Did Coniah have a child or not? Jer. 22:28-30; Matt. 1:21
Jeremiah 22:28-30 Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know? O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord. "Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah."
Matthew 1:12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel.
Coniah who is mentioned in Jeremiah 22:28-30 is the same person as Jeconiah (cf. Je-Coniah) in Matthew 1:12. But if we look closely at the context of Jeremiah, we observe that he doesn’t say that this person would be absolutely childless, only that no child or descendant of his would sit on the throne of David and rule Judah.
One of my professors use to say: “The three most important things in interpretation are context, context, and context."
Dr. Joseph R. Nally, Jr., D.D., M.Div. is the Theological Editor at Third Millennium Ministries (Thirdmill).