The meaning of Generation in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
jen-er-a'-shun (Latin generatio, from genero, "beget"):
(1) The translation (a) of dor, "circle," "generation," hence, "age," "period," "cycle": "many generations" (Deuteronomy 32:7); (b) the people of any particular period or those born about the same time: "Righteous before me in this generation" (Genesis 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 (Deuteronomy 32:5; Proverbs 30:11); the righteous (Psalms 14:5; Psalms 112:2).
(2) toledhoth, "births," hence (a) an account of a man and his descendants: "The book of the generations of Adam" (Genesis 5:1); (b) successive families: "The families of the sons of Noah, after their generations" (Genesis 10:32); (c) genealogical divisions: "The children of Reuben .... their generations, by their families" (Numbers 1:20); (d) figurative, of the origin and early history of created things: "The generations of the heavens and of the earth" (Genesis 2:4).
(3) genea, "a begetting," "birth," "nativity," therefore (a) the successive members of a genealogy: "All the generations from Abraham unto David" (Matthew 1:17); (b) a race, or class, distinguished by common characteristics, always (in the New Testament) bad: "Faithless and perverse generation" (Matthew 17:17); (c) the people of a period: "This generation shall not pass away" (Luke 21:32); (d) an age (the average lifetime, 33 years): "Hid for (Greek "from the") ages and (from the) generations" (Colossians 1:26). The term is also by a figurative transference of thought applied to duration in eternity: "Unto all generations for ever and ever" (Ephesians 3:21) (Greek "all the generations of the age of the ages").
(4) genesis, "source," "origin": "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ" (Matthew 1:1; the American Revised Version, margin "The genealogy of Jesus Christ").
(5) gennema, "offspring," "progeny"; figurative: "O generation of vipers" (Luke 3:7 the King James Version).
(6) genos, "stock," "race," in this case spiritual: "But ye are a chosen generation" (I Peter 2:9; the American Standard Revised Version "an elect race").
Philip Wendell Crannell
See more on the meaning of Generation in the Bible:
Generation {Easton's Bible Dictionary}
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