BH

I was thumbing through the Old Testament the other day and noticed lots of the geneologies and so forth that seemed to make the text more of a secular record than scripture.

This and the fact the OT mentions other books for sources got me wondering if the books of the OT, or at least some of them, were really never meant to be " holy scripture" by the author but only came to be used as such by later users?

Clouseau

Accurate genealogical records were crucial for the Israelites. Not only were they essential for inheritance claims, by which a form of internal egalitarianism was preserved, but also to prevent entryism by Gentiles who could in time have suppressed the worship of Yahweh.

spin

Umm, gee, where'ja get that idea from?? Did some Israelite tell ya? Or are ya just crapping on?

Hmm, inventive.

And genealogies did that? Well, whaddaya know!

For people who want to think about the issue, one might start by attempting to understand when genealogies become popular in Jewish culture. For example, Kings showed little interest in the long drawn out genealogies, but were food for Chronicles.

At the same time Chronicles contains the longest and therefore latest version of the high priestly genealogy. One can watch this specific genealogy grow from 1 Esdras 8:1-2 to Ezra 7:1-5 then to 2 Esdras 1:1-3 finally to Josephus and Chronicles, ie we are dealing with an exceptionally late manifestation.

Genealogies are stuck on the front of Genesis while the rest of the pentateuch seem little interested in them.

It's no surprise that there were imaginary genealogies for Jesus built into diverse Davidic genealogies (which are both in conflict with the latter part of the Davidic genealogy in 1 Chr 3).

We can scrap the notion of accurate genealogies, especially when some (such as the high priestly genealogy) seem apparently artificial in construct.

Yet the purpose of these genealogies if one can be divined from the biblical texts seems to be for theological (and perhaps political) purposes, justifying connections, giving importance and prestige.


spin