The Genealogy of Jesus according to Matthew

Most people find the beginning of Matthew very boring. It is the genealogy of Jesus. Obviously it is not genetical but theological.
First of all, the list is rather artificial. It consists of three groups of 14 generations. 14 is the sum of the Hebrew alphabets of the name of David (D=4, V=6, D=4). Matthew claims that there are 14 generations in each period. In fact, there are only 13 generations in the last period.
So all the generations from Abraham to David were fourteen generations, and from David to the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon to the Christ fourteen generations (Matthew 1:17). Let's look at them in greater details.

Abraham	Isaac	Jacob	Judah + Tamar	Perez
Hezron	Ram	Amminadab	Nahshon	Salmon + Rahab
Boaz + Ruth	Obed	Jesse	David + the wife of Uriah
from 2000 B.C. to 1000 B.C.
Solomon	Rehoboam	Abijah	Asa	Jehoshaphat
Joram	Uzziah	Jotham	Ahaz	Hezekiah
Manasseh	Amos	Josiah	Jechoniah and his brothers
From 1000 B.C. to 586 B.C.
Shealtiel	Zerubbabel	Abiud	Eliakim	Azor
Zadok	Achim	Eliud	Eleazar	Matthan
Jacob	Joseph	Jesus
From 586 B.C. to 1 A.D.

The first 14 generations span 1000 years, averaging 71.4 years per generation, while the remaining 28 (27) generations span another thousand years. Though people in the Old Testament lived notoriously a long life, it did not follow that their sons were all born in old age, except for Abraham.
So, let us take away 100 years from Abraham to whom Isaac was born when he was 100 (Genesis 21:5). Isaac was 40 years old when he married Rebekah (Genesis 25:20) who gave birth to Jacob. Jacob settled in Egypt when he was 130 years old, a grandfather (Genesis 47:9). Jacob and his children settled in Egypt and became slaves for 400 years (Genesis 15:13). Moses delivered the Israelites who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before Joshua led them into Canaan. There Rahab the prostitute saved 2 Israelite spies. Assuming this Rahab to be the Rahab at generation 10, we still need to account for roughly 300 years in the remaining 4 generations, i.e. roughly 80 years per generation in average!! I think some generations have been skipped. Only Abraham reached 100 before Isaac was born to him. The others would most likely father a son before 40. The 28 (27) generations that span one thousand years is a good indicator. Its average is roughly 35.7 years per generation. It is more reasonable.
There was a time gap of 480 years between the time the Israelites left Egypt to Solomon's building of the Temple (1 Kings 6:1) Only 6 generations (from Salmon to Solomon) were mentioned, again an average of 80 years per generation. Salmon belonged to the Joshua era while Boaz and Ruth in the age of the Judges. Boaz was the grandfather of Jesse, the father of David. Therefore, it is very likely that a few generations before Boaz had been skipped by Matthew to make up 14 generations.
The second group of 14 generations were kings. This could be cross checked with Chronicles I and II or some king lists. The last group of 13 generations came most likely from Jewish folklores. We don't have any more genealogy lists in the Bible after the Kings or Chronicles. We cannot cross check them accurately within the Bible.
In fact, St. Paul warned against spending too much energy in the study of genealogies (1 Timothy 1:4, Titus 3:9). Therefore, I will proceed no further.
That said, it is still interesting and worth meditating the role of the 4 women who appear in the genealogy. Each of them has an extraordinary story to tell: Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah; Rahab a prostitute; Ruth a Moabite widow and Bathsabeth was involved in adultery with David. God really works mysteriously.

My God, there is only one week to go before Christmas. Let us open our heart and prepare it to welcome the glorious light of Your Son, Jesus. Amen.