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ultima on 29 July 2013
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happydolphin said:
ultima said:
happydolphin said:

It can be exclusive in one account, and inclusive in the other. I haven't gone in depth in the matter but at this level of debate that much should be obvious.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interval_(mathematics)#Excluding_the_endpoints

Lol, I'm a math major. Excluding the endpoints of a nontrivial interval (meaning it's neither empty nor consisting of a single element) of a real line does not change the length of the interval.

Answer my question, how many generations are there from father to son? There's no inclusive/exclusive convention. There's a well-defined way to count this. If you stray from the well-defined convention, then you're doing it wrong. I'm not exactly sure which passages you're talking about, but if Matthew was indeed counting it, by your terminology, inclusively, then he was doing it wrong. It's as simple as that.

Also, please do go look at Matthew 1 and Luke 3. The discrepancy in the number of generations is so great, that you can't use inclusion/exclusion to walk around it (and don't take this as a validation that your previous use of inclusion/exclusion was okay).

Okay, that's great. Have you heard of discrete mathematics? I have, because I'm a Software Engineering major. This is what I know. You can include or include the bounds in an interval when you're talking about discrete entities like generations.

Do you know what the convention was in those days, in their culture. If you do, then I'd like to see your sources.

I will go look at it, but so far I see no problem (I skimmed over it).

Yes, I've done a lot of discrete mathematics. My explanation was with respect to the link you provided: intervals of real numbers. I'm sure you know that the real numbers are in no way discrete.

As for the discrete case, it still does not apply. When you calculate the number of meters inside a swimming pool along its length, you start at one end, and you start at zero. You do not start some voodoo magic by starting at one before you unrolled your measuring tape. Once again, answer me, how many generations are there from father to son?

Also, I did not ask explicitly, but I kind of insinuated that I wanted to know the passages over which you were arguing. It'd be nice if you could provide them.