Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus is a puzzle because he omits a number of names in order to present a triple sequence of 14 generations.
“So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations.” (Matthew 1:17)
Ancient writers were never careless, so he did this deliberately. Matthew, a Levite, was using physical generations to make a point about spiritual fertility, that is, faith. He seems to omit the spiritually barren wherever possible, but never the spiritually fertile, in order to allude to Israel’s annual harvest festivals (Leviticus 23).
These were governed by 28-day lunar months. A full moon provided a “long day” in which there was light to celebrate at night (Zechariah 14:7). The entire Old Testament era thus took place in a spiritual “nighttime” before the dawn of the Christian era (Malachi 4:2).
Passover took place in the middle of the first month, on the 14th day, a full moon. This feast reminded Israel that the nation was “God’s firstborn” just like miraculous Isaac.
Matthew thus presents the history of Israel in three sections as a menstrual cycle, waxing and waning like the moon.
The genealogy grows bright to the kingdom of faithful David, then dark again to the despair of the exile in Babylon, then bright again to the birth of Christ, the promised “offspring of the Woman” who would inherit David’s throne. (See Genesis 3:15; Revelation 12:1-2)
Merry Christmas from Michael Bull
