Matthan is a personal name occurring in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew. In that setting it functions as a link in a chain of named fathers and sons that traces descent through successive generations.
Occurrences
“Eliud became the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan. Matthan became the father of Jacob.” (Matthew 1:15)
Here Matthan appears mid-line in a sequence of three father–son statements. The verse presents him first as the son of Eleazar (“Eleazar became the father of Matthan”) and then immediately as the father of Jacob (“Matthan became the father of Jacob”). In this tightly structured presentation, the name does not stand alone as a character in an episode; it serves as a fixed point in a lineage, receiving ancestry from the preceding name and passing it to the following name. Matthew’s repetitive wording (“became the father of”) frames Matthan as a generational connector: his placement is defined entirely by his relation upward to Eleazar and downward to Jacob. The verse’s rhythm makes the genealogical movement explicit—each clause advances the line by one generation—and Matthan’s contribution is that he marks one step in that advance, anchoring two adjacent relationships at once.
The immediate context inside the verse also shows how Matthew’s genealogy treats names: each is given without titles, locations, or narrative details, and each is embedded in the same verbal formula. Matthan, therefore, contributes to the overall purpose of the list by being one of the named links through which the descent is articulated. The genealogy’s logic depends on each individual name being stable and identifiable so that the chain can move without ambiguity from father to son; Matthan functions precisely in that stabilizing role within the verse’s sequence.
Sense and Usage
As used in Matthew 1:15, Matthan bears the force of a proper name within a genealogical register. The definition “Matthan” is realized in the text not by explanation but by placement: the name’s meaning in context is its identity as a specific person situated between two other specific persons. Matthew’s pattern establishes identity relationally—by parentage and offspring—so the name’s function is to indicate continuity of descent. Because the verse gives Matthan in two distinct grammatical slots (as the object of “became the father of” and then as the subject of the same phrase), the text presents him both as recipient of lineage and as transmitter of lineage. That double placement is the main way the name carries significance in the sentence: it is not merely listed but used to articulate a two-directional connection.
The verse also illustrates how genealogical naming works as a kind of compressed narrative. In ordinary narrative, a person’s role might be shown through actions, speech, or setting. In this genealogy, the only “action” is the repeated statement of fatherhood, and the only “setting” is the ordered progression of generations. Matthan’s usage is therefore concentrated: the name is a marker of personhood in a line of descent, and its contribution is precision in that ordering. The shift from “Eleazar became the father of Matthan” to “Matthan became the father of Jacob” turns Matthan into a hinge between clauses. The name enables the text to move forward without breaking the chain, keeping the succession intact and readable.
Within the verse’s immediate triad of names, Matthan also helps create a sense of measured continuity. The repetition of the same clause structure places each person on equal grammatical footing, so Matthan is presented with the same weight as Eliud, Eleazar, and Jacob. That equality of presentation is part of the genealogy’s communicative effect: each named person is necessary for the line to proceed. In this way, Matthan’s usage reflects how genealogies rely on proper names to preserve the integrity of a descent line—each name is both a boundary (one generation ends) and a bridge (the next begins).
Genealogical Imagery
Matthew 1:15 carries the imagery of succession through the simple cadence of fatherhood statements. Matthan is pictured not through personal description but through position: placed between Eleazar and Jacob, the name evokes the idea of a line that advances step by step, each generation joined to the next by a repeated formula. In this verse, the “image” attached to Matthan is the quiet solidity of lineage—one named link receiving and passing on the familial line within the ordered sequence of ancestors.
Sources:
Lexical data from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance and the Translators Brief Lexicon of Extended Strongs for Greek (STEPBible, CC BY). Occurrence data from the Translators Amalgamated Greek New Testament (STEPBible, CC BY). Scripture quotations from the World English Bible (public domain).
