Matthew 1:15

Matthau begat Jacob. Nothing more is known of the eight persons listed from Abiud to Matthan (vs. 13-15) than their names, none of them being mentioned elsewhere. These eight generations span five centuries. Matthew may have omitted certain names here in order that the third section of his genealogy might correspond to the first two sections (see on Matt. 1:17; Ezra 7:5). The facts that (1) the number of generations listed hardly seems proportionate to the length of time, that (2) Luke lists, for this period, nine more generations than Matthew, and that (3) Matthew omitted four names from the second section of his genealogy (see on vs. 8, 11) at least hint at such a possibility.

It has been suggested that the names Matthan, in Matthew, and Matthat, in Luke (ch. 3:24), are both variant spellings for Matthew (not the evangelist), and that therefore the two names “Matthan” and “Matthat” in reality indicate one and the same person. If so, Jacob and Heli (Luke 3:23) would be brothers. Heli is thus presumed to have had no male heir and to have adopted Joseph, his nephew, as his own legal son and heir (cf. on Luke 3:27). The objective of this suggestion is to make Joseph properly the “son of Heli,” as in Luke (ch. 3:23), as well as the son of Jacob, as in Matthew. According to another theory, Jacob married the childless widow of his brother Heli, in harmony with the levirate marriage law (Deut. 25:5-10). Joseph, the first son born to this union, would actually be the son of Jacob but legally the son and heir of Heli. Both of these suggestions, originally advanced by certain early Church Fathers, are based upon supposition and therefore open to serious question. For a further discussion of the problem see on Luke 3:23.