[b-hebrew] Genealogy of David

Peter Kirk peterkirk at qaya.org
Thu Feb 24 16:59:03 EST 2005


On 24/02/2005 20:54, Yigal Levin wrote:

> ...
>
>>[Peter:]
>>The full genealogy from Perez son of Judah to David is given in Ruth
>>4:18-22, 1 Chronicles 2:5,9-15, Matthew 1:2-6 and Luke 3:32-33. In each
>>case the list is (Jacob), (Judah), Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab,
>>Nahshon, Salmon/Salma, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David. So 11 recorded
>>generations to cover probably at least 700 years:
>>    
>>
>
>Why 700 years. Assuming that the average male has his first son at age 25
>(which is probably high for ancient Israel, but would compensate for some
>late starters or cases in which the son listed is not the eldest), 11
>geneations would cover 275 years.
>  
>

Precisely, as I wrote in the continuation of this sentence:

>it looks as if
>  
>
>>something must have been left out ...
>>

But don't count on the length of a generation being so short. In some 
societies it is common for men not to get married until their 40's, so a 
generation length could be as long as 40 years. My "700 years" came from 
estimates of the time between Jacob and David. I agree that this is 
rather uncertain, but no one suggests it was as short as 275 years. For 
one thing, there are I think also 11 recorded generations from Jacob to 
Joshua, which could not have taken much less than 200 years.


>>... Four generations are unlikely to cover 230 years. So four
>>generations from the Conquest to David seems too few on almost any
>>chronology.
>>    
>>
>
>Once again - 4 generations are about 200 years. 230 is not that far.
>
>  
>
No, on your assumptions 4 generations are about 100 years. 230 years 
means 57½ years per generation, not impossible but improbable.


-- 
Peter Kirk
peter at qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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