Matthew’s Missing Generations in Jesus’ Genealogy :: By Randy Nettles
In 2 Samuel 7:16, God, through his prophet Nathan, made a profound promise to David, declaring that his throne would endure for eternity. “And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you: your throne shall be established forever.” This divine pledge established the Davidic royal line for Israel, from which future kings would emerge. Solomon, the last king of a united Israel, ruled before the kingdom split into two (Judah and Israel) during the reign of his son, Jeroboam.
However, in Jeremiah 22:24-30, a significant shift occurred. God pronounced a curse on the Davidic kings, deeming them so corrupt that He would not allow their rule to continue. This curse marked the end of the Davidic line, with the then king, Jehoiachin (or Coniah), son of Jehoiakim, becoming the final generation of the kings of Judah. “Thus says the Lord, Write you this man [Coniah] childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah” (Jeremiah 22:30).
Although Zedekiah replaced Coniah as king of Judah in 597 BC, he was not the last generation of Judah’s kings because he was Coniah’s uncle (Jehoiakim and Jehoahaz’s brother). Coniah was the 18th and last generation (from David) of kings of Judah. Zedekiah was the last king of Judah and reigned from 597-586 BC until Jerusalem and the Temple’s destruction.
Despite Coniah (Jeconiah) having many sons (1 Chronicles 3:17-18), none ascended to the throne of Judah. His son Zerubbabel (1 Chronicles 3:17-19; Matthew 1:12) would become a governor of the province of Judah (under Babylonia’s authority) but never king. The prophecy of Jeremiah 22:30, which states that none of Coniah’s descendants would reign on the throne of David, was fulfilled in history. Zedekiah, due to his rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar (and God), witnessed the death of his two sons and was then blinded and taken to Babylon.
God revealed to Ezekiel (Ezekiel 21:25-27), who lived during the same period, that He was going to suspend the royal line “until He comes to whom it rightfully belongs” (Ezek. 21:27). And in Jeremiah 23:5-6, He declared that a righteous branch would sprout from David’s line, fulfilling His promise to David that his throne would be established forever. This suspension and eventual future fulfillment of the royal line, as foretold by divine prophecy, carries a weight of awe-inspiring significance.
In the first chapter of Matthew, the first Book of the New Testament, Matthew felt it necessary to trace Jesus Christ’s royal genealogy beginning with Abraham, through the Davidic kings (David, Solomon, Rehoboam, etc.), through the Babylonia captivity, until the time of Jesus. This was the lineage of Joseph, Mary’s husband and Jesus’ stepfather.
Although Jesus was not a descendant of Joseph, he would still qualify as his heir as an adopted son. This qualified Jesus in the royal lineage of David. However, if Joseph had been the actual father of Jesus, the lineage would have been disqualified because of the Jeremiah 22:30 prophecy that none of Coniah’s heirs would sit on the throne, “for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.”
Luke’s genealogy (Luke 3:23-38) presents the physical line of Jesus through Mary and did not come under the curse of Coniah’s descendants. Mary’s father was a descendant of Nathan, David’s son who would never become king. None of Nathan’s descendants had a legal right to the throne of Israel/Judah. Only descendants of the kings of Judah (whom Coniah was the last generation of the kings of Judah) had a right to the throne.
If kingship is passed from father to son, but none of King Coniah’s descendants could rule, how would the Messiah, the son of David, rule? The answer is that Jesus inherited the throne through Joseph without being a physical son of his and was still a son of David through his mother. Jesus was unique in Israel’s history. He was the inheritor of Israel’s legal rule without physically being a descendant of the last king in David’s lineage, Jeconiah. Jesus was the only one who could fulfill the prophecy of 2 Samuel 7:16 without violating the prophecy of Jeremiah 22:30.
As I mentioned in my last article, Multiples of Seven: God’s Perfect Number (rev310.net), there are many genealogies in the Bible where some generations are abridged or omitted.
The Old Testament genealogies are much different than our modern English ones. In modern English, many words describe precise familial relationships, such as son, grandson, father, grandfather, uncle, cousin, etc. The Hebrew vocabulary has only a few words to convey these modern meanings. For example, the Hebrew words for ‘son’ are ‘ben’ and ‘ab.’
Ben can mean son, grandson, great-grandson, and descendent. Similarly, Ab can also mean father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and ancestor. The Hebrew word for ‘begot’ is ‘yalad,’ which means to bear, bring forth, descend, and become the father. So, the Hebrew words yalad, ben, and ab do not necessarily refer to a son but could also pertain to a direct descendant. In other words, Hebrew genealogies sometimes are not complete. The Greek New Testament genealogies are the same; multiple generations can be left out for various reasons.
When names are intentionally left out of a genealogy, it is called “telescoping.” In a telescoped genealogy, only the highlights are given, usually the names of the most important and relevant people. For example, in Matthew 1:1, the genealogy of Jesus Christ starts with “The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.” In English, this telescoped genealogy would be considered erroneous as Jesus was not literally the son of David, and David was not literally the son of Abraham. This telescoped genealogy would be perfectly acceptable in Hebrew (and similarly Greek) because the translated word ‘son’ could mean descendant.
Typically, when genealogy is telescoped, the number of names is reduced to one that has spiritual or religious connotations for the children of Israel, such as 3, 7, 10, 14, etc. Sometimes, less essential names or wicked relatives are omitted until that number is reached. For example, the genealogy of Matthew (from Abraham to Jesus) is not a complete record of all the generations involved but a condensed version. See Jesus’ Family Tree :: By Randy Nettles – Rapture Ready and Jesus’ Family Tree : Part II :: By Randy Nettles – Rapture Ready.
Matthew 1:17 says, “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. I believe multiple generations are missing from these three lists; however, in this article, I would like to concentrate on the second list, the kings of Judah.
Counting David, the Davidic royal line consisted of 21 (3 x 7) kings: David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, Azariah (Uzziah), Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and Zedekiah. King Jehoiachin (Coniah or Jechonias) was the first king to be carried away to Babylon.
King Josiah of Matthew 1:11 had three sons who were kings of Judah: Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah. Jehoiachin was the last generation of the kings of Judah, as he was Jehoiakim’s son. Verse 11 lumps these last four kings together: “Jechonias and his brethren, about the time they were carried away to Babylon.”
The missing kings in list 2 of Matthew’s genealogy that I would like to discuss should be found between Joram (Jehoram) and Ozias (Azariah or Uzziah) in verse 8. They are Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah. The question is, Why were they intentionally omitted? I believe the reason is that the practice of Baal worship was introduced to the inhabitants of Judah at about this time through these kings.
Baal was a god of the ancient peoples of Canaan and Phonecia. “The word baal means lord; the plural is baalim. In general, Baal was a fertility god who was believed to enable the earth to produce crops and people to produce children. Baal’s sisters/consorts were Ashtoreth, a fertility goddess associated with the stars, and Anath, a goddess of love and war.
The Canaanites worshiped Baal as the sun god and as the storm god—he is usually depicted holding a lightning bolt—who defeated enemies and produced crops. They also worshiped him as a fertility god who provided children. Baal worship was rooted in sensuality and involved ritualistic prostitution in the temples. At times, appeasing Baal required human sacrifice, usually the firstborn of the one making the sacrifice (Jeremiah 19:5). The priests of Baal appealed to their god in rites of wild abandon, which included loud, ecstatic cries and self-inflicted injury (1 Kings 18:28).” {1} Who was Baal? | GotQuestions.org
Baal is first mentioned in Numbers 22 when Balak, the king of Moab, convinced Balaam, a non-Israelite prophet, to curse the children of Israel as they were camped in Moab on their way to the Promised Land of Canaan. Shortly afterward, the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. “And Israel joined himself unto Baalpeor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel” (Numbers 25:3). God instructed Moses to “take the heads” of the Israelites who had worshipped Baal “and hang them up before the Lord against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel.”
After the children of Israel entered the Promised Land and Joshua died, many of the tribes of Israel who did not drive out the inhabitants of the land began to worship Baal. “And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth” (Judges 2:13). For their iniquity, God “delivered them into the hands of the spoilers who spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could not any longer stand before their enemies.” Eventually, God raised judges to deliver them, but they kept going back to worshipping other pagan gods, including Baal. It was a vicious sin cycle throughout the judges’ administration.
The children of Israel finally gave up worshipping Baal (for a while) during Samuel’s time as the prophet and judge of Israel. “And Samuel spoke unto all the house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only” (1 Samuel 7:3-4). Sure enough, the LORD “thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel.
The next reported incident of Baal worship doesn’t occur until the time of King Ahab, the eighth king of the northern kingdom of Israel. He was an evil king who “walked in the ways of Jeroboam (the first king of northern Israel).” He became even more evil when “he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him.”
“And he reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove; and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him” (1 Kings 16:32-33). At this time, Elijah, the prophet, told Ahab, “As the Lord God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word” (1 Kings 17:1).
At the end of the third year of drought, Elijah sent word to Ahab to meet him at Mt. Carmel with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the groves to determine who the true God of Israel was. Of course, you know how the story goes as Elijah called for a showdown to see which God, Yahweh or Baal, could send fire down from heaven to set a sacrificial bullock on fire. All day long, the 450 prophets of Baal cried out to their god and even cut themselves to get a response from Baal, but after no fire came down from heaven, they eventually gave up. You would think a god of thunder could send a lightning bolt down to start a fire, but, of course, the false god couldn’t.
Now, it was Elijah’s turn. He made an altar out of 12 stones (according to the 12 tribes of Israel) and built a trench about it. He then had them pour four barrels of water over the sacrifice and wood underneath it, and even in the trench, to wet everything down. He did this three times (12 barrels worth). Elijah prayed a simple prayer, and God answered immediately with fire from heaven. The evidence was overwhelming, and the people fell prostrate and cried, “The LORD–He is the God! The LORD–He is the God!” (1 Kings 17:39). It rained a great rain after this great event, the first in three years.
Meanwhile, in Judah, the good King Jehoshaphat died in 848 BC. His first (of seven) son, Jehoram, took his father’s place as king. He was very evil and killed his six brothers, as well as many princes of Judah (2 Chronicles 21:4). King Jehoram married one of Ahab and Jezebel’s daughters. Her name was Athaliah. “And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, like as did the house of Ahab: for he had the daughter of Ahab to wife: and he wrought that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD” (2 Chronicles 21:6). He also made high places in the mountains of Judah and caused the inhabitants of Jerusalem to commit spiritual fornication there. He married Jezebel’s daughter, so I’m sure he was bowing down to Baal.
Because of Jehoram’s many sins, Elijah sent him a written message that said, “Thus says the Lord God of David your father, Because you have not walked in the ways of Jehoshaphat your father, nor in the ways of Asa king of Judah, But have walked in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to go a whoring, like to the whoredoms of the house of Ahab, and also have slain your brethren of your father’s house, which were better than yourself: Behold, with a great plague will the Lord smite your people, and your children, and your wives, and all your goods: And you shall have great sickness by disease of your bowels, until your bowels fall out by reason of the sickness day by day” (2 Chronicles 21:12-15). After two years, Jeroboam’s bowels fell out, and he died in 841 BC.
Arabians killed all of Jehoram’s eldest sons. The youngest, Ahaziah, was spared, and he became king in 841 BC. “Forty and two years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign, and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Athaliah the daughter of Omri. (actually, this is an example of telescoping, as she was the daughter of Ahab, Omri’s son). He also walked in the ways of the house of Ahab: for his mother was his counsellor to do wickedly. Wherefore he did evil in the sight of the Lord like the house of Ahab: for they were his counselors after his father’s death to his destruction” (2 Chronicles 22:2-4).
Jehu was appointed by Elijah (and God) to eliminate the remainder of Ahab’s family after Ahab’s death (1 Kings 19:17). The prophecy against Ahab and Jezebel and their family is given by Elijah in 1 Kings 21:19-24. Ahab died in battle against the Syrians in 853 BC. His death is told in 1 Kings 22:34-38, and the specifics are exactly how Elijah had prophesied.
After Ahab died, his son, Ahaziah, reigned in Israel for two years (853-852 BC). He was evil as well and worshipped Baal (1 Kings 22:53). After two years, Ahaziah fell through a lattice in his upper chamber and became sick. He sent messengers to enquire of Baalzebub (Beelzebub is another name for Satan) to find out if he would get well. Elijah intercepted the messengers and told them (and later Ahaziah himself), “Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that you go to enquire of Baalzebub, the god of Ekron?” He then told Ahaziah that he would not recover. He died soon after, and his brother, Jehoram (or Joram), began his reign in 852 BC. (Yes, I know, it gets very confusing as the kings of Israel and Judah at this time have the same names sometimes).
Jehu fulfilled Elijah’s earlier prophecy and killed Ahab’s remaining family, including his son, Jehoram, the king of Israel. Jehoram reigned in Samari from 852 to 841 BC. Ahaziah, king of Judah, had come to Jezreel to see King Jehoram, who was recuperating from his wounds from the Syrian war (841 BC). Jehu slew both of them in Jezreel. He also had Jezebel, Jehoram’s mother, killed as well. Her death and Ahab’s were fulfilled exactly how Elijah had prophesied.
Jehu had 70 sons of Ahab (and all of his kinfolk) killed in Samaria. “So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his kinsfolks, and his priests, until he left him none remaining” (2 Kings 10:11). He also killed all the priests, prophets, and worshipers of Baal. Jehu’s men brought the images out of the house of Baal and burned them. They broke down the image (statue) and the house of Baal, and they made it into a public latrine. Thus, Jehu destroyed Baal out of Israel. Jehu was a killing machine.
“And the Lord said unto Jehu, Because you have done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes, and have done unto the house of Ahab according to all that was in mine heart, your children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel” (2 Kings 10:30). In other words, Jehu and his descendants would depose the house of Omri/Ahab and would rule Israel for four generations. This was fulfilled in history as the house of Jehu included Jehoahaz, Jehoash, Jeroboam II, and Zechariah, who all became (evil) kings of Israel.
841 BC was a pivotal year for Israel and Judah. That was the year Jehu killed King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of Judah and became king of Israel. He also killed all of King Ahaziah’s brothers who had also gone to Samaria. When Athaliah, the mother of King Ahaziah of Judah (and the sister of King Ahaziah and Joram of Israel), heard of her son’s death, she destroyed all (but one) of the seed royal of Judah. However, Jehosheba, the daughter of King Joram (of Judah) and sister of Ahaziah (of Judah), took the infant son of Ahaziah, Joash (or Jehoash), and hid him from Athaliah. She hid him for six years, during which Athaliah reigned over Judah. She followed the religion of her family (including her brother, Ahaziah) and served Baal. She even built a house for him.
In Joash’s seventh year, Jehoiada, the priest, made a covenant with the rulers and military guards to depose Athaliah and place Joash on the throne. They killed Athaliah, broke down the house of Baal with its altar and images, and killed the priest of Baal before the altars. Joash became king of Judah when he was seven years old. “And Jehoash did that which was right in the sight of the LORD all his days wherein Jehoiada the priest instructed him. But the high places were not taken away: the people still sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places” (2 Kings 12:2-3).
After the death of Jehoiada, the priest (at 130 years), the princes of Judah came to Joash and convinced him to leave the house of the LORD and serve groves and idols (most probably Baal). God sent prophets to Joash and the princes, but they would not listen. Even Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, came to him with a word from the LORD, but still they would not repent. They killed Zechariah at the king’s commandment, for Joash remembered not the kindness that Jehoiada, his father, had shown him.
At the end of the year, the host of Syria came against Judah and Jerusalem, killed all the princes, and sent their spoils to the king of Damascus. The Syrian army was small compared to Judah’s, but because they had forsaken the LORD God, judgment was executed against Judah. After this, Joash was struck with diseases, and his servants killed him on his bed. They buried him in Jerusalem but not in the sepulchers of the kings. Amaziah, his son, reigned in his stead.
It was said of Amaziah, “And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, but not with a perfect heart” (2 Chronicles 25:2). I believe that was a generous statement, as Amaziah forgot the LORD several times. Amaziah went to war against Edom and won; however, “he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them” (2 Chronicles 25:14). God had to send a prophet of the LORD to Amaziah before he finally repented.
Amaziah foolishly started a war with Israel and “was put to the worse before Israel.” Joash, king of Israel, took Amaziah to Jerusalem and broke down most of the walls there. He took all the gold and silver, vessels in the temple, the treasures in the king’s house, and the hostages and returned to Samaria. Eventually, there was a conspiracy against Amaziah for turning away from following the LORD, and they killed him in Lachish.
These three kings of Judah, Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah, are the missing kings of Matthew’s second list in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:6-11). Exodus 20:4-5 says, “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me.
Jehoram started the downward slide when he married Athaliah, the daughter of evil King Ahab and Jezebel, and began worshipping Baal. Scripture tells us that Jehu’s ‘sons’ would replace Ahab’s line for four generations. This was fulfilled in history. It turns out that the offspring of Ahab would also not reign in Judah (at least figuratively in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus) for four generations. Athaliah, the wife of Jehoram, was the first generation. Ahaziah, Joash, and Amaziah were the second, third, and fourth generations.
There are other missing (abridged) generations in Matthew’s genealogy, albeit the important thing to remember is that Jesus is the son of man through Adam, the son of Israel through Abraham, the king of Israel through David, and the Son of God through El Shaddai (God, the Almighty Father), through the agency of the divine Spirit. And through Christ, we are also sons of God. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).
One day in the not-so-distant future, Jesus will exert his legal and physical right to the crown and throne of Israel and claim His kingship over the sons of Israel and the entire world, for He is King of Kings and LORD of LORDS.
Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
Randy Nettles
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