December 03rd, 2022

Last Sunday, with the new church year, we started to look at beginning of the Gospel according to Matthew, and we only got through one verse. What comes after this verse is the only detailed genealogy within this account, and you can imagine how quickly this text and those that are like it are overlooked. But it should be said that this genealogy is significant. There are certainly some run-on sentences within this text, but you could say that they are running on toward a very special goal.

The following is a somewhat-literal translation of the genealogy in the Gospel according to Matthew (1:2-16; and since they will be grouped and numbered by the writer immediately following this text, they will be grouped and numbered here as well; it should also be noted that the spelling of some names is different from that which was in the Old Testament, so you may wish to compare this to other translations):

Abraham (1) begat Isaac (2), and Isaac begat Jacob (3), and Jacob begat Judas and the brothers of him (4), and Judas begat Phares and Zara out of Thamar (5), and Phares begat Esrom (6), and Esrom begat Aram (7), and Aram begat Aminadab (8), and Aminadab begat Naason (9), and Naason begat Salmon (10), and Salmon begat Boez out of Rachab (11), and Boez begat Obed out of Ruth (12), and Obed begat Jesse (13), and Jesse begat David, the king (14) [Matthew 1:2-6a].

And David begat Solomon out of the … of Uriah (1), and Solomon begat Roboam (2), and Roboam begat Abia (3), and Abia begat Asaph (4), and Asaph begat Josaphat (5), and Josaphat begat Joram (6), and Joram begat Ozias (7), and Ozias begat Joatham (8), and Joatham begat Achaz (9), and Achaz begat Hezekias (10), and Hezekias begat Manasses (11), Manasses begat Amos (12), and Amos begat Josias (13), and Josias begat Jechonias and the brothers of him at the deportation of Babylon (14) [Matthew 1:6b-11].

And after the deportation of Babylon, Jechonias begat Salathiel (1), and Salathiel begat Zorobabel (2), and Zorobabel begat Abiud (3), and Abiud begat Eliakim (4), and Eliakim begat Azor (5), and Azor begat Sadoc (6), and Sadoc begat Achim (7), and Achim begat Eliud (8), and Eliud begat Eleazar (9), and Eleazar begat Matthan (10), and Matthan begat Jacob (11), and Jacob begat Joseph (12), the husband of Mary, of whom was begotten Jesus, the one called Christ (13) [Matthew 1:12-16].

Keeping in mind the numbering that was included above, you can imagine how much has been said of the following verse (1:17, and this is also in a somewhat-literal translation).

Therefore, all the generations from Abraham until David, generations fourteen, and from David until the deportation of Babylon, generations fourteen, and from the deportation of Babylon until the Christ, generations fourteen.

If Matthew was indeed a tax collector, you would think that he should be able to count accurately up to the number fourteen. With his job he would probably would have had to count to much higher numbers.

First of all, as was noted last week, the number fourteen is connected to King David and is very special. There are at least a couple of ways to get to the number fourteen with the last section of the genealogy. One could also simply count the last generation of the second section twice, once in the second section and another time at the beginning of the third and last section. One could also add another number at the end because of not just Joseph but also Mary, or not just because of the name of Jesus but also because of the title of ‘Christ’. Or one could simply ‘round up’ to the number fourteen, since thirteen is very close, and that number fourteen is very important.

The number of words in the Greek in each section may help to give some clarity. Numbers of words have been important from literally day one, when the first creation account makes a big deal of the number seven. And in the first two verses of Genesis, the numbers of Hebrew words are seven and fourteen, and the number seven is an important number in the creation account which follows. And it is helpful to know where the words are broken up since paper was expensive in ancient times and the space between words was sometimes extremely small.

People have looked at the various ways that things are added to parts of this genealogy. There are mentions of brothers, there are additional names of women—and sometimes there are names that are left out. There is the mention of the deportation. But the total number of words might be pointing to something important.

In the first verse, the verse that was examined last week, the number of words is eight. That happens to be a very Jewish number. And the number of words of the next section, the first section from Abraham to David, is eighty-two. The next section, from David to the deportation, is also eighty-two. And the third section, because of its shortness—since there were only thirteen generations—is only seventy-four words. While that last number is not necessarily a Hebrew number, when it is combined with the number of words from the very first section, the total is also eighty-two. And, if those two sections are connected, then in the middle of the two sections that each had eighty-two, there is, at the very middle, the mention of King David.

Is the number eighty-two important? It also does not seem to be a Jewish number, but it is interesting that when fourteen, fourteen, and thirteen are added together, the total is forty-one, and that is exactly one-half of the way to eighty-two.
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Perhaps this tax collector DID know how to count. And it seems as though he was able to count accurately past the number fourteen.

Perhaps a proper focus would be on his words and not his person. He was, after all, just a follower. And perhaps the Christ who had—and continues to have—so many unique followers should be valued as well.