The Genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 in Context: Toward a Solution

Based on Scripture as its own interpreter, the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 11 have typically been compared in isolation, as the only two with begetting ages. Unfortunately, this type of exegesis has resulted in a stilted way of dealing with genealogy and history and has led to an unhealthy division among scholars who otherwise, typically inform each other’s scholarship. The approach in this study treats the Genesis 5 and 11 genealogies within their own contexts, in comparison respectively with the pre-Flood genealogy in Gen 4, and the post-Flood genealogy in Gen 10. Both pre- and post-Flood couplet genealogies have their same corresponding beginning and ending points. While the pre-Flood material is rather limited, the post-Flood material in the “Table of Nations,” is considerable, and yields a different story than the traditional approach. Instead, of a loose compilation, cobbled together late in the transmission of the book of Genesis, focusing on the first three generations of separate peoples, relegated into large territorial units, from the point of view of ancient Israel, we have found that these genealogical links, in each case, consist of peoples who participated in three great dispersions of the ancient world, and the places they later settled.