Book of generations
Encyclopedia
The Book of generations is an hypothesized text that the modern documentary hypothesis
Documentary hypothesis
The documentary hypothesis , holds that the Pentateuch was derived from originally independent, parallel and complete narratives, which were subsequently combined into the current form by a series of redactors...

 claims was used by the redactor of the torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

 to connect up parts of the priestly source
Priestly source
The Priestly Source is one of the sources of the Torah/Pentateuch in the bible. Primarily a product of the post-Exilic period when Judah was a province of the Persian empire , P was written to show that even when all seemed lost, God remained present with Israel...

 and the JE source
JE
JE is a hypothetical intermediate source text of the Torah postulated by the DH. It is a combination and redaction of the Jahwist and Elohist source texts. According to this hypothesis, J was composed c. 950 BC, E was composed c. 850 BC, and the two were combined into JE c. 750 BC. JE was...

. The text is no longer extant, but in the hypothesis, portions of the text survive as part of the torah
Torah
Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five books of the bible—Genesis , Exodus , Leviticus , Numbers and Deuteronomy Torah- A scroll containing the first five books of the BibleThe Torah , is name given by Jews to the first five...

. In particular, the text is believed to be fragmented across several portions of the text, since it was used as a filler for several joins. It was Frank Moore Cross
Frank Moore Cross
Frank Moore Cross, Jr. is Hancock Professor of Hebrew and Other Oriental Languages Emeritus at Harvard University, notable for his work in the interpretation of the Dead Sea Scrolls, his 1973 magnum opus Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic, and his work in Northwest Semitic epigraphy...

 who first demonstrated that the text was separate to the other sources, which are substantially larger in comparison.

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 [insert name of biblical figure here]". The text itself appears to be a basic genealogy
Genealogy
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...

 of the main ancestors of the Israelites, putting emphasis on the main line that leads from Adam, to Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...

, then to Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...

, Jacob
Jacob
Jacob "heel" or "leg-puller"), also later known as Israel , as described in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the New Testament and the Qur'an was the third patriarch of the Hebrew people with whom God made a covenant, and ancestor of the tribes of Israel, which were named after his descendants.In the...

, and to Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

. However, there also appear to be a few asides to detail significant lines apart from this, such as that concerning Edom
Edom
Edom or Idumea was a historical region of the Southern Levant located south of Judea and the Dead Sea. It is mentioned in biblical records as a 1st millennium BC Iron Age kingdom of Edom, and in classical antiquity the cognate name Idumea was used to refer to a smaller area in the same region...

.

Variations on a theme

Both the priestly source (P), and the Jahwist
Jahwist
The Jahwist, also referred to as the Jehovist, Yahwist, or simply as J, is one of the sources of the Torah. It gets its name from the fact that it characteristically uses the term Yahweh for God in the book of Genesis...

 (J) and Elohist
Elohist
The Elohist is one of four sources of the Torah described by the Documentary Hypothesis. Its name comes from the term it uses for God: Elohim; it is characterised by, among other things, an abstract view of God, using "Horeb" instead of "Sinai" for the mountain where Moses received the laws of...

 (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

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 the descendants of Seth
Seth
Seth , in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, is the third listed son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, who are the only other of their children mentioned by name...

(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
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