GENEALOGY
GENEALOGY
121
The Gr. verb yivtaai, like the Enj. verb * gender, refers to the father, but is used of tlie mother in Lk l'^- 57"23^, Jn 16*^i, and in this passaj^'e. The meaning of the passage is well brought out b}' Lightfoot, ' for these women are (represent) two covenants; one of them, which was given from Mount 8inai, bearing children unto bondage ; inasmuch as she (Iitj,-) Is llagar.' Add Gwynne's explanation, 'As Hagar, the bond- woman, brought forth children unto bondage, — for the children follow the condition of their mother, — so Ukewise did the Sinaitic covenant bring forth childrea unt^ bondage ; the one is a fit representative of the other.*
This trans, verb is used metaph. in 2 Ti 2^ ' But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes ' (yevvQiai. /idxas ; Wj-c. 'gendren cliidiiigis,' Tind. 'gendre stryfe,' Rhera. ' ingender braules ').
The intrans. examples ( = ' copulate,' ' breed ') are Lv lyii* and Job 21'", with which cf. Shaks. Othello, IV. ii. 62—
* Or keep it as a cistern, for foul toads To knot and gender in.'
J. Hastings.
GENEALOGY Under this title will be con- sidered— A. Biblical Genealogy in general; B. The Genealogical Lists of the Tribes of Israel and a few other lists of names ; C. Lists of persons and families associated with the labours of Ezra and Neheniiah.
A. 1 . Definition. — The word genealogy (sing, and plur.) occurs in OT as a tr. of the Heb. noun <t"}'. {Ht. \ey. Neh 7°) and of the denom. verb i?"; (only Hithp. in 1 .and 2 Ch, Ezr, and Neh), with the meaning of a family register or a regis- tration by families (1 Ch 4^^ 5'-'- " etc.). In con- nexion with these registrations are often given lines of descent (cf. 1 Ch 1-9), and occasionally the pedigrees of individuals (1 Ch 2"'"'^- *>"" et al.). Tables of genealogical descent also appear in OT u an expansion of the word n'n^in, 'generations' (cf. Gn 5' liy U'o etc., also Mt 1' ^ijiXos ycfiffeus 'IricoO XpiiTToO, LXX for nnVi.n 15?, ' The genealogy of Jesus Christ,' RVm). Genealogies appear in two forms — one giving the generations in a descending Bcale (Gn 5, Ru 4'*'' etc.), the other in an ascend- ing scale (1 Ch e*"-", Ezr T'"' etc.).
2. The registration of families and individuals. — Just when the Hebrews began to preserve family registers it is impossible to determine. Lists of families and of citizens for official purposes must have been made very early, in connexion, for ex- ample, with the census of David (2 S 24). Familiarity with sucli enrolments is implied in the reference to ' the book of J" (Ex 32^'-, Ps 139'"), 'the book of life' (Ps 69^, cf. Is 4^ Dn 12'), and they seem to be directly mentioned in Jer 22*^, Ezk 13'. At the time of the giving of the Deuteronomic law there must have been some way of determining whether one was of pure Isr. descent (Dt '23'-''). But in the earlier centuries of the pre-exilic period, when marriages probably were freely made with the old Can. inhabitants, and when these inhabit- ants were being gradually incorporated and amalgamated into Israel, a motive for carefully preserving lines of individual descent is not appar- ent, and we have no reason to believe that such records were generally m.ide. An exception, which is only probables, may have occurred in the case of royalty, nobilitj', and perhaps the priest- hood. (Tlie laws of inheritance seem not sulli- ciently complicated to have re(|uired the preserva- tion of family genealogies). Alter the restoration, however, when Israel had become a church, and a sharp line of scp;iration was drawn between the Jews and the other peoples of Palestine, and union with them by marriage had become a grievous trespass (Ezr 9'"''), the case waa far dill'erent. Hence, from the time of reforms introduced by Ezra and Nehcmiah (c. B.C. 444), the jireservation of family cenealogies, or records of thedescent of indiviiluals, became a matter of special importance. Already,
at that time, certain families were debarred from the ortice of priests because they could not produce genealogical registers (Ezr 2"'-**, Neh 7"^*»). From then onwards care was doubtless exercised tor their preservation. Their value is shown by the repeated allusion to them in 1 and 2 Ch, Ezr, and Neh. To become a priest, a prime requisite was an evidence of proper pedigree. From the state- ment of Joseplius tliat his pedigree was given in the public records (Vita, 1 ; cf. c. Ap. i. 7), :-t is probable that family genealogies were thus Kept trom their importance in reference to inheritance, marriage, redemption of lands, and service in the temple. Many families at the time of Christ evidently had genealogical registers (Mt 1', Lk 2^ 3^f-, Ac i^\ Ro 11', Ph 3").
' Da\idida, or descendants of the house of David, were found among the Jews in the Persian, Grecian, and even as late as the Roman period (comp. Zunz, AnalekUni, No. 6, p. 4G, note 18). But, in consequence of the exterminating war«ana the Dispersion, the records of old families were lost as early as the first centuries, and even the famiUes of the priests did not remain unpolluted (Jentfi. Kiddit^hiHy iv. 1)* (Zunz in Asher's Itiiwrary of Utn). Tudddy ii. p. 6). Julius Africanus {Kp. Arislidcs, v.) gives a tradition that Herod l. destroyed the genealogical lists which were kept at Jerus., to deprive Jewish families of tlie knowledge of their descent. This story is doubtful, though received by some. (See Sachs, Beitrage, Heft ii. pp. 155 ff.).