This has nothing to do with anything we've been talking about, but I'm just curious, is Sheng-Ta Tsai a pen name, a pseudonym you use?

Anyways, I've been busy with family stuff, and I did want to respond further to one of your several responses. So, sorry for the delay.

One reason for the time gap was the problem with Jesus' genealogies which are presented differently in two different Gospel books. I suppose we'd have to talk to the two different authors to get their definitive answers, but since that seems highly unlikely, all I can do is give my perspective which I have gained over a long time of study and learning about the Bible.

The very lengthy online article I found, although a very tiresome read, did offer some explanations. However, it raised more questions than it answered. So, I'm not sure about all seminaries, but I have concluded that they can be sepulchers where intellectuals take the Gospel to be mauled, massacred, and entombed.

One thought in the article made the point that the two authors had, not only two different perspectives, but two different purposes, and two different audiences.

Another thought I had was the question about the kind of recordkeeping where they sourced their genealogies. Did they have all the birth certificates? Did they exclude the evil kings in King David's lineage? Did they record both the northern and Southern kingdoms?

I don't really know nor care to know. (There's curiosity, but there are a lot of dead cats, too.) The "problems" raised are incidental and inconsequential, cursory and one-dimensional.

There is a concept I have learned from sites run by Messianic Jews is about figures of speech in the Hebrew language - like in Noah's Flood, the 40 day/40 nights were not 24 hour days but the phrase indicated that the Flood lasted for a real long time. Maybe, for instance, the same is true for Matthew's use of the "fourteen generations" which number, indicating perfection, would mean Matthew was telling his fellow Jews that Jesus' lineage was perfect, just perfect, even though it included an incestual relationship, a whore, a Gentile, adulterers and murder.

What is the perfection in that? Perhaps God's mercy and faithfulness to carry on in spite of human moral shortcomings?

Again, who knows all there is to Luke's and Matthew's thinking? And, again they probably have unlisted numbers.

Seriously though, I'll repeat myself, at many Seminaries, it seems to me that all the professors have to do is to quibble and complain, and to fuss and moan. All the while they miss the point - like the forest and the trees adage.

“For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” A more exact rendering of the Greek form of the second clause would be, “… but by the Holy Spirit being carried/led, men spoke from God.” In other words, the Holy Spirit was the divine Agent who carried or led or conducted the authors of Scripture... The Greek participle translated “carried” (φέρω, pherō) simply means to bring something like an object or a message (hence, “carry”) or lead someone from one place to another. But because the word “spirit” can also mean “wind” or “breath,” authors have sometimes suggested that Peter is thinking that the authors are like ships driven by the Spirit who filled their sails." - https://seminary.bju.edu/about/#distinctives

(After all Peter was a fisherman... and I thought you might get a kick out of my sourcing a Seminary...)

Finally, and I'll try to be very brief:

God spoke to Abraham, "After four generations your descendants will return here to this land, for the sins of the Amorites do not yet warrant their destruction.” - Genesis 15:16, NLT . So yes to that question. (Sodom and Gomorrah might be a more vivid example of warranting destruction.)

Slaves (or servants) and masters I think of in more modern terms as in Employer/Employee relations. I had a bothersome boss at a Dairy who kept peeking around corners to make sure I was working. Even so, as a Born Again Believer, I did not care how good or bad my Employers were. I worked hard for all of them, at all times, and not just giving eye-service.

Jesus is the Christian's role model. Also, it is a role Christians must assume to be role models for others to see Jesus' character. He worked hard for God for our salvation. Believers need to work hard at sharing Jesus' Gospel message, too.

"You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross." - Philippians 2:6-8, NLT.