Re: [asa] Two questions... (geneology gaps)

> James Patterson: "The genealogies are well known to contain gaps."
> How can there be gaps in Genesis geneologies when it not only gives names,
> but who begat who and how long each lived and how old they were when one was
> begat? My opinion is that the history is nailed-down, but wrong; but it's
> ok because the history is incidental to the theological message (RE:
> Lemoureux).
> …Bernie

Where we can compare different lines of evidence, gaps are common in
Biblical and contemporary ancient near eastern usage. Perhaps the
most obvious is Matthew 1:1-"...Jesus Christ, the son of David, the
son of Abraham." Mt. 1:2-16 contains smaller gaps when compared to
the list of kings in the OT. Likewise, genealogies spanning the same
time interval often contain significantly different numbers of
generations (e.g., Moses versus Joshua; Matthew's royal succesion?
versus Luke's apparently more biologically precise version).

Thus, it's quite plausible that the Genesis genealogies contain gaps
because they show connectivity rather than chronology. Apart from the
fact that the Septuagint and Luke add one name, I don't know of
anything for direct comparison to the genealogies in Genesis.

Of course, there are all sorts of questions about the proper values
and interpretation of the numbers, too.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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