. 1, 2. And the circumstance that the promise contained an intimation of the race from which He was destined to come, served very specially to make the prediction and announcement concerning Him something all the clearer. Thus the evangelist did indeed mark out fourteen generations in each of three several members, stating that from Abraham until David there were fourteen generations, and from David until the carrying away into Babylon other fourteen generations, and another fourteen from that period on to the nativity of Christ.199    Matt. i. 17. But he did not then reckon them all up in one sum, counting them one by one, and saying that thus they make up forty-two in all. For among these progenitors there is one who is enumerated twice, namely Jechonias, with whom a kind of deflection was made in the direction of extraneous nations at the time when the transmigration into Babylon took place.200    [It is more probable that David should be reckoned twice, in making out the series. Augustin passes over the more serious difficulty arising from the omissions in the genealogy given by Matthew. These omissions, however, show that the evangelist had some purpose in his use of the number “fourteen.” Of any design to emphasize the number “forty” there is no evidence.—R.] When the enumeration, moreover, is thus bent from the direct order of progression, and is made to form, if we may so say, a kind of corner for the purpose of taking a different course, what meets us at that corner is mentioned twice over,—namely, at the close of the preceding series, and at the head of the deflection specified. And this, too, was a figure of Christ as the one who was, in a certain sense, to pass from the circumcision to the uncircumcision, or, so to speak, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and to be, as it were, the corner-stone to all who believe on Him, whether on the one side or on the other. Thus was God making preparations then in a figurative manner for things which were to come in truth. For Jechonias himself, with whose name the kind of corner which I have in view was prefigured, is by interpretation the “preparation of God.”201    Præparatio Dei. In this way, therefore, there are really not forty-two distinct generations named here, which would be the proper sum of three times fourteen; but, as there is a double enumeration of one of the names, we have here forty generations in all, taking into account the fact that Christ Himself is reckoned in the number, who, like the kingly president over this [significant] number forty, superintends the administration of this temporal and earthly life of ours.

11. And inasmuch as it was Matthew’s intention to set forth Christ as descending with the object of sharing this mortal state with us, he has mentioned those same generations from Abraham on to Joseph, and on to the birth of Christ Himself, in the form of a descending scale, and at the very beginning of his Gospel. Luke, on the other hand, details those generations not at the commencement of his Gospel, but at the point of Christ’s baptism, and gives them not in the descending, but in the ascending order, ascribing to Him preferentially the character of a priest in the expiation of sins, as where the voice from heaven declared Him, and where John himself delivered his testimony in these terms: “Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world!”202    John i. 29. Besides, in the process by which he traces the genealogy upwards, he passes Abraham and carries us back to God, to whom, purified and atoned for, we are reconciled. Of merit, too, He has sustained in Himself the origination of our adoption; for we are made the sons of God through adoption, by believing on the Son of God. Moreover, on our account the Son of God was pleased to be made the son of man by the generation which is proper to the flesh. And the evangelist has shown clearly enough that he did not name Joseph the son of Heli on the ground that he was begotten of him, but only on the ground that he was adopted by him. For he has spoken of Adam also as the son of God, who, strictly speaking, was made by God, but was also, as it may be said, constituted a son in paradise by the grace which afterwards he lost through his transgression.

12. In this way, it is the taking of our sins upon Himself by the Lord Christ that is signified in the genealogy of Matthew, while in the genealogy of Luke it is the abolition of our sins by the Lord Christ that is expressed. In accordance with these ideas, the one details the names in the descending scale, and the other in the ascending. For when the apostle says, “God sent His Son in the likeness of the flesh of sin,”203    Rom. viii. 3. [Comp. Revised Version margin.—R.] he refers to the taking of our sins upon Himself by Christ. But when he adds, “for sin, to condemn sin in the flesh,”204    Ut de peccato damnaret peccatum in carne. [Revised Version, “And as an offering for sin,” etc.—R.] he expresses the expiation of sins. Consequently Matthew traces the succession downwards from David through Solomon, in connection with whose mother it was that he sinned; while Luke carries the genealogy upwards to the same David through Nathan,205    2 Sam. xii. 1–14. by which prophet God took away206    Expiavit. his sin.207    In his Retractations (ii. 16) Augustin refers to this sentence in order to chronicle a correction. He tells us that, instead of saying that “Luke carries the genealogy upwards to the same David through Nathan, by which prophet God took away his sin,” he should have said “by a prophet of which name,” etc., because although the name was the same, the progenitor was a different person from the prophet Nathan. The number, also, which Luke follows does most certainly best indicate the taking away of sins. For inasmuch as in Christ, who Himself had no sin, there is assuredly no iniquity allied to the iniquities of men which He bore in His flesh, the number adopted by Matthew makes forty when Christ is excepted. On the contrary, inasmuch as, by clearing us of all sin and purging us, He places us in a right relation to His own and His Father’s righteousness (so that the apostle’s word is made good: “But he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit”208    1 Cor. vi. 17.), in the number used by Luke we find included both Christ Himself, with whom the enumeration begins, and God, with whom it closes; and the sum becomes thus seventy-seven, which denotes the thorough remission and abolition of all sins. This perfect removal of sins the Lord Himself also clearly represented under the mystery of this number, when He said that the person sinning ought to be forgiven not only seven times, but even unto seventy times seven. 209    Matt. xviii. 22. [Augustin apparently follows the rendering: “seventy times and seven” (see Revised Version margin), accepted by Meyer and many others. His whole argument turns upon the presence of the number “eleven” as a factor.—R.]

13. A careful inquiry will make it plain that it is not without some reason that this latter number is made to refer to the purging of all sins. For the number ten is shown to be, as one may say, the number of justice [righteousness] in the instance of the ten precepts of the law. Moreover, sin is the transgression of the law. And the transgression210    Transgressio, overstepping. of the number ten is expressed suitably in the eleven; whence also we find instructions to have been given to the effect that there should be eleven curtains of haircloth constructed in the tabernacle;211    Exod. xxvi. 7. for who can doubt that the haircloth has a bearing upon the expression of sin? Thus, too, inasmuch as all time in its revolution runs in spaces of days designated by the number seven, we find that when the number eleven is multiplied by the number seven, we are brought with all due propriety to the number seventy-seven as the sign of sin in its totality. In this enumeration, therefore, we come upon the symbol for the full remission of sins, as expiation is made for us by the flesh of our Priest, with whose name the calculation of this number starts here; and as reconciliation is also effected for us with God, with whose name the reckoning of this number is here brought to its conclusion by the Holy Spirit, who appeared in the form of a dove on the occasion of that baptism in connection with which the number in question is mentioned.212    Luke iii. 22.

CAPUT IV. Quare quadraginta generationes, excepto ipso Christo, inveniuntur apud Matthaeum, cum quatuordecim triplicet.

8. Illud autem quod deinceps insinuandum est, revera ut adverti et videri posset, lectorem attentissimum et diligentissimum requirebat. Acute quippe animadversum est, Matthaeum, qui regiam in Christo instituerat insinuare personam, excepto ipso Christo, quadraginta homines in generationum serie nominasse. Numerus autem iste illud tempus significat, quo in hoc saeculo et in hac terra regi nos oportet a Christo secundum disciplinam laboriosam, qua flagellat Deus, ut scriptum est, omnem filium quem recipit (Hebr. XII, 6): de qua dicit Apostolus, per tribulationem oportere nos intrare in regnum Dei (Act. XIV, 1075 21). Quam significat etiam illa virga ferrea, de qua in Psalmo legitur, Reges eos in virga ferrea; cum superius dixisset, Ego autem constitutus sum rex ab eo super Sion montem sanctum ejus. Reguntur enim etiam boni in virga ferrea, de quibus dicitur, Tempus est ut judicium incipiat a domo Domini; et si initium a nobis, qualis finis erit eis qui non credunt Dei Evangelio? et si justus vix salvus erit: peccator et impius ubi parebunt (I Petr. IV, 17, 18)? Ad quos pertinet quod sequitur: Tanquam vas figuli conteres eos (Psal. II, 9). Reguntur enim boni per hanc disciplinam; mali vero comminuuntur: qui tanquam iidem ipsi commemorantur propter una atque eadem sacramenta , quae habent communia mali cum bonis.

9. Quia ergo numerus iste laboriosi hujus temporis sacramentum est, quo sub disciplina regis Christi adversus diabolum dimicamus, etiam illud declarat, quod quadraginta dierum jejunium, hoc est humiliationem animae, consecravit et Lex et Prophetae per Moysen et Eliam, qui quadragenis diebus jejunaveverunt (Exod. XXXIV, 28, et III Reg. XIX, 8); et Evangelium per ipsius Domini jejunium, quibus diebus quadraginta etiam tentabatur a diabolo (Matth. IV, 1, 2), quid aliud quam per omne hujus saeculi tempus tentationem nostram in carne sua, quam de nostra mortalitate assumere dignatus est, praefigurans? Post resurrectionem quoque non amplius quam dies quadraginta cum discipulis in hac terra esse voluit (Act. I, 3), huic eorum vitae adhuc humana conversatione commixtus, et cum illis alimenta mortalium, quamvis jam non moriturus, accipiens: ut per ipsos quadraginta dies significaret, se occulta praesentia quod promiserat impleturum, quando ait, Ecce ego vobiscum sum usque in consummationem saeculi (Matth. XXVIII, 20). Cur autem iste numerus hanc temporalem vitam terrenamque significet, illa interim causa de proximo occurrit, quamvis sit alia fortasse secretior, quod et tempora annorum quadripartitis vicibus currunt, et mundus ipse quatuor partibus terminatur, quas aliquando ventorum nomine Scriptura commemorat, ab Oriente et Occidente, Aquilone et Meridie (Zach. XIV, 4). Quadraginta autem, quater habent decem. Porro ipsa decem ab uno usque ad quatuor progrediente numero consummantur.

10. Ad hunc igitur mundum, et ad istam terrenam mortalemque vitam hominum, ad nos regendos in tentatione laborantes, venientem regem Christum Matthaeus suscipiens, exorsus est ab Abraham, et enumeravit quadraginta homines. Ab ipsa enim gente Hebraeorum, quae a caeteris gentibus ut distingueretur, Deus de terra sua et de cognatione sua separavit Abraham (Gen. XII, 1, 2), Christus venit in carne; ut et hoc ad eum distinctius prophetandum et praenuntiandum maxime pertineret, quod promittebatur ex qua esset gente venturus. Cum enim quaterdenas generationes tribus distinxisset articulis, dicens ab Abraham usque ad David generationes esse quatuordecim, 1076 et a David usque ad transmigrationem Babyloniae alias quatuordecim, totidemque alias usque ad nativitatem Christi (Matth. I, 17); non tamen eas duxit in summam ut diceret, Fiunt omnes quadraginta duae. Unus quippe in illis progeneratoribus bis numeratur, id est Jechonias, a quo facta est quaedam in extraneas gentes deflexio, quando in Babyloniam transmigratum est. Ubi autem ordo a rectitudine flectitur, atque ut eat in diversum, tanquam angulum facit; illud quod in angulo est, bis numeratur, in fine scilicet prioris ordinis, et in capite ipsius deflexionis. Et hoc ipsum jam praefigurabat Christum a circumcisione ad praeputium, tanquam ab Jerusalem ad Babyloniam quodammodo migraturum, et hinc atque hinc utrisque in se credentibus tanquam lapidem angularem futurum. Haec tunc in figura praeparabat Deus rebus in veritate venturis. Nam et ipse Jechonias, ubi angulus iste praefiguratus est, interpretatur Praeparatio Dei. Sic ergo jam non quadraginta duae, quod faciunt ter quatuordecim, sed propter unum bis numeratum, quadraginta una generationes fiunt, si et ipsum Christum annumeremus, qui huic regendae vitae nostrae temporali atque terrenae, tanquam numero quadragenario regaliter praesidet.

11. Quem ad istam mortalitatem nobiscum participandam quia descendentem voluit significare Matthaeus, ideo et ipsas generationes ab Abraham usque ad Joseph et usque ad ipsius Christi nativitatem, descendendo commemoravit ab initio Evangelii sui: Lucas autem non ab initio Evangelii sui, sed a baptismo Christi, generationes enarrat, nec descendendo, sed ascendendo, tanquam sacerdotem in expiandis peccatis magis assignans; ubi eum vox de coelo declaravit, ubi testimonium Joannes ipsi perhibuit, dicens, Ecce qui tollit peccata mundi (Joan. I, 29). Ascendendo autem transit et Abraham, et pervenit ad Deum, cui mundati et expiati reconciliamur. Merito et adoptionis originem ipse suscepit, quia per adoptionem efficimur filii Dei, credendo in filium Dei. Per carnalem vero generationem Filius Dei potius propter nos filius hominis factus est. Satis autem demonstravit non se ideo dixisse, Joseph filium Heli, quod de illo genitus, sed quod ab illo fuerat adoptatus; cum et ipsum Adam filium Dei dixit, cum sit factus a Deo, sed per gratiam quam postea peccando amisit, tanquam filius in paradiso constitutus sit.

12. Quapropter in generationibus Matthaei, significatur nostrorum susceptio peccatorum a Domino Christo: in generationibus autem Lucae, significatur abolitio nostrorum peccatorum a Domino Christo. Ideo eas ille descendens enarrat, iste ascendens. Quod enim dicit Apostolus, Misit Deus Filium suum in similitudinem carnis peccati; haec est susceptio peccatorum: quod autem addit, Ut de peccato damnaret peccatum in carne (Rom. VIII, 3); haec est expiatio peccatorum. Proinde Matthaeus ab ipso David per Salomonem descendit, in cujus matre ille peccavit (II Reg. XI, 4): Lucas vero ad ipsum David per Nathan ascendit; per quem prophetam Deus peccatum illius 1077 expiavit (II Reg. XII, 1-14) . Ipse quoque numerus quem Lucas exsequitur, certissime prorsus abolitionem indicat peccatorum. Quia enim Christi aliqua iniquitas, qui nullam habuit, non est utique conjuncta iniquitatibus hominum, quas in sua carne suscepit; ideo numerus penes Matthaeum, excepto Christo, est quadragenarius. Quia vero justitiae suae Patrisque nos expiatos ab omni peccato purgatosque conjungit, ut fiat quod ait Apostolus, Qui autem adhaeret Domino, unus spiritus est (I Cor. VI, 17); ideo in eo numero qui est penes Lucam, et ipse Christus a quo incipit enumeratio, et Deus ad quem pervenit, connumerantur, et fit numerus septuaginta septem, quo significatur omnium prorsus remissio et abolitio peccatorum. Quam etiam ipse Dominus per hujus numeri mysterium evidenter expressit, dicens remittendum esse peccanti, non solum septies, sed etiam septuagies septies (Matth. XVIII, 22).

13. Nec frustra iste numerus ad peccatorum omnium pertinet mundationem, si diligentius inquiratur. Denarius quippe tanquam justitiae numerus in decem praeceptis Legis ostenditur. Porro peccatum est Legis transgressio; et utique transgressio denarii numeri congruenter undenario figuratur: unde et vela cilicina jubentur in tabernaculo undecim fieri (Exod. XXVI, 7); quis autem dubitet ad peccati significationem cilicium pertinere? Ac per hoc quia universum tempus septenario dierum numero volvitur, convenienter undenario septies multiplicato ad numerum septuagesimum et septimum cuncta peccata perveniunt. In quo numero etiam fit plena remissio peccatorum, expiante nos carne sacerdotis nostri, a quo nunc iste numerus incipit; et reconciliante nos Deo, ad quem nunc iste numerus pervenit per Spiritum sanctum, qui in columbae specie in hoc baptismo, ubi numerus iste commemoratur, apparuit (Luc. III, 22).