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.
Ver. 17. So all the generations, &c., are fourteen generations] For memory' sake Matthew summeth up the genealogy of our Saviour into three fourteens (tessaradecades): like as some of the Psalms are, for the same reason, set down in order of the alphabet. Discere voluit Socrates, nihil aliud esse quam recordari, saith Cicero (Tusc. Quest.). Magis autem Christi memiuisse debemus quam respirare (Chrysost.). The soul should be as the ark of God, the memory like the pot of manna, preserving holy truths touching him that is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."