Footnote 2 – The Infancy Narratives in Matthew and Luke—Of History, Theology and Literature

This genealogy probably contained 14 generations. In Hebrew each letter has a numerical value. The numerical value of David (DVD) is 14. Brown hypothesizes Matthew picked up and developed this idea so that in his genealogy of Jesus, there are 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the Babylonian Exile, and 14 generations from the Babylonian exile to Jesus (Matthew 1:17). In this way Matthew tied his whole genealogy together.