MIT and LIT Study Group

Observation - Genealogies

Genealogies appear throughout the Bible in several places, including Jesus' line. There are various reasons some of which are cultural - it was very important for Jews to know where they had come from in order that they were able to establish how they fitted into the tribal system. In addition to this, it was important to make sure that when young people married, that they were not too closely related - remember, much of this would have been in the context of small-village life. Additionally, there were several laws requiring that genealogies were kept in order to establish racial purity - meaning that when a young Jew wished to marry a young lady, she would have to provide proof that she was jewish going back 4 or 5 generations.

The genealogies in this chapter have been heavily disputed for many years - some believe that the ages represent certain things - 777 years for instance being in relation to God's number - 7, therefor 777 referred to a perfect life. This is a lot to read into such a small chapter, because there is nothing anywhere in the Bible that suggests that this is not an actual literal account of people and ages. And regarding the 777 thing - only on person lived a perfect life, and He died aged 33. These are reported to be the actual, genuine ages of these men. They were the founders of villages and towns and eventually whole nations. Noah's boys were the three who eventually became the great-grandfathers of all people today.