GENEALOGY.— Timothy is warned (1 Ti 1«) not to give heed to fables and endless genealogies {ixrjbi TTpofjfx^^^ ti.v6oi% Kixi yfvtaXoyiati dTTfpdfrots), and i'itus (3") to avoid foolish questions and genealogies (/twpd? 5^ ^tjTiiaci^ Kal yeyraXoyia^). What were these 'genealogies'? Some Fathers towards the end of the second century understood the word to
refer to the emanations of aeons and of angell which formed part of the gliosis, or secret know- ledge claimed by the Gnostics of their o«n day (see Gnosticism). But a parallel phrase in
Polybius (IX. ii. 1, irepi rds yd'eaXoyias icai i/.v6ov!J refers to the mythological stories which earlier historians gathered round the birth and descent of their heroes. Similar legends are found in Pliilo, Josejilius, and the Book of Jubilees, regarding the Jewish patriiirchs and their families. And if, with Hort (Judaistic Christ ianiti/, 13511'.), we may suppose that such genealogical tales liad begun to creep from the Jewish into the Christian com- munities of Asia Minor, the necessity for sucli a warning to Timothy and Titus will be sufficiently iinderstood.
GENERAL. — 1, Once AV uses 'general' to translate v, 1 Ch 27^ ' The general of the king s army was Joab.' The most usual tr° is 'captain,' which KV prefers, after Gen. and Bishops'. Cov. has 'chefe captayne.' See CAPTAIN.
2. As an adj. 'general' means 'common to all,' 'universal,' as Ad. Est 15'" (noij-is) ; 2 Mac 3" ' Others ran flocking out of their houses to the general supplication ' {iirl irdcSij/xo;/ Uirlav, AVm ' to make general supplication ' ; RV ' to make a universal supplication '). Latimer {Sermons, ed. 1584, p. 182) says, 'The promises of God oui Saviour are general ; they pertain to all mankind. He made a general proclamation, saying, Whoso- ever believeth in me hath everlasting life. . . . Also consider what Christ saith with his own mouth : Come to me, all ye tliat labour and are laden, and I will ease you. Mark here he saith. Come all ye ; « lierefore then should any man despair to shut himself from these promises of Christ, which be general, and pertain to the whole world ? ' In He 12^ the Gr. word Travijyvpi^ is tr'' in AV 'general assembly,' and RV retains the rendering. The sense is again ' universal assem- bly,' the adj. '"encral' bein" intended to repre- sent the irds, ' all,' in the word.
The word 7ra>'7J7i7)ii (from which comes 'pane- gyric,' a speech at a festival) is found only here in NT. In LXX it stands for ^i:lD Ezk 46'" (EV 'solemnities,' RVm 'appointed feasts'), Hos 2" (EV 'season') 'J° (AV 'solemn,' RV 'solemn as- sembly'); and for .Tijjy Am 5-' (EV 'solemn as- semblies'). In classical literature it is in frequent use to denote a national or general gathering for festive (and especially festive and religious) pur- poses, as at the Olympic, Isthmian, and Neniean games. The (KKXijaia was al.so an assembly of the people, but not so distinctively national, and rather tor poUtical than festive jjurposes ; while ioprri signilied a feast or festal gathering, but had no national character attached to it. It is sur- prising, therefore, that nyiD, which is a general religious assembly, and even ■■!■;>•;•, which is a religious though not a national gathering, are not more fie(|uently rendered by iravifiyvpii in LXX. Cremer suggests that liealhen cu.stoms were too closely associated with this Greek word, and he thinks it would not have been used wliere it has been but for the accumulation of Heb. .synonyms in those four passages (see Cremer, Bibl. Theol. Lex. s.i:, and Trench, NI' Si/mmi/ms', p. 5, § 1).
The clKiiie of this word by tlie writer of the Ep. to tlie Ilibrews is an element in the determination of the imaning of the pa.ssage in which it occurs, one of the most dilUcult problems in the Epistle.
There la practically no differcnc* of rcodinir, uvfUn iyltn D,* and tivfiieciv* \'g., for fu/fmn,, beinjj probably bii^^'ehtions U simplify the construction. Tlie Llilllculty liuiin lliu punctua- tion. Tlicre are Ave possible arrani;cnK-nt8 —
1. mx'i uufiixrtt, iyyiXtn 9mrryifu \ ««< tJuiAqr*^ wfmt*wi%m
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GENERAL
GENERATION
' And to myriads, a general assembly of angels ; and to the Church of the tlrstborn whose names are written in heaveD.'
2. ««* u-fei<icertk iyy'.Xttt, irxivryt/pii ', *«i, «.t.A.
' And to myriads of ongeU, & genertU assembly ; and to the Church,' etc.
Moses Stuart, tjiger, Edwards, and Farrar distinctly prefer the first arransremeiit : Chr>-sostom, Oeoumenius, Theophylact, Krasmus, Luther, Calvin, Urotius, Hooker, Weiss, Vau^han, Thayer, Kay, Westcott, Brig^'s prefer the second. Hul the meaning is the same, though tlie punctuation dlfTers ; and taking the two together without the comma, ««i uupiccnt iyyiXM* wctrr^yCfiu \ lutt, x.r.x.. We get the sense which is adopted bv Tisch. after all the Gr. MSS which exhibit the conne.\ion of words (including AC), the Syr. and Lat. VSS, Origen, Kusebius, B&sW (tnuUitwlinrtn anffflonim frequ^ntern), Vuig. (miUtorujn mitiiuni nnijfloniin fre>iueutiam et ecdesiam primitivunnn, t/ni CKnucripti aunt in ca-lui). Wye. (' and [1388 adds tt>\ the multi- tude of many thousynd aungels, and to the chirche of the ftrste men"), Tind. (*and to an innumerable sight of angels, and unto the congregation of the fyrst borne sonnes '), Cov., .Matt., Cran., Gen., Bish., Rhem., Oltramare (rfu chceur juyeux des myriadet d'anges, de CaMetiibUe deiipTennerg-n^«), Segond.