Introduction: Why Study Genealogies?

When we glance at the Bible Companion on-September 18th and see that once more we are to commence reading 1 Chronicles, do we regard the reading of this portion of God’s Word, with its chapters of names, as a tedious chore to be gone through over the following weeks? What do we actually gain from our readings from these times, apart from a bit of practice, if we read them out aloud,’in pronouncing difficult Hebrew names? Last Autumn, having been exhorted on succes­sive Sundays not to neglect the names and genealogies in Chronicles by two visiting brethren (who, strangely enough, came from the same ecclesia), and having been invited to contribute a series of articles to this magazine, I decided to look at the early chapters of Chronicles to try to extract something of interest and profit

Other Genealogies

Genealogies are not, of course, limited to the early chapters of 1 Chron­icles. From time to time they appear in Genesis, and the first chapter of Chron­icles in fact draws together the genealogies of Genesis to cover the time span from Adam to Jacob. In the New Testament we have the genealogies of Christ in Matthew 1 and Luke 3.

These genealogies are probably well-known to most of us. We are aware of how the line of descent from Adam to Abraham can be traced in Genesis, and we have, perhaps, picked up interesting pieces of information, such as the fact that Methuselah died in the year of the flood, or that Abraham and Isaac could have had a first-hand account of the flood from Shem. The two genealogies of Christ likewise have an obvious purpose; Matthew 1 shows how Christ is the heir to the promises to Abraham and David; Luke 3 demonstrates the descent from Adam which he shares with us all.

The Basis of the Series

It is proposed to base these articles, God willing, on the genealogies to be found in 1 Chronicles 2 – 8. These chapters, as the title of our series indi­cates, deal with the various families of the tribes of Israel. 1 Chron. 1, having stated, “The sons of Isaac; Esau and Israel” in verse 34, disposes of Esau and his descendants in the rest of the chapter. 1 Chron. 2 then opens: “These are the sons of Israel”, and 1 Chron. 9 begins, “So all Israel were reckoned by genealogies”. In the intervening 7 chapters are contained the genealogies of the tribes of Israel, the genealogies of some tribes being given much more space than those of others.

In considering these chapters we shall not pay much attention to the meaning of names and the drawing of lessons therefrom. Whilst we do not doubt that there can be interest and profit from such a study, we wish to concentrate in these articles upon the basic genealogies themselves. What information do they have to impart to us when studied in conjunction with other Old Testament books? They must, of course, be studied in this way, for most of the chapters would be unintelligible without the historical information contained elsewhere in the Old Testament.

Why study the Genealogies?

The short answer to this question is, Because they are there. That is to say, since they are part of God’s Word, then the study of them must be of value to us. This is not to say that they are as important as some other parts of God’s Word; it would be absurd to suppose that these eight chapters in Chronicles are as important to us as the equivalent number of chapters in the epistle to the Romans, for example. We do well to remember that, whilst we accept that all the Bible is of some profit to us, it was not written primarily to us, and the gene­alogies of Chronicles no doubt were of great significance to those for whom they were recorded. Indeed, their importance can be seen from Ezra 2:62, where certain who claimed to be of the priestly families were rejected as such because the genealogies did not bear out the claim.

What, then, do we hope to gain from studying the genealogies? For a start, as one of the aforementioned exhorting brethren pointed out, some of these people have not passed off the scene for ever; they are part of those who, “having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise”. Since “God has provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect”, we hope to be partakers with them in the Kingdom inheritance. If we were to meet Jabez, for example (see 1 Chron. 4:9) in the Kingdom, would we be in the embarrassing position of not having heard of him, let alone of knowing anything about him, because we had skipped the genealogies in Chronicles each September when we came to them in our readings?

Secondly, much of the Old Testament is historical, albeit history from God’s point of view, not man’s. It concerns a particular land and people chosen by God, and this same land and people are to be the centre of that Kingdom which will yet be established on earth. In other words, the gospel message is quite literally a down-to-earth message. As prospective heirs of that Kingdom, we do well to take an interest in the land and people of Israel, for in so doing our minds are removed from the kingdoms of this present Gentile world which are to pass away, and we become correspondingly in less danger of being caught up in the pleasures and prospects of our age.

Furthermore, the historical events which are recorded in the Old Testament are meant to provide us with lessons, and the information contained in 1 Chronicles ought to throw light on the historical passages. When it comes to drawing lessons from Old Testament history, let us remember that we ought to get our facts right, and the genealogies are part of the facts. If we do not get our facts right from the first, then we may not draw the right lesson. It is also important if we are to remember a lesson from Scripture for us to be familiar with the facts on which the lesson is based, otherwise it may soon be forgotten. Hence our Sunday Schools give children a good basic knowledge of Bible facts on which doctrines and prin­ciples can be built later on. Has our knowledge of Bible facts stopped at Sunday School level because we have never paid much attention to a book like 1 Chronicles?

Time of Writing

It will obviously be helpful to establish when Chronicles was actually written; in other words, up to what time do the genealogies of the tribes take us? The answer is that they take us up to the time of the return from captivity, because Zerubbabel and certain of his descendants are mentioned in 1 Chronicles 3:19. This would indicate that Ezra the Scribe is the divinely inspired author of Chronicles, and the similarity of Ezra and Chronicles helps to bear this out; indeed, a look at the end of Chronicles and the beginning of Ezra indicates that Ezra is the continuation of Chronicles.

There is much evidence in the Old Testament of inspired works existing other than those which God has seen fit to cause to come down as His Word for us. In the two books of Chronicles there are 15 references to such works, some of which bear the names of prophets. The history of God’s people was continually being recorded by inspired men, rather than being revealed as a whole many years after. Thus we suggest that the genealogies of the tribes were continuously being recorded by inspired men. What we have in the two books of Chronicles is not, therefore, something which was revealed to Ezra without having existed in written form before. Rather, Ezra would have played the part of an editor, direc­ted by the Spirit of God to select those portions of the earlier inspired writings which God thought fit to provide as a permanent record down to our own day, and inspired by God to bring the record up-to-date and make such explanatory comments and linking comments as were necessary.

The Aim of these Studies

We can well see how the resulting family trees of the 12 tribes must have played a purpose at the time of the restoration under Joshua and Zerubbabel, and later on under Ezra and Nehemiah. We would expect also to find interesting and helpful information when combined with other Scriptures, and it is our hope to provide this in future articles.

This study is not one which has been already done and is now being written up for publication. The decision to make it came as a result of being asked to write a series for this magazine. As a first step we have taken a large sheet of paper and have commenced to work out, in family tree fashion, the genealogies of the tribe of Judah, the first and lengthiest genealogy in I Chron. 2-9. In each future issue we shall hope to provide one or more sections of a family tree, commencing with Judah. We mention this in case any readers might like to embark on the same sort of exercise, in order to compare findings later on, and perhaps submit their findings, if different, for publication in the magazine. Ideally, one vast family tree, starting with Jacob (or even Adam if it was to cover more than 1 Chron. 2-9) could be drawn up; perhaps some keen reader might like to have a try on a large whitewashed wall at home! An example of a study of part of the genealogies of Chronicles along these lines has been done by Brother Harry Whit-taker in “Enjoying the Bible” (p.198).

Some Difficulties

Finally, in what has become a rather long introduction, we draw attention to some difficulties which we have come across already.

1. The text seems rather fragmented at times. For example, someone called Ezra is mentioned in 1 Chron. 4:17, and a piece of genealogy follows. Who is this Ezra? If it is not possible to link him or one of his descendants with somebody else, or to some portion of Biblical history, then that particular section can have little meaning for us. Assumptions may have to be made that such a person is to be identified with someone elsewhere in Scripture, without any direct proof.
2. In some instances many people in Scripture bear the same name. A glance at Young’s Concordance reveals that there are 28 Azariahs and 27 Zechariahs (and 2 Zachariahs), or, to take examples of lesser-known names from a single page of the concordance, 8 Elioenais, 6 Eliphelets and 7 Elishamas. All these names are names occurring both in the genealogies and elsewhere in Scripture, and difficulties could be involved in attempts to link them up.
3. Genealogies may not always be continuous. The term “son of” may mean liter­ally “son” or it may mean “descendant”. Abijah was not literally a son of David (2 Chron.13:8) but a descendant of David. There are two known gaps in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1, and similar gaps seem to occur in 1 Chronicles. If the men in 1 Chronicles 2:6 were contemporaries of Solomon (1 Kings 4:31), then they were not the direct sons of Zerah.
4. Names are not always the same, and identification of a person in Chronicles with one elsewhere is not always possible. The ‘Achar’ of 1 Chron.2:7 is clearly shown to be the ‘Achan’ of Josh.7:1, but is the ‘Zabdi’ of Josh.7:1 the same as ‘Zimri’ of 1 Chron. 2:6?
5. Names of places may crop up as names of people. Eshtemoa in 1 Chron.4:17.is a person, Eshtemoa in Josh.21:1,4 is a town. Are the two names just coincidental? Or did Eshtemoa the man found Eshtemoa the town? If the latter is the case and we apply this as a general principle, then this widens the scope of our study, giving us further connections with other Scriptures.

In our studies we propose to be bold in our approach and make such assump­tions as:

1. If the same name occurs elsewhere, and to connect the two is not obviously wrong, then it is legitimate to do so if otherwise there is no apparent link with other Scripture.
2. It is legitimate to accept that “son of” may mean “descendant of”, and that there may be gaps in the genealogies which pass over people of no significance.
3. Towns were often named after people and genealogies may provide information as to where certain families settled.

To refrain from making such assumptions would mean that little could be gained from certain parts of the genealogies. We do not believe this is the case with any part of Scripture.