Discrepancies In Lists

Today and tomorrow we finish off the Old Testament with the reading of genealogical and other lists. Often there are apparent discrepancies in these lists as I talked about a few days ago. For example, several questions are raised in the reading of 1 Chronicles 3:17-24:

• Why does verse 19 says Zerubbabel is the son of Pedaiah when many other verses (e.g. Ezra 3:2,8; Nehemiah 12:1; Haggai 1:12) say he is the son of Shealtiel?
• In Luke 3:27 Neri, instead of Jehoichin, is identified as the father of Shealtiel.
• The genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3:23-28 both trace his descent to Zerubbabel but none of Zerubbabel's descendants are listed between Zerubbabel and Christ.

While critics will quickly jump on these to discredit the Bible, if you are coming from a starting point that trusts God that his Word is without error there is often a simple explanation (or more than one). For example:

• Shealtiel may have died early and Pedaiah became the head of the family. Or Pedaiah may have married the childless widow of Shealtiel; Zerubbabel would then be regarded as the son of Shealtiel according to the law of levirate marriage (Concordia Self Study Bible).
• Neri may simply be another name for Jehoichin. Or--the levirate law comes into play here once again--Neri, a relative of Jehoichin, married his widow and raised up children who were legally considered Jehoichin's (People's Bible).
• Perhaps not all of Zerubbabel's sons were listed in Chronicles and it was through one of these unlisted sons that Jesus' family line continued (People's Bible).

Like everything else in the Bible it's ultimately a matter of faith whether you can accept this kind of thing or not. Overall I fall on the side of being downright amazed that a compilation of 66 books written by different authors over thousands of years can be so consistent in so many ways.