< Regarding the genealogy of Jesus. I believe that it is likely that
ANDPA in Matthew 1:16 refers to Joseph the father of Mary not the
husband of Mary. >
The obstacle in the way of this interpretation is that ANHR seems never to
be used to mean "father" in Greek--not in the Bible, nor in any extra-
biblical Greek known to the authors and editors of the great lexicons
(Bauer, Liddell-Scott-Jones-McKenzie-Glare).
It would be a neat solution; but ANHR appears always to mean either some
version of "man" (male), or "husband." I can find no usage of the word to
mean "father".
Incidentally, the best (to me) solutions of the 14-14-14 problem in
Matthew's genealogy are those which see Matthew as simultaneously wanting
to make Jesus' generation be the beginning of the seventh cycle, the
Sabbath (7x2, 7x2, 7x2 = 6 weeks, followed by the Sabbath week), and
wanting to have Jesus be the generation following the 40 (years in the
wilderness--i.e., Jesus is the "rest," the "promised Land," etc.). One
simple exposition of this view is by Austin Farrer, in his _St Matthew and
St Mark_.
One thing which seems obvious to me, but not to all, is that Matthew could
count. So it isn't too likely that he would lay out a scheme which simply
doesn't work. Hence, our task as interpreters is to discover his actual
scheme.
Edward Hobbs