Reasons For The Summary
Scholars see a number of reasons for this summary verse. The dividing of the genealogy in three groups of fourteen helps for the memorization of the list. The dividing Jewish history into three eras, with David at the end of one period and the exile to Babylon the end of the second places the birth of Jesus on an equal footing with these earlier major events. The division also makes it seem as though this is the right time for another major event. The numbers may be linked to Daniel 9:24-27, which states that seven weeks of years, or 490 years, would pass between the restoration of Jerusalem and the coming of the messiah. Since generations were commonly placed at 35 years, this means exactly 14 generations. Davies and Allison also note that this might be linked to the lunar calendar. The lunar month is 28 days, 14 days of waxing and 14 days of waning. Thus the first grouping could be the initial waxing to David, the next fourteen the waning to the Babylonian captivity and the last period the waxing towards Jesus. Calculations based on this verse led Joachim of Fiore to predict the Second Coming would occur in the thirteenth century.
The number 14 is itself important. It is twice 7, which was considered a holy number. David's name, when turned into numbers, adds up to fourteen. 3 groups of 14 is the same of 6 groups of 7. Davies and Allison mention a theory that the first six periods reflect the first six days of the week, with Jesus begins the seventh day, that of the eternal Sabath.
Read more about this topic: Matthew 1:17
Famous quotes containing the words reasons for the, reasons for, reasons and/or summary:
“One of the great reasons for the popularity of strikes is that they give the suppressed self a sense of power. For once the human tool knows itself a man, able to stand up and speak a word or strike a blow.”
—Charles Horton Cooley (1864–1929)
“One of the reasons for the failure of feminism to dislodge deeply held perceptions of male and female behaviour was its insistence that women were victims, and men powerful patriarchs, which made a travesty of ordinary people’s experience of the mutual interdependence of men and women.”
—Rosalind Coward (b. 1953)
“There may be other reasons for a man’s not speaking in publick than want of resolution: he may have nothing to say.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“Product of a myriad various minds and contending tongues, compact of obscure and minute association, a language has its own abundant and often recondite laws, in the habitual and summary recognition of which scholarship consists.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)