Generation

GENERATION jen-er-a'-shun (Latin generatio, from genero, "beget"):

(1) The translation

(a) of dor, "circle," "generation," hence, "age," "period," "cycle":

"many generations" (Deuteronomy 32:7);

(b) the people of any particular period or those born about the same time:

"Righteous before me in this generation" (Genesis 7:1); "four generations" (Job 42:16);

(c) the people of a particular class or sort, with some implied reference to hereditary quality; the wicked (Deuteronomy 32:5; Proverbs 30:11); the righteous (Psalms 14:5; 112:2).

(2) toledhoth, "births," hence

(a) an account of a man and his descendants:

"The book of the generations of Adam" (Genesis 5:1);

(b) successive families:

"The families of the sons of Noah, after their generations" (Genesis 10:32);

(c) genealogical divisions:

"The children of Reuben .... their generations, by their families" (Numbers 1:20); (d) figurative, of the origin and early history of created things: "The generations of the heavens and of the earth" (Genesis 2:4).

(3) genea, "a begetting," "birth," "nativity," therefore

(a) the successive members of a genealogy:

"All the generations from Abraham unto David" (Matthew 1:17);

(b) a race, or class, distinguished by common characteristics, always (in the New Testament) bad:

"Faithless and perverse generation" (Matthew 17:17);

(c) the people of a period:

"This generation shall not pass away" (Luke 21:32);

(d) an age (the average lifetime, 33 years):

"Hid for (Greek "from the") ages and (from the) generations" (Colossians 1:26). The term is also by a figurative transference of thought applied to duration in eternity: "Unto all generations for ever and ever" (Ephesians 3:21) (Greek "all the generations of the age of the ages").

(4) genesis, "source," "origin":

"The book of the generation of Jesus Christ" (Matthew 1:1; the American Revised Version, margin "The genealogy of Jesus Christ").

(5) gennema, "offspring," "progeny"; figurative:

"O generation of vipers" (Luke 3:7 the King James Version).

(6) genos, "stock," "race," in this case spiritual:

"But ye are a chosen generation" (1 Peter 2:9; the American Standard Revised Version "an elect race").

Philip Wendell Crannell

Copyright Statement

These files are public domain.

Bibliography Information

Orr, James, M.A., D.D. General Editor. "Entry for 'GENERATION'".  "International Standard Bible Encyclopedia".  1915.