Jeconiah and Shealtiel -- I don't find anything on them except what is written in Matthew and a few genealogies listed in Ezra. Let me know if I've overlooked something!
Zerubbabel-- He became the governor and helped rebuild the temple after the exile had ended. A pretty awesome guy, you can read a lot about the powerful stuff he did in Ezra, Nehemiah and Haggai.
Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan and Jacob don't have much written about them other than this genealogy. I wonder perhaps because they are in a part of history that is so recent that the folks reading it wouldn't find it noteworthy to read about? Sure makes me curious. If you see anything I may have overlooked, I welcome supplemental reading.
Last but not least, we come to Joseph. This is the guy that married Mary even though she was pregnant and he knew that the kid wasn't his. This says a lot about the kind of guy Joseph was. He was the step-dad to Jesus! I find it interesting that God chose Jesus to experience life on earth as an adopted step-kid. Says a lot about how he sees us as his adopted kids. Pretty cool.
verse 17
What is the deal with the math here? 14 generations + 14 generations + 14 generations? I get that there are 14 generations from Abraham to David. I even get that there were 14 generations from Jeconiah to Jesus. But how does Matthew count that there were 14 generations from David until the Babylonian exile?! Please explain this to me if you can! As I stated earlier, according to 2 Chronicles and 2 Kings, this genealogy skips some folks. So why only counting 14? Is it a figure of speech that meant something to the Jews of the day? I welcome answers!
1 comment:
Hi Nikki, here is what one resource suggested, though the genealogies of the NT seem to still enjoy some debate amongst scholars.
From Barnes New Testament Commentary
Matthew 1:17:
Verse 17. All the generations, etc. This division of the names in their genealogy was doubtless adopted for the purpose of aiding the memory. It was common among the Jews; and other similar instances are preserved. They were destitute of other books beside the Old Testament, and had but few copies of that among them, and those chiefly in their synagogues. They would, therefore, naturally devise plans to keep up the remembrance of the principal facts in their history. One method of doing this was to divide the tables of genealogy into portions of equal length, to be committed to memory. This greatly facilitated the remembrance of the names. A man who wished to commit to memory the names of a regiment of soldiers, would naturally divide it into companies and platoons, and this would greatly facilitate his work. This was doubtless the reason in the case before us. And though it is not strictly accurate, yet it was the Jewish way of keeping their records, and answered their purpose. There were three leading persons and events that nearly, or quite, divided their history into equal portions--Abraham, David, and the Babylonish captivity. From one to the other was about fourteen generations, and, by omitting a few names, it was sufficiently accurate to be made a general guide or directory in remembering their history.
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