3. Figurative and artificial genealogies. — These appear frequently in OT. In Gn 5 an anbrokcn line of descent of ten generations — from Adam to Noah inclusive — furnishes a chronologj' for the ante- diluvian period; in Gn H'"-^ a similar line from Shem to Terah inclusive furnishes the chronology of the period from the Deluge to the birth of Abra- ham. In Gn 10 is a table of nations, presenting the geographical and political relationships in the form of a genealogy or family tree from the three .sons of Noah. From Terah, Abraham, and Isaac is traced the descent of the peoples with whom Israel recoOTized aclose racial union, i.e. the Araimcans of N. Mesopotamia (Gn 22'-''''"), the tribes of .\rabia (Gn 25'"'*), the Ammonites and Moabites (tki 19^''>, and Edomites (Gn 36). These peoples, botli !is wholes and in their various subdivisions, are mentioned as descendants from individual ancestors bearing generally tribal or geographical names, as though peoples and tribes grew out of single households. The same principle is applied to Israel, who is represented as the father of twelve sons, bearing the names of the twelve tribes, from whom in like manner sprang the various clans and families of these tribes (cf. Gn 46'--'^, Nu 26).
This fonn of representation is not pecuUar to OT writera. It is the usual way m whicli primitive peoples explain their origin and tribal relationsliips. The Greeks traced their descent from Ilellen, who had three sons, Dorus and .\eoIus, who gave their names to the Dorians and .\eolians, aiui .\uthus. who through his two sons. Ion and Achaius, became the forefather of the lonians and Aclucans. But especially is this the method of Sem. people, as is illustrated among Israel's kinsmen, the Araba- According to their writers, tiie inhabitants of Arabia are ' patri- arclial tribes formed by the subdivision of on original stock on the system of kinship 'through male descendants. A tribe waa but a larger family ; the tribal name waa the name or nickname of a conmion ancestor. In process of time it broke up into two or more tribes, each embracing the descendants of one of the great ancestor's sons, and talking its name from him. These tribes were again divided and subdivided on the same principle.' ' Between a nation, a tribe, a sept or sub-tribe and a family, there is no difference on this theorj', except in size and distance, from a common ancestor' (\V. 11. Smith. Kinship and Marria<j* in Early Arabia, pp. 3f.X This likewise seems to have been the view in Israel, and is es]>ecially worked out in P. (.Mo.it of the genealogical tables and tribal and family listji In the Hex. belong to this document).
While in some instances tril)es, clans, or families take their name from historic persons, — some .Arabic clans are thus named (Kinship, p. 15 : Sprenger, Miihntnmcd, iii. p. cx.xxvi, Juur. liibl. Lit. vol. .\i. 1892, p. I'2()), — in genealogical lists the founders of tribes, elans, and families are usually to be re- gardeil as Bl>onymous heroes, for countries and cities are frei|uently mentioned as parents (Miz
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GENEALOGY
g
raim Gn 10", Canaan 10", GUead Jg 11', Hebron 1 Ch 2**, et al.). Under the form of family experi- ence are given events of tribal life (Gn 38. See G. A. Smith, Hist. Geog. p. 289; Stade, Gesch. i. pp. 157 f. ; Moore on Jg l"-'"). Elder sons prob. represent earlier or more powerful tribes and Janii- lies ; marriages their coalitions, the weaker being perhaps tlie wife, and an inferior a concubine ; untimely deaths their disappearances ; difl'erent relatiousliips of the same person political or geo- rapliical changes or difl'erent traditions (cf. Stade,
esch. i. p. 30). But many genealogical stories and relationships originated evidently in folk- tales, and hence they present a mingling of fact and fancy, and the relationships of father, mother, wife, son, daughter, etc., cannot be interpreted upon any uniform theory in respect to the precise meaning of each.
Where pedigrees for generations of remote anti- quity are given (Gn 5. ll>''-=^ 1 Ch 2»-i- &^ et al.), tliey probably do not rest upon authentic records, but are artiticlal.
' Life in the Orient is much too unsafe, and the changes much too great, for one to expect to find family records of several centuries. Moreover, in the desert [and so generally under nomadic conditions which Israel for centuries experienced] family archives are unimagrinable, and it is sheer nonsense to beheve that all the brandies of a family tree could be preserved by memory' (Sprenger, Mohammed^ iii. p. cxli).
This statement, made in view of Arabian gene- alogies, is equally ajiplicable to those of early man- kind and Israel. These, too, when they present a continuous line of descent from father to son, are the conjectures of later ages (see Chronology of i OT). They are, however, not the fruit of a spirjr, of deception, but of good faith with poetic imagina- tion in vindicating family rights and privileges, and religious institutions, or in glorifying the family and national and religious heroes. The impulse for the formation of such pedigrees is synchronous with the stress laid upon piuity of descent and the actual keeping of family gene- alogies. The names introduced were not usually inventions, but taken from legend and story, representing often historical persons, families, and conditions.