Week 35 Matthew 1
In the middle section of his Names List Matthew lists the kings of Judah – from Solomon to Jehoiachin. Normally I’d just scan through them but I posted on those kings three months ago. Something isn’t right with Matthew’s list.
There should be 19 kings: Solomon Rehoboam Abijah Asa Jehoshaphat Jehoram Ahaziah Joash Amaziah Uzziah Jotham Ahaz Hezekiah Manasseh Amon Josiah Jehoahaz Jehoiakim Jehoiachin.
Here’s Matthew’s list: Solomon Rehoboam Abijah Asa Jehoshaphat Jehoram Uzziah Jotham Ahaz Hezekiah Manasseh Amon Josiah Jehoiachin. There’s only 14.
I wanted to be sure so I wrote the names in two columns. Matthew did not list: Ahaziah Joash Amaziah Jehoahaz Jehoiakim. I wondered why.
Maybe Matthew made a mistake.
Maybe he intentionally suppressed the names (for some reason I’d have to guess).
Maybe it was important to Matthew to have a fourteen-name list.
Maybe it was okay in the first-century to abbreviate a list. A reader is left to dope it out: ‘I know this is a short list and that it’s standing in for the complete list’.
It’s hard to say for sure.
But it’s such a glaring mistake that anybody who knew any history would know Matthew was wrong (so he wouldn’t be fooling anyone).
Whatever the reason I figure that a) Matthew didn’t just accidentally forget five names (on a nineteen name list) and that b) he wasn’t trying to rewrite history and say that Ahaziah Joash Amaziah Jehoahaz & Jehoiakim were never kings.
Note: see the ‘kings section’ in Matthew 1:7-11