Matthew 1:17
Encyclopedia
Matthew 1:17 is the seventeenth verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew
in the New Testament
. The verse is the conclusion to the section where the genealogy
of Joseph
, the father of Jesus
, is listed.
, according to Westcott and Hort
, reads:
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
The World English Bible
translates the passage as:
For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 1:17
. The lunar month is 28 days, 14 days of waxing and 14 days of waning. Thus the first grouping could be the initial waxing to David, the next fourteen the waning to the Babylonian captivity and the last period the waxing towards Jesus. Calculations based on this verse led Joachim of Fiore
to predict the Second Coming
would occur in the thirteenth century.
The number 14
is itself important. It is twice 7, which was considered a holy number. David
's name, when turned into numbers, adds up to fourteen. 3 groups of 14 is the same of 6 groups of 7. Davies and Allison mention a theory that the first six periods reflect the first six days of the week, with Jesus begins the seventh day, that of the eternal Sabath
.
A number of explanations have been advanced to explain this. The most straightforward is that the author of Matthew simply miscounted. Other such seeming errors in mathematics are found in the Old Testament, and also in other works of this period. Another view, which would preserve the inerrency of the Bible, is that David's name should appear twice just as it is mentioned twice in the verse. By this count he is both one of the fourteen from "Abraham to David" and also one of the fourteen from "David to the exile to Babylon." The main problem with this is that it would also suggest that since the exile to Babylon is mentioned twice the man at this time, Jeconiah, should also appear twice. Other theories that have been advanced include that Mary counts as one of the 14 or that Jeconiah
legally counts as two separate people, one as king the other as dethroned civilian.
An explanation that scholars today find more probable is that the problem lies in Matthew 1:11
. Almost all other sources report that a king named Jehoiakim
was between Josiah
and Jeconiah
. Many scholars feel it is likely that Jeconiah, whose name can be spelt Jehoiachin, was confused with his father and they were merged into one person. Thus the error was one by a later transcriber.
However there are several other people who were left out of the genealogy. Matthew 1:8
skips over Ahaziah
, Athaliah
, Jehoash
, and Amaziah
, two of whom were kings of Israel and all are well documented by other sources. Begat can also mean grandfather of and skipping unimportant generations is not uncommon in ancient genealogies. See Matthew 1:8
for a full discussion on why these four may have been left out. It is, however, somewhat duplicitous to claim that there were fourteen generations when in fact there were eighteen. Fowler argues that this verse is not in error, as it is not a description of the actual genealogy, but simply of the list that was presented in the Gospel. Fowler believes that the author of Matthew had good reason to drop the names he did and to skip unnecessary ancestors. Fowler sees instructions in this verse are to aid in the memorization of Matthew's version of the genealogy, not the historical list of decedents. By tradition the first period from Abraham to David always had fourteen names, so the author of Matthew simply cut unneeded names from the other two sections to create an easily memorized triple structure.
A transcriber skipping similar names in a list is a common error known as homoioteleuton. Some scholars feel that the original author of Matthew probably had the list correct, and that a later scribe erased the four. This theory implies that this verse must be a later addition to text, as the 14/14/14 structure only came into being after that error was made.
An added problem is that even with several extra names added there are far too few names for the many centuries this genealogy is meant to cover. The much longer genealogy in Luke 3
is more realistic in this regard.
Gospel of Matthew
The Gospel According to Matthew is one of the four canonical gospels, one of the three synoptic gospels, and the first book of the New Testament. It tells of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth...
in the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
. The verse is the conclusion to the section where the genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
of Joseph
Saint Joseph
Saint Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the earthly father of Jesus Christ ....
, the father of Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
, is listed.
Text
The original Koine GreekKoine Greek
Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....
, according to Westcott and Hort
The New Testament in the Original Greek
The New Testament in the Original Greek is the name of a Greek language version of the New Testament published in 1881. It is also known as the Westcott and Hort text, after its editors Brooke Foss Westcott and Fenton John Anthony Hort...
, reads:
- πασαι ουν αι γενεαι απο αβρααμ εως δαυιδ γενεαι δεκατεσσαρες και απο
- δαυιδ εως της μετοικεσιας βαβυλωνος γενεαι δεκατεσσαρες και απο της
- μετοικεσιας βαβυλωνος εως του χριστου γενεαι δεκατεσσαρες
In the King James Version of the Bible the text reads:
- So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and
- from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations;
- and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations.
The World English Bible
World English Bible
The World English Bible is a public domain translation of the Bible that is currently in draft form. Work on the World English Bible began in 1997 and was known as the American Standard Version 1997...
translates the passage as:
- So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from
- David to the exile to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the carrying
- away to Babylon to the Christ, fourteen generations.
For a collection of other versions see BibRef Matthew 1:17
Reasons for the summary
Scholars see a number of reasons for this summary verse. The dividing of the genealogy in three groups of fourteen helps for the memorization of the list. The dividing Jewish history into three eras, with David at the end of one period and the exile to Babylon the end of the second places the birth of Jesus on an equal footing with these earlier major events. The division also makes it seem as though this is the right time for another major event. The numbers may be linked to Daniel 9:24-27, which states that seven weeks of years, or 490 years, would pass between the restoration of Jerusalem and the coming of the messiah. Since generations were commonly placed at 35 years, this means exactly 14 generations. Davies and Allison also note that this might be linked to the lunar calendarLunar calendar
A lunar calendar is a calendar that is based on cycles of the lunar phase. A common purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar or Hijri calendar. A feature of the Islamic calendar is that a year is always 12 months, so the months are not linked with the seasons and drift each solar year by 11 to...
. The lunar month is 28 days, 14 days of waxing and 14 days of waning. Thus the first grouping could be the initial waxing to David, the next fourteen the waning to the Babylonian captivity and the last period the waxing towards Jesus. Calculations based on this verse led Joachim of Fiore
Joachim of Fiore
Joachim of Fiore, also known as Joachim of Flora and in Italian Gioacchino da Fiore , was the founder of the monastic order of San Giovanni in Fiore . He was a mystic, a theologian and an esoterist...
to predict the Second Coming
Second Coming
In Christian doctrine, the Second Coming of Christ, the Second Advent, or the Parousia, is the anticipated return of Jesus Christ from Heaven, where he sits at the Right Hand of God, to Earth. This prophecy is found in the canonical gospels and in most Christian and Islamic eschatologies...
would occur in the thirteenth century.
The number 14
14 (number)
14 is the natural number following 13 and preceding 15.In speech, the numbers 14 and 40 are often confused. When carefully enunciated, they differ in which syllable is stressed: 14 vs 40...
is itself important. It is twice 7, which was considered a holy number. David
David
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
's name, when turned into numbers, adds up to fourteen. 3 groups of 14 is the same of 6 groups of 7. Davies and Allison mention a theory that the first six periods reflect the first six days of the week, with Jesus begins the seventh day, that of the eternal Sabath
Sabath
Sabath may refer to:* A. J. Sabath, former Commissioner of Labor and Workforce Development in New Jersey* Adolph J. Sabath , member of the U.S...
.
Missing person
However, there are some complications with this passage. There are only 41 names listed, one would expect 14 x 3 or 42. This leaves one of the divisions a member short.
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A number of explanations have been advanced to explain this. The most straightforward is that the author of Matthew simply miscounted. Other such seeming errors in mathematics are found in the Old Testament, and also in other works of this period. Another view, which would preserve the inerrency of the Bible, is that David's name should appear twice just as it is mentioned twice in the verse. By this count he is both one of the fourteen from "Abraham to David" and also one of the fourteen from "David to the exile to Babylon." The main problem with this is that it would also suggest that since the exile to Babylon is mentioned twice the man at this time, Jeconiah, should also appear twice. Other theories that have been advanced include that Mary counts as one of the 14 or that Jeconiah
Jeconiah
Jeconiah "; ; ), also known as Coniah and as Jehoiachin , was a king of Judah who was dethroned by the King of Babylon in the 6th Century BCE and was taken into captivity. Most of what is known about Jeconiah is found in the Hebrew Bible. After many excavations in Iraq, records of Jeconiah's...
legally counts as two separate people, one as king the other as dethroned civilian.
An explanation that scholars today find more probable is that the problem lies in Matthew 1:11
Matthew 1:11
Matthew 1:11 is the eleventh verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The verse is part of the section where the genealogy of Joseph, the father of Jesus, is listed...
. Almost all other sources report that a king named Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim
Jehoiakim .On Josiah's death, Jehoiakim's younger brother Jehoahaz was proclaimed king, but after three months pharaoh Necho II deposed him and replaced him with the eldest son, Eliakim, who adopted the name Jehoiakim and became king at the age of twenty-five...
was between Josiah
Josiah
Josiah or Yoshiyahu or Joshua was a king of Judah who instituted major reforms. Josiah is credited by most historians with having established or compiled important Jewish scriptures during the Deuteronomic reform that occurred during his rule.Josiah became king of Judah at the age of eight, after...
and Jeconiah
Jeconiah
Jeconiah "; ; ), also known as Coniah and as Jehoiachin , was a king of Judah who was dethroned by the King of Babylon in the 6th Century BCE and was taken into captivity. Most of what is known about Jeconiah is found in the Hebrew Bible. After many excavations in Iraq, records of Jeconiah's...
. Many scholars feel it is likely that Jeconiah, whose name can be spelt Jehoiachin, was confused with his father and they were merged into one person. Thus the error was one by a later transcriber.
However there are several other people who were left out of the genealogy. Matthew 1:8
Matthew 1:8
Matthew 1:8 is the eighth verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The verse is part of the section where the genealogy of Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, is listed....
skips over Ahaziah
Ahaziah of Judah
Ahaziah of Judah was king of Judah, and the son of Jehoram and Athaliah, the daughter of king Ahab of Israel. He is also called Jehoahaz ....
, Athaliah
Athaliah
Athaliah was the queen of Judah during the reign of King Jehoram, and later became sole ruler of Judah for six years. William F. Albright has dated her reign to 842–837 BC, while Edwin R. Thiele's dates, as taken from the third edition of his magnum opus, were 842/841 to 836/835 BC...
, Jehoash
Jehoash of Judah
Jehoash or Joas , sometimes written Joash or Joás , was the eighth king of the southern Kingdom of Judah, and the sole surviving son of Ahaziah. His mother was Zibiah of Beersheba ....
, and Amaziah
Amaziah
Amaziah or Amasias may refer to:#Amaziah of Judah, the king of Judah#A Levite, son of Hilkiah, of the descendants of Ethan the Merarite #A priest of the golden calves at Bethel...
, two of whom were kings of Israel and all are well documented by other sources. Begat can also mean grandfather of and skipping unimportant generations is not uncommon in ancient genealogies. See Matthew 1:8
Matthew 1:8
Matthew 1:8 is the eighth verse of the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. The verse is part of the section where the genealogy of Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, is listed....
for a full discussion on why these four may have been left out. It is, however, somewhat duplicitous to claim that there were fourteen generations when in fact there were eighteen. Fowler argues that this verse is not in error, as it is not a description of the actual genealogy, but simply of the list that was presented in the Gospel. Fowler believes that the author of Matthew had good reason to drop the names he did and to skip unnecessary ancestors. Fowler sees instructions in this verse are to aid in the memorization of Matthew's version of the genealogy, not the historical list of decedents. By tradition the first period from Abraham to David always had fourteen names, so the author of Matthew simply cut unneeded names from the other two sections to create an easily memorized triple structure.
A transcriber skipping similar names in a list is a common error known as homoioteleuton. Some scholars feel that the original author of Matthew probably had the list correct, and that a later scribe erased the four. This theory implies that this verse must be a later addition to text, as the 14/14/14 structure only came into being after that error was made.
An added problem is that even with several extra names added there are far too few names for the many centuries this genealogy is meant to cover. The much longer genealogy in Luke 3
Luke 3
Luke 3 is the third chapter of the Gospel of Luke in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It contains an account of John the Baptist as well as a Genealogy of Jesus.- John the Baptist :...
is more realistic in this regard.