Mt 1:17 – ‘So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to Christ, fourteen generations.’

The differences between Matthew’s and Luke’s genealogy of Jesus have been discussed elsewhere.

But what should we make of Matthew’s division of his genealogy into three groups of fourteen?

Matthew says that between Abraham and David were fourteen generations; between David and Exile were another fourteen generations; and between the Exile and Jesus were yet another fourteen generations.

The problem here is that he appears to have arrived at this neat arrangement by omitting some names in the section between David and the Exile.  That interval is spanned by seventeen kings.  Conspicuous by their absence are Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah.

But, as Raymond Brown says:

‘It would be strange for Matthew to deliberately omit generations in order to create a pattern and then call his readers’ attention to it as if it’s some marvellous and (implicitly) providential pattern.’

Brown’s explanation is that Matthew is using an abbreviated list of kings.

James Bejon notes that Matthew is particularly interested in tracing David’s throneline.  But why does the Evangelist miss three names out?

Bejon notes that the line of David came under threat, due to Baal-worship and intermarriage in the time of king Ahab.  The Lord raised up a non-Judahite, Jehu, to whom he promised that his sons would sit on the throne of Isarel to the fourth generation (2 King 10:30).  And this is what came to pass.

• Jehu ‘disposed of Ahaziah midway through his accession year, which means his name wouldn’t have appeared in official king lists’.
• Jehu’s descendants occupied David’s throne in place of Joash and Amaziah.

And these three – Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah – are precisely the kings who are omitted by Matthew.

One way in which the reign of Jehu is marked out as significant is seen in the fact that the obituaries of the three aforementioned kings are not given in the standard wording (“X slept with his fathers”).  In their case, notes Bejon:

• Amaziah: died in Samaria (2 Kgs 9:28; 2 Chr 22:9), carried back to Jerusalem (2 Kgs 9:28 only).
• Joash: assassinated by his sons (2 Kgs 12:19-21, 2 Chr 24:25a), ‘not buried in the tombs of the kings’ (2 Chr 24:25b only).
• Amaziah: ousted from Jerusalem (2 Kgs 14:19, 2 Chr 25:27), carried back to Jerusalem (2 Kgs. 14:20 only), buried in ‘a city of Judah’ (2 Chr 25:27 only).

It appears, then, that Matthew has followed the Chronicler in disconnecting these three kings from their Davidic ancestry.

And for good reason, as we have seen.