Dear Gino and Doves,
The following excerpts will address a couple of things to keep in mind when looking at Matthew chapter one.
Gino asked last week: Then wasn't it 42 more generations to Jesus?
Excerpts taken from:
"..... Matthew 1:17 - "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 until the CHRIST are FOURTEEN generations."
THE MISSING GENERATION Now get your Bibles out and you will discover by reading the first sixteen verses of the book of Matthew that sure enough David was number 14 of the generations listed, and that Jeconias (the king who went into Babylon) was number 28, or 14 in the second list, but then you find that Joseph the husband of Mary was number 40 in the list, making him the 12th generation from the carrying away into Babylon. This makes Jesus, according to law, the 41st generation, or the 13th one on the 3rd list. Why? Where is the 42nd generation? Why did it seemingly leave the list incomplete with Jesus........
..... the 42nd generation referred to as the "Christ" in Matt. 1:17 refers to the Christ of I Cor. 12:12, 27 - "For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ... now you are the body of Christ, and members individually."....
.... There is no mistake in this first chapter of Matthew. It is mathematically perfect, marked throughout with the number 7 in many ways, which is God's perfect number. The five kings omitted in this list (emphasis added) were "blotted out" of God's book for very special reasons......"