Generation
GENERATION
Besides the common acceptation of this word, as signifying race, descent, lineage, it is used for the history and genealogy of a person, as in Gen 5:1, “the book of the generations of Adam,” that is, the history of Adam’s creation and of his posterity. So in Gen 2:4, “The generations of the heavens and of the earth,” that is, their genealogy, so to speak, the history of the creation of heaven and earth; also in Mat 1:1, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ,” that is, the genealogy of Jesus Christ,” that is, the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the history of his descent and life. “The present generation” comprises all those who are now alive; “This generation shall not pass till all be fulfilled,” some now living shall witness the even foretold, Mat 24:34 . “Save yourselves from this untoward generation,” form the punishment which awaits these perverse men, Mal 2:40 .The Hebrews, like other ancient nations, sometimes computed loosely by the fourth generation thy descendants shall come hither again.” The duration of a generation is of course very uncertain; indeed, it is impossible to establish any precise limits. It is, however, generally admitted that a generation in the earliest periods is to be reckoned longer than one in later times. The Greeks regarded a generation as one-third of a century. It is now currently reckoned as thirty years.
Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary
Generation
(, 1Pe 2:9 : a chosen generation, Authorized Version = = an elect race, Revised Version )
The use of in the NT closely reproduces, as in the Septuagint it translates, the Hebrew . The two words, however, reach their common significance from different directions. Etymologically, expresses the idea of kinship. It signifies descent, or the descendants, from the same ancestral stock; then those of the same lineage who are born about the same time; then the lifetime of such (measured from birth of parent to birth of child), or, more generally, an age or lengthened period of time. The root-idea of , on the other hand, is a period of time: hence it comes to mean the people whose lifetime falls approximately within a given period, and finally acquires the genealogical sense of a generation (see Liddell and Scott and Oxford Hebrew Lexicon, s.v.).
In the apostolic writings, the primary meaning of the word is (a) the body of individuals of the same race who are born about the same time (Heb 3:10, Act 13:36, Authorized Version and Revised Version margin); but this sense usually passes into that of (b), the period covered by the lifetime of such (Act 13:36 Revised Version , 14:16; 15:21, Eph 3:5); and thus the plural, , comes to mean (c) all time, past or future, as consisting in the succession of such periods. In Col 1:26, the mystery hath been hid from the ages and from the generations, the generation is a subdivision of the age and is added for the sake of emphasis, and in Eph 3:21 the Apostle, struggling to express the idea of the Eternal Future, not only describes it as the age of ages (the age whose component parts are themselves ages), but adds to the picture the endless succession of generations which constitute each age-unto all the generations of the age of ages (cf. Psa 102:24, Enoch ix. 4). Finally (d) the word is used, as often in the OT (Deu 32:5; Deu 32:20, Psa 12:7; Psa 24:6 etc.), with a moral connotation, as in Php 2:15 and Act 2:40. In the latter passage the term has an eschatological colouring. This crooked generation is the present, swiftly transient period of the worlds history, which is leading up to the Day of Judgment and the New Age.
Literature.-H. Cremer, Bibl.-Theol. Lexicon of NTGreek3, 1880: Thayer Grimms Gr.-Eng. Lexicon of the NT, tr. Thayer , Greek-English Lexicon of the NT2, 1890; Theodor Keim, Jesus of Nazara, Eng. translation , 1881. vol. v. p. 245 n. [Note: . note.]
Robert Law.
Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church
Generation
(Lat. Vulgate, generatio).
This word, of very varied meaning, corresponds to the two Hebrew terms: dôr, tôledôth. As a rendering of the later, the Vulgate plural form, generationes, is treated in the article GENEALOGY. As a rendering of the former, the word generation is used in the following principal senses. It designates a definite period of time, with a special reference to the average length of man’s life. It is in this sense, for example, that, during the long-lived patriarchal age, a “generation” is rated as a period of 100 years (Genesis 15:16, compared with Genesis 15:13, and Exodus 12:40), and that, at a later date, it is represented as of only 30 to 40 years. The word generation is used to mean an indefinite period of time: of time past, as in Deut., xxxii, 7, where we read: “Remember the days of old, think upon every generation”, and in Isaias, lviii, 12, etc.; of time future, as in Ps. xliv (Heb. xlv), 18, etc. In a concrete sense, generation designates the men who lived in the same period of time, who were contemporaries, as for instance in Gen., vi, 9: “Noe was a just and perfect man in his generations”; see also: Num., xxxii, 13; Deut., i, 35; Matt., xxiv, 34; etc. Independently of the idea of time, generation is employed to mean a race or class of men as characterized by the same recurring condition or quality. In this sense, the Bible speaks of a “just generation”, literally “generation of the just” [Ps. xiii (Heb., xiv), 6; etc.], a “perverse generation”, equivalent to: “generation of the wicked” [Deut., xxxii, 5; Mark, ix, 18 (Gr., verse 19); etc.]. Lastly, in Is., xxxviii, 12, the word generation is used to designate a dwelling place or habitation, probably from the circular for of the nomad tent. Whence it can be readily seen that, in its various principal acceptations, the word generation (usually in the Septuagint and in the Greek New Testament: genea) preserves something of the primitive meaning of “circuit”, “period”, conveyed by the Hebrew term dôr.
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GESENIUS, Thesaurus (Leipzig, 1829); FURST, Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon (Leipzig, 1867); BROWN, DRIVER AND BRIGGS, Hebrew and English Lexicon (New York, 1906).
FRANCIS E. GIGOT Transcribed by Scott Anthony Hibbs
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VICopyright © 1909 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Generation
(, , the act; , the result: , , a period). Considerable obscurity attends the use of this word in the English version, which arises from the translators having merged the various meanings of the same original word, and even of several different words, in one common term, “generation.” The remark, too, is just, that in the literal translations of the Scriptures, the word “generation” generally occurs wherever the Latin has generatio, and the Greek or (Rees’s Encyclopedia, article Generation). The following instances seem to require the original words to be understood in some one of their derivative senses: Gen 2:4,” These are the generations” (; Sept. ; Vulg: generationes), rather “origin,” “history,” etc. The same Greek words, Mat 1:1, are rendered “a genealogy,” etc., by recent translators: Campbell has “lineage.” Gen 5:1, “The book of the generations” ( ; Sept. as before; Vulg. liber generationis) is properly a family register, a history of Adam. The same words, Gen 37:2, mean a history of Jacob and his descendants; so also Gen 6:9; Gen 10:1, and elsewhere. Gen 7:1, “In this generation” ( ; Sept. ‘/ , Vulg. in generatione hac) is evidently “in this age.” Gen 15:6, “In the fourth generation” (; Sept. , Vulg. generatio) is an instance of the word in the sense of a certain assigned period. Psa 49:19, “The generation of his fathers” ( , Sept. ) Gesenius renders “the dwelling of his fathers,” i.e. the grave, and adduces Isa 38:12.: Psa 73:15, “The generation of thy children” ( , Sept. ) is “class,” “order,” “description;” as in Pro 30:11-14. Isa 53:8, “Who shall declare his generation?” (; Sept. , Vulug. generatio)
Lowth renders “manner of life,” in translation and note, but adduces no precedent. Some consider it equivalent to , Isa 53:10 : (Sept.) answers to , Est 9:28. Josephus uses , Ant. 1:10, 3 (Hengstenberg, Christology of the Old Testament, volume 1, Washington, 1836-9; Pauli, Analect. Hebraic. page 162, Oxford, 1839). Michaelis renders it, “Where was the providence that cared for his life?” Gesenius and Rosenmuller, “Who of his contemporaries reflected?” Seiler, “Who can describe his length of life?” In the New Testament (Mat 1:17), is a series of persons, a succession from the same stock; so used by Josephus (Ant. 1:7, 2); Philo (Vit. Mos. 1:603); Mat 3:7, , is well rendered by Doddridge and others “brood of vipers.” Mat 24:34, means the generation or persons then living contemporary with Christ (see Macknight’s Harmony for an illustration of this sense). Luk 16:8, , “in their generation,” etc., wiser in regard to their dealings with the men of their generation; Rosenmuller gives, inter se. 1Pe 2:8, , is a “chosen people,” quoted from Sept. Vers. of Isa 43:20. The ancient Greeks, and, if we may credit Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, the Egyptians also, assigned a certain period to a generation. The Greeks reckoned three generations for every hundred years, i.e., 331 years to each; Herod. 2:142, , “Three generations of men make one hundred years.” This is nearly the present computation. To the same effect Clem. Alexandrinus speaks (Strom. 1:2); so also Phavorinus, who, citing the age of Nestor from Homer (Il. 1:250), , “two generations,” says it means that , “he was above sixty years old.” The Greeks, however, assigned different periods to a at different times (Perizonius, Orig. Egypt. page 175 sq.; Jensius, Fercul. Literar. page 6). The ancient Hebrews also reckoned by the generation, and assigned different spaces of time to it at different periods of their history. In the time of Abraham it was one hundred years (comp. Gen 15:16, “In the fourth generation they shall come hither”). This is explained in Gen 15:13, and in Exo 12:40, to be four hundred years. Caleb was fourth in descent from Judah, and Moses and Aaron were fourth from Levi. In Deu 1:35; Deu 2:14, Moses uses the term for thirty- eight years. In later times (Baruch 6, in the Epistle of Jeremiah, ver. 2) clearly means ten years. In Mat 1:17, means a single descent from father to son. Homer uses the word in the same sense (II. 1:250); also Herodotus (1:3). (See Gesenius’s and Robinson’s Lexicons, under the above Heb. and Gr. words.) Kitto, s.v. SEE GENEALOGY.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Generation
Gen. 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. Ps. 49:19, “The generation of his fathers” = the dwelling of his fathers, i.e., the grave. Ps. 73:15, “The generation of thy children” = the contemporary race. Isa. 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 Matt. 1:17, the word means a succession or series of persons from the same stock. Matt. 3:7, “Generation of vipers” = brood of vipers. 24:34, “This generation” = the persons then living contemporary with Christ. 1 Pet. 2:9, “A chosen generation” = a chosen people.
The Hebrews See m to have reckoned time by the generation. In the time of Abraham a generation was an hundred years, thus: Gen. 15:16, “In the fourth generation” = in four hundred years (comp. verse 13 and Ex. 12:40). In Deut. 1:35 and 2:14 a generation is a period of thirty-eight years.
Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary
Generation
Hebrew dowr, “revolution,” period of time; 100 years in the patriarchal age (Gen 15:13; Gen 15:16; Exo 12:40), afterward 30 or 40 years (Job 42:16; Luk 1:50). On the plural GENERATIONS, Hebrew toledowt, (See GENEALOGY. Mankind is ethnologically ranged under three heads in Gen 10:3; Gen 10:6; Gen 10:22, “the sons of Japhet, Ham, Shem.” Modern science by independent research arrives at a similar three fold division into Semitic, Aryan, and Turanian (Allophylian). Genesis, in accordance with modern ethnology, classifies together the Cymry or Celts (Gomer), the Medes (Madai), and the Ionians or Greeks (Javan); thus anticipating the Indo-European theory, which makes the European races (represented by the Celts and the Ionians) akin to the Aryans (represented by the Asiatic Madai or Medes).
Also Scripture, in agreement with ethnology, groups together as “children of Shem” (i.e. Semitics) Asshur (Assyrians), Aram (Syrians), Eber (Hebrew), and Joktan (the Joktanian Arabs). Also it rightly classifies under the “sons of Ham” Cash (Ethiopians), Mizraim (Egyptians), Sheba and Dedan (certain southern Arabs), and Nimrod (i.e. the oldest Babylonians). (See BABEL) Sir H. Rawlinson truly terms “the generations (genealogy) of the sons of Noah” “the most authentic record we possess for the affiliation of nations” (Journal of the Asiatic Society, 15:230). Generation means also the men of an age: as Isa 53:8, “who shall declare His generation?” i.e. their wickedness, in parallelism to their oppressive “judgment.” In Jer 7:29, “generation of His wrath,” i.e. with whom He is angry. Also generation is used with reference to the characteristic disposition of the age, “adulterous,” “unbelieving,” “untoward” (Mat 11:16; Mat 12:39; Mat 17:17; Act 2:40).
In Luk 16:8, “the children of this world are in respect to their own (so the Greek) generation (i.e. in relation to men of their own kind, men of this world) wiser than the children of light,” are in respect to their generation (men of their kind, godly, men of the world to come). In Mat 3:7 generation means “brood of vipers.” In Mat 24:34 “this generation shall not pass (namely, the Jewish race, of which the generation in Christ’s days was a sample in character; compare Christ’s address to the generation, Mat 23:35-36, in proof that generation means at times the whole Jewish race) until all these things be fulfilled,” a prophecy that the Jews shall be a distinct people still when He shall come again.
Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary
Generation
GENERATION.A word of several meanings employed to render two different words in OT and four in NT. All are, however, related in thought, and all have a close connexion with the Gospels and Jewish thought in the time of Christ.
1. In OT generation is used to render (1) the Heb. or , connected with Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] dr, to endure, means primarily a period of time. This meaning has survived in OT chiefly in poetry, and in the phrases Ps 45:18; Psa 61:7, Exo 3:15, Isa 51:9, Psa 72:5, and such like, to indicate time stretching away into the past (Isa 51:9), or (more generally) into the future (Psa 33:11; Psa 49:12). It may refer both to past and future (Psa 145:13), and is thus parallel to (see Eternity).
Originally must have meant the period defined by the life of a man or of a family (Job 42:16). Hence by a loose usage it comes to mean the living in that period (Gen 7:1, Exo 1:6, Deu 2:14, Ecc 1:4, Isa 53:8 etc. etc.; cf. the modern use of the word age). So also it may be used of a of men living contemporaneously and possessing certain characteristics (Deu 32:5, Pro 30:11-14).
(2) The other word in OT (rendered always plural generations) is . Here the root-idea is birth, descent, offspring, from to bring forth. Hence it is used of genealogies (Gen 5:1; Gen 6:9; Gen 10:1; Gen 11:10; Gen 11:27, Rth 4:18 etc.), of divisions by families, etc. (Num 1:20; Num 1:22; Num 1:24 etc.). It is even used of the creation of the world (Gen 2:4 lit. the begettings of the heaven and the earth).
2. Of the four words rendered generation in NT two are unimportant so far as the Gospels are concerned. (1) In 1Pe 2:9 a chosen generation, , should be rendered as in RV, an elect race. (2) In Mat 1:1 the rendering should be the book of the origin of Jesus Christ, using the word in its widest sense. The meaning in Mat 1:8, Luk 1:14 is slightly different, and is best expressed by birth (EV). (3) The most important word used in the Gospels is , meaning (a) race, offspring, descent; (b) the people of any given period; (e) a period loosely defined by the life of a man or of a family; (d) in such phrases as (Luk 1:50) it is used, apparently as the equivalent of , to express indefinite time, generally in the future. Cf. the expression in Eph 3:21 , which, however, is considered by Dalman (Words of Jesus, p. 165, Eng. tr.) as referring to all the generations of the current age of the world period. But the phrase seems rather to be the strongest possible way of expressing for ever. That (rendered generation) does express the current age of the world period is obvious in the Gospels (Luk 16:8, Mat 24:34, and less clearly Mat 23:36); also the people of that age (Mat 12:39; Mat 16:4, Mar 8:12, Luk 11:29). In the sense of (c) it is found only in Mat 1:17 and apparently never in its original sense (a). (4) This last is expressed by quite a different word, viz. . In Mat 3:7; Mat 12:34; Mat 23:33, Luk 3:7, AV has the phrase generation of vipers. The Greek is , which RV renders offspring of vipers. The rendering of AV is due to Tindale (see Hastings DB ii. 142b). Elsewhere the word occurs as (Mat 26:29, Luk 22:18, 2Co 9:10), rendered fruit.
G. Gordon Stott.
Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels
Generation
GENERATION.Generation is used in AV [Note: Authorized Version.] to tr. [Note: translate or translation.] 1. Heb. dr, which is used (a) generally for a period, especially in the phrases dr wdhr, etc., of limitless duration; past, Isa 51:8; future, Psa 10:6; past and future, Psa 102:24; (b) of all men living at any given time (Gen 6:9); (c) of a class of men with some special characteristic, Pro 30:11-14 of four generations of bad men; (d) in Isa 38:12 and Psa 49:19 dr is sometimes taken as dwelling-place. 2. Heb. tldhth (from yladh, beget or bear children), which is used in the sense of (a) genealogies Gen 5:1, figuratively of the account of creation, Gen 2:4; also (b) divisions of a tribe, as based on genealogy; tldhth occurs only in the Priestly Code, in Rth 4:18, and in 1Ch 3:1-24. Gr. genea in same sense as 1 (a), Col 1:26; as 1 (b), Mat 24:34. 4. =Gen 2:1-25 (a), Mat 1:1, an imitation of LXX [Note: Septuagint.] use of genesis for tldhth. 5. Gennma, offspring = 1 (c): so Mat 3:7|| (generation, i.e. offspring, of vipers). 6. genos, race = 1 (c): so 1Pe 2:9 (AV [Note: Authorized Version.] chosen generation, RV [Note: Revised Version.] elect race).
Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible
Generation
This word derived from the same root is much the same as the preceding word genealogy. As it relates to the common act of man in the circumstances of descent from father to son, I should not have though it needful to have detained the reader with a single observation; but in relation to the Son of God, as God, it becomes of infinite importance as an article of faith, that we should have the clearest apprehension which the subject will admit. Here, therefore, I beg the reader’s close attention to it.
The Scriptures in many places have said so much in defining the person of the Father and of the Son, as distinctions in the GODHEAD, that there can be nothing rendered more certain and as an article of faith to the believer, and none is more important. But while this is held forth to us in this view as a point most fully to be believed, God the Holy Ghost hath in no one passage, as far as I can recollect, pointed out to the church the mode of existence, or explained how the Son of God is the Son, and the Father is the Father, in the eternity of their essence and nature. Perhaps it is impossible to explain the vast subject to creatures of our capacities. Perhaps nothing finite can comprehend what is infinite. The doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son of God is therefore proposed as an article demanding our implicit faith and obedience; and here the subject rests.
But while this doctrine of the eternity of the Son of God in common with the Father, is held faith to us in the Scripture as a most certain truth, though unexplained, because our faculties are not competent to the explanation of it, the Holy Ghost hath been very explicit in teaching the church how to understand the phrases in his sacred word, where the Son of God, when standing up as the Mediator and Head of his church before all worlds, is called the “first begotten Son, and the only begotten of the Father,” full of grace and truth. All these and the like phrases wholly refer to the Son of God, in his humbling himself as our Redeemer and Mediator, the God-man in one person, Christ Jesus; then begotten to this great design; the first in all JEHOVAH’S purposes for salvation. Here we cannot be at a loss to have the clearest apprehension; because they refer to his office-character. Hence all those titles are very plain. “He is the head of his body the church.” (Eph 1:22) The Head of Christ is God. (1Co 11:3) He is JEHOVAH’S servant. (Isa 42:1) and his Father is greater than he. (Joh 14:28) And God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Eph 1:17) All these and numberless expressions of the like nature, wholly refer to the Son of God as Christ; and have no respect to his eternal nature and GODHEAD abstracted from his office-character as Mediator.
See Begotten.
And I cannot in this place help expressing my wish that the writers of commentaries on the word of God had kept this proper distinction, when speaking of the Lord Jesus, between his eternal nature and essence, as Son of God, which is every where asserted, but no where explained, and his office-character as God-man Mediator, the Christ of God, which is fully revealed. The Scriptures have done it. And it would have been a proof of divine teaching, if all writers upon the Scriptures had done the same. Our almighty Saviour, in a single verse, hath shewn it, when he saith, (Mat 11:27) “No man knoweth the Son but the Father;” that is, knoweth him as Son of God, knoweth him in his Sonship as God, one with the Father, and impossible to be so known but by God himself. And it is in this sense also, that it is said, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which lay in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him;” (Joh 1:18) that is, no man hath seen God, as God, in his threefold character of person, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. But when he who lay in the bosom of the Father came forth in our nature, and revealed him as the Father and himself as the Son, equal in the eternity of their nature as God; then the glorious truth was explained. Then was it understood, that the Father, as Father, and the Son, as Son, were from all eternity the same; their existence the same, their nature the same; the Father not being Father but in the same instant as the Son the Son; for the very name of the one in the relationship implies the other, and the eternity of the one including the eternity of the other also. So that both, in union with the Holy Ghost, form the one eternal undivided JEHOVAH, which was, and is, and is to come.
Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures
Generation
jen-er-ashun (Latin generatio, from genero, beget):
(1) The translation (a) of , dor, circle, generation, hence, age, period, cycle: many generations (Deu 32:7); (b) The people of any particular period or those born about the same time: Righteous before me in this generation (Gen 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 (Deu 32:5; Pro 30:11); the righteous (Psa 14:5; Psa 112:2).
(2) , toledhoth, births, hence (a) an account of a man and his descendants: The book of the generations of Adam (Gen 5:1); (b) successive families: The families of the sons of Noah, after their generations (Gen 10:32); (c) genealogical divisions: The children of Reuben … their generations, by their families (Num 1:20); (d) figurative, of the origin and early history of created things: The generations of the heavens and of the earth (Gen 2:4).
(3) , genea, a begetting, birth, nativity, therefore (a) The successive members of a genealogy: All the generations from Abraham unto David (Mat 1:17); (b) a race, or class, distinguished by common characteristics, always (in the New Testament) bad: Faithless and perverse generation (Mat 17:17); (c) The people of a period: This generation shall not pass away (Luk 21:32); (d) an age (the average lifetime, 33 years): Hid for (Greek from the) ages and (from the) generations (Col 1:26). The term is also by a figurative transference of thought applied to duration in eternity: Unto all generations for ever and ever (Eph 3:21) (Greek all the generations of the age of the ages).
(4) , genesis, source, origin: The book of the generation of Jesus Christ (Mat 1:1; the American Revised Version, margin The genealogy of Jesus Christ).
(5) , gennema, offspring, progeny; figurative: O generation of vipers (Luk 3:7 the King James Version).
(6) , genos, stock, race, in this case spiritual: But ye are a chosen generation (1Pe 2:9; the American Standard Revised Version an elect race).
Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
Generation
Considerable obscurity attends the use of this word in the English Version, which arises from the translators having merged the various meanings of the same original word, and even of several different words, in one common term ‘generation.’ The following instances seem to require the original words to be understood in some or other of their derivative sensesGen 2:4, ‘These are the generations,’ rather ‘origin,’ ‘history,’ etc. The same Greek words, Mat 1:1, are rendered ‘genealogy,’ etc., by recent translators: Campbell has ‘lineage.’ Gen 5:1, ‘The book of the generations’ is properly a family register, a history of Adam. The same words, Gen 37:2, mean a history of Jacob and his descendants; so also Gen 6:9; Gen 10:1, and elsewhere. Gen 7:1, ‘In this generation’ is evidently ‘in this age.’ Gen 15:16, ‘In the fourth generation’ is an instance of the word in the sense of a certain assigned period. Psa 49:19, ‘The generation of his fathers’ Gesenius renders ‘the dwelling of his fathers,’ i.e. the grave, and adduces Isa 38:12. Psa 73:15, ‘The generation of thy children’ is ‘class,’ ‘order,’ ‘description;’ as in Pro 30:11-14. Isa 53:8, ‘Who shall declare his generation?’ Lowth renders ‘manner of life.’ Michaelis renders it ‘Where was the providence that cared for his life?’ Gesenius and Rosenmller, ‘Who of his contemporaries reflected?’ Seiler, ‘Who can describe his length of life?’ In the New Testament, Mat 1:17, it is a series of persons, a succession from the same stock. Mat 3:7, is well rendered by Doddridge and others ‘brood of vipers.’ Mat 24:34, means the generation or persons then living contemporary with Christ. Luk 16:8, ‘in their generations,’ etc. wiser in regard to their dealings with the men of their generation. 1Pe 2:9, is ‘a chosen people.’ The ancient Greeks, and, if we may credit Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus, the Egyptians also, assigned a certain period to a generation. The Greeks reckoned three generations for every hundred years, i.e.33 years to each. This is nearly the present computation. The ancient Hebrews also reckoned by the generation, and assigned different spaces of time to it at different periods of their history. In the time of Abraham it was one hundred years (comp. Gen 15:16, ‘in the fourth generation they shall come hither’). This is explained in Gen 15:13, and in Exo 12:40, to be four hundred years. Caleb was fourth in descent from Judah, and Moses and Aaron were fourth from Levi. In Deu 1:35; Deu 2:14, Moses uses the term for thirty-eight years. In later times it clearly means ten years. In Mat 1:17, it means a single descent from father to son [GENEALOGY].
Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature
Generation
This is used in various senses in scripture.
1. As from a father to his son, or from a king to his successor, , as in the three series of ‘fourteen generations’ in Mat 1:17, though the same term is applied where names have been omitted. See GENEALOGY OF THE LORD JESUS.
2. In a much wider sense, as when the Lord said of the unbelieving Jews, “This generation shall not pass away till all these things be fulfilled.” Mat 24:34; Luk 21:32: cf. Deu 32:5; Deu 32:20. The unbelieving Jews still exist and will until the events take place.
3. As offspring, , where there was a moral likeness, as “generation of vipers.” Mat 3:7, etc.
4. As class, family, etc., . Ye are ‘a chosen generation.’ 1Pe 2:9.
5. As signifying perpetuity: God’s dominion is ‘from generation to generation.’ Dan 4:3; Dan 4:34.
Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary
Generation
Generation, or Generations, “has three secondary meanings in the A. V.:1. A genealogical register, as Gen 5:1. 2. A family history, Gen 6:9; Gen 25:1 ff., since early history among the orientals is drawn so much from genealogical registers. 3. A history of the origin of things as well as personse.g., of the earth.”Smith.
Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible
Generation
Generation. In the long-lived patriarchal age, a generation seems to have been computed at 100 years, Gen 15:16, compare Gen 15:13 and Ecc 12:40, but subsequently, the reckoning was the same which has been adopted by modern civilized nations, namely, From thirty to forty years Job 42:16.
(Generation is also used to signify the men of an age or time, as contemporaries, Gen 6:9; Isa 53:8, posterity, especially in legal formulae, Lev 3:17, etc.; fathers, or ancestors. Psa 49:19.
Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary
Generation
see AGE, No. 2.
denotes “an origin, a lineage, or birth,” translated “generation” in Mat 1:1. See NATURAL, NATURE.
Notes: (1) For gennema, translated “generation” in the AV of Mat 3:7; Mat 12:34; Mat 23:33; Luk 3:7, see OFFSPRING. (2) For genos, translated “generation” in 1Pe 2:9, AV, see KIND.
Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words
Generation
Beside the common acceptation of this word, as signifying descent, it is used for the history and genealogy of any individual, as The book of the generations of Adam, Gen 5:1, the history of Adam’s creation, and of his posterity. The generations of the heavens and of the earth, Gen 2:4, is a recital of the creation of heaven and earth. The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, Mat 1:1, is the genealogy of Jesus Christ, and the history of his life. The ancients sometimes computed by generations: In the fourth generation thy descendants shall come hither again, Gen 15:16. Joseph saw Ephraim’s children of the third generation, Gen 50:23. A bastard shall not be admitted into the congregation, till the tenth generation, Deu 23:2. Among the ancients, when the duration of generations was not exactly described by the age of four men succeeding one another from father to son, it was fixed by some at a hundred years, by others at a hundred and ten, by others at thirty-three, thirty, twenty-five, and even at twenty years; being neither uniform nor settled: only, it is remarked, that a generation is longer as it is more ancient.