Matthew's Genealogy of Jesus

In reference to Rick’s question about Matthew’s use of numbers in the genealogy of Christ, I will toss in my two cents. I can answer all your biblical questions.*


Abraham receiving the promise of a kingdom initiates an Age of Preparation. David fulfills the promise in an earthly sense and initiates the Age of the Kingdom which ends tragically with the Babylonian exile. The Age of Exile is again an age of preparation – not for an earthly king and kingdom but for the establishment of the heavenly kingdom and the coming of the King of glory.

I think fourteen signifies preparation, as it is the “double seven”, with seven symbolizing divinity and completion. It is the length of an “age”, an era, an epoch. I hesitate to use the word “dispensation” since it has other connotations.

Three, of course, would be indicative of the Trinity. Abraham represents the Father who prepares for the Son, and David the Son who prepares for the Kingdom – or the Bride. (Remember, David, though he brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, was not allowed to build a temple for it. He could only make preparation.) The age of exile and return represent the Holy Spirit as He makes preparation for an entirely new paradigm with the apocalyptic arrival of Jesus. The Messiah becomes the pivot point of history – not only being the ultimate Word for revealing God, but explaining and fulfilling the types and shadows in the Law and the Prophets.

I’m sure that’s not the only way to look at the genealogy and its divisions but it is one possible view.

I'll throw something else out here that kind of goes along with this. There's a great story related in Genesis 24. I won't go into all of it now, just touch the high points. Abraham, the Father, is intent on getting a wife for Isaac, the Son. He sends his eldest servant, his steward -- symbolic of the Holy Spirit -- to the town of Nahor where members of his family still dwell. The servant goes and finds Rebekah -- representing the Bride of Christ -- and brings her back to Isaac. There you have, in a single chapter in Genesis, pretty much the whole of spiritual history summarized.




*Disclaimer: Answers may be made up on the spot and cannot always be expected to be correct or in anyway related to any sound theology, homiletics, hermeneutics, or neutered hermits.