Genealogies in the Bible

There are various genealogies described in the Bible.

Genesis

The book of Genesis records the descendants of Adam and Eve. 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. The genealogy in chapter 10 recording the male descendants of Noah is known as the Table of Nations.

Table of Nations

Within the book of Genesis, the Table of Nations is an extensive list of descendants of Noah appearing within the Torah at Genesis 10, representing an ethnology from an Iron Age Levantine perspective and its reflections in the medieval and modern history and genealogy researches.

Family tree of Adam

Family tree of Abraham

Genealogy of Jesus according to Christianity

The genealogy of Jesus through either one or both of his earthly parents (Mary and Joseph) is given by two passages from the Gospels, Matthew Matthew 1:2-16 and Luke Luke 3:23-38. Both of them trace Jesus' line back to King David and from there on to Abraham; Luke traces the line all the way back to the Adam from Genesis. These lists are identical between Abraham and David, but they differ radically from that point onward. Christian scholars have put forward a number of theories to explain why they differ so much, such as that Matthew follows the lineage through Joseph and that Luke chose to follow lineage through Mary, because Joseph had no biological link to Jesus. Or that Joseph had both biological and adoptive parents and each genealogy follows these different lineages. Modern critical scholars like Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan have claimed that both genealogies are simply inventions, made to bring the Messianic claims into conformity with Jewish criteria.^[1]

References

External links

•  Herbermann, Charles, ed (1913). "Genealogy (in the Bible)". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 

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