“Fourteen generations”
Matthew 1:17
Cultural referenceWell-supportedNarrator
In all, then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ. (Matthew 1:17 BSB)
What it sounds like today
A strangely tidy piece of arithmetic, and it only works if you skip some kings, which looks like an error.
The cultural key
Hebrew letters doubled as numerals (gematria). David's name, spelled dalet (4), vav (6), dalet (4), adds up to fourteen. Ancient genealogies were routinely compressed to signal meaning rather than list every ancestor; Matthew deliberately omits generations to shape the pattern.
Recovered meaning
The genealogy is stamped 'David, David, David.' Matthew has structured Israel's whole history to say it culminates in the Davidic Messiah.