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FUTURE GENERATIONS: Deuteronomy 29:22 | Joshua 22:27 | Psalms 22:30, 48:13, 77:8, 102:18 ALL GENERATIONS: Isaiah 13:19-21 - [after God overthrows Babylon, only desert creatures will live there - not Arabs] Isaiah 51:7-8 - Hear me, you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts: Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults. For the moth will eat them up like a garment; the worm will devour them like wool. But my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations. GENERATIONS, GENEALOGIES:     ADAM through ISAAC & ISHMAEL - 1 Chronicles 1     SEIR and EDOM - 1 Chronicles 1     sons of ISRAEL - 1 Chronicles 2     sons of DAVID - 1 Chronicles 3-4     DAVID (Boaz) from PEREZ - Ruth 4:13     JESUS (Joseph) from ABRAHAM - Matthew 1:1-17     JESUS (Joseph) from ADAM - Luke 3:23-38

Genesis 2:4, "These are the generations," means the "history." 5:1, "The book of the generations," means a family register, or history of Adam 37:2, "The generations of Jacob" = the history of Jacob and his descendants 7:1, "In this generation" = in this age. Psalms 49:19, "The generation of his fathers" = the dwelling of his fathers, i.e., the grave. Psalms 73:15, "The generation of thy children" = the contemporary race. Isaiah 53:8, "Who shall declare his generation?" = His manner of life who shall declare? or rather = His race, posterity, shall be so numerous that no one shall be able to declare it.

In Matthew 1:17, the word means a succession or series of persons from the same stock. Matthew 3:7, "Generation of vipers" = brood of vipers 24:34, "This generation" = the persons then living contemporary with Christ. 1 Peter 2:9, "A chosen generation" = a chosen people.

The Hebrews seem to have reckoned time by the generation. In the time of Abraham a generation was an hundred years, thus: Genesis 15:16, "In the fourth generation" = in four hundred years (Compare verse 13 and Exodus 12:40). In Deuteronomy 1:35 and 2:14 a generation is a period of thirty-eight years.

In the long-lived patriarchal age a generation seems to have been computed at 100 years, (Genesis 15:16) comp. Genesis15:13 and Eccl 12:40 But subsequently the reckoning was the same which has been adopted by modern civilized nations, viz. from thirty to forty years (Job 42:16) (Generation is also used to signify the men of an age or time, as contemporaries, (Genesis 6:9; Isaiah 53:8) posterity , especially in legal formulae, (Leviticus 3:17) etc.; fathers, or ancestors. (Psalms 49:19)

jen-er-a'-shun (Latin generatio, from genero, "beget"):

(1) The translation

(a) of dor, "circle," "generation," hence, "age," "period," "cycle": "many generations" (Deuteronomy 32:7);
(b) the people of any particular period or those born about the same time: "Righteous before me in this generation" (Genesis 7:1); "four generations" (Job 42:16);
(c) the people of a particular class or sort, with some implied reference to hereditary quality; the wicked (Deuteronomy 32:5; Proverbs 30:11); the righteous (Psalms 14:5; 112:2).

(2) toledhoth, "births," hence

(a) an account of a man and his descendants: "The book of the generations of Adam" (Genesis 5:1);
(b) successive families: "The families of the sons of Noah, after their generations" (Genesis 10:32);
(c) genealogical divisions: "The children of Reuben .... their generations, by their families" (Numbers 1:20);
(d) figurative, of the origin and early history of created things: "The generations of the heavens and of the earth" (Genesis 2:4).

(3) genea, "a begetting," "birth," "nativity," therefore

(a) the successive members of a genealogy: "All the generations from Abraham unto David" (Matthew 1:17);
(b) a race, or class, distinguished by common characteristics, always (in the New Testament) bad: "Faithless and perverse generation" (Matthew 17:17);
(c) the people of a period: "This generation shall not pass away" (Luke 21:32);
(d) an age (the average lifetime, 33 years): "Hid for (Greek "from the") ages and (from the) generations" (Colossians 1:26).

The term is also by a figurative transference of thought applied to duration in eternity: "Unto all generations for ever and ever" (Ephesians 3:21) (Greek "all the generations of the age of the ages").

(4) genesis, "source," "origin":

"The book of the generation of Jesus Christ" (Matthew 1:1; the American Revised Version, margin "The genealogy of Jesus Christ").

(5) gennema, "offspring," "progeny"; figurative:

"O generation of vipers" (Luke 3:7 the King James Version).

(6) genos, "stock," "race," in this case spiritual:

"But ye are a chosen generation" (1 Peter 2:9; the American Standard Revised Version "an elect race").

Philip Wendell Crannell

Generation, Evil

    * Deuteronomy 32:5
    * Proverbs 30:12
    * Matthew 3:7
    * Matthew 12:39
    * Matthew 12:45
    * Luke 9:41
    * Acts 2:40
    * SEE Wicked, The