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Chapter 5

God’s History of Redemption and the Genealogies

1. The Redemptive-historical Significance of the Genealogies

Man was created in God’s likeness, but sinned and fell to the path of death. The history of redemption is the entire history of the salvation of mankind and the restoration of all creation. Thus, the major themes of redemptive history are creation, fall, and restoration. All attention is focused on who the Messiah, the seed of the woman, is and how God’s people would be saved through Him. These major themes are clearly depicted through each person that appears in the genealogies. The history of redemption is concisely compressed into the names and ages of the persons recorded in the genealogies.

The Bible addresses the broad themes of redemptive history through the various sets of genealogies. For example, Genesis 5 records Adam’s genealogy—ten generations from Adam to Noah. Genesis 11 records Shem’s genealogy—ten generations from Shem to Abraham. Together, these genealogies reveal the order from Adam to Abraham, delineating how the Messiah would ultimately come as a descendant of Abraham. The uniqueness of the genealogies in Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 lies in the fact that they include a complete list of each person’s birth, age at procreation, and life span even though they lived four thousand to six thousand years ago. The completeness of the genealogies affirms that God’s redemptive work did not cease in any generation, but continued throughout history.

Following the genealogies in Genesis, the genealogy of Boaz (Ruth 4:18–22) connects Judah’s son Perez to King David. This genealogy further confirms that the Messiah will come through the line of Judah, the fourth among Jacob’s 12 sons. The genealogy in Matthew 1 summarizes the Old Testament history of redemption. The book opens with the verse, “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matt 1:1), and introduces Jesus as the Messiah who came through the path shown in the genealogies of Genesis 5, Genesis 11, and Boaz.

Careful study of the Genesis genealogies will lead us to a clearer understanding of God’s administration for redemption through Jesus Christ. All the descriptions of the persons, their names, and the time of their births and deaths offer significant insight into the circumstances surrounding each time period. Furthermore, they play important roles in uncovering different aspects of Jesus Christ, who would come through their lineage. In light of this, these genealogies are the core of the redemptive history, and studying them is definite a shortcut to comprehending God’s administration.

There are no meaningless sounds in the world, and the biblical genealogies contain countless treasures to be discovered (1 Cor 14:10). We must not commit the grave mistake of overlooking them as meaningless enumeration of names. With the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we must discover and follow the rich vein of redemptive history, flows through the genealogies.

2. The Structure and Flow of the Genealogies

God’s work in redemptive history is carried out in various ways and forms, but it has one clear purpose and direction: to send the promised Messiah for the redemption of His elect (Gen 3:15; Heb 1:1–2). The Bible is a record of how God carried out this plan and the genealogies, presented in various formats and structures, record this work in the most concise and condensed form.

(1) The structure of the genealogies

First, genealogies can be listed in one of two linear forms: linear ascending (listing up from descendants to the ancestors) or linear descending (listing down from ancestors to descendants). The genealogy in Luke 3 is typical of a genealogy listed in linear ascending order. It traces Jesus Christ’s genealogy in ascending order up to Adam and then to God.

In a linear descending genealogy, the main focus is on the last person on the list. For example, the focus in the genealogy of Genesis 5 is on the tenth generation—Noah. The genealogy in Genesis 11 lists Shem and his descendants down to Abraham (the tenth generation), with the primary focus on Abraham.

Second, genealogies can be categorized as vertical or segmented. Genealogies in vertical format record the direct line of offspring. Typical of the vertical genealogy format are the genealogy of the line of Cain in Genesis 4 and the genealogy of the line of Seth in Genesis 5.

Genealogies in segmented format simultaneously record the lineages of the different sons of one person. Examples of segmented genealogies are genealogies of Noah’s sons, Ham and Japheth (Gen 10:2–20); Nahor’s son (Gen 22:20–24); Abraham’s sons through Keturah (Gen 25:1–6); Ishmael’s sons (Gen 25:12-16); and Esau’s sons (Gen 36:1–43).

(2) Two distinct flows of genealogies

Beginning with Cain’s act of murder until Herod’s conspiracy to kill the infant Jesus, Satan’s relentless effort to thwart God’s work ran parallel to the progression of redemptive history (Matt 2:1–13). While Genesis 4 contains the genealogy of Cain’s line, which attempted to hinder the flow of redemptive history, Genesis 5 contains the genealogy of the patriarchs in Seth’s line, who were central figures in the history of redemption. Hence, biblical genealogies are divided into two distinct lines: the genealogy of the faithful who lived to fulfill God’s will, and that of the unfaithful whose lives stood against God’s will.

The genealogies of the sons of faith are the center stem of the biblical genealogies. The most prominent are the genealogies of Adam in Genesis 5 and of Shem in Genesis 11, which show the lineage of faith from Adam to Abraham. Continuing the lineage of faith, the genealogy of Boaz in Ruth 4 lays out the lineage from Judah’s son Perez down to King David. Finally, the genealogy in Matthew 1 explicitly reveals God’s work of redemption by showing His covenant work extending through the forty-two generations from Abraham to Jesus Christ. Of course, there were wicked people in the genealogy of the faithful descendants, but they could not hinder or stop God’s administration in the history of redemption.

Then, there were genealogies of the unbelieving descendants. The Bible also dedicates a considerable amount of writing to those genealogies. Cain’s genealogy in Genesis 4 is a typical example, along with the genealogies of Ham’s sons (Gen 10:6–20), Ishmael’s sons (Gen 25:12–16), and Esau’s descendants (Gen 36:1–43).

The genealogies of the faithful are recorded in vertical format continuously without being cut off or ceasing from the first patriarch down to the last, until they finally bear fruit with Jesus Christ. In contrast, the genealogies of the unfaithful come to an abrupt end. They opposed God and afflicted His chosen people while becoming founders of lavish cultures and civilizations. Ultimately, they perished and disappeared from history.