Why does Matthew’s last set of fourteen generations, from the exile to Christ, seem to name only thirteen?

The count depends on where Matthew’s boundaries fall, and he marks them himself: “from Abraham to David”, “from David until the carrying away into Babylon”, and from the exile “unto Christ” (Matthew 1:17). David closes the first set and opens the second, so Matthew counts him twice, and the second set runs from David to Josiah, fourteen names. The third set begins with Jechonias, the king taken into exile (2 Kings 24:12–15), and runs Jechonias, Salathiel, Zorobabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Sadoc, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, Joseph and Jesus: fourteen. With David counted in two sets, three sets of fourteen need only forty-one different names, which is what the list has.

Matthew’s fourteens are an aid to memory, not a census; he leaves out several kings to keep the pattern (see ‘Why does Matthew’s genealogy leave out some kings?’), and he is counting the names he has written. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown explained the third set in exactly this way.

Jechonias counted twice

Some count the second set from Solomon to Jechonias and the third from Jechonias to Christ, so that Jechonias, who lived both before and after the deportation (Matthew 1:11–12), is counted twice instead of David. John Gill sets out the sets this way in his note on Matthew 1:17.

Two Jechoniases

In his note on verse 11, however, Gill took that ‘Jechonias’ to be Jeconiah’s father Jehoiakim. Adam Clarke noted Greek manuscripts that read ‘Josias begat Joakim, and Joakim begat Jechonias’, though most textual scholars take that reading as a later scribe’s correction. On either view the list gains a name and the sets fill out.

Mary counted

J. P. Lange suggested that Mary is meant to be counted as a generation in the last set, since Jesus was born of her and not begotten by Joseph (Matthew 1:16). Jamieson, Fausset and Brown mention the idea but prefer the simpler count above.

Christian commentators count the third set in different ways, and Matthew does not say which names he counted; each proposal shows how fourteen can be reached from his own list. Why he chose fourteen is also debated. A common suggestion is that the Hebrew letters of David’s name, D-W-D, add up to 4 + 6 + 4 = 14, but Matthew does not say so.