FORTY GENERATIONS

– or – SEVENTY-SEVEN GENERATIONS?

            In the Book of St. Matthew (which is in the tone of the Word) chapter one presents forty generations from Abraham to Jesus.  This number forty symbolizes the generation of man’s spiritual birth, because a woman is pregnant for forty weeks.  In Matthew the lineage goes only back to Abraham, the first father of the Israelites (in the Third Day of Soul).  The Lord God Jehovah is not the God Almighty that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew.  Yet in the Book of St. Luke (which is in the tone of Christianity) Jesus lineage goes all the way back to Adam (a man of sin) being “the son of God.”  I believe that there is a specific reason for this.  I believe that the Word begins with a spiritual type of manhood (Jesus), while Christianity seems to lead us back to the pure idea or our true being – God.  When this happens we find that we are home in heaven.  Yet perhaps a Bible verse from John 16:28 helps explain the difference between the two lineages of Jesus.  Matthew (the Word) – “I came forth from the Father,” Mark (the Christ) – “and am come into the world again, I leave the world,” Luke (Christianity) – “and go to the Father”.  Mary Baker Eddy tells us, “Science unfolds the eternal verity, that man is the spiritual, eternal reflection of God” (S&H 296:2).