Why is Genology so important in the bible?

Question

Why is it important to know who's son was who. Many of the characters that are listed don't even come up into scripture. Why?

Note: Please refraim from immature digs like "why does it matter it isn't true anyways" I am asking a question and I'm not looking for someone to convert me in or out of a relgion. I would appreciate if you kept your immaturity to yourself.

Answer 1

A number of reasons:

1. It was important to the people of that time.

Supposedly, it's still important to nomadic tribes in the Middle East today. I heard that a researcher a long time ago asked a bunch of Arabs about their genealogy and was regularly given recitations going back, like, nineteen generations. I'm skeptical of that, but that's what I heard from a college professor.

2. It lays down the genealogy of *ideas* and peoples. There were a dozen or more tribes of Israelites, and it was important to show how and why they were interrelated in order to form one coherent nation.

3. It lends the text authenticity.

Writers use this method today. All of those facts and figures cited in Fight Club lend the text authenticity. If you're ever watching an implausible horror or science-fiction movie, notice how a scientist character tries to impart a rational explanation. This goes back to Bram Stroker's Dracula and Dr. Van Helsing.

Answer 2

The Torah (5 Books of Moses) was given to the Nation of Israel to transmit God's teachings. In doing this it is necessary to record the path of this teaching from Adam to Noah to Abraham.
According to Torah teachings, it (the Torah) is the spiritual source or seed for all of creation. Everything, all knowledge and events in history can be found within it. If this was not the case for everything, those things would not exist or happen. Thus in recording the races and nations that came from Noah and his sons, it is giving those nations and races their existence.The world is the manifestation of the Inner soul of the Torah.
A well known teaching states that when God went to create the world He looked into the Torah as a blueprint to do so.
-Traditional Jewish teaching

Answer 3

The Torah (the Christian old testament) does this because Jewish decent is traced through the mother. It was important to know who is who and lineage is still somewhat important today in Judaism.
Also, there were no last names, a person could not be known as just "Saul" because there were too many of them. So they often would say "Saul of Jerusalem son of Yitzchak" so you knew exactly who they were talking about.
It does make complicated reading though, I know.

Answer 4

The early Jews and some present-day ones are overly concerned about genealogy.

If you are God-conscious in Jesus Christ fully here now as He the Spirit of ALL TRUTH, (see John 16:7-16) you will know that all humans here, past and present and future are Created by our Sovereign Creator Son of God Jesus Christ. This makes each and all humans Divinely Beloved sons of God ! This makes each and every human now your and my Brother or Sister in Jesus Christ and in the Family of God !

Now you know better why Jesus here still tells us to love and to serve all persons ! Even our (so-called) "enemies" !

Note: Another here mentioned about Jesus being a "son of David" NO ! Jesus denies this clearly in Matthew 22:41-46
Jesus Christ is God our Creator Father-Son and not old "king David" !!

Peace and progress,
Brother Dave, a Jesusonian Christian Truthist
http://www.PureChristians.org/ Gospel enlarging website,
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OF JESUS and ABOUT JESUS and IN JESUS
Come and share !

Answer 5

When the Old Testament came into being the genealogy was written so the Jewish Nation would know what line was to be priest, etc...... it was to be strictly followed, only a certain lineage could enter the Temple.... and some of it was to show the line from which Christ came from..... hope this helps........ God bless

Answer 6

It's just a way to trace the lineage of a person back to Adam.....

It really does show the importance of how God's promise was kept through the line of Abraham, Isaac & Jacob (Israel)

Answer 7

I asked this same question to a person who went to college to study ancient cultures.

She said that it was a common thing a few millenia ago. Apparently it was simply considered important back then. In Jesus case it had to be shown that Jesus was descended from King David.

Answer 8

God gave promises to Abraham, David, even Adam & Eve that pass unto his descendants. Therefore to claim such promises is important to know if the person comes from that lineage.

For example: Jesus
* God promised David that one of his descendants will seat at David's throne forever. Then, the geanology of Jesus shows how He is descendant from King David.
* God promised Abraham that all nations will be blessed through his descendents. Jesus fullfilled that promise by providing salvation to all.

Answer 9

Many of the Isralites and Jews in the time of the Old and New Testaments respectively, used their family’s ancestry as a way of putting themselves above others.

For example, there were groups from the tribe of Judah and Levi who thought themselves more worthy and chosen than those whose ancestry linked them to the tribe of Rueben, or the tribe of Simeon. Even in modern times, religious groups set themselves above others by claiming lines of ancestry either directly or through adoption to one group of the sons of Israel or another.

This mentality, and the obsession of one’s genealogy, are contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ, in which one’s lineage means absolutely nothing. John the Beloved exemplifies this in his narration of the book of Revelation by presenting all tribes as equal in relation to the righteous people of the world.

(See Revelation 7:4-8)

One of the major reasons the Jews would not accept Jesus/Joshua to lead them into the promised land, was because he told the Jews the Law of Moses was no longer necessary, and was replaced by his teachings, and none of it needed to be observed any longer. He instructed his apostles in truth, many times referring to Jewish customs and traditions as fables:

Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do. (I Timothy 1:4)

Answer 10

The gospel writers used the genealogy list to establish how they were going to present jesus to their target audience.

Matthew's gospel (considered the most jewish) uses the genealogy to establish jesus' Jewishness. Line goes through David and ends at Abraham

Luke's gospel uses the genealogy to establish jesus as the "savior" for all mankind. Hence the genealogy back to Adam.

This shows that the gospels need to be looked at critically as works of fiction and not as fact. The writers changed facts and stories to make jesus more presentable to their audience.