by
Damien F. Mackey
Why are several significant kings of Judah apparently missing from Matthew’s list of Davidic kings (1:6-11)?
I have broached this subject once before. On that occasion, I was prepared to defer to a reasonable view that – [somewhat like with the cancel culture of today] – certain kings were deemed by St. Matthew to have been unworthy of their generation, and hence got cancelled out by the wise Evangelist.
Apparently (and this is the operative word) missing are the following names when compared with a fuller list of Judaean kings in 1 Chronicles 3:9-17:
AHAZIAH
JOASH
AMAZIAH
….
JEHOIAKIM
Four kings of Judah apparently missing from Matthew’s list.
But what, then, about two other kings of Judah, Jehoahaz and Zedekiah, who get left right out of the conversation?
Suggestions as to why omissions may be the case have not really been convincing.
For instance:
- An argument that these names were omitted because they were unworthy kings falls flat when, say, goodish-baddish kings, Joash and Amaziah, are compared with such bad, but non-omitted, kings as Ahaz (1:9) and Manasseh (1:10).
- And, shortness of reign cannot be a criterion for omission even though the omitted Ahaziah only “reigned for one year” (2 Kings 8:26), for the combined total reigns of two omitted kings, Joash and Amaziah, was a massive 70 years. Moreover, King Amon who only “reigned for 2 years” (2 Kings 2:19), has not been omitted (Matthew 1:10).
What may be the solution?
Returning to my “operative word” apparently (missing), I shall be proposing here that Joash, Amaziah and Jehoiakim do feature in Matthew’s list, but under other names (alter egos).
Since I first wrote this, I have tentatively concluded that even Ahaziah, Jehoahaz and Zedekiah are not missing from the Genealogy of Matthew. At this stage, though, I have only developed Jehoahaz in this regard:
Whatever did happen to King Jehoahaz of Judah?
(3) Whatever did happen to King Jehoahaz of Judah? | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
King Joash is listed there as Azariah (= Uzziah) (1:8); and King Amaziah, as Jotham (1:9).
But my main character of interest here is Jehoiakim, who, I believe, is to be found in Matthew’s genealogical list as Manasseh (1:10).
Now, to identify the extremely wicked Jehoiakim with the likewise apostate Manasseh immediately solves some problems (though it will play havoc with the conventional chronology). To think of just a few problem solvers:
1. The already mentioned one of why Matthew apparently omitted Jehoiakim;
2. Why the prophet Jeremiah would name “Manasseh son of Hezekiah” as a cause of the Babylonian Exile (Jeremiah 15:4), when Jeremiah was an actual contemporary of the exiled Jehoiakim;
3. Jeremiah’s supposed prediction of the fate of Jehoiakim can puzzle biblical scholars. Thus Fr. G. Couturier (article “Jeremiah”, TJBC 19:68): “The burial of an ass (v. 19; cf. 36:30) has always troubled scholars, for Jehoiakim seems to have had a normal burial (2 Kgs 24:10)”.
4. Tradition, but not the biblical accounts, regarding King Manasseh, have the prophet Isaiah martyred during his reign. However, a prophet is pursued to his martyrdom during the reign of Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 26:20-23). Isaiah under an alternative name?
5. My re-arrangement serves to restore the biblical “Nebuchadnezzar” (see my relevant articles).
There are obvious apparent chronological problems with my new interpretation of identifying a king, Jehoiakim, with one, Manasseh, of a presumed three generations earlier. That does not affect only Judaean history, but also the related Assyro-Babylonian history. For, whereas Manasseh is known to have been taken captive to Babylon by Ashurbanipal (of 43 years of reign), Jehoiakim is said to have been taken captive to Babylon by Nebuchednezzar (of 43 years of reign):
[Hold that last thought]
2 Chronicles 33:11:
“So the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon”.
2 Chronicles 36:6:
“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked him and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon”.
The Bible’s treatment of the reign of King Jehoiakim (qua Jehoiakim) is brief.
As with King Nebuchednezzar of Babylon, a much fuller picture emerges when the king is re-assembled through all of his component parts.
A NEW HISTORY OF KING MANASSEH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My own account of King Manasseh is totally different from this – only eleven years of his reign actually occurred while he was seated upon the throne of Jerusalem, the rest was tallied up whilst he was still alive but no longer reigning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The typical view of King Manasseh, son of the pious king Hezekiah, would be that approximately a decade of his long reign of 55 years had passed in co-regency with his father (c. 697–687 BC; sole reign; 687–643 BC, conventional dating). After that, Manasseh had embarked upon a long phase of wickedness, interrupted when Esarhaddon and Ashurbanipal took him with hooks and chains to Babylon. Whilst in Babylon, Manasseh underwent a profound conversion to Yahweh. He was returned to Judah where he, at some point, involved himself in a massive re-building and fortifying program in Jerusalem, its Temple, altar, walls.
This all occurred, presumably, about half a century or more before the reign of King Jehoiakim (who is my alter ego for Manasseh).
But why did Jerusalem then need to be re-built? No enemy had attacked the city.
Certainly Manasseh had profaned the Temple, but he had not pulled it down.
My own account of King Manasseh is totally different from all of this – only eleven years of his reign actually occurred while he was seated upon the throne of Jerusalem, the rest was tallied up whilst he was still alive but no longer reigning.
King Manasseh, now as Jehoiakim, an evil king, reigned for only 11 years before being dragged off to Babylon by King Nebuchednezzar (= Esarhaddon-Ashurbanipal).
There, the king of Judah underwent a massive conversion and, afterwards, returned to Jerusalem. But no longer as king.
For more on all this, see e.g. my article:
De-coding Jonah
(3) De-coding Jonah | Damien Mackey - Academia.edu
Manasseh’s 55 years of reign must therefore be counted like those of his son, Coniah (Jehoiachin), whose 37th year, when he was set free in Babylon, occurred whilst he was in exile, in Babylon (2 Kings 25:27): “In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, Evil-merodach ascended to the Babylonian throne. He was kind to Jehoiachin and released him from prison on April 2 of that year”.
Evil-merodach was the elusive “King Belshazzar”, son of Nebuchednezzar, of Daniel 5 and Baruch 1:11, 12. He released Coniah and exalted him. (2 Kings 25:28): “He spoke kindly to [Coniah] and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon”.
A few years later, now during the Medo-Persian era, King Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther would similarly exalt Coniah, whose alter ego was Amon (an Egyptian name).
He, King Amon of Judah, was the Aman, or Haman, of the Book of Esther.
Esther 3:1-2:
After these events, King Ahasuerus honored Haman son of Hammedatha, the Agagite [should read “captive”], elevating him and giving him a seat of honor higher than that of all the other nobles. All the royal officials at the king’s gate knelt down and paid honor to Haman, for the king had commanded this concerning him. But Mordecai would not kneel down or pay him honor.
“Hammedatha”, above, was a woman, Hamutal, the queen mother at the time of Coniah-Haman (see e.g. Jeremiah 52:1).
Comments