by Brian Franks

Genealogies seem to be one of the hardest things in the Bible for people to get excited about. Thankfully, they don’t come around too often. I’ve noticed that every time a genealogy does come around, however, something pivotal is happening.

In Genesis 10, the genealogies depict the spread of humanity across the world. They help us see the connections among different people groups, and they introduce all the tribes we will follow in the Bible. Genealogies serve as cast lists for a play.

Many Bible readers skip the genealogies in 1 Chronicles 1-9. However, these list Israel’s ancestors and all the active royal lines from David when the nation was struggling to see her own permanence during the Babylonian exile. This is how the Chronicler chooses to begin retelling the history of Israel to the exiles and beyond. The genealogies mark where they came from and who they were and who they could still be. They speak to a people seeking identity and waiting for a promised Messiah.

Son of David

Another genealogy starts off the New Testament. Why? Because, like it or not, genealogies are important. Matthew makes the critical connection between the Old Testament and the New with the genealogy of the Messiah. This serves as one of the most pivotal pieces of evidence that Jesus could be the Messiah because He comes from the royal line that the Messiah is prophesied to come from. A genealogy is something no person can control about themselves.

Matthew lays the groundwork with the first of many connections proving Jesus is the Messiah that the world was waiting for. More than that, Matthew’s genealogy arrangement “preaches.” He divides the genealogy into three sets of fourteen names. You don’t even have to count to figure this out; Matthew states it right there in the text (1:17). He makes an explicit connection between David and Jesus. How? In Hebrew numerology, each letter of the alphabet has a corresponding number value. David’s Hebrew name is D-V-D, with D being the fourth letter and holding that value, while V is the sixth letter and carries that value.

So, 4 + 4 + 6 = 14. Jesus is the fourteenth generation after the Exile in this line. However, to make the list of the kings reduce to only fourteen, Matthew omits a full seven names: Ahaziah, Athaliah, Joash, Amaziah, Jehoahaz/Shallum, Jehoiakim/Eliakim, and Zedekiah/Mattaniah.

Theological points

Before you cry, “Treason!” as Athaliah did, Matthew is not trying to hide the discrepancy and hope his original audience won’t notice. Of course they will. They will know the lists of kings, and they can consult the records from the books of Kings and Chronicles in case they can’t remember.

While there are naturally fourteen generations from Abraham to David, and from the Exile to the Messiah, there are actually twenty-one generations from David to the Exile. By dropping seven names from two groups of kings, Matthew makes a theological point. His audience notices that the missing names explicitly draw more attention to the point.

Rather than Matthew rewriting the genealogy willy-nilly, he contracts out the two most unstable periods in the kingdom. The first group of names omitted comes in conjunction with the collapse of the house of Ahab in Israel and the complicity of the monarchy in Judah with that cursed house. It includes the illegitimate rule of Queen Athaliah and the disgraceful end to Joash’s rule (with the execution of righteous priests, who were also his relatives).

The second set comes with the destabilized period of sons and relatives of King Josiah, who ruled after his death. Some ruled only a short time, some were bound and taken into exile, and some disobeyed God’s direct commands. By these omissions, Matthew is not hiding these kings or their stories. He is emphasizing their unfaithfulness and removing their names from his presentation and, in so doing, reduces the list to fourteen kings. Even some of these kept on the list were not so good.

This is an interesting example because it shows that writers of the Bible saw genealogies not merely as a list of boring names but as a way to make theological points. Even the Chronicler does it, when David is first said to be the eighth son of Jesse, but 1 Chronicles 2:15 presents him as the seventh son. We know he is actually the eighth son (cf. 1 Samuel 16:10). But by switching his birth order in the genealogy, the Chronicler emphasizes David’s role as the preeminent example of a king. Again, the readers will know he is the eighth, but they will notice the switch and consider the implications.

This is to say nothing of Luke’s use of a genealogy in his Gospel and the theological points he makes with it (3:23-38). Hint: Think about where Luke starts and ends his list.

A genealogy of two

The Bible contains one more important genealogy. As a result of what Jesus Messiah has done, those who believe and follow His commands become adopted brothers and sisters to Christ. They are joint heirs with Him (Romans 8:17; Galatians 4:7) and thus, sons and daughters of God. Regardless of where a person comes from, if they believe, they are adopted into the family and find their new genealogy throughout the Bible: sons and daughters of the Most High God, siblings to Christ.

If you are fatigued by the long lists of names you see in the other genealogies, this one is only two levels deep. As a beloved older member of my congregation used to say to me, “God doesn’t have any grandchildren — only children.”

Though it may take some study and time to notice these kinds of details, the payoff is huge. Each genealogy has its purpose in the Bible. Those who believe can find their genealogy in the Bible as well, living their life for God — not a far-off, impersonal deity but Abba Father.