New Testament opens by presenting Jesus as the answer to the Babylonian exile: fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations “from David to the deportation to Babylon,” and fourteen generations from “the deportation to Babylon to the Christ” (Matt. 1:17). There is a sense, then, that while Jesus has come to rescue his people from the exile once and for all, they are still in exile on this earth until Jesus consummates the kingdom. Peter knew this and picks up on this idea when
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