“This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
— Matthew 1:1
“and Jesse the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon (by the wife of Uriah),”
— Matthew 1:6
“After the deportation to Babylon, Jeconiah became the father of Shealtiel, Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,”
— Matthew 1:12
“and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom Jesus was born, who is called Christ. So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, fourteen generations.”
— Matthew 1:16-17
Definitely more than 14 + 14 + 14 people/generations born between Abraham and Jesus. This is way too precise. Plus, Luke’s genealogy has a different number. Classic genre question. Ancient gospel writing has different purpose than modern biographies.
Even genealogies are telling story. Why do they have different names? Too long of issue for here. Not Joseph in Matthew and Mary in Luke. Many names are same. Probably a Levirate marriage (or two) where names disagree towards the end of genealogy. Could be someone is giving physical line and another is giving royal line. Could reflect adoption even. Issues with Jeconiah’s curse in OT. The point is that again, we have a problem with genealogies but between genre and cultural practices, we have solutions and really no reason to resolve the issue. Authors had theological reasons for their specific lists.
Matthew’s 3 lists of 14…don’t like numerology a lot, but Jewish gematria has David represented as 1 and 4.
Biggest surprise of Matthew’s genealogy is 4 women: Rahab, Tamar, “Uriah’s wife,” Mary. Some of these had less than stellar pasts, but find themselves in Messiah’s line. In 1st century, it would be crazy to find women listed, and especially these. Matthew is making a case for Jesus’ royalty. This would not be the way to do it.
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