True Bible Answers

Matthew 1: A genealogy from Abraham to Jesus, broken by the deportation to Babylon

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AFGHANISTANALGERIAAUSTRIAAZERBAIJANBENINBOSNIA AND HERZ.BULGARIABURKINA FASOCHADCYPRUSDJIBOUTIEGYPTERITREAFRANCEGEORGIAGREECEHUNGARYIRANIRAQISRAELITALYJORDANLEBANONLIBYAMALIMAURITANIAMOROCCONIGERNIGERIAOMANPAKISTANPORTUGALQATARROMANIASAUDI ARABIASERBIASOMALILANDSPAINSUDANSWITZERLANDSYRIATUNISIATURKEYTURKMENISTANUNITED ARAB EMIRATESUZBEKISTANYEMENMediterranean SeaEuphratesTigrisSyrian DesertBabylonBabylon

ESV

and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to .

ESV

And after the deportation to : Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,

ESV

So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to fourteen generations, and from the deportation to to the Christ fourteen generations.

Matthew 2:1ESV

Now after Jesus was born in of in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to ,

Matthew 2

Matthew opens with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham, traced father to son through the kings of Judah. The line runs to Josiah and Jechoniah at the time of the deportation to Babylon, then on after it through Shealtiel and Zerubbabel to Joseph the husband of Mary, and verse 17 counts it as three spans of fourteen generations. The chapter then tells how Mary, betrothed to Joseph, was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit, and how an angel in a dream told Joseph to take her as his wife and to call the son Jesus. Babylon is the only place the chapter names.

Map of Matthew 1: A genealogy from Abraham to Jesus, broken by the deportation to Babylon — 1 sites plotted

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Verses 11, 12 and 17: Babylon, named each time as the deportation that divides the genealogy.

  • Named in verses 11, 12 and 17, never as a place anyone goes in this chapter but as the deportation that marks the end of the second span of fourteen generations and the start of the third. The city stood on the Euphrates in what is now central Iraq; all 500 votes put it at the ruins of Babylon.

    Today: the ruins of Babylon, near Hillah, Iraq

Matthew 1, verse by verse

  1. Matthew 1:11and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to .
  2. Matthew 1:12And after the deportation to : Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel, and Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
  3. Matthew 1:17So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to fourteen generations, and from the deportation to to the Christ fourteen generations.