Anyone who reads Genesis or the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel discovers that the Bible contains many genealogies! These names are often long and unfamiliar, and sometimes they are gathered into groups that provide information about who fathered, or begat, whom. They are prefaced by the Hebrew word toledot which gets translated in a variety of ways such as generations or descendants.
These genealogies may be a bit mind numbing to those raised in the modern Western world, but they were, and in some parts of the world today still are, vital to the society. Knowing one’s kinship ties enables a person to know where he or she fits into the structure of society, and those ties may carry certain rights and/or obligations.
Genealogies in the Old Testament have dual purposes. One is literary and the other is cultural. Both of these purposes can lead us to new spiritual insights! Since the literary use is formed by the culture, we will look at the cultural purpose first.
In the broad cultural perspective, genealogies define everyday social interactions of ancient Jews. In reading the Old Testament, we discover land rights were allocated by tribe. Some professional occupations (e.g. priest or king) were determined by family. Whether someone was allowed to worship at the Temple was determined by Jewish ethnicity, and where he could worship was a consequence of tribe and family line.
In the bigger picture, living in a hostile, desert environment can make one suspicious of strangers. When strangers can work together through their family histories to find a common ancestor, then they are relatives and bound to one another as kin.
Thus, genealogies support identity, territory, and relationships. They even influence power and prestige as they map out political, social, and economic allegiances that people have with one another. They also display continuity within a family line.
Key characters in Scripture are often introduced by the names of two or three ancestors. This ensures we know their place in society and their fitness for the role they are undertaking in the upcoming narrative.
In other places we have lengthy genealogies spanning many generations. These were a part of the oral tradition that formed sacred Scripture and were as important as legal documents are to us today. In the Biblical world there was no courthouse for birth records and no way to research one’s family tree online. In this patriarchal culture, one’s male ancestors were vital even though one’s mother was the only parent who could be “proved.” Memorized genealogies of one’s patriarchal lineage ensured family ties of the past in order to secure the future.
When we see genealogies in the Bible, they tend to serve key literary functions. These may not always be what we would expect, so we need to understand how genealogies work.
If we think of family history, we may imagine a type of flow-chart with clear connections from one generation to the next. In the Bible, who “fathered” whom may not always be a strict father-son relationship. Generations can be skipped, so it may be a grandfather or great-father who “fathered,” or was “the father of” a person. This is clearly illustrated in Matthew’s Gospel when he compresses the entire history of the Jewish people – a history of some 1500-2000 years – into a mere 42 generations. Thus some people are left out, and the names that are included tend to be most important or memorable.
Usually genealogies follow a pattern, so when the pattern breaks, we should pay attention. In Matthew’s Gospel, for example, there are breaks where women are mentioned and at key points in Jewish history. The women – all from non-Jewish families – reflect the fact that Jesus came to save Gentiles as well as Jews. The historic points neatly break the genealogy into eras of Jewish history circling around the high point of King David and the low point of the exile, leading us to be ready for another King David in the arrival of Jesus.
Genealogies often serve to connect different sections of a narrative together. Rather than list every patriarch who lived between two key events, genealogies can be used to wrap up one ancestor’s life and move us quickly to the next important person. Chapter 5 of Genesis lists people from the time of Adam to Noah. What exactly happened during those years does not matter, but the fact Noah is the next major figure in salvation history and is a descendent of Adam does matter.
The book of Genesis is known for its ten genealogies (genealogy and genesis comes from the same Greek word). These lists of family names create divisions in the book. They keep us on track as we follow God’s work in the world and the family through whom He is working. The genealogies often serve to provide a preview of what is coming next in the narrative.
The first genealogy of the Bible is given to creation. In Genesis 2:4 we read, “these are generations (sometimes translated “story” or “origins”) of the heavens and the earth”. This list reveals God is the father of all creation and creation leads to Adam. Then we read about “the generations of” Adam, Noah, the sons of Noah (who encompass all the known ethnic groups of the world at the time), and Shem. Shem’s descendants shift the focus from humanity as a whole and the next genealogy, that of Terah, who leads us to the specific family God chooses to bless: that of Abraham. The last four “the generations of” focus on Abraham’s lineage: Ishmael, Isaac, Esau, and finally Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes who formed the Jewish people.
Other genealogies appear in key places in the Bible. One of these is at the time of return from Exile, which takes place in the books Ezra and Nehemiah. Jewish society was being reestablished in the Promised Land, so knowing what role the people should have based on their ancestry was important. Another key location is 1 Chronicles. It opens with nine chapters of genealogies that provide confidence in the history and heritage of the people who received God’s promises.
In sum, genealogies were vital to the culture of the Bible for forming foundations for society. From a literary perspective, they show continuity and establish relationships. Both of these help us to understand the Scriptures in their own context. Each genealogy reveal’s God’s faithfulness in continuing to work through imperfect people to bring about His plan of salvation.
For us who read the Bible today, genealogies ultimately remind us that God has been and continues to be at work on behalf of the people He has chosen.
