Smoodock's Blog

As I mentioned in my previous study, Matthew’s genealogical list of names in chapter one of his Gospel narrative is only forty-one, not forty-two, as we would expect from his words in Matthew 1:17. Three lists of 14 generations should add up to 42 generations, but Jesus is the 41^st name. How can this be? It seems to be such an obvious oversight that it couldn’t possibly occur by a mistake. After all, if Matthew, the tax collector, found it difficult to count to fourteen three times and cause the three lists to equal 42, how good a tax collector could he be? Would Herod Antipas employ such a man, who had trouble counting to 42? The whole idea seems ridiculous, yet there are, indeed, only 41 generations in Jesus’ genealogy, from Abraham to Jesus, but Matthew claims there are 42. What can we make of this?

The answer is a bit complex, but really striking, if you ask me. Dr. Stephen Bryant, professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, wrote two scholarly papers[1] about the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel. He addresses the genealogy, showing us how only 41 generations can add up to 42 by using Biblical gematria.[2] Ancient cultures didn’t have a numerical system apart from their alphabets. The first letter in the alphabet also equaled number ‘1’, and the second letter equaled the number ‘2’ etc. Therefore, by applying this method of interpretation to Matthew’s genealogy we could come to terms with his intention in arranging it as he does, into three equal lists of 14 names.

The name David, for example, adds up to 14 in the Hebrew language. The vowels aren’t inserted into written Hebrew, so only the consonants (dalet, vahv, & dalet) are used. The Hebrew is dalet (4) plus vahv (6) plus dalet (4) = 14. Thus, we see why Matthew has divided his genealogy into three sets of 14. The name Abraham in Hebrew adds up to 41, and the name Jesus is in position 41 in the third list of names in the chart. Is this by coincidence or design? It seems that Matthew really does no how to count, and he is able to reach 42 and beyond.

If we multiply the first name in the first list, Abraham (41), by the last name in the first list, David (14), we get 574. Surprisingly, this sum is exactly equal to the sum of all 14 names in the first list (574). So, it seems that Matthew really does know what he’s doing, but we need to work within the system he’s using, if we wish to understand what he’d like his readers to know.

Will the second list of names behave similarly? As I’ve already shown in my previous study, Matthew leaves out the names of several kings in David’s royal line of kings. However, he isn’t eliminating names arbitrarily to get to three lists of 14 names. He excludes the names mentioned in my previous study for a reason, each one was under the curse of the prophet Elijah or the prophetess Huldah. Therefore, Matthew’s second list of fourteen names is understood to be missing some names of authentic kings of Judah, but for a good reason.

The final king in the second list, Jeconiah, has the numerical value of 40 (yod =10 + kaf = 11 + nun = 14 + hay = 5). If we multiply the last king of Judah, Jeconiah (40), with the first king of Judah, David (14) we get the sum of 560. Interestingly, if we add up the numerical value of all fourteen kings in the second (Solomon through Jeconiah) we also arrive at the sum of 560! Therefore, not only have we proved that Matthew knows how to count, but he has a message for his readers in how he arrives at his conclusion. Will the third list of names behave similarly as the first two lists? We’ll discover the answer in our next study!

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[1] Among Dr. Bryant’s published works are two papers in the Bulletin for Biblical Research (Pennsylvania State University Press) “The Missing Generation: The Completion of Matthew’s Genealogy” (Vol. 29; Issue 3; October 2019); and “Onomastics and Numerical Composition in the Genealogy of Matthew” (Vol. 30; Issue 4; December 2020).

[2] Gematria in Judaism, according to Collins On-line Dictionary, is “a system of assigning numerical values to the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, esp. when used by cabbalists to interpret the Hebrew scriptures.”