GENEALOGY, comes from the Greek word Genealogia, which signifies a List of our Ancestors. The common Hebrew expression for it is Sepher toledoth1, Ezra ii. 62.Liber generationum. The Hebrews were very careful in preserving their Genealogies2; and perhaps there never was any nation more circumspect in this point, than that of the Jews. We still at this day find Genealogies in their Sacred Writings, carried on for above three thousand five hundred years; and in the Evangelists we have the Genealogy of Jesus Christ deduced for four thousand years, from Adam to Joseph or Mary, his Father and Mother. It is observed in Ezra, that such Priests, as were not able to produce an exact Genealogy of their Families, were not permitted to exercise their function; and Josephus says, that they had in his Nation an uninterrupted succession of Priests for two thousand years. He adds, that the Priests were particularly careful to preserve their Genealogies, and that not only in Judæa, but also in Babylonia, and Egypt; and wherever they were, they never married below themselves, and had exact Genealogical Tables prepared from those authentick Monuments, which were kept at Jerusalem, and to which they had recourse upon occasion: that in all their wars, persecutions, and publick calamities, they always were particularly diligent in securing these Monuments, and to renew them from time to time.
Notwithstanding it must be confessed, that since the war which the Romans carried on against the Jews, about thirty years after the death of our Saviour, and since their intire dispersion in the reign of Adrian, occasioned by the rebellion of Barchochebas, the Jews have lost their ancient Genealogies; and perhaps there is not one even of those who say they are of the Sacerdotal Race, that is able to produce any authentick proofs of his Genealogy. Saint Jerom says, that the Jews are Hieron. ad Tit. iii. P. 208. vet. Edit.so versed in the reading of their books, and know so perfectly the Genealogies, which are there set forth, that they can repeat all the names from Abraham to Zerubbabel, as easily as they can pronounce their own. Ita illi à prima ætate, vernacula sui sermonis vocabula penitissimis sensibus imbiberunt, & ab exordio Adam, usque ad extremam Zorobabel, omnium generationes ita memoriter, velociterque percurrunt, ut eos suum putes referre nomen. S. Paul3 seems to condemn this affectation of knowing old Genealogies; he looks upon them to be vain, useless, and impertinent; as in reality they are, when they serve only for ostentation, and not for edification : But avoid foolish questions and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the Law; for they are unprofitable and vain.
Read this article in its place on the printed pages
Footnotes
-
ספר תולדותLiber Genera- tionis. Gr. Γενεαλογία. ↩
-
Translators’ note. The Genealogies set down by Ezra and Nehemiah, in some particulars vary. The reason whereof is assigned by Dr. Prideaux in these terms. For the true settling of these Genealogies, says he, search was made by Nehemiah for the old Registers, and having among them found a Register of the Genealogies of those, who came up at first from Babylon with Zerubbabel and Joshua; he settled this matter according to it, adding such as afterwards came up, and expunging others, whose families were extinguished: and this hath caused the difference that is between the accounts which we have of these Genealogies in Ezra and Nehemiah. For in the second chapter of Ezra, we have the old Register made by Zerubbabel; and in the seventh of Nehemiah, from the 6th verse to the end of the chapter, a copy of it, as settled by Nehemiah, with the alterations I have mentioned. Prid. Connect. &c. Part. I. Book VI. ↩
-
M. Basnage believes, that the Genealogies condemned by St. Paul, were the Sephiroth, which the Rabbins speak of. ↩