A hundred thousand casualties…the wall collapsed on twenty-seven thousand of them.

These numbers seem incredibly high.  Various explanations have been suggested.

1. Supernatural event

Older commentators tend to understand the numbers literally, and find a supernatural explanation.  With regard to the figure of 27,000, Barnes, for example, thinks that a ‘terrific earthquake’ took place.  But this is conjecture, and, in any case, still does not explain the large number of victims.

Poole says that such

‘might possibly happen through natural causes; but most probably was effected by the mighty power of God, then sending some sudden earthquake, or violent storm of wind, which threw down the wall, or walls, upon them; or doing this by the ministry of angels; which cannot be incredible to any man, except to him that denies the truth of all the miracles recorded in the Old and New Testament.’  

2 Sam 24:1 The LORD’s anger again raged against Israel, and he incited David against them, saying, “Go count Israel and Judah.”

1 Chron 21:1 An adversary [NIV: ‘Satan’] opposed Israel, inciting David to count how many warriors Israel had.

The difficulty here is obvious: in the first passage, it is ‘the Lord’ who incites David, whereas in the second, it is ‘an adversary’ (‘Satan’?) who does so.

1. Some propose a different translation of 2 Sam 24:1. …

The genealogies of Matthew and Luke differ in a number of ways.

Commentators have been long been aware of these differences.  For instance, the 19th-century commentators Jamieson, Fausset and Brown write concerning some of the challenges involved in the genealogies:

‘That there should be difficulty in these genealogies is not surprising, considering,

1. the want of sufficient materials of comparison;

2. the double or triple names given to the same persons;

3. the intermediate names omitted;

4.