Genealogies of Genesis

The genealogies of Genesis record the descendants of Adam and Eve as given in the first book of the Bible, Genesis. The enumerated genealogy in chapters 4, 5 and 11 reports the lineal male descent to Abraham, including the age at which each patriarch fathered his named son and the number of years he lived thereafter. The genealogy for Cain is given in Chapter 4 and the genealogy for Seth is in Chapter 5. (Genesis chapter 10, the Table of Nations recording the peopling of the Earth by Noah's descendants, is not stricty a genealogy but an ethnography).
==Enumerated genealogy==
Three versions of the Genesis genealogy exist: the Hebrew Masoretic Text, the Greek Septuagint, and the Hebrew Samaritan Pentateuch. Translations from the Masoretic Text are preferred by Western Christians, including Roman Catholics and Protestants and by followers of Orthodox Judaism, whereas the Greek version is preferred by Eastern Christians, including Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, Ethiopic, Jacobite, and Armenian. The Samaritan version of the Pentateuch is used mainly by the Samaritans. The Vulgate, published by Jerome in 405, is a Latin translation based on a Hebrew Tanakh compiled near the end of the first century, whereas the Septuagint was reportedly written by seventy translators in Egypt near the middle of the third century BC based on an earlier version of the Tanakh. Both of these translations have, like the Masoretic Text, been the basis for translations into numerous vernacular languages.
The Genesis genealogy, along with other biblical and secular events, was used to fix the Creation of the world. But the patriarchs were often 100 years older at the birth of their named son in the Septuagint than they were in the Vulgate, resulting in an Eastern Creation 1466 years earlier than the Western Creation. The calculation most famous in the English-speaking world is that of Archbishop James Ussher, 4004 BC, whereas the most famous Eastern calculations is the epoch of the Byzantine Era, 5509 BC.
The following table lists the patriarchs that appear in the Vulgate and the Septuagint, but their names are spelled as they appear in the King James Version of the Bible. Their year of birth differs according to the Vulgate or the Septuagint. (AM = Anno Mundi = in the year of the world). Also given is each patriarch's age at the birth of his named son and the age of the patriarch's death. Cainan, born after the flood is mentioned in the Septuagint but not the Vulgate. Methuselah survived the Flood according to the Septuagint (but not the Vulgate), even though he was not on Noah's Ark.
  	Vulgate	Vulgate	Vulgate	Septuagint	Septuagint	Septuagint	 
Patriarch 	Birth 	Son 	Death 	Birth 	Son 	Death 	Wife/Wives/etc
Adam 	AM 1 	130 	930 	AM 1 	230 	930 	Eve
Seth 	130 	105 	912 	230 	205 	912 	Azura¹
Enos or Enosh 	235 	90 	905 	435 	190 	905 	Noam¹
Cainan or Kenan	325 	70 	910 	625 	170 	910 	Mualaleth¹
Mahalaleel 	395 	65 	895 	795 	165 	895 	Dinah¹
Jared 	460 	162 	962 	960 	162 	962 	Baraka¹
Enoch 	622 	65 	365² 	1122 	165 	365² 	Edna¹
Methuselah 	687 	187 	969 	1287 	167 	969 	Edna¹
Lamech 	874 	182 	777 	1454 	188 	753 	Betenos¹
Noah 	1056 	500 	950 	1642 	500 	950 	Emzara¹
Shem 	1556 	100 	600 	2142 	100 	600 	Sedeqetelebab¹
Flood 	1656 	—	—	2242 	— 	— 	 
Arphaxad 	1656 	35 	438 	2242 	135 	535 	Rasueja¹
Cainan 	—	—	—	2377 	130 	460 	Melka¹
Salah 	1691 	30 	433 	2507 	130 	460 	Muak¹
Eber 	1721 	34 	464 	2637 	134 	404 	Azurad¹
Peleg 	1755 	30 	239 	2771 	130 	339 	Lomna¹
Reu 	1785 	32 	239 	2901 	132 	339 	Ora¹
Serug 	1817 	30 	230 	3033 	130 	330 	Melka¹
Nahor 	1847 	29 	148 	3163 	179 	304 	Ijaska¹
Terah 	1876 	70 	205 	3342 	70 	275+ 	Edna¹
Abraham 	1946 	100 	175 	3412 	— 	— 	Sarai; (Hagar); Keturah
Isaac 	2046 	60 	180 	xxxx 	— 	— 	Rebekah
Jacob 	2106 	—	—	xxxx 	— 	— 	Rachel; Leah; (Bilhah); (Zilpah)
¹: The names of these wives are recorded in the Book of Jubilees, not Genesis. The names of the other wives are recorded in both.
²: According to most interpretations, including the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews, Enoch did not die,Hebrews 11:5, King James Version. but was taken away by God (at an age of 365).
Genesis states that Enoch "walked with God; and he was not; for God took him."Genesis 5:24, King James Version.
==Genealogies of Cain and Seth==
Three of Adam and Eve's children are named. The main genealogy is via Seth, who was born after Cain, the firstborn son, slew his brother Abel. A genealogy for Cain is also given (in ), with some names similar to those for Seth's descendants. No years are provided, so the following table simply lines the descendants up by generation.
(for a continuation of this family tree through the line of Shem, see Abraham's Family Tree)
Although Cain's line is taken no further, one possible implication is that it continues beyond that by suggesting that the terminal sons were the ancestors of those who practice various trades. 
In Genesis 4, Cain's line also provides the names of Lamech's two wives, Adah and Zillah. Jabal and Jubal were the sons of Adah. Jabal was the father of nomads and Jubal of musicians. Tubal-Cain was the son of Zillah and the father of blacksmiths. A daughter of Zillah, Naamah, is also mentioned. An analysis of the relationship between the lines of descent, of Cain and of Seth, reveals that inter-marriage may have taken place between the descendants of Cain and Seth. For example, Lamech's daughter Naamah married her patrilineal parallel cousin Methuselah, and named her first-born son Lamech, after her father. A definite implication is that these various trades were flourishing prior to the Flood. Therefore, cultures of nomads, musicians and metal workers would have been destroyed by the Flood.
==Historicity==
The importance of the genealogies (toledot. "generations") emphasized by Ezra's insistence on racial purity of the High Priest resulted in genealogical scrolls being kept in Jerusalem. They are mentioned by Josephus, and their loss in AD 70 was considered disastrous. A priest was required to demonstrate the purity of the pedigree of his prospective bride as far back as her great-great-grandfather and great-great-grandmother. In the case of marriage with a daughter of Levi or of Israel his scrutiny had to extend a degree further, perhaps a sign that more relaxed attitudes toward marrying non-Jews had prevailed in the northern kingdom. The Pharisees emphasized the nobility of learning as opposed to the priestly-caste nobility insisted upon by the Sadducees.
Literal interpreters believe the genealogies as recorded in Genesis were assuredly intended not as myth, but as history: the matter-of-fact style of writing, the degree of detail, and the fact that ages are given for when fathers had sons and when they died, are all presented as history by the writers of Genesis. The New Testament authors of Matthew () and Luke () also took the traditional genealogies as history and applied them in tracking Jesus' ancestry back to Abraham and Adam respectively.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, academic opinion regarding the historicity of the genealogies split. For example:
It is thus evident that the Table of Nations contains no scientific classification of the races of mankind. Not only this, however, it also offers no historically true account of the origin of the races of mankind." (Driver 114).
The so-called Table of Nations remains, according to all results of monumental explorations, an ethnographic original document of the first rank which nothing can replace." (Kautzsch 234).
In the early twentieth century, some anthropologists determined that ethnicity is a construct, as argued by Herodotus, and that the genealogies of Genesis were primitive efforts towards creating an ethnology that would express the degrees of alienness or relatedness the authors of such genealogies sensed among those neighboring peoples of whom they were aware. For instance:
The object of this Table is partly to show how the Hebrews supposed the principle nations known to them to be related to each other, partly to assign Israel, in particular, its place among them.
The names are in no case to be taken as those of real individuals.
The real origin of the nations enumerated here, belonging in many cases to entirely different racial types — Semites, Aryans, Hittites, Egyptians — must have reached back into remote prehistoric ages from which we may be sure not even the dimmest recollections could have been preserved at the time when the chapter was written. The nations and tribes existed: and imaginary ancestors were afterwards postulated for the purpose of exhibiting pictorially the relationship in which they were supposed to stand towards one another.
An exactly parallel instance, though not so fully worked out, is afforded by the ancient Greeks. The general name of the Greeks was Hellenes, the principle sub-divisions were the Dorians, the Aeolians, the Ionians, and the Achaeans; and accordingly the Greeks traced their descent from a supposed eponymous ancestor Hellen, who had three sons, Dorus and Aeolus, the supposed ancestors of the Dorians and Aeolians, and Xuthus, from whose two sons, Ion and Achaeus, the Ionians and Achaeans were respectively supposed to be descended. (Driver 112).
Anthropologists of this vein assert that some genealogies in the flood myth of Greek mythology are analogous to those in Genesis: in them, Hellen, the son of Deucalion, the Greek Noah, and eponym of the Hellenes had three sons, named Dorus and Æolus, the ancestors of the Dorians and Aeolians, and Xuthus, whose sons Achæus and Ion, were the progenitors of the Achæans and Ionians. In Ancient Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity (Malkin 2001), the subject is shifting Hellenic perceptions of ethnicity, but the discourse throws light on motivations for the genealogies of Genesis.
Arguments are also made that comparisons may also be made with the Welsh folk genealogies that trace their king-lines back to Troy.
Other scholars, however, continue to hold that the Table of Nations is the most historically accurate account of early human history available, and reject the above analysis, arguing that "Since, as we shall see, the Table certainly does not on its face bear any evidence of being written for propaganda purposes, Driver appears to be reading more into the record than is justified. It is rather like setting up a straw man in order to be able to demolish him with scholarly verbosity." They note that Genesis is unique among ancient genealogies in its historical and objective style. For instance:
Egyptians and Phoenicians, Assyrians and Babylonians, even Indians and Persians, had a certain measure of geographical and ethnological knowledge, before more strictly scientific investigation had been begun among the classical peoples. From several of these, such as the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians, surveys of enumerations of the peoples known to them and attempts at maps have come down to us in the written memorials they have left behind. But not much attention was paid, as a rule, to foreigners unless national and trade interests were at stake. Often enough they were despised as mere barbarians, and in no case were they included with the more cultured nations in a higher unity.
It is otherwise in our text. Here many with whom the Israelites had no sort of actual relationship are taken into consideration." (Dillmann 314).
Scholars also note the text's remarkably neutral tone, arguing:
Had this Table been designed for propaganda purposes (to establish Israel's position as of equal dignity though not sharing some of the glories of the surrounding peoples) or had it been merely the work of some early historian creating his own data with a comparatively free hand, then almost certainly some device would have been adopted for deliberately setting forth not only the high status of his own ancestors, but the very low status of that of his enemies. With respect to the first tendency, one has only to read modern history books to discern how very easily individuals of little real significance can be presented to us in such a way as to make us take enormous pride in our heritage. There is, in fact, very little written history which is not in part propaganda, although the author himself is often unaware of it. The number of "firsts" claimed by some national historians for their countrymen is quite amazing, and it is usually clear what the nationality of the author himself is. In complete contrast, it would be difficult to prove with certainty of what nationality the author of Genesis 10 was. We assume he was a Hebrew, but if the amount of attention given to any particular line that is traced were used as a clue to his identity, he might have been a Japhethite, a Canaanite, or even an Arab. (Custance, Ch. 1)
The issue of the purpose of the historicity of the genealogies therefore remains a subject of dispute among biblical scholars.
==Genesis 5 numbers==
:See also Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Vaticanus 
:
:
Nearly all modern translations of Genesis are derived from the Masoretic (Hebrew) Text. But there are also two other versions of Genesis: the Samaritan (in an early Hebrew script) and the Septuagint (a Greek translation of an early Hebrew text). Although, scholars are aware that these three versions of have different numbers, people who have seen only the commonly available translations are often unaware that other versions exist. The numbers in the Masoretic, Samaritan, and Lucianic Septuagint versions of Genesis 5 are shown in this table:John Skinner, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis, T&T Clark, Endinburgh (1930), p. 134.
The following table lists the patriarchs that appear in the Vulgate and the Septuagint, but their names are spelled as they appear in the King James Version of the Bible. Their year of birth differs according to the Vulgate or the Septuagint. (AM = Anno Mundi = in the year of the world). Also given is each patriarch's age at the birth of his named son and the age of the patriarch's death. Cainan, born after the flood is mentioned in the Septuagint but not the Vulgate. Methuselah survived the Flood according to the Septuagint (but not the Vulgate), even though he was not on Noah's Ark.
Nearly all modern translations of Genesis are derived from the Masoretic (Hebrew) Text. But there are also two other versions of Genesis: the Samaritan (in an early Hebrew script) and the Septuagint (a Greek translation of an early Hebrew text). Although, scholars are aware that these three versions of have different numbers, people who have seen only the commonly available translations are often unaware that other versions exist. The numbers in the Masoretic, Samaritan, and Lucianic Septuagint versions of Genesis 5 are shown in this table:John Skinner, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on Genesis, T&T Clark, Endinburgh (1930), p. 134.
  	  	 	Masoretic & Vulgate	Masoretic & Vulgate	Masoretic & Vulgate	Masoretic & Vulgate	 	Samaritan	Samaritan	Samaritan	Samaritan	 	Septuagint	Septuagint	Septuagint	Septuagint	 	 
Patriarch	Meaning 	 	Birth 	Son 	remain 	Death 	 	Birth 	Son 	remain 	Death 	 	Birth 	Son 	remain 	Death 	 	Wife/Wives/etc
 	man 	 	0 	130 	800 	930 	 	0 	130 	800 	930 	 	0 	230 	700 	930 	 	Eve
 	Appointed 	 	130 	105 	807 	912 	 	130 	105 	807 	912 	 	230 	205 	707 	912 	 	Azura¹
 	Mortal 	 	235 	90 	815 	905 	 	235 	90 	815 	905 	 	435 	190 	715 	905 	 	Noam¹
 	Sorrow 	 	325 	70 	840 	910 	 	325 	70 	840 	910 	 	625 	170 	740 	910 	 	Mualaleth¹
 	The Blessed God 	 	395 	65 	830 	895 	 	395 	65 	830 	895 	 	795 	165 	730 	895 	 	Dinah¹
 	Shall come down 	 	460 	162 	800 	962 	 	460 	62 	785 	847 	 	960 	162 	800 	962 	 	Baraka¹
 	Teaching 	 	622 	65 	300 	365² 	 	522 	65 	300 	365² 	 	1122 	165 	200 	365² 	 	Edna¹
 	His death shall bring	 	687 	187 	782 	969 	 	587 	67 	653 	720 	 	1287 	167 	802 	969 	 	Edna¹
 	The Despairing 	 	874 	182 	595 	777 	 	654 	53 	600 	653 	 	1454 	188 	565 	753 	 	Betenos¹
 	Rest, or comfort 	 	1056 	500 	 	950 	 	707 	500 	 	 	 	1642 	500 	 	950 	 	Emzara¹
 	name/there 	 	1556 	100 	500 	600 	 	1207 	100 	500 	600 	 	2142 	100 	335 	435 	 	Sedeqetelebab¹
 	I shall fail as the breast 	 	1656 	35 	403 	438 	 	1307 	135 	330 	465 	 	2242 	135 	330 	465 	 	Rasueja¹
 	their smith 	 	 	 	 	 	 	1442 	130 	330 	460 	 	2377 	130 	330 	460 	 	Melka¹
 	sprout 	 	1691 	30 	403 	433 	 	1572 	130 	330 	460 	 	2507 	130 	330 	460 	 	Muak¹
 	the region beyond 	 	1721 	34 	430 	464 	 	1702 	134 	370 	504 	 	2637 	134 	370 	504 	 	Azurad¹
 	division 	 	1755 	30 	209 	239 	 	1836 	130 	209 	339 	 	2771 	130 	209 	339 	 	Lomna¹
 	friend 	 	1785 	32 	207 	239 	 	1966 	132 	207 	339 	 	2901 	132 	207 	339 	 	Ora¹
 	branch 	 	1817 	30 	200 	230 	 	2098 	130 	200 	330 	 	3033 	130 	200 	330 	 	Melka¹
 	snorting 	 	1847 	29 	119 	148 	 	2228 	79 	129 	208 	 	3163 	79 	129 	208 	 	Ijaska¹
 	station 	 	1876 	70 	 	205 	 	2307 	70 	205 	275 	 	3342 	70 	205+ 	275+ 	 	Edna¹
 	exalted father 	 	1946 	100 	 	175 	 	2377 	 	 	 	 	3412 	100 	 	175 	 	Sarai; (Hagar); Keturah
¹: The names of these wives are recorded in the Book of Jubilees, not Genesis. The names of the other wives are recorded in both.
²: According to most interpretations, including the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews, Enoch did not die,Hebrews 11:5, King James Version. but was taken away by God (at an age of 365).
Genesis states that Enoch "walked with God; and he was not; for God took him."Genesis 5:24, King James Version.
===Number differences===
A comparison of the numbers in the above table shows that the ages when the sons were born plus the remainders equal the totals given in each version, but each version uses different numbers to arrive at these totals. The three versions agree on some of the total ages at death, but many of the other numbers differ by exactly 100. The Septuagint numbers for the ages of the fathers at the birth of their sons, are in many instances 100 greater than the corresponding numbers in the other two versions.
The Samaritan chronology has Jared and Methuselah dying in Noah's 600th year, the year of the flood. The Masoretic chronology also has Methuselah dying in Noah's 600th year, but the Masoretic version uses a different chronology than the Samaritan version. The Lucianic Septuagint chronology has Methuselah surviving the flood and therefore the 100 year differences were not an attempt by the Septuagint editors to have Jared, Methuselah, or Lamech die during or prior to the flood.Ralph W. Klein, "Archaic Chronologies and the Textual History of the Old Testament", Harvard Theol Review, 67 (1974), pp. 255-263. Some scholarsGerhard Larsson, "The Chronology of the Pentateuch: A Comparison of the MT and LXX", Journal of Biblical Literature, 102 (1983), pp. 401-409. argue that the differences between the Masoretic and Septuagint chronologies in Genesis 5 can be explained as alterations designed to rationalize a primary Masoretic system of chronology to a later Septuagint system. According to another scholar,Emanual Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), pp. 11, 352. to assume that the Masoretic Text is primary "is a mere convention for the scholarly world" and "it should not be postulated in advance that MT reflects the original text of the biblical books better than the other texts."
Some scholars declare the Genesis 5 numbers to be "fictive"Joseph Blenkinsopp, The Pentateuch, Doubleday (1992), p. 74, ISBN 0-385-41207-X. because attempts to rationalize the numbers by translating "years" as "months" results in some of the Genesis 5 people fathering children when they were 5 years old if the Masoretic chronology is assumed to be primary. Commentators who take the Genesis 5 birth ages at face value, fail to explain how Methuselah could father a son at the age of 187.
The scholarly translation of the Hebrew Pentateuch into Greek at Alexandria, Egypt in about 280 BC worked off a Hebrew text that was edited in the 5th and 4th centuries BC.Charles M. Laymon (editor), The Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary on the Bible, Abingdon Press, Nashville (1971), p. 1227. This would be centuries older than the proto–Masoretic Text selected as the official text by the Masoretes.Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (1992), pp. 11, 352.
If the Genesis 5 numbers represent hundreds of solar years, this creates two problems: men do not live over nine hundred years and do not father children when they are over a century old.
One commentatorEllen H. Bennett, Science of Knowledge and Reason, 1897, London, England, pages 32-34 argued that the Septuagint Genesis 5 numbers are comparable to ages of moden people if decimal points are inserted in the numbers, which "will explain how it was that they read 930 years for the age of Adam instead of 93 years, and so 969 years for Methuselah instead of 96 years, and 956 years for that of Noah instead of 95 years", and Noah at 500 years instead of 50 years. Table III Ellen H. Bennett, page 34 lists "Enoch ... 16.5" instead of 165, and "Lamech ... 75.3" instead of 753. Another commentatorRobert M. Best, Noah's Ark and the Ziusudra Epic, 1999, page 108 provided a similar table of the same Septuagint Genesis 5 numbers with decimal points inserted in the same locations.
==Beyond Genesis==
Notable sons of Jacob (aka Israel).
Name 	Birth	Comments 	—	Wife/Wives/etc
Joseph	xxxx 	Counted among first 70 men of Jacob's lineage to be in Egypt. 	—	Asenath
Judah 	xxxx 	Among 70 men to leave Canaan for Egypt with Jacob. Bloodline goes to Jesus (e.g. Perez).	—	daughter of Shea; (Tamar)
Following Judah's line
Name 	examples of children	example references	Comments 	—	Wife/Wives/etc
Perez 	Hezron; Hamal 	Gen 46, Num 26.22 	Among 70 men to leave Canaan for Egypt with Jacob 	—	—
Hezron 	Ram 	Gen 46 	Among 70 men to leave Canaan for Egypt with Jacob? Or born in Egypt? Israel population = 70 men in three generations from Jacob, or many many more if inclusive of all descendants of Eber? 	—	—
Ram 	Amminadab 	— 	Living in Egypt 	—	—
Amminadab	Nahshon, Elisheva 	— 	Aaron's father in law 	—	—
Nahshon 	Salmon 	Num 1.7 	At least 20 years old at beginning of 40 year Exodus. Died during 40 year Exodus. Israel's population is 603,550 men by Num 1.46? (see discussion in The Exodus for paradox encountered in three generation population growth)	—	—
Salmon 	Boaz 	— 	Born during 40 Year Exodus. Crossed Jordan. Moses dies at age 120 prior to crossing. Salmon is first in tribal lineage to cross? 	—	Rahab of Jericho
Boaz 	Obed 	Josh, Ruth 	Born during 40 Year Exodus? Or born after the crossing? 	—	Ruth
Obed 	Jesse 	— 	— 	—	—
Jesse 	David 	— 	Contemporary of King Saul? 	—	—
==See also==
* Genealogy of the Bible
* Genealogy of Jesus
*Outline of the Bible
*Genealogies of the Bible
==References==
*Hall, Jonathan, Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity Cambridge U.Press, 1997.
*Malkin, Irad, editor, Ancient Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity in series Center for Hellenic Studies Colloquia, 5. Harvard University Press, 2001. Reviewed by Margaret C. Miller in Bryn Mawr Classical Review, 2002
*Driver, S. R., The Book of Genesis, Westminster Commentaries, 3rd edition, London, UK, Methuen, 1904.
*Kautzsch, E. F.: quoted by James Orr, "The Early Narratives of Genesis," in The Fundamentals, Vol. 1, Los Angeles, CA, Biola Press, 1917.
*Dillmann, A., Genesis: Critically and Exegetically Expounded, Vol. 1, Edinburgh, UK, T. and T. Clark, 1897, 314.
*Custance, Arthur C., The Roots of the Nations.
*Schmandt-Besserat, Denise, How Writing Came About, University of Texas Press, 1996, ISBN 0-292-77704-3.
==Notes==
==External links==
* Genesis Patriarchs - Familypedia
* Hasel, G.F., 1980. "The meaning of the chronogenealogies of Genesis 5 and 11", Origins 7(2):53–70.
Genesis
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