Book Of Generations Article Index for
Book Of
Shopping
Generations
Website Links For
Book
 

Information About

Book Of Generations




The standard reconstructed version of the text, formed by collecting together the various fragments, indicates that its presence is usually announced in the torah by the words "and these are the generations of name of biblical figure here ". The text itself appears to be a basic Genealogy of the main ancestors of the israelites, putting emphasis on the main line that leads from Adam , to Noah , then to Abraham , Jacob , and to Moses . However, there also appear to be a few asides to detail significant lines apart from this, such as that concerning Edom .


VARIATIONS ON A THEME


Both the priestly source (P), and the Jahwist (J) and Elohist (E) sources, also seem to have included portions of the book of generations, albeit variant editions. Frequently, when portions of the book of generations occur in the torah, they are nearby to similar lists of descendants and family trees which are ascribed to the other sources (i.e. J, E, or P).

Although, due to the nature of its use, many parts of the book of generations do not survive, much of the genealogy that is missing is covered by the other sources. Consequently it is possible that in the future the text might be fully reconstructed, although there is very little agreement on the matter in the present day.


THE BOOK OF GENERATIONS AS A TEMPLATE


It is also the case that the in the sources, the genealogy for certain individuals appear to have a large number of properties in common with those for others. This may be an indicator that at least one of these genealogies is an accidental corruption of a copy of another, or a deliberate but subtle alteration.

For example, in the Jahwist (J) text (Genesis 4:17 - 18), the family tree descending from Cain has the following properties (amongst others)
  • Cain and Enoch are father and son

  • Enoch and Irad are father and son

  • Irad and Mehujael are father and son

  • Methusael is Irad's grandson

  • Lamech is Methusael's son


Whereas in the book of generations the descendants of Seth (Genesis 5:3-26) have the following properties
  • Enos and Cainan are father and son

  • Jared and Enoch are father and son

  • Mehalaleel and Jared are father and son

  • Methuselah is Jared's grandson

  • Lamech is Methuselah's son



EXTERNAL LINKS