The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham became the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers…
Jesse the father of David the king. David became the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah…
Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary. Of her was born Jesus who is called the Messiah. Thus the total number of generations from Abraham to David is fourteen generations; from David to the Babylonian exile, fourteen generations; from the Babylonian exile to the Messiah, fourteen generations. (Mt 1:1-17)
Genealogy is given, in the Bible, to present that an individual is a historical person and the individual belongs a human community. Here, in this passage, the author is presenting Jesus as a historical person and he belongs to a particular tribe etc. This is only to argue against those who believed and proclaimed that Jesus was only a divine person and he was not a human person. He only appeared to be human (Docetism).
In this genealogy list, the author presents Abraham and David. Abraham was the first historical person in the Bible. (The first eleven chapters of Genesis are only stories of creation and the beginnings of things. These chapters do not present any history but they give reasons to what could have taken place in the beginnings. They are aetiological stories). David was the first king in Israel who had the kingdom as a single unit. He was a model king. So Jesus belongs to these important persons.
The generations are fourteen and they are three fourteens. Three fourteens are equal to six times seven. (3×14 = 3x2x7 = 6×7) The number seven in the Bible signifies completeness and totality. Hence, six complete generations are over with Joseph. Arrival of Jesus begins the seventh generation. Yes Jesus begins the complete generation of totality (seven of seventh generation)
