Matthew 1:8

The context

Matthew opens his Gospel with a genealogy arranged in three sets of fourteen generations, and this verse falls in the second set, which covers the kings of Judah from David to the exile. Compared with the books of Kings, it omits three rulers between Joram and Uzziah, and it does so without comment.

What it establishes

The genealogy is a theological summary rather than a complete register. Matthew selects, compresses, and arranges the line to make his pattern, which is what ancient genealogies routinely did. The list is shaped to serve an argument about continuity.

What it does not establish

The omissions are not errors to be harmonised away. They show that the list is shaped for a purpose; it cannot be used as a precise chronological record or to compute a date for the birth narratives.

Short note, first pass, October 2026. Corrections welcome.

Cited in these answers

• So Adam and Eve lived for 900+ years and Methuselah celebrated 930 years. Is it just me, or do these claims not strain credulity beyond its limits?

Part of Scripture, Opened — the exegetical layer behind every citation on this site. Scripture quotations are from the ESV.