Fourteen Generations

So all the generations from Abraham to David

are fourteen generations,

from David to the captivity in Babylon

are fourteen generations,

and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ

are fourteen generations.

Matthew 1:17

Why fourteen generations? It would seem that the gospel writer was following a rabbinic teaching method designed to make memorization easier. All one had to remember was three lists of fourteen names...

There are fourteen names from Abraham to David.

Though the next line refers to the names from David to the captivity, including David actually makes for fifteen names. So starting with Solomon and continuing through to Jeconiah, there are fourteen names.

And the final list from the captivity to Christ is fourteen names, but only if Jeconiah is included, in which case, Jeconiah must be counted twice in the genealogy.

Jeconiah was actually the grandson of Josiah, and according to the genealogies in the Chronicles he had no brothers. Additionally, there are apparently some manuscripts which include the name of Jehoiakim, Jeconiah's father, in the second list of names...and it was indeed Jehoiakim's brothers who were actually carried away captive to Babylon. If Jehoiakim is the one inserted and listed in the second list as the fourteenth generation, then his inclusion in the third as the father of Jeconiah would mean there are actually only fourteen names included in the third list.

Is it important? I don't really think so. I don't get into numerology, and I don't know why Matthew emphasized fourteen, fourteen, and fourteen beyond the fact that it was a rabbinic teaching tool. I don't know why he apparently excluded four men from the lineage, but this in itself is also consistent with other Biblical genealogies where not every single generation is listed, and neither are all children from every union. But I do know that what Matthew was really emphasizing was the understood lineage of Jesus Christ through his supposed father Joseph all the way back through the royal house of Israel to the founder of the dynasty, David the King, and from their all the way back to Abraham, the father of their people. Matthew's account is of a distinctly Jewish flavor, therefore he emphasizes the things important to Jews in a manner Jews would understand.

Jesus was the promised King, the anointed one they had been looking for.