THE GENEALOGY OF THE KING
Matthew 1:1-17
The
book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
(Matthew 1:1).
The
opening verses of Matthew contain the genealogy of Jesus. This is not one of the more popular parts of
scripture. I know of very few people who
have turned to this portion of the Bible for their morning devotions. Many seem to develop a special ability in
speed reading when it comes to this passage, quickly skimming over it to come
to the more interesting account of the actual birth of Jesus.
Why
did Matthew place this genealogy into his book?
Was he looking for some filler to take up the space between verse 1 and
verse 18? Had be been assigned a certain
number of verses to write for each chapter so that he had to think of some way
to make his introduction a bit longer? Not
at all. In fact, I believe we can
demonstrate this genealogy to be a crucial part of Matthew’s account.
The
purpose of this genealogy is to present the legal right of Jesus to the throne
of David. It will trace His ancestry
back through the royal like of David to Abraham, the father of the Jewish
nation. This section can be outlined in
five parts:
|
1:1 |
1:2-6 |
1:6-11 |
1:12-16 |
1:17 |
|
Introduction stating key
figures |
Actual genealogy |
Conclusion summarizing
numbers |
||
|
Abraham to David |
David to Babylonian
Captivity |
Return from |
||
There
are 41 names in this genealogy. It is
divided into three main parts of fourteen names each with David counted
twice. Just in case we do not catch this
at the outset, the author carefully points it out to us in his summarization of
the genealogy.
Therefore
all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from
David to the deportation to
What
is even more significant is that some names are deliberately left off so as to
achieve this count of fourteen names in each group. In verse 8, the names of Ahaziah, Athaliah,
Jehoash and Amaziah are left out between the kings Joram and Uzziah.
|
Abraham to David |
David to the Captivity |
The Captivity to Jesus |
|
Abraham Isaac Jacob Perez Hezron Ram Amminadab Nashon Salmon Boaz Obed Jesse David |
David Solomon Rehoboam Abijah Asa Jehoshaphat Joram Uzziah Jotham Ahaz Hezekiah Manasseh Amon Josiah |
Jeconiah Shealtiel Zerubbabel Abiud Eliakim Azor Zadok Achim Eliud Eleazar Matthan Jacob Joseph Jesus Christ |
What
is the reason for this deliberate manipulation of the text to achieve fourteen
names in each of the three sections? It
is because the Hebrew language used letters as numerical equivalents. The name “David” in Hebrew consists of only
three letters.
d
- 4
w - 6
d
- 4
The
sum of these three letters comes to the number fourteen. It is for this reason that the point is made
that each of the three segments of the genealogy have fourteen names. The Jews loved to set their lists in these
sorts of numerical patterns. It served
to underscore Jesus as the Son of David.
GENEALOGIES
IN MATTHEW AND LUKE
Both
Matthew and Luke contain genealogies of Jesus.
When we compare this genealogy of Jesus with the one that is given in
Luke’s narrative, we find that they are very different, not only in form and
structure, but also with regard to the listing of names that make up the family
of Jesus.
|
Matthew |
Luke |
|
Begins with Abraham and
moves forward to Jesus |
Runs the opposite way,
beginning with Jesus and going back to Adam |
|
Divides his genealogy into
three groups of fourteen |
Contains no divisions |
|
Omits certain names in
order to keep the pattern of fourteen names |
Omits no names of which we
are aware and adds the name Cainan from the Septuagint |
|
Traces the line of David
through Solomon |
Traces the line of David
through another of David’s sons—Nathan |
It
has been suggested that Matthew records the legal genealogy down through
Joseph, the legally adopted father of Jesus, while Luke presents the actual
genealogy of Jesus through His mother Mary.
This would make the first genealogy the legal line of Jesus while the
second genealogy would be the physical line of Jesus. If this is correct, then the New Testament
proves that Jesus is both the legal as well as the physical heir of David.
INTRODUCTION—THE
KEY FIGURES IN THE GENEALOGY
The
book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
(Matthew 1:1).
So
begins the genealogy of Jesus as found in the book of Matthew. The reason that both David and Abraham are
mentioned seems obvious. The genealogy
is traced back to Abraham because he is the father of the nation of
1. The Book: The book
of the genealogy of Jesus Christ (1:1).
This opening statement takes us back to antiquity. We are introduced to the bibloj — the scroll of the genealogy of Jesus. [1] It is as
though Matthew were pulling out the scroll that contained the record of the
lineage of Jesus. It is the genealogy of
a king.
Furthermore, this phrase echoes from the Old Testament
book of Genesis where Septuagint uses this same phrasing to translate Genesis
2:4 to say, auth h`bibloV genesewV ouranou kai ghV — “this is the book of generations of the heavens and
earth.”
2. The Son of David.
When we read that Jesus was the son of David, we
understand that the term “son” is not to be taken literally. It means that Jesus was the descendant of
David. The same term can also be used of
a son-in-law. This is why Joseph is said
to be the son of Eli in Luke 3:23. [2]
The reason we are told that Jesus is the son of David
is to tell us something about the big idea of the book of Matthew. This book is going to present Jesus as the
rightful king of the Jews. We shall see
that, because He is the son of David, He has the right to sit on the throne of
David.
3. The Son of Abraham.
The genealogy will not start with David. It will go back all the way to Abraham. The point is not merely that Jesus is the
legitimate king. It is that He is the
legitimate king of the descendants of Abraham.
He is the legitimate king of the Jews and traces His ancestry back to
the father of the Jews.
THE
GENEALOGY FROM ABRAHAM TO DAVID
2 To
Abraham was born Isaac; and to Isaac, Jacob; and to Jacob, Judah and his
brothers; 3 and to
Judah were born Perez and Zerah by Tamar; and to Perez was born Hezron; and to
Hezron, Ram; 4 and to
Ram was born Amminadab; and to Amminadab, Nahshon; and to Nahshon, Salmon; 5 and to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab; and to Boaz was
born Obed by Ruth; and to Obed, Jesse; 6 and to
Jesse was born David the king. (Matthew 1:2‑6a).
This
is the first set of fourteen names. Any
Jewish scholar from the days of Jesus would have been familiar with these
names. They were listed in chronicles of
the Old Testament (1 Chronicles 1:28, 34; 2:1-15). These names were rooted in the history of
This
is an important point. The life of Jesus
is not some mystical once upon a time fairy tale. It is rooted in history. Matthew is introducing a historical account
that took place in real world history.
At the same time, there is a particular focus in this genealogy that is
seen when we come to the sons of Jacob and we read that to Jacob was born
Judah and his brothers. The other
sons of Jacob will be ignored as we focus only upon the tribe of the king.
Another
distinction about this genealogy is its inclusion of women. There are three women mentioned in this
section and they are all Gentiles. That
is significant because this is a Jewish genealogy starting with the father of
the Jews and taking us down to the king of the Jews.
|
Verse |
Name |
Significance |
|
3 |
Tamar |
Produced an
heir through fornication with her father-in-law |
|
5 |
Rahab |
Prostitute from
|
|
5 |
Ruth |
Moabite woman
who married Boaz |
Before we come to the end of
the genealogy we shall see two more women named—Bathsheba and Mary. The last two women will be Jewish, but these
first three are not.
• The first is Tamar. She is mentioned in verse 3. Her story is found in Genesis 38. It is a story of death and betrayal. She was married to Er, the son of
The
rest of the story is one of fornication, deceit, and dishonor, but in the end,
a male heir was produced and it was through Tamar that the lineage of David was
descended.
• The second woman mentioned is Rahab
(1:5). She was the prostitute of
• The third woman is Ruth (1:5). She was a woman from
3 No Ammonite or Moabite
shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the
tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, 4 because they did not meet you with food and water on
the way when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam
the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. (Deuteronomy 23:3‑4).
The
Moabites were not permitted to come before the tabernacle of worship. Yet this woman was permitted to marry a man
of
All three of these women were
Gentiles. All three of them were
sinners. All three had been raised in
pagan families, but were then brought into a covenant relationship with the
Lord and with His people. All three are
in the line of Jesus.
THE GENEALOGY FROM DAVID
TO
And to David was born Solomon by
her who had been the wife of Uriah; 7
and to Solomon was born Rehoboam; and to Rehoboam, Abijah; and to Abijah, Asa; 8 and to Asa was born Jehoshaphat; and to Jehoshaphat,
Joram; and to Joram, Uzziah; 9 and to
Uzziah was born Jotham; and to Jotham, Ahaz; and to Ahaz, Hezekiah; 10 and to Hezekiah was born Manasseh; and to Manasseh,
Amon; and to Amon, Josiah; 11 and to
Josiah were born Jeconiah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to
Babylon. (Matthew 1:6b‑12).
Now we come to the second set
of fourteen names. This set would also
have been familiar to any Jewish scholar of the first century. These names were to the Jew what a list of
the presidents of the
1. David
the king (1:6).
The
Old Testament has a great deal to say about David. As the youngest of eight sons, David had
risen from obscurity to become the king of all
In
the midst of his greatness, he had committed great sin, murdering one of his
loyal subjects and taking the man’s wife for himself. It was through this union that Solomon was
born. This is referenced in the
genealogy when we read that Solomon was born by her who had been the wife of
Uriah.
By
now we will have noticed a pattern among the women who are mentioned in this
genealogy. All the women who are
mentioned up to this point are of questionable character. They were not always in the wrong, but they
were all put into a position where their character might be brought into
question.
• Tamar had a child by her father-in-law.
• Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute.
• Ruth was a Moabitess who came to Boaz by
night.
• Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah who
engaged in adultery with David.
• Mary conceived a child while only
betrothed to Joseph.
2. Solomon
(1:6).
The
days of Solomon were the golden age of
Solomon’s
great failing was that he took for himself many wives after the custom of the great kings of that era and the wives he
took came with their idols and false gods.
Thus Solomon fell into idol worship and he led the nation into that same
idolatry. For this reason, it was
prophesied that the nation would be torn into two parts and his son would only
retain the two southern tribes.
3. Rehoboam
(1:7).
Solomon’s
building projects had placed a very heavy tax burden upon the people of
4. Hezekiah
(1:10).
One
of the great revivals of
It
was in Hezekiah’s day that the Assyrian army came against
5. Josiah
(1:11).
Josiah’s
advent to the throne brought about one final revival in
Josiah
had three sons who reigned upon the throne of
Joahaz
came to the throne following the death of his father in an encounter with the
Egyptian Pharaoh Necho. After a brief
reign of only three months, Pharaoh Necho came to
Necho
now placed Eliakim upon the throne of
Jehoiakim
remained faithful to
6. Jeconiah
(1:11).
The
prophet Jeremiah had decreed that this same Jeconiah, also known as Coniah,
would not prosper upon the throne and that none of his descendants would ever
sit upon the throne of David.
“As I live,” declares the LORD,
“even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My
right hand, yet I would pull you off; 25 and I
shall give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life, yes, into
the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.” (Jeremiah 22:24‑25).
A
signet ring was the sign of a ruler’s authority. The Lord is saying in effect, “Even if it
meant that I would lose the sign of my rule and authority upon earth, I would
nevertheless pull you off.”
Verse
30 goes on to point out that Jeconiah would be considered to be childless. It would be as though his line had ended with
him.
Thus
says the LORD,
“Write
this man down childless,
A
man who will not prosper in his days;
For
no man of his descendants will prosper
Sitting
on the throne of David
Or
ruling again in
True
to the prophecy, Jeconiah was taken as a captive to
THE GENEALOGY FROM
12 And after the
deportation to Babylon, to Jeconiah was born Shealtiel; and to Shealtiel,
Zerubbabel; 13 and to
Zerubbabel was born Abihud; and to Abihud, Eliakim; and to Eliakim, Azor; 14 and to Azor was born Zadok; and to Zadok, Achim; and
to Achim, Eliud; 15 and to
Eliud was born Eleazar; and to Eleazar, Matthan; and to Matthan, Jacob; 16 and to Jacob was born Joseph the husband of Mary, by
whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. (Matthew 1:12‑17).
This final section of the
genealogy follows from Jeconiah all the way down to Joseph. They were all descendants of king David, but
none of these men ever sat upon the throne of
“On that day,” declares the LORD
of hosts, “I will take you, Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, My servant,” declares
the LORD, “and I will make you like a signet ring, for I have chosen you,”
declares the LORD of hosts. (Haggai 2:23).
Do you recall how the Lord
had said that, even if Coniah had been a signet ring upon the hand of the Lord,
he would be pulled off? The signet ring
was a sign of royal authority and now we read that there is an aspect of this
authority that was to be passed down through Zerubbabel.
The blessings of God had been
taken away in the days of Coniah, but now there is a promise of their
restoration under Zerubbabel. The
promise is that Zerubbabel would be “like a signet ring.” Where do you put a signet ring? On your right hand (see Jeremiah 22:24). That is where we find Jesus. He is seated at the right hand of God. He is the fulfillment of this promise. He is the legal heir of Zerubbabel who would
be the signet ring of God.
Now I want you to notice
something. Joseph was the last of the
line of Jeconiah. He was the last of
this royal line who had the right to sit on the throne of David. But he himself could not sit upon the throne
because of the prophecy of Jeremiah. The
Lord had said no physical descendant would ever sit upon the throne of David
and that meant Joseph could not sit upon David’s throne
Jesus, the adopted son of
Joseph, was the only person in all the ancient world who was both legally and
prophetically entitled to sit upon the throne of David. His half-brothers and all other physical
descendants of Coniah were under a curse.
They could not sit on the throne and prosper. But Jesus was not a physical descendant of
Joseph. He was born of a virgin. He was not under the curse.
But this is not all. If we are correct in understanding Luke’s
genealogy to be that of Mary, Jesus was also a physical descendant of David
through Mary. Just as His adoption gave
Jesus the legal right to the throne, His birth through Mary gave Him the
prophetic and physical right to the throne because it meant He was the physical
descendant of David.
CONCLUSION
Therefore all the generations
from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the
deportation to
Matthew closes this section
with a simple acrostic. He shows a
pattern within these groupings of name that will aid the reader in remembering
them. There are three groups of fourteen
names. As we have noted, David is
mentioned in both the first as well as in the second group.
|
Abraham to
David |
David to the
Captivity |
The
Captivity to Jesus |
|
Abraham Isaac Jacob Perez Hezron Ram Amminadab Nashon Salmon Boaz Obed Jesse David |
David Solomon Rehoboam Abijah Asa Jehoshaphat Joram Uzziah Jotham Ahaz Hezekiah Manasseh Amon Josiah |
Jeconiah Shealtiel Zerubbabel Abiud Eliakim Azor Zadok Achim Eliud Eleazar Matthan Jacob Joseph Jesus Christ |
|
Promise of a nation to rise
of the king |
From the king to the fall
of the kingdom |
Captivity to the coming of
the Greater King |
Thus there is a rising, a
falling, and a second rising action to be seen in this genealogy. Fredrick Bruner makes this observation:
We will
understand this three‑times‑fourteen formation best if we picture a
kind of leaning capital N, an N in which the first fourteen generations head
upward from Father Abraham to King David like this (/), the second fourteen
generations plummet downward from King Solomon to the Babylonian Exile (), and
then finally the last fourteen generations move upward again from exile to the
Christ (/).(1987:4).
As we noted earlier, the
numerical equivalent of the Hebrew name “David” is fourteen. The Hebrews regularly used the Hebrew letters
in place of numbers. Instead of 1+1=2,
they would think in terms of a+b=c. The
letters that spell the name “David” come to a total of fourteen when they are
seen in their numerical equivalent.
This brings us to a
question. What is the importance of all
this? What is the significance of this
genealogy? What significance did it hold
for the Jew living in the first century for whom this was written? I want to suggest that this document was
meant as evidence to identify Jesus as the Messiah, the king of
The Jews kept very detailed
genealogical records. Such records were
accessible to the public. They were
official documents. They were kept
accurate from generation to generation.
Thus the Jews were able to trace back their lineage all the way to
Abraham. This genealogy presented by
Matthew could easily be verified by going to
This document testifies that
Jesus has the legal right to sit upon the throne of David. He is the only Jew on record living since the
days of the Babylonian Captivity who has both the right to sit on the throne
and yet who is not under the curse of Coniah.
No one else in history meets these two requirements. Only in Jesus do we see them fulfilled.
This is the point of the
genealogy. If Jesus is not the promised
Messiah, the heir of David, and the true king of the Jews, then who is? The answer is obvious. No one else in history has ever fulfilled
these requirements. Jesus is indeed the
Messiah and true king of
Return to Stevenson Bible Study Page
[1] The
term bibloj
is used in Revelation 6:14 to that speaks of the sky being rolled back as a
“scroll.”
[2] Another
example of such a use is found in the case of Jair who was a son‑in‑law
of Manasseh (1 Chronicles 2:21‑23 and 7:14‑15), yet who is called
the “son of Manasseh” in Numbers 32:41, Deuteronomy 3:14, and 1 Kings 4:13.