One problem solved in Matthew 1

It’s common to hear people mock Matthew the Gospel writer for his poor arithmetic in counting the generations in Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew 1. Matthew says that there were 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David to the exile, and 14 from the exile to the Messiah. But a casual count of the generations comes up one or two short, depending on how you count and whom you include. Not only that, but the three sections come out uneven.

I went back and thought about the genealogy, and I think I found a simple solution to understand what Matthew was trying to say. He is counting the fathers in each section and adding the last son. So we start with Abraham, count twelve more fathers, and we get to David and add him as the 14th generation. Then we start with David, add twelve more fathers and count Josiah as the 14th generation. Then we start with Josiah, add twelve more fathers, and add Jesus as the 14th generation. Problem solved.

The two hangups we have from our perspective are the following:

• First, we don’t like the idea of counting David and Josiah twice. But remember, Matthew isn’t tallying the entire list. He is only tallying each section. So he’s not being inconsistent or sneaky by doubling up.

• And second, the way verses 11 and 12 read, we would be inclined to see v. 11 as part of the second section and v. 12 as the beginning of the third. But when you stop to think about it, v. 11 should be considered part of the third section, and it reads just fine as part of that section.

Now of course, there is still a problem with the genealogy. Why does Matthew feel so free to omit a number of generations to force his “14 per section” scheme to work? When you look at a timeline you instantly realize that the first section represents approximately double the length of years of the other two sections. And why bother with the number fourteen in the first place if it isn’t accurate? Commentators usually mention the use of gematria (substituting numbers for letters) and note that the letters of the name David in Hebrew add up to 14 (D+V+D = 4+6+4). To which anyone in any century would rightly reply, “Oh, that’s cute, Matthew, but it can’t really mean anything since you are cheating, and anyway what would be your point if it was true?”

I am confident there are solutions to the latter problem, but for now I will bask in the fact that I solved one problem. Yay!