Eight Reasons Not to Skip Over Genealogies

In the early 1980s, a member of my family was rostered on to give the Old Testament Bible Reading at St Mark’s, Yagoona. The scheduled reading: Genesis 5.

This reading went down in history—at least from this person’s perspective—as the worst Bible reading of all time. The reader simply could not compose herself. And if you read it, you can understand why. So, so repetitive. Basically, you read this same formula repeated 10 times, but with different names for the father and son, and different numbers for X, Y and Z:

"When [father] had lived [X] years, he became the father of [son]. After he became the father of [son], [father] lived [Y] years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, [Patriarch] lived a total of [Z] years, and then he died."

If you were given this passage to read at church, and if you were a young Christian and feeling a bit nervous, you’d probably find it difficult to compose yourself too. This young woman certainly did.

After repeating the refrain “and then he died” for the seventh or eighth time, the young woman, having been struggling to hold off the giggles for several minutes, said, “if this reading goes on any longer, I think I will die.”

The minister then politely put her out of her misery and suggested she head back to her pew.

Thirty-five years later I became a Student Minister at St Mark’s, Yagoona. One of the old-timers—then a teenager but by this time a warden—still remembered this Bible reading.

* * *

I tell this story because this morning, my Bible reading plan threw two genealogies my way: one at the start of 1 Chronicles, one in Luke 3.

And I was reminded of what a heavy slog it can be to read through a genealogy, let alone two.

So, why bother? Why not skip it? I suspect that’s what many of us do, even pastors!

Here are eight reasons why I reckon they are worth our attention.

1. Genealogies are Brilliantly Crafted Pieces of Literature

First up, genealogies are brilliantly crafted pieces of literature. Consider Genesis 5.

Here’s a table I got ChatGPT to create for me (let me know if you spot any hallucinations I’ve missed!). The numbers are heaps interesting, so I left them in, though I won’t go down that rabbit hole yet. Instead, I just want to point out the hope amidst the gloom.

Obviously, there’s a lot of gloom and death. In the “Did he die?” column, you’ll see that Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah all die. And this makes sense. In Genesis 3, Adam and Eve let sin into the world. All have sinned (Romans 3:23). The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). So, with all this sin, we kind of expect death.

But there are some hints of hope as well.

Strangely, Enoch doesn’t die. Super weird, but also a hint that God has other plans for humanity—plans that don’t involve death continuing forever. Noah’s death isn’t listed yet either. Of course, he will die eventually. But only after God embarks on a prototypical “new life” program with the whole ark thing in chapters 6–9. Also, Noah’s name (נֹחַ) sounds a lot like the Hebrew word for “rest” (נוח, nuach). Maybe this pre-empts the rest that God will one day bring about, when he restores humanity to the “rest” of Day 7 in Genesis 2.

Whatever the case, there are some pretty strong hints that there is still hope for humanity, despite all the sin.

And at one level, this isn’t so surprising. Back in Genesis 3:15, God promised that one of the sons of Eve would come and crush the serpent, the serpent who encouraged humanity to pursue a path of death. If the Big Death Advocate has his day coming, it only follows that Death too has its day coming. For this reason, it’s pretty significant that all these dudes keep having sons. Every time we read “he became the father of [son]”, we’re reminded of God’s big plan to provide that Serpent Crusher.

Anyway, all I’m saying—the biblical genealogies are very well crafted. Another great example—Matthew 1:1-17 (click here for a helpful article that further proves my point).

2. Genealogies Place Bible Accounts in Context

Next up, genealogies place Bible accounts in context.

Who is Noah and why does he show up? What does he have to do with Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel? Good thing we have Genesis 5.

Who is Abraham? What does he have to do with Noah? Good thing we have Genesis 10 and 11.

Who is Moses? What does he have to do with Abraham? Good thing we have Exodus 6:14-25.

Who is David and how does he fit in with all of the above? Good thing we have Ruth 4 and 1 Chronicles 2.

3. Genealogies Show How the Bible Stitches Together

As well as providing context for certain parts of the Bible, genealogies also help us to make sense of how the whole Bible fits together. They are like the stitching that binds the various bits of the story together.

More on the significance of this in a bit.

4. Genealogies Teach Us About the Origins of the Ancient and Modern World

Next up, reading through the genealogies can teach us a lot about the world, ancient and modern.

Where did the countries come from?

In terms of modern countries, check out Genesis 10:6 for the origins of Egypt, or 1 Chronicles 1-9 for the origins of the nation of Israel.

As you read through your Old Testament, ever wondered where the Canaanites, Sidonians, Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites come from? Look no further than Genesis 10:15-18.

When we slow down and read the details in these genealogies, we can pick up on some pretty interesting details.

5. Genealogies Can Give Us Clues on Bible Dating

Not that kind of dating. Photo by Priscilla Du Preez 🇨🇦. Unsplash.

The genealogies can even give us clues on the dating of the Bible. Here’s an obscure example. In the genealogy in Genesis 36 (a genealogy of the rulers of Edom/Esau), this peculiar detail is dropped:

“These were the kings who reigned in Edom before any Israelite king reigned”.
Genesis 36:31

Jewish and Christian scholars have usually spoken of Genesis as being written by Moses. But Moses lived centuries before the kings of Israel. A sensible reading of this verse would assume that, at the time this particular verse was written, Israelites kings had begun reigning. Therefore, at least this verse must have been written sometime after Moses’ death.

Wouldn’t have stumbled across this detail if I’d been skipping over my genealogies.

6. Genealogies Show Us God’s Concern for Big and Little Alike

Next up, genealogies obviously show us of God’s concern for the Bible superstars. The Abrahams, the Moses’, the Davids etc. But they also remind us that God cares about the lesser known people too, like Jorkeam (1 Chronicles 2:44), Jehaleleel (1 Chronicles 4:16), Hodiah (4:19), Ziza (4:37) . The fact that these guys get a mention reminds us that he cares for them.

7. Genealogies Take Us to Christ

And, of course, the genealogies ultimately take us to Christ. This is most obvious when we get to Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38. All of those other genealogies were leading to these two genealogies, setting the stage for the coming of the Messiah. The genealogies matter because they take us to the one about whom the whole Bible is about. They stitch together the narrative that takes us from the promise of a Serpent Crusher—through many generations of sons of Eve—to the Serpent Crusher himself.

8. Genealogies Are Our Family History

One of my aunts (not the family member who couldn’t read Genesis 5) is really big on the whole family tree thing. She’s managed to trace our family lineage back many, many centuries. She’s always studying up on the family tree. And she’s always keen to get us all to have a look. And so she should—it’s our family history. It’s where we come from.

We should be like that aunt when it comes to the genealogies of the Bible. Study up. Get enthused. Get others to look too. It’s our family history. It’s where we come from.

The genealogies help us to make sense of how we fit into God’s big picture. What do I have to do with Adam? Or Abraham? Or Moses? Or Jehaleleel? Or Hodiah? Well, these people all fit into God’s big family tree. Through faith in Jesus, we’ve been made children of Abraham, part of the family tree (Galatians 3:26-29), grafted in even (Romans 11:17-24). So these people are our relatives. Our family.