Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Luke 3:36
Which was [the son] of Cainan, which was [the son] of Arphaxad, which was [the son] of Shem, which was [the son] of Noah, which was [the son] of Lamech,
Verse 36. Of Cainan] This Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, and father of Sala, is not found in any other Scripture genealogy. See Ge 10:24; Ge 11:12; 1Ch 1:18; 1Ch 1:24, where Arphaxad is made the father of Sala, and no mention at all made of Cainan. Some suppose that Cainan was a surname of Sala, and that the names should be read together thus, The son of Heber, the son of Salacainan, the son of Arphaxad, c. If this does not untie the knot, it certainly cuts it and the reader may pass on without any great scruple or embarrassment. There are many sensible observations on this genealogy in the notes at the end of Bishop Newcome’s Harmony.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Which was the son of Cainan,…. This Cainan is not mentioned by Moses in Ge 11:12 nor has he ever appeared in any Hebrew copy of the Old Testament, nor in the Samaritan version, nor in the Targum; nor is he mentioned by Josephus, nor in 1Ch 1:24 where the genealogy is repeated; nor is it in Beza’s most ancient Greek copy of Luke: it indeed stands in the present copies of the Septuagint, but was not originally there; and therefore could not be taken by Luke from thence, but seems to be owing to some early negligent transcriber of Luke’s Gospel, and since put into the Septuagint to give it authority: I say “early”, because it is in many Greek copies, and in the Vulgate Latin, and all the Oriental versions, even in the Syriac, the oldest of them; but ought not to stand neither in the text, nor in any version: for certain it is, there never was such a Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, for Salah was his son; and with him the next words should be connected,
which was the son of Arphaxad; Ge 11:12
which was the son of Sem, or Shem, Ge 11:10
which was the son of Noe, or Noah, Ge 5:32
which was the son of Lamech, Ge 5:28
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
1) “Which was the son of Cainan,” (tau Kaianm) “The heir-son of Cainan” meaning “a possessor,” Gen 5:9.
2) “Which was the son of Arphaxad,” (tou Arphaksad) “The heir-son of Arphaxad,” about which nothing further is known, Gen 10:22.
3) “Which was the son of Sam,” (tou Sem) “The heir-son of Sem,” Gk. form of Shem, which means “name” or “monument,” Gen 5:32.
4) “Which was the son of Noe,” (tou Noe) “The heir-son of Noah,” which means “rest” or “to rest”, Gen 5:29.
5) “Which was the son of Lamech,” (tou Lamech) “The heir-son of Lamech” which means “destroyer” a descendant of Cain, Gen 4:18.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
36. Which was the son of Cainan The name of this Cainan does not appear in the Old Testament catalogues. It has been inserted, both in the Septuagint and in this place, by means unknown. There seems to be some reason to suppose that it was first inserted in the Septuagint for the purpose of lengthening the chronology. It may thence have been inserted by early transcribers into Luke’s genealogy in order to make it agree with the Septuagint.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Luk 3:36. Which was the son of Cainan, This Cainan is found only in the LXX: but all the other names, from Abraham back to Adam, are found also in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, in the like order as St. Luke has placed them; and all the names from David back to Abraham are the very same as are mentioned in St. Matthew’s genealogy.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Luk 3:36 . ] In Gen 10:24 ; Gen 11:12 ; 1Ch 1:24 . Shalach ( ) is named as the son of Arphaxad. But the genealogy follows the LXX. in Gen. (as above); and certainly the name of Kenan also originally stood in Genesis, although the author of 1 Chronicles may not have read it in his copy of Genesis. See Bertheau on 1 Chron. p. 6.
REMARK.
The genealogy in Luke , who, moreover, in accordance with his Pauline universalism carries on the genealogical line up to Adam, is appropriately inserted at this point , just where the Messianic consecration of Jesus and the commencement therewith made of His ministry are related. Hence, also, the genealogy is given in an ascending line, as Luke did not intend, like Matthew, to begin his Gospel just at the birth of Jesus, but went much further back and started with the conception and birth of the Baptist; so in Luke the proper and, in so far as the historical connection was concerned, the right place for the genealogy could not have been, as in Matthew, at the beginning of the Gospel. Comp. Kstlin, p. 306.
In its contents the genealogy is extremely different from that in Matthew, since from Joseph to David, Luke has far more and almost throughout different links in the genealogy; since Matthew gives the line of Solomon, while Luke gives that of Nathan (2Sa 5:14 ; 1Ch 3:5 ), although he introduces into it from the former and . Seeking in several ways to get rid of this last-mentioned difficulty (see on Luk 3:27 ), many have assumed that Matthew gives the genealogy of Joseph, while Luke gives that of Mary . To reconcile this with the text, has been taken to mean: the son-in-law of Eli , as, following many older commentators (Luther, also Chemnitz, Calovius, Bengel), Paulus, Olshausen, Krabbe, Ebrard, Riggenbach, Bisping, and others will have it; but this, according to the analogy of the rest of the links in the chain, is quite impossible. The attempt has been made to connect with this the hypothesis of Epiphanius, Grotius, Michaelis, and others, that Mary was an heiress , whose husband must therefore have belonged to the same family, and must have had his name inscribed in their family register (Michaelis, Olshausen); but this hypothesis itself, while it is equally objectionable in being arbitrary, and in going too far in its application, leaves the question altogether unsolved whether the law of the heiress was still in force at that time (see on Mat 1:17 , Rem. 2), even apart from the fact that Mary’s Davidic descent is wholly without proof, and extremely doubtful. See on Luk 1:36 , Luk 2:4 . Another evasion, with a view to the appropriation of the genealogy to Mary , as well as that of Wieseler, is already refuted [79] at Luk 3:23 . See also Bleek, Beitr . p. 101 f.
Hence the conclusion must be maintained, that Luke also gives the genealogy of Joseph . But if this be so, how are we to reconcile the genealogy with that given in Matthew? It has been supposed that Joseph was adopted (Augustine, de consens. evangel . Luk 2:3 ; Wetstein, Schegg), or more usually, that he sprang from a levirate marriage (Julius Africanus in Eusebius, H. E. i. 7), so that Matthew adduces his natural father Jacob, while Luke adduces his legal father Eli (Julius Africanus, Theophylact, Euthymius Zigabenus, Augustine), or vice vers (Ambrosius, Grotius, Wetstein, Schleiermacher). But what a complication this hypothesis, in itself quite arbitrary, involves! In this way Eli and Jacob must be taken to be mere half-brothers , because they have different fathers and forefathers! So in respect of Salathiel’s mother, we must once more call in the help of a levirate marriage, and represent Neri and Jechonia as in like manner half-brothers! In addition to this, the obligation to the levirate marriage for the half-brother is not authenticated, and the importing of the natural father into the legal genealogy was illegal; finally, we may make the general remark, that neither Matthew nor Luke adds any observation at all in citing the name of Joseph’s father, to call attention to any other than the ordinary physical paternal relationship. No; the reconciliation of the two genealogical registers, although they both refer to Joseph, is impossible; but it is very natural and intelligible that, as is usual in the case of great men, whose descent in its individual steps is obscure, no anxiety was felt to investigate his ancestry until long after the death of Jesus until the living presence of his great manifestation and ministry no longer threw into the shade this matter of subordinate interest. The genealogical industry of the Jewish Christians had collected from tradition and from written documents several registers, which, appearing independently of one another, must have given very different results, as far back as David, in consequence of the obscurity of Joseph’s genealogy. The first evangelist adopted a genealogy in accordance with the David-Solomon line; but Luke adopted a totally different one, following the David-Nathan line. [80] But that Luke, as a matter of fact, rejected the genealogy of Matthew, is according to Luk 1:3 to be regarded as a result of his later inquiries, as in general the great and irreconcilable divergence of his preliminary history from that of Matthew suggests the same conclusion. Only the motives of his decision are so completely unknown to us, that to concede to his genealogy the preference (v. Ammon, L. J . I. p. 179) remains unsafe, although the derivation of the Davidic descent of Jesus from the Nathan (therefore not the royal) line presupposes an investigation, in consequence of which the derivation of that descent through Solomon , which doubtless had first presented itself, was abandoned in the interest of rectification (according to Kstlin, indeed, in the Ebionitic interest, in opposition to the royal line stained with crime, and in opposition to worldly royalty in general).
As the genealogy in Matthew is arranged in accordance with a significant numerical relation (three times fourteen), a similar relation is also recognisable in the genealogy by Luke (eleven times seven), even although no express reference is made to it. See already Basil. M. III. p. 399 C.
[79] That Eli was the father of Mary is also inferred by Delitzsch on Hebr. p. 290, who suggests that after the premature death of his father Jacob, Joseph was adopted, namely, by this Eli as his foster son, and brought up along with Mary; that thus, therefore, Eli was Joseph’s foster father, but Mary’s actual father. What groundless devices! And yet the passage itself is “as simple as possible until we want to force it to say what it does not say,” Hofmann, Schriftbew . II. 1, p. 112.
[80] This variation in the Davidic descent of the Messiah occurs also in the later Jewish theology. See Delitzsch in the Zeitschr. f. Luth. Theol . 1860, 3, p. 460 f.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
36 Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech,
Ver. 36. Which was the son of Cainan ] This name crept, by some means, into the Greek copies after Jerome’s time, say Beza and Paraeus. Others say that St Luke herein followed the Septuagint’s translation, out of wisdom and charity to the Hellenists or Greek-Jews that had received it, and read it. 2. That writing for heathens, he followed the heathen’s Bible in his quotations. 3. That in his genealogies he was to be a copier, not a corrector.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
36. ] This name does not exist in our present Hebrew text, but in the LXX, Gen 10:24 ; Gen 11:12-13 , and furnishes a curious instance of one of two things either (1) the corruption of our present Hebrew text in these chronological passages; or (2) the incorrectness of the LXX, and notwithstanding that, the high reputation which it had obtained in so short a time. Lightfoot holds the latter alternative: but I own I think the former more probable. See on the whole question of the appearance of this second Cainam(n) among the ancestors of our Lord, Lord A. Hervey’s work above cited, ch. 8, in which, with much research and acuteness, he has endeavoured to shew that the name was probably interpolated here, and got from hence into the LXX. Certainly it appears not to have existed in the earliest copies of that version.
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Cainan. See App-99, note.
Sem = O.T. Shem.
Noe = O.T. Noah.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
36. ] This name does not exist in our present Hebrew text, but in the LXX, Gen 10:24; Gen 11:12-13, and furnishes a curious instance of one of two things-either (1) the corruption of our present Hebrew text in these chronological passages; or (2) the incorrectness of the LXX, and notwithstanding that, the high reputation which it had obtained in so short a time. Lightfoot holds the latter alternative: but I own I think the former more probable. See on the whole question of the appearance of this second Cainam(n) among the ancestors of our Lord, Lord A. Herveys work above cited, ch. 8, in which, with much research and acuteness, he has endeavoured to shew that the name was probably interpolated here, and got from hence into the LXX. Certainly it appears not to have existed in the earliest copies of that version.
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Luk 3:36. , Kainan) Let some, as best they can, furnish out a plausible array of some MSS. which are without the name Cainan: one is without it, viz. Cantabrigiensis, called also Stephani , and also codex Bez [[37]]; which, as being a MS. containing the Latin as well as the Greek, deserves the title, not so much of a codex, as of a rhapsody comprising various readings of fathers.[38] Even supposing that in countless copies of the New and Old Testaments, as Voss rightly remarks, the name of this Cainan were wanting, which however is not the case, yet no argument could be derived from that circumstance. For the reason of the omission would be evident from the fact that the Church approved of and followed the calculation of Africanus and Eusebius; and therefore I wonder that more copies are not found, in which the name of Cainan is expunged.-c. Horn., p. 13. Nevertheless so many in our time disapprove of the Cainan here, that there is a risk of its being ere long thrust out from Luke; a judgment which betrays great rashness, as Rich. Simon on this passage properly remarks, and so also Gomarus. Besides Cainan is retained in Luke by J. E. Grabius, John Hardouin, Jac. Hasus, G. C. Hosmann, to whom are to be added thes. phil. p. 174 of Hottinger, Glassius, etc. Among the ancients is Ambrose, who, on Luke 7, says, The Lord was born of Mary in the seventy-seventh generation. That this Cainan was mentioned in the LXX. Version made before the nativity of Christ (See Gen 10:24; Gen 11:12; 1Ch 1:18, [in which passages Cainans name is passed over]) the Chronicon of Demetrius in Eusebius, B. ix. prp. Ev. page 425, proves. Moreover many documents attest that Theophilus, to whom Luke wrote, was at Alexandria. There is no doubt but that Cainan was read at least in the LXX. version at Alexandria, that I may not say that it was in that city the insertion of his name took place. Wherefore it was not suitable that Cainan should already at that early time [the first sending of the Gospel to Alexandria] be either omitted by Luke or marked openly with the brand of spuriousness. Elsewhere also Luke made that concession to the Hellenistic Jews, that he followed the LXX. translators in preference to the Hebrew text. Act 7:14. And so here he did not expunge Cainan, whose name was inserted in their version. And yet he did not thereby do any violence to truth; for the fact of the descent of Jesus Christ from David, though some fathers have been passed over in Matthew, and similarly on the other hand Cainan has been retained in Luke, still remains uninjured. Nay, even he took precaution for the exactness of the main truth by that prefatory observation, as was accounted, Luk 3:23, where see the note. In fine, it is not the province of those who discuss the New Testament to warrant the infallible accuracy of readings of the LXX. translators. In the chronology the question concerning Cainan is of especial moment. Therefore we have said something concerning that person in the Ordo Temporum, p. 52 (Ed. ii., p. 44, 45), Lightfoot read Cainan in the Accusative form (Cainanem).[39]
[37] Bez, or Cantabrig.: Univ. libr., Cambridge: fifth cent.: publ. by Kipling, 1793: Gospels, Acts, and some Epp. def.
[38] A very unjust judgment. D was presented to Cambridge University by Beza in 1531. Its readings are very peculiar, and belong to a different class from the Alexandrine MSS. Tischend. thinks it can be irrefragably proved to be as old as the sixth century.-ED. and TRANSL.
[39] Tischend. reads with BL. Lachm. with Aabc Vulg. Rec. Text, .-ED. and TRANSL.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Arphaxad
Arphaxad. Gen 10:22.
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Cainan: This Cainan is not found in the Hebrew Text of any of the genealogies, but only in the Septuagint; from which, probably, the evangelist transcribed the register, as sufficiently exact for his purpose, and as more generally suited to command attention. – See note on Gen 11:12.It may here be remarked, that though some of the same names occur here, from Nathan downwards, as in Joseph’s genealogy, yet there appears no sufficient evidence that the same persons were intended, different persons often bearing the same name.
Sem: Gen 5:32, Gen 7:13, Gen 9:18, Gen 9:26, Gen 9:27, Gen 10:21, Gen 10:22, Gen 11:10-26, 1Ch 1:17, Shem
Noe: Luk 17:27, Gen 5:29, Gen 5:30, Gen 6:8-10, Gen 6:22, Gen 7:1, Gen 7:23, Gen 8:1, Gen 9:1, Eze 14:14, Heb 11:7, 1Pe 3:20, 2Pe 2:5, Noah
Reciprocal: Gen 5:1 – book Gen 5:4 – And the Gen 10:25 – the name 1Ch 1:3 – Lamech 1Ch 1:4 – Noah
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Which was the son of Cainan, which was the son of Arphaxad, which was the son of Sem, which was the son of Noe, which was the son of Lamech,
[The son of Cainan.] I will not launch widely out into a controversy that hath been sufficiently bandied already. I shall despatch, as briefly as I may, what may seem most satisfactory in this matter:
I. There is no doubt, and indeed there are none but will grant that St. Luke hath herein followed the Greek version. This, in Gen 11:12-13; relates it in this manner: “Arphaxad lived a hundred and five and thirty years, and begat Cainan; and Cainan lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat Salah: and Cainan lived after he had begot Salah three hundred and thirty years.”
Consulting Theophilus about this matter, I cannot but observe of this author, that he partly follows the Greek version, in adding to Arphaxad a hundred years, and partly not, when he omits Cainan: for so he; Arphaxad, when he was a hundred and thirty-five years of age, begat Salah. Nor can I but wonder at him that translates him, that he should of his own head insert, “Arphaxad was a hundred and thirty-five years old, and begat a son named Cainan. Cainan was a hundred and thirty years old, and begat Salah”: when there is not one syllable of Cainan in Theophilus. A very faithful interpreter indeed!
1. I cannot be persuaded by any arguments that this passage concerning Cainan was in Moses’ text, or indeed in any Hebrew copies which the Seventy used; but that it was certainly added by the interpreters themselves, partly because no reason can be given how it should ever come to be left out of the Hebrew text, and partly because there may be a probable reason given why it should be added in the Greek; especially when nothing was more usual with them than to add of their own, according to their own will and pleasure.
I might, perhaps, acknowledge this one slip, and be apt to believe that Cainan had once a place in the original, but, by I know not what fate or misfortune, left now out; but that I find a hundred such kind of additions in the Greek version, which the Hebrew text will by no means own, nor any probable reason given to bear with it. Let us take our instances only from proper names, because our business at present is with a proper name.
Gen 10:2; Elisa is added among the sons of Japhet: and, Gen 10:22; another Cainan among the sons of Shem.
Gen 46:20; Five grandchildren added to the sons of Joseph; Mal 4:5; the Tishbite.
Exo 1:11; the city On; is added to Pithom and Raamses.
2Sa 20:18; the city Dan is added to Abel. Not to mention several other names of places in the Book of Joshua.
Now can I believe that these names ever were in the Hebrew copy, since some of them are put there without any reason, some of the against all reason (particularly Dan being joined with Abel; and the grandchildren of Joseph), and all of them with no foundation at all?
II. I question not but the interpreters, whoever they were, engaged themselves in this undertaking with something of a partial mind; and as they made no great conscience of imposing upon the Gentiles, so they made it their religion to favour their own side. And according to this ill temperament and disposition of mind, so did they manage their version; either adding or curtailing at pleasure, blindly, lazily, and audaciously enough: sometimes giving a very foreign sense, sometimes a contrary, oftentimes none: and this frequently to patronise their own traditions, or to avoid some offence they think might be in the original, or for the credit and safety of their own nation. The tokens of all which it would not be difficult to instance in very great numbers, would I apply myself to it, but it is the last only that is my business at this time.
III. It is a known story of the thirteen places which the Talmudists tell us were altered by the LXXII elders when they wrote out the law (I would suppose in Hebrew) for Ptolemy. They are reckoned up, and we have the mention of them sprinkled up and down; as also, where it is intimated as if eighteen places had been altered.
Now if we will consult the Glossers upon those places, they will tell us that these alterations were made, some of them, lest the sacred text should be cavilled at; others that the honour and peace of the nation might be secured. It is easy, therefore, to imagine that the same things were done by those that turned the whole Bible. The thing itself speaks it.
Let us add, for example’s sake, those five souls which they add to the family of Jacob; numbering up five grandchildren of Joseph, who, as yet, were not in being, — nay, seven, according to their account, Gen 46:27. Children that were born to Joseph in the land of Egypt, even nine souls.
Now, which copy do we think it most reasonable to believe, the Greek or the Hebrew? And as to the question, whether these five added in the Greek were anciently in Moses’ text, but either since lost by the carelessness of the transcribers or rased out by the bold hand of the Jews, let reason and the nature of the thing judge. For if Machir, Gilead, Shuthelah, Tahan, and Eran, were with Joseph when Jacob with his family went down into Egypt, (and if they were not, why are they numbered amongst those that went down?) then must Manasseh at the age of nine years, or ten at most, be a grandfather; and Ephraim at eight or nine. Can I believe that Moses would relate such things as these? I rather wonder with what kind of forehead the interpreters could impose such incredible stories upon the Gentiles, as if it were possible they should be believed.
IV. It is plain enough to any one that diligently considers the Greek version throughout, that it was composed by different hands, who greatly varied from one another, both in style and wit. So that this book was more learnedly rendered than that, the Greek reading more elegant in this book than in that, and the version in this book comes nearer the Hebrew than in that; and yet in the whole there is something of the Jewish craft, favouring and patronising the affairs of that nation. There is something of this nature in the matters now in hand, the addition of Cainan, and the five souls to the seventy that went down into Egypt.
How mighty the Jewish nation valued themselves beyond all the rest of mankind, esteeming those seventy souls that went down with Jacob into Egypt beyond the seventy nations of the world; he that is so great a stranger in the Jewish affairs and writings, that he is yet to learn, let him take these few instances; for it would be needless to add more:
“Seventy souls went down with Jacob into Egypt, that they might restore the seventy families dispersed by the confusion of tongues. For those seventy souls were equal to all the families of the whole world. And he that would be ruling over them, is as if he would usurp a tyranny over the whole world.”
“How good is thy love towards me, O thou congregation of Israel! It is more than that of the seventy nations.”
“The holy blessed God created seventy nations; but he found no pleasure in any of them, save Israel only.”
“Saith Abraham to God, ‘Didst thou not raise up seventy nations unto Noah?’ God saith unto him, ‘I will raise up that nation unto thee of whom it is written, How great a nation is it!’ ” The Gloss is: “That peculiar people, excelling all the seventy nations; that holy nation, as the holy language excels all the seventy languages.”
There are numberless passages of that kind. Now when this arrogant doctrine and vainglorying, if familiarly known amongst the Gentiles, could not but stir up a great deal of hatred, and consequently danger to the Jews, I should rather think the interpreters might make such additions as these, through the caution and cunning of avoiding the danger they apprehend, than that ever they were originally in the text of Moses. To wit, by adding another Cainan, and five souls to those seventy in Jacob’s retinue, they took care that the Gentiles should not, in the Greek Bibles, find exactly the seventy nations in Genesis 10, but seventy-two (or seventy-three if we reckon Elisa also;) as also not seventy, but seventy-five souls that went down into Egypt.
It was the same kind of craft they used in that version, Deu 32:8; whence that comparison between the seventy souls and the seventy nations took its rise. Moses hath it thus; “When the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.” But they render it thus; He set the bounds of the nations, according to the number of the angels of God. A sense indeed most foreign from that of Moses, yet which served to obscure his meaning, so far as might avoid any danger that might arise from the knowledge of it. Making the passage itself so unintelligible, that it needs an Oedipus to unriddle it; unless they should allude to the Jewish tradition (which I do a little suspect) concerning the seventy angels, set over the seventy nations of the world.
V. But now if this version be so uncertain, and differs so much from the original, how comes it to pass that the evangelists and apostles should follow it so exactly, and that even in some places where it does so widely differ from the Hebrew fountain?
Ans. I. It pleased God to allot the censers of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram to sacred use, because they were so ordained and designed by the first owners: so doth it please the Holy Ghost to determine that version to his own use, being so primarily ordained by the first authors. The minds, indeed, of the interpreters were not perhaps very sincere in the version they made, as who designed the defence and support of some odd things: so neither were the hearts of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram sincere at all, but very perverse in offering their incense: but so long as their incense had been dedicated to sacred use, it pleased God to make their censers holy. So the Greek version designed for sacred use, as designed for the Holy Bible, so it was keept and made use of by the Holy Ghost.
II. Whereas the New Testament was to be wrote in Greek, and come into the hands chiefly of the Gentiles, it was most agreeable, I may say most necessary for them, to follow the Greek copies, as being what the Gentiles were only capable of consulting; that so they, examining the histories and quotations that were brought out of the Old Testament, might find them agreeing with, and not contradicting them. For instance; they, consulting their Greek Bibles for the names from David backward to Adam, there find “Cainan, the son of Arphaxad.” If St. Luke should not also have inserted it, how readily they might have called his veracity in question, as to the other part of the genealogy, which had been extracted out of tables and registers not so familiarly known!
III. If there be any credit to be given to that story of the Greek version, which we meet with in Aristeas and Josephus, then we may also believe that passage in it which we may find in Aristeas. “When the volumes of the law had been read through, the priests, and interpreters, and elders, and governors of the city, and all the princes of the people standing by, said ‘Forasmuch as this interpretation is rightly, religiously, and in every thing so very accurately finished, it is fit that all things should continue as they are, and no alteration should be made.’ When all had by acclamations given their approbation to these things, Demetrius commanded that, according to their custom, they should imprecate curses upon any that should, by addition, or alteration, or diminution, ever make any change in it. This they did well in, that all things might be kept entire and inviolate for ever.”
If this passage be true, it might be no light matter to the Jew, when quoting any thing in Greek out of the Old Testament, to depart in the least from the Greek version; and indeed it is something a wonder, that after this they should ever dare to undertake any other. But supposing there were any credit to be had to this passage, were the sacred penmen any way concerned in these curses and imprecations? Who saith they were? But, however, who will not say that this was enough for them to stop the mouths of the cavilling Jews, that they, following the Greek version, had often departed from the truth of the original to avoid that anathema; at least, if there were any truth in it.
Object. But the clause that is before us (to omit many others) is absolutely false: for there was neither any Cainan the son of Arphaxad; nor was Jesus the son of any Cainan that was born after the flood.
Ans. I. There could be nothing more false as to the thing itself than that of the apostle, when he calleth the preaching of the gospel foolishness; 1Co 1:21; and yet, according to the common conceptions of foolish men, nothing more true. So neither was this true in itself that is asserted here; but only so in the opinion of those for whose sake the evangelist writes. Nor yet is it the design of the Holy Ghost to indulge them in any thing that was not true; but only would not lay a stumblingblock at present before them: “I am made all things to all men, that I might gain some.”
II. There is some parallel with this of St. Luke and that in the Old Testament, 1Ch 1:36; “The sons of Eliphaz, Teman, and Omar, and Zephi, and Gatam, and Timnah, and Amalek.” Where it is equally false, that Timnah was the son of Eliphaz, as it is that Cainan was the son of Arphaxad. But far, far be it from me to say, that the Holy Ghost was either deceived himself, or would deceive others. Timnah was not a man, but a woman; not the son of Eliphaz, but his concubine; not Amalek’s brother, but his mother, Gen 36:12. Only the Holy Ghost teacheth us by this shortness of speech, to recur to the original story from whence these things are taken, and there consult the determinate explication of the whole matter: which is frequently done by the same Holy Spirit, speaking very briefly in stories well known before.
The Gentiles have no reason to cavil with the evangelist in this mater; for he agrees well enough with their Bibles. And if the Jews, or we ourselves, should find fault, he may defend himself from the common usage of the Holy Ghost, in whom it is no rare and unusual thing, in the recital of stories and passages well enough known before, to vary from the original and yet without any design of deceiving, or suspicion of being himself deceived; but, according to that majesty and authority that belongs to him, dictating and referring the reader to the primitive story, from whence he may settle and determine the state of the matter, and inquire into the reasons of the variation. St. Stephen imitates this very custom, while he is speaking about the burial of the patriarchs, Act 7:15-16; being well enough understood by his Jewish auditory, though giving but short hints in a story so well known.
III. It is one thing to dictate from himself, and another thing to quote what is dictated from others, as our evangelist in this place doth. And since he did, without all question, write in behalf of the Gentiles, being the companion of him who was the great apostle of the Gentiles, what should hinder his alleging according to what had been dictated in their Bibles?
When the apostle names the magicians of Egypt, Jannes and Jambres, 2Ti 3:9; he doth not deliver it for a certain thing, or upon his credit assure them that these were their very names, but allegeth only what had been delivered by others, what had been the common tradition amongst them, well enough known to Timothy, a thing about which neither he nor any other would start any controversy.
So when the apostle Jude speaks of “Michael contending with the devil about the body of Moses,” he doth not deliver it for a certain and authentic thing; and yet is not to be charged with any falsehood, because he doth not dictate of his own, but only appeals to something that had been told by others, using an argument with the Jews fetched from their own books and traditions.
IV. As it is very proper and even necessary towards the understanding some sentences and schemes of speech in the New Testament, to inquire in what manner they were understood by those that heard them from the mouth of him that spoke them, or those to whom they were written; so let us make a little search here as to the matter now in hand. When this Gospel first appeared in public amongst the Jews and Gentiles, the Gentiles could not complain that the evangelist had followed their copies: and if the Jews found fault, they had wherewithal to answer and satisfy themselves. And that particularly as to this name of ‘Cainan’ being inserted, as also the five souls being added to the retinue of Jacob; the learned amongst them knew from whence he had it; for what reason this addition had been made in the Greek version, and that St. Luke had faithfully transcribed it thence: so that if there were any fault, let them lay the blame upon the first authors, and not upon the transcriber.
V. To conclude: Before the bible had been translated for Ptolemy (as it is supposed) into the Greek tongue, there were an infinite number of copies in the Hebrew in Palestine, Babylon, Egypt, even everywhere, in every synagogue: and it is a marvellous thing, that in all antiquity there should not be the least hint or mention of so much as one Hebrew copy amongst all these that agrees with the Greek version. We have various editions of that version which they call the Septuagint, and those pretty much disagreeing among themselves: but who hath ever heard or seen one Hebrew copy that hath in every thing agreed with any one of them? The interpreters have still abounded in their own sense, not very strictly obliging themselves to the Hebrew text.
Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels
Luk 3:36-37. Which was the son of Cainan There is no mention made of this Cainan in either of the genealogies which Moses gives, Gen 10:24; Gen 11:12; but Salah is there said to be the son of Arphaxad. Cainan must therefore have been introduced here from the translation of the Seventy interpreters, who have inserted him in both these places in the same order as we find him here; and as this translation was then commonly used, and was more generally understood than the Hebrew, it is probable that some transcriber of this gospel added Cainan from that version. Unless we suppose that Luke himself might choose, in writing this genealogy, to follow the LXX., as he appears to do in several other passages that he has quoted from the Old Testament. The evangelists design was only to present us with the genealogy of Christ in its ascent to Adam, and this is equally clear, whether we reckon Salah as the immediate descendant of Arphaxad, or whether we consider him as his grandson by Cainan.