Genealogy In Genesis
The Hebrew Bible (" Old Testament "), in the Bible , contains a large number of lists, enumerations, genealogies. Some characters are attested by the history of neighboring peoples. This is the case of some of the characters in the books of Kings (I and II) and Chronicles (I and II). Others do not gather so far, no extra-biblical evidence, and are therefore a question for historians and archaeologists, and / or a matter of faith.
Thus, we find in the book of Genesis many characters about whom we know nothing more than the name of their ancestors and descendants, the age of their accession to the paternity and the number of years of authorship until death; marriages are not mentioned, the list contains children rarely girls, often only the eldest son, etc.. Can we reconcile these surveys the work done by the church records or census civilians (also practiced in ancient Israel, or Rome for example)?
A study of literary genres of biblical texts can also interpret these genealogies in a non-historical (in the modern sense of the word), but either geographic (ie the "kinship" between neighbors), or rather theological. Faith is not necessarily so, "believe it happened like that, but to get the message that the book's author wants to convey to his readers. For example, the equivalent names in the descendants of Cain (the eldest son of Adam and Eve) and Seth (the third son, ancestor of Noah) suggest that the same humanity that is guilty and punishable by death ( the Flood), but also likely to experience the grace of God (the ark and the new creation).
Anyway, these lists can be followed step by step the progeny of Adam and Eve until the last of the kings and high priests of ancient Israel. These lists were also used to work opposite and set the age of humanity. May be noted that Hillel II , president of the Sanhedrin in the fourth century , used them to determine the origin of the Hebrew calendar to the supposed date of creation of the world.
If one wants to read well, "literally," the texts, then we can regret that two different genealogies are used according to the biblical text: the Greek text (the Septuagint translation of a Hebrew original in Alexandria in the third century BC. ) or Hebrew Masoretic (already attested in the first century BC. ). The gap between sets of genealogies is often 100 years. Sometimes the same edition is also two conflicting genealogies in two different books of the Bible ...
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