TO CORRESPONDENTS

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 23, 1878

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

How do you harmonize Lev. 6:16, 26, which says the sacrifice shall be eaten in the holy place, with Num. 18:10, which says that it shall be eaten in the most holy place? E. H.

Ans. Bishop Horsley says that verse 10 of Num. 18 should be translated, “Among the most holy things thou shalt eat it.” This we find in Barrett’s Synopsis of Criticism on that text. And Mr. Barrett adds: “The precept refers to a distinction between ‘most holy’ and ‘holy’ things. The ‘most holy’ were to be eaten by the males of Aaron’s family only; the ‘holy’ by any of his family, male or female, who were clean.” Nothing was ever eaten in the most holy place of the sanctuary.

Please harmonize Acts 9:7, and Acts 22:9. E. H.

Ans. The word rendered “heard” in those texts is a word which also means “to understand, to know.” The text which says they “heard” the voice, means that they were conscious of a sound through their sense of hearing. But the text which says they “heard not” the voice, means that they did not understand the words that were spoken.

If Easter was recognized as a particular day, as in Acts 12:4, why not now? E. J.

Ans. The word there rendered Easter means simply the passover, and reference is made to it simply as a festival observed by the Jews. Dr. Clarke’s note on this passage will be instructive. He says:—

“Perhaps there never was a more unhappy, not to say absurd, translation, than that in our text. But before I come to explain the word, it is necessary to observe that our term called Easter is not exactly the same with the Jewish passover. This festival is always held on the fourteenth day of the first vernal full moon; but the Easter of the Christians never till the next Sabbath [by this term of course Dr. C. means Sunday] after said full moon; and to avoid all conformity with the Jews in this matter, if the fourteenth day of the first vernal full moon happen on a Sabbath, then the festival of Easter is deferred till the Sabbath following. The first vernal moon is that whose fourteenth day is either on the day of the vernal equinox, or the next fourteenth day after it. The vernal equinox, according to a decree of the council of Nice, is fixed to the 21st of March, and therefore the first vernal moon is that whose fourteenth day falls upon the 21st of March, or the first fourteenth day after. . . . The term Easter, inserted here by our translators, they borrowed from the ancient Anglo-Saxon service books, or from the versions of the Gospels, which always translates the τὸ πάσχα of the Greek by this term.”

Dr. Clarke then gives various names from the Saxon which he says “are different modes of spelling the name of the goddess Easter, whose festival was celebrated by our pagan forefathers on the month of April; hence that month, in the Saxon calendar, is called Easter month. Every view we can take of this subject shows the gross impropriety of retaining a name every way exceptionable, and palpably absurd.”

What is the explanation of 1 Pet. 4:6? A. M. O.

Ans. We consider that the dead mentioned are the same as the “dead” in the previous verse: “Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.” They are those who are literally dead. The gospel was preached to them, not while they were dead, but before they died, while they were living. And they are to be judged just like living men just before Christ comes. This is accomplished in the investigative Judgment of the cleansing of the sanctuary. This being past, those who are found righteous will live according to God in the Spirit, quickened or made immortal by the Holy Spirit. Rom. 8:11.

How is the genealogy of Christ as given in Matt. 1, to be reconciled with the account given in Luke 3? A. M. O.

Ans. The Jews never allowed the name of a woman in their genealogical tables. Hence, when a line of descendants ended with a woman, they did not put in the name of that woman, but the name of her husband, who was only the son-in-law of the woman’s father. Luke reckons according to this custom, and puts into his table two persons who were only sons-in-law of the persons named as their fathers; whereas Matthew confines his table to those who were sons strictly speaking. Thus Joseph is called by Luke the son of Heli, because he having no sons, his daughter Mary married Joseph, and the name of Joseph therefore stands as the son of Heli, whereas he was in reality only his son-in-law, but really the son of Jacob. Again, Luke places Salathiel as the son of Neri, and Matthew makes him the son of Jechonias. He was the real son of Jechonias, but the son-in-law of Neri, having married a daughter of Neri. Their son was Zorobabel, a name which appears in both tables. From Abraham to David the tables of Matthew and Luke agree. From David Matthew comes down through the line of Solomon, and Luke through the line of Nathan, both of them sons of David. These lines meet in Zorobabel, a son of Salathiel of the line of Solomon, who married a daughter of Neri, of the line of Nathan. From Zorobabel Matthew comes down through the line of Abiud, his son, and Luke through the line of Rhesa, another son. These two lines again meet in Christ, the reputed son of Joseph of the line of Abiud, who had married Mary, a daughter of Heli, of the line of Rhesa. Thus Luke gives us the genealogy through the line of Mary, and Matthew that through the line of Joseph. These lines meet in Zorobabel and David. From this point the tables agree back to Abraham, with whom Matthew stops, while Luke goes all the way back to Adam. There is really no more discrepancy between the accounts of Matthew and Luke, than there would be between the letters of a person who should give to a friend his pedigree on his father’s side, and

to another his pedigree on his mother’s side. And if the two lines should meet in some celebrated person of past generations, as they do twice in the case of Christ, he would have double proof that he was the descendant of that individual. See Dr. Clarke, and the Religious Encyclopedia.