Is There a Missing Generation in Matthew 1?

Matthew begins his Gospel with Jesus’ genealogy. Most scholars agree that these verses are an argument for Jesus legal standing as the Messiah of Israel. But verse 17 could call this into question. A generation is missing. And because of this, you might even argue that Matthew is hiding a secret clue revealing that Jesus IS NOT the Messiah. What does this missing generation really mean?

I want you to see the Gospel of Matthew as a legal argument. Matthew is a lawyer standing before a jury of the finest Jewish religious leaders of the First Century. Over the next twenty-eight chapters, he’s going to make the case that a rabbi from the little village of Nazareth is actually the promised Son of David prophesied to lead Israel out of exile, restoring the Kingdom of God. Matthew’s argument will come from the Hebrew Scriptures. It will apply the most brilliant religious and legal rhetoric possible. Matthew believes Jesus is the King. But in his opening statement, he could be making a fatal blunder that will undermine his entire case.

Matthew approaches the jury with overwhelming confidence. Without any setup or pleasantries, he locks eyes the the Jewish religious leaders and says:

This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. (Matthew 1:1 NET)

Jesus the Messiah, Son of David, Son of Abraham

This verse is way too easy to breeze past and ignore. For those of us 2000 years removed historically, and even further away culturally, these are just facts to be heard and then filed away. Matthew’s audience didn’t see them this way. His claim is brash; in their face. It’s just too bold to be ignored.

I imagine the members of the jury scoffing out loud; folding their arms in skepticism. Is Matthew really making the claim that this Yeshua (Jesus’ Hebrew name) from the backwater village of Nazareth is the Son of David? The Seed of Abraham? The Anointed One promised to regather the broken tribes of Israel into one nation, throwing off the bonds of the oppressive Roman Empire and restoring the glorious Kingdom of old?

Let’s stop here and take this in. This is exactly what Matthew is doing. Over the nest twenty-eight chapters, Matthew will quote many verses from the Hebrew Scriptures. He will apply the most advanced tools of Jewish interpretation. And he will present his evidence that the rabbi crucified by the Romans at the request of the Jewish Sanhedrin was more than another revolutionary. He is the Messiah. The Son of David. The Son of Abraham

This is why Matthew must begin with Jesus’ genealogy. The King must come from the correct lineage. Jesus’ legal claim to the throne must come through Abraham, David, Solomon and his descendants. The line of succession is well known, and must be adhered to. So, Matthew begins to recite the evidence. And he’s barely a breath further in the story before he shocks and offends everyone in the courtroom.

A Big Surprise

Women don’t belong in an argument for the lineage of the Messiah. But Jesus is no ordinary man, and his genealogy shouldn’t be ordinary, either. In fact, his family line is scandalous.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah (by Tamar), Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz (by Rahab), Boaz the father of Obed (by Ruth), Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon (by the wife of Uriah)… (Matthew 1:2-6 NET)

Matthew’s opening statement is unignorable. By including these four women, Matthew is bringing shame upon the family line of the one he’s claiming is the rightful king. These stories aren’t the kind he should be bringing up. In fact, these are the claims his opponents should raise as they try to destroy his argument.

Tamar

Tamar was a Canaanite. She married the oldest son of Judah. But this son died, and she was given to his younger brother. This brother treated her shamefully and refused to allow her to bear a son to carry forward his brother’s line. Judah, her father-in-law, promised his youngest son to Tamar, but never delivered on this promise. So, Tamar posed as a prostitute and had sex with her father-in-law, bearing twin sons, Perez and Zerah. Perez would continue the family line.

Rahab

Rahab is another Canaanite, and another prostitute. She lived in the walls of the great city of Jericho. Along with the rest of the citizens, she had heard of Israel’s victories while in the wilderness. She knew that their God would destroy her and her people. So, she took a gamble and helped two Israelites sent to spy out the city. Her gamble paid off. They promised not to destroy her or her family as long as they all remained within her home. Jewish tradition is that one of those spies was Salmon, who later married her.

Ruth

Ruth was a Moabite. During the wandering in the wilderness, the prophet Balaam persuaded the Israelite men to intermarry with the Moabites, which led to idolatry and a curse that threatened to annihilate the nation. After judgment and repentance from the nation, YHWH instructed that no Hebrew male was permitted to marry a Moabite. But the son of Rahab, named Boaz, seems to have gone against this prohibition and married Ruth. Ruth gave birth to Obed. Obed to Jesse. And Jesse to King David.

The Wife of Uriah

This final scandalous woman was so intense that Matthew refuses to even call her by name. The “wife of Uriah” was Bathsheba. This story is very familiar to us. David shirked his responsibility to lead Israel’s army in battle. Instead, he took the wife of Uriah the Hittite and forced her to have sex. She became pregnant. David tried to find a way to cover it up. That failed horribly, so he had Uriah murdered. The child was born but eventually died. David and Bathsheba had another child, Solomon. Solomon would follow David to the throne.

Why does Matthew include these scandalous stories in Jesus’ genealogy? Matthew is writing to a primarily Jewish audience. These stories aren’t new information to them; they’re information that they’d rather ignore. King David is the king they associated with the greatest moments in Israel’s history. For centuries they have longed and prayed for a return to these glory days. They believe the promised Messiah is the one who will fulfill these longings. But Matthew is already laying the groundwork for some radical arguments he’ll make later in his gospel:

• First, some of Israel’s greatest moments are directly connected to women embroiled in scandal.
• Second, the Davidic line includes Gentiles. Tamar. Rahab. Ruth. Even Bathsheba, who was married to a Hittite, meaning she probably was a Hittite, herself.

King David’s line is sketchy.

David! (3X)

Now, Matthew has the jury’s undivided attention. Where is he going with this? They all know the scandals, so why is he bringing them up? It’s time for him to move to his next point. He divides up Jesus’ genealogy into three sections: Abraham to David; David to the Babylonian Exile; and The Exile to Jesus’ birth. Matthew intentionally leaves out specific people in the line, in order to come to three groupings of fourteen names. And then, he highlights these divisions:

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. (Matthew 1:17 NET)

The jury hears his message, loud and clear. Everything about the Messiah is built off of the legend of King David. Dividing Jesus’ lineage into three groups of fourteen is a brilliant move, and they know it. Here’s why.

Gematria

A common teaching tool of Jewish Sages is called “gematria.” The Hebrew language doesn’t have specific numbers. Instead, each Hebrew letter is assigned a numerical value. What this means is that each Hebrew word also has a value. And the number of King David’s name is fourteen.

No Punctuation?

Ancient Hebrew doesn’t have punctuation. So, in order to emphasize a point, writers would often repeat words. This is common in Jesus’ teaching when the Gospel writers have Him saying, ‘Truly! Truly!” It’s not likely that Jesus repeated the word when we spoke it. He just spoke the word with great emphasis, and the Gospel writers wanted to make that clear.

The Ultimate

When the Bible wants to express the greatest emphasis on something, it repeats the word three times, like in Isaiah 6:

In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly. They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!” The sound of their voices shook the door frames, and the temple was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6:1-4 NET)

Let’s apply these tools to Matthew 1:17. Matthew summarizes the lineage of Jesus with three groupings of fourteen names. That’s fourteen – the Hebrew number for the name David – three times. Matthew’s statement is genius. Jesus is the ultimate manifestation of King David. But then, it all falls apart.

A Missing Generation

There’s just one problem with these groupings. The last division only has thirteen names in it. A generation is missing. And that doesn’t work. So, scholars have come up with several work-arounds for this:

• King David is included in the end of the first grouping and the beginning of the second. This shifts the numbers down and could resolve the missing generation in the last grouping.
• King Jehoiakim is intentionally excluded from the list because he was the king in power when Babylon conquered Israel. So, while he’s not actually listed, his presence is felt and Matthew is implying that he’s there.
• A wild explanation is that the word for “husband” in verse 16 is actually “father” in an obscure Aramaic transcript. The “Joseph” of this genealogy is Mary’s father, and Mary is the missing generation. The result is that this genealogy becomes Mary’s, and Joseph’s is found in Luke 3.

All of these are plausible, but completely unprovable. But something has to fix this. If it doesn’t, this missing generation “Messiah! Messiah! NOT Messiah!”

Born Again

There’s a fourth option that I really like, and I think fits perfectly into what Matthew will do throughout this Gospel. Jesus will live as a son of Abraham and David. He will lay His life down as a perfect sacrifice for all of humanity. And then, he will be “born again.” He will be the ultimate fourteenth generation, becoming the Anointed One who not only fulfills the prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures, but becomes the firstborn of a new humanity. And this is where our story begins.