In order to understand how the enigma in the
Gospel of Saint Matthew managed to keep its secrets for such a long time, we
must consider both the characteristics of the person who created it and those
of the people who have read or studied the Holy Scriptures. Some of the various
reasons listed below have to do with the person who created the enigma, while others
relate to those who where later confronted by it.
-The person who created the enigma was enlightened.
-The enigma was protected by people from within
the Church.
-The enigma was also protected by others from
outside the Church.
-The enigma was designed to reveal its secrets
only at a certain time.
-A lack of humility makes it difficult to
evaluate the Holy Scriptures correctly.
-A feeling
of inferiority or superiority influences our interpretation of the Bible.
-Not asking
ourselves what the author seeks to convey.
-Not
reflecting sufficiently upon the purpose of the Bible.
-Letting
ourselves be guided by what the Bible supposedly says.
-Not
processing all the information in an optimal way.
-Letting
ourselves be influenced by the prejudices regarding this book.
-Our moral
judgments influence our interpretation of the Bible.
-Not
reflecting upon the nature of things.
-Attaching
more importance to the end result than to the process.
-Accepting
incoherent systems too readily.
-The Bible
creates false expectations.
-Having a
linear view of history.
-Assuming
that the Bible tells the truth.
-Making poor
use of textual criticism.
-Ignoring
what we do not understand.
-Knowing
too much.
The main
reason why the enigma in the Gospel of Saint Matthew has kept its secrets for
so long is that the person who created it was an enlightened individual and, as
such, knew that everyone else evaluates information in a defective way. Jesus
realized that we do not process all information in an optimal way and was aware
of the many factors that influence our intereptation of the Holy Scriptures. By
taking our shortcomings into consideration, it was not that difficult for him
to create an enigma that initially made the authorities reach the conclusion
that he was born of a virgin, only to reveal many centuries later that he was
born from an extramarital affair between Mary and her father-in-law.
The more we
study this enigma and how it has managed to keep its secrets for so many
centuries, the more clearly we realize that Jesus was enlightened and that we
are not as rational as we tend to think.
There are few options for counting the 14 generations
When, at
the end of his genealogy for Jesus, Saint Matthew tells us there are 14
generations between Abraham and David, between David and the deportation to
Babylon, and between the deportation to Babylon and Jesus, he invites us to
count these generations. Mathematically speaking, there are not many options
for dividing these names into groups of 14. As the only alternatives
are to include or exclude in each new column the last generation of the previous
column, i.e. Abraham/David, David/Josiah and Josiah/Joseph and Jesus, or Abraham/David,
Solomon/Jechoniah and Shealtiel/son of Jesus, it is amazing that so many
scholars have accepted a division that does not follow the of either
alternative, i.e. Abraham/David, David/Josiah and Jechoniah/Jesus.
The main
reason why we so readily accept incoherent systems is because nobody else has
realized that Saint Matthew indicates that Jesus was born out of a relationship
between Mary and her father-in-law. Our familiarity with incoherent systems
also means that, for instance, most people simply ignore the fact that cars
drive on the right and trains on the left, that some books have the title on
the spine running from top to bottom and others from bottom to top, and that in
most languages there are many exceptions to the general rules of grammar.
Another reason for accepting the traditional yet
incoherent division is that we tend to attach more importance to the end result
than to the process. We know that by counting all these generations we somehow
have to make it to Jesus and it doesn’t matter too much how we do so.
Therefore, we do not realize that by encouraging us to count those generations,
Saint Matthew wants us to reflect upon the best way of doing so.
Diferent factors that influence our interpretation
A major
reason why those who study the Bible have not realized what the enigma in the
Gospel of Saint Matthew tries to convey is that, in general, they have not
reflected sufficiently on the nature of sexual relationships and are therefore
unaware that extramarital affairs mean that some lineages are real while others
are supposed. Consequently, they did not discover the secrets in Genesis and,
subsequently, they also failed to realize that the genealogies for Jesus in the
gospels of Saint Matthew and Saint Luke are similar to those of Seth and Cain.
Another
reason is that those who did realize what extramarital relationships mean had
so many prejudices about the Bible and what it supposedly conveys –that Jesus
was born of a virgin, for instance– that they did not realize that this book
makes a distinction between real and supposed lineages.
Yet another
reason is that they did not reflect sufficiently on the purpose of this work. The
Jews expected the Messiah to be a descendant of David. If Saint Matthew traces
Jesus’ genealogy back to David, and even to Abraham, it is to demonstrate that
Jesus was the Messiah. Therefore, it should be obvious that according to Saint
Matthew Jesus should be somehow a descendant of David.
The
assumption that Saint Matthew refers to Jesus’ virgin birth –by referring to
the prophecy in Isaiah and by translating ‘young woman’ for ‘virgin’ this
evangelist creates a false expectation– made that many people did not
investigate how Jesus could be a descendant of David without necessarily being
the son of Joseph, the husband of Mary.
Many
scholars have also allowed themselves to be deceived by assuming that this
genealogy initially said that Joseph begot Jesus but was later changed when
Christianity adopted the dogma of Jesus’ virgin birth. Assuming that Saint
Matthew refers to Jesus’ virginal conception makes it very difficult to see
that this evangelist actually indicates that Jesus was born from an extramarital
affair beween Mary and her father-in-law. This assumption even causes us to
completely ignore that fact that the four women in this genealogy of Jesus all
had extramarital affairs.
Knowing too much, not processing all information correctly, and textual criticism
Yet another
reason why we have ignored for so long what the enigma in the Gospel of Saint
Matthew tells us is that those who studied the Bible had a lot of information
at their disposal but did not process it correctly, thus creating only more
confusion.
Instead of
firstly making a list with those names in order to find out what Saint Matthew
tries to tell us, they immediately investigated the origin
of those names and who was king when the deportation to Babylon occurred. Apparently,
the deportation took place during the reign of Jechoniah, but Saint Matthew
says: “Josiah begat Jechoniah and his brothers when the deportation to Babylon
occurred.”
These
scholars find it difficult to trust Saint Matthew not only because he
associates Josiah with the deportation to Babylon, but also because these names
seem to have been chosen randomly. From David onwards all of them are kings of
Judah, but some names are missing. For instance, this is the case of three
consecutive kings. Although there is a reason for omitting these kings (they
all disobeyed Jahweh), it is difficult to assume that the king before them may
have been the father of the one that follows them.
This
information about the kings of Judah and about which king ruled during the
deportation to Babylon may make us doubt whether Jesus was indeed a descendant
of Abraham and David, but it does nothing to alter the fact that Saint Matthew
tells us that Jesus was born from an extramarital relationship.
Our feelings influence our interpretation of the Bible
It should
also be pointed out that our feelings influence our interepretation of the
Bible. It is not advisable to read the Holy Scriptures with a feeling of
inferiority, because then we tend to accept ideas without questioning them. But
neither should we read them with a feeling of superiority, because then we tend
to reject ideas when we think that they contradict science. The best way to
approach the Bible is with a feeling of humility; by assuming that these books
were written by enlightened individuals who understood ideas that their
contemporaries were unable to comprehend.
Textual criticism and the confusion created by contradictions
Those who
have studied the Bible have also made an erroneous use of textual criticism. It
is true that we do not have the original texts and, therefore, cannot be sure
what the Gospel of Saint Matthew originally said. But that does nothing to
alter the fact that today it tells us that Jesus was born from an extramarital
relationship and that this should not surprise us bearing in mind what we have
discovered in Genesis.
Furthermore,
the supposed contradictions in the genealogies that we find in the Bible meant
that many scholars did not take them seriously. By not processing that
information correctly, they did not realize that Saint Matthew and Saint Luke
do not contradict each other, and by assuming that the genealogies do not make
sense, they preferred to assume that they were not important.
Jesus and his work
All those
contradictions in the New Testament were created by Jesus. They not only helped
him to create his enigma and then protect it, but also encouraged us to reflect
upon certain matters. For example, in order to understand how his disciples
created a new religion –bearing in mind that Jesus said, on two separate
occasions, that he had not come to change the law and that his disciples should
not to go to the Gentiles–, we first have to reflect upon the task of a
Messiah. It is also only then that we realize that Christianity was created as
a Trojan horse.
