SALATHIEL (.7.aXaBti7X, answering to the Heb. asked of God), the father of .
Zerubbabel (Matt. i. 12 ; Luke iii. 27 ; comp. Ezra iii. 2 ; Neh. xii. ; Hag. i. 14 • 11. 2). In the genealogy of our Lord given by Matthew he appears as the son of Jeconiah ; in that given by Luke lie is the son of Neri. With Matthew ac cords Chron. 17. It thus appears that in some sense Salathiel was reckoned the son both of Jeconiah and of Neri. There are two ways of ac counting for this : either he was really the son of Jeconiah, and was counted for a son to Neri from having married his daughter ; or he was really the son of Neri, and was counted the son of Jeconiah from having succeeded to him on the failure of the line of descent from Solomon through him. The former is the more probable hypothesis ; the state ment of both the Chronicler and St. Matthew lead ing to the conclusion that Jeconiah was the real father of Salathiel, and there being no evidence of any failure of the line of descent in Jeconiah's family through his having no sons, seeing he had not fewer than seven besides Salathiel. It has
Indeed been said that the 'supposition that the son and heir of David and Solomon would be called the son of Neri, an obscure individual, because he had married Neri's daughter, is too absurd to need refutation' (Smith's Dia of the Bible, art. 'Neri'). But this is said without reason. For—r. Though Neri malbe an obscure individual' to us, it by no means follows that he was so to his contempo raries ; 2. He is not more obscure than Salathiel ; we know as much of the one as of the other ; 3. He was as much a descendant of David as was Jeconiah, so that his daughter would be a fitting match for Jeconiah's son ; 4. Supposing Salathiel the son of Jeconiah married Nen s daughter he could not help being his legal son, and, if Ned 'had no other son, he would of course be reckoned in the genealogies as the son of Neri, however obscure the latter might have been. From all which it appears that the absurdity' exists only in the fancy of the critic, and does not attach to the sup position he criticises.—W. L. A. .