Matthew 1:6

David the king [τ ο ν δ α υ ε ι δ τ ο ν β α σ ι λ ε α, "the David, the king "]. Both words are thus emphasized : the David from whom Christ, if he were the Messiah, must have descended; the king with whom the Messiah's genealogy entered upon the kingly dignity. In this genealogy, where the generations are divided symmetrically into three sets of fourteen, the evangelist seems to connect the last of each set with a critical epoch in the history of Israel : the first reaching from the origin of the race to the commencement of the monarchy (" David the king "); the second, from the commencement of the monarchy to the captivity of Babylon; the third and last, from the captivity to the coming of" the Christ. " The same emphatic or demonstrative use of the article occurs with the name of Joseph (ver. 16), marking his peculiar relation to Jesus as the husband of Mary : the Joseph, the husband of Mary.