Last week we spoke about how Hippolytus claims that Susanna was the daughter of Jehoiakim who was the son of the last king of Judah. This week we will see that Hippolytus goes even further, claiming that Susanna was the daughter of Hilkia the high priest and that her uncle was no other than Jeremiah the prophet. Further Hippolytus goes on to say that the great-grandson of Susanna was Zerubabbel who laid the foundation of the 2nd temple. For a much needed picture of the genealogy go here. Hippolytus also points out a gap in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus
She was a daughter of Hilkia the priest, who found the book of the law in the house of the Lord, when Josiah the king ordered him to cleanse the Holy of Holies. His brother was Jeremiah the Prophet… And so these, being from priestly lineage, from the tribe of Levi, mixed with the tribe of Judah, so that through the two righteous tribes, by their unity, the righteousness of Christ according to the fleshly seed, may be shown, so that He who was born from them in Bethlehem may be proclaimed as Christ and Priest of God.
For also Matthew, wishing to trace the pure and faultless descent of Christ according to the flesh until Joseph, coming to Josiah he omits his five sons and names Jeconiah, who while in Babylon was begotten from Susanna, skipping from righteous seed to righteous seed. For he says, “Josiah begot Jeconiah and his brothers during the deportation to Babylon.” How is this declared? For Josiah reigned in the land of Judah thirty-one years and he died there. Therefore how is it possible that having died there he begot Jeconiah in Babylon? From this it is necessary to observe that Matthew traced the genealogy of him who was begotten from Jehoiakim and from Susanna, as Jehoiakim was the son of Eliakim who was called Jehoiakim the son of Josiah. For Matthew was not able to trace the genealogy of him who was banished by the Holy Spirit, as being in the line of this Jeconiah, as some deceivers maintain. For this cripple was brought into Babylon and there as a prisoner was turning the mill childless and died. So that scripture does not idly teach us saying, “And there was a man living in Babylon and his name was Jehoiakim and he took a wife, Susanna by name, a daughter of Hilkia, who was exceedingly beautiful and feared the Lord.” And so Jeconiah was begotten by her, and Jeconiah begot Shealtiel, and Shealtiel begot Zerubbabel. He together with Ezra the scribe and Joshua the son of Jehozadak came up to Jerusalem according to the command of Cyrus the Persian. And thus continued the pure race of the fathers until the generation of Jesus Christ.
Hippolytus explains the gap in Matthew’s genealogy by claiming that Matthew simply skipped the generations of those who were deemed too evil to be named as an ancestor of Christ. Much the same argument is used by “old Earth” Christians who say that the genealogies in Genesis may very well be filled with gaps. Hippolytus does draw some interesting conclusions, but we cannot be sure of his accuracy. To this day scholars still struggle to successfully identify the names of those involved in the Babylonian captivity in the rebuilding of Jerusalem. If any experts on Biblical genealogies are reading this, please comment!
Next week we will turn to a primary theme in Hippolytus’ commentary on Daniel: persecution.