How long is a generation in Matthew chapter1 verse 17?

Answer 1

A: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 unto Christ are fourteen generations. "

Generations differ in length according to how long a person was fortunate to live and, of course, how old he was when the son was born. What the author of Matthew was seeking to do here was simply prove by numerology that Jesus was destined for greatness, because there were three groups of 14 generations from Abraham to Jesus. To do this, the author had to compress the traditional Old Testament genealogy, ignoring three kings, and have David in the preceding (as 14) and following (as 1) groups, but not so Josiah. Then, we have no possible way of verifying Matthew's list of Jesus' ancestors from the time of the Exile. Fourteen and seven were regarded as propitious numbers.

Answer:

Though Matthew or other Scripture do not state emphatically how many years make a generation, we can ascertain this length by using the ages of the various people mentioned here.

One of the genealogies in the New Testament says this: "So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generation, from David until the captivity in Babylon are fourteen generation, and from the captivity in Babylon until the Christ are fourteen generation " (Matt. 1:17, NKJV). Each of these three groupings were summed up as 14 generations. Yet, they did not last the same number of years. In fact, the average generation in the period from Abraham to David was approximately 64 years, but the average generation from David to the Babylonian captivity and from that captivity to Christ was about 38 years.

The term " generation " may have other meanings too. The " generation " that sees Christ's return, for example, refers to all the people living at that time.