Glenn Miller wrote:There are only ten generations mentioned from Adam to Noah, but there could be generations deliberately omitted by the author, as was sometimes done in both the Bible and in the ANE
[Ancient Near East]. Conservative scholars have long recognized this, esp. in the Genesis/Chronicles lists:
o "Analysis of genealogies, both inside and outside the Bible, has disclosed that they serve a variety of functions (with different principles governing the lists), that they vary in form (some being segmented, others linear) and depth (number of generations listed), and that they are often fluid (subject to change).
"There are three general areas in which genealogies function: the familial or domestic, the legal-political, and the religious. In the domestic area an individual's social status, privileges and obligations may be reflected in his placement in the lineage (see 7:14-19); the rights of the firstborn son and the secondary status of the children of concubines are examples from the Bible. In the political sphere genealogies substantiate claims to hereditary office or settle competing claims when the office is contested. Land organization and territorial groupings of social units may also be determined by genealogical reckoning--e.g., the division of the land among the 12 tribes. In Israel military levies also proceeded along genealogical lines; several of the genealogies in Chronicles reflect military conscription (5:1-26; 7:1-12, 30-40; 8:1-40). Genealogies function in the religious sphere primarily by establishing membership among the priests and Levites (6:1-30; 9:10-34; Ne 7:61-65).
"As to form, some genealogical lists trace several lines of descent (segmented genealogies) while others are devoted to a single line (linear genealogies).
"Comparison of genealogical lists of the same tribal or family line often brings to light surprising differences. This fluidity of the lists may reflect variation in function. But sometimes changes in the status or relations of social structures are reflected in genealogies by changes in the relationships of names in the genealogy (see 1:35-42; 6:22, 27) or by the addition of names or segments to a lineage (see 5:11-22; 6:27; 7:6-12). The most common type of fluidity in Biblical materials is telescoping, the omission of names from the list. Unimportant names are left out in order to relate an individual to a prominent ancestor, or possibly to achieve the desired number of names in the genealogy. Some Biblical genealogies, for example, omit names to achieve multiples of 7: For the period from David to the exile Matthew gives 14 generations (2 times 7), while Luke gives 21 (3 times 7), and the same authors give similar multiples of 7 for the period from the exile to Jesus (Mt 1:1-17; Lk 3:23-38).
"The genealogies of Chronicles show variation in all these properties; the arrangements often reflect the purpose for which the genealogies were composed prior to their being adopted by the Chronicler as part of his record. [The NIV Study Bible, at the introduction to I Chronicles]
o
"As mentioned above, it is clear that many OT genealogies are incomplete. There are four links from Levi to Moses (Exod 6:16-20), but the descendants of Levi in Moses' day were 22,000 males (Num 3:39). The genealogy from Ephraim, Levi's nephew, to Joshua seems to show eighteen links (1 Chron 7:20-27). In the NT Matthew 1:1 names just three links from Christ to Abraham. The full genealogy, or list of kings (Matt 1:2-17), omits the names of Ahaziah, Joash and Amaziah and also Jehoiakim, in contrast to the lists of kings in the OT. The genealogy of Ezra (Ezra 7:1-5) has only five links from 456 B.C. back to Zadok, David's high priest in about 960 B.C.
Obviously, only the more famous men are mentioned....
It is also held that some of these names [in the Genesis 11 genealogy] are actually family or clan names."[R.L. Harris, "Genealogy", ZPEB]
o "
In the Western practice of drawing up family trees, great care is taken that the genealogical record is as complete as possible for each generation. This procedure contrasts notably with ancient Near Eastern custom, where it was not considered necessary for pedigrees to be complete. Variations in designation from the modern patter were also entertained in a manner that is not always easily recognized. The term 'father,' e.g., could be applied to a superior was not a relative, and this is reminiscent of the 'school father' (i.e., school principal) of the Sumerians. People could also be considered brothers merely by being associated with one another in a treaty (cf. Am. 1:9). The word 'son' could be used almost as widely as it is in modern Western society, and the same was generally true for 'mother' and 'daughter' as well...The aim of such genealogies was to establish the general line of descent from given ancestors, and this objective was in no way impaired by the omission of certain generations as long as the line was being traced properly...Schematic patterns can be discerned periodically in Scripture, notably in Gen. 5 and 11. The genealogies in both these chapters consist of ten units in which the age of the parent at the birth of his firstborn was recorded, as well as the remaining years of his life. Both lists also concluded with the names of three male siblings in a manner that can hardly be accidental. While these genealogies are no doubt genuine and ancient, they seem to have been arranged in such a manner as to permit easy memorization of the chief descendants of the ancestral stock...
The eclectic principles upon which the compilation of so many Scriptural genealogies are based should be a sufficient caution against using them for anything more than the most general of chronological purposes." [R.K. Harrison, "Genealogy", ISBE revised ed.]
o "
Comparing biblical genealogies to one another shows that there are often several generations skipped in any particular presentation. This type of telescoping also occurs in Assyrian genealogical records. This
we need not think that the genealogy's purpose is to represent every generation, as our modern family trees attempt to do." [OT:BBCALL:35]
o "This is not to say that Gen. 5 was produced in the midst of a literary vacuum. A. Malamat has shown that these early genealogies in Genesis stem from archetypes among West Semitic tribes from the Old Babylonian period where the ten-generation list is frequent. Applying this observation to Gen. 5 leads us to believe that the names of Gen. 5 need not be understood sequentially. Thus the figures cannot be added to arrive at the age of mankind. Instead, what we have are symmetrical genealogies: ten generations before the Flood (Gen. 5) and ten generations after the Flood (Gen. 11). So
when Gen. 5 says that 'X fathered Y' it may mean that 'X fathered the line culminating in Y'" [Victor P. Hamilton, The Book of Genesis, NICOT]
o "Genealogies were a standard feature of ancient historical tradition. Naturally, royal family trees furnish our principal examples, but records of lawsuits over land ownership show that many other people maintained such knowledge. Assyrian scribes of the 1st millennium bc listed kings of Assyria from remote times, with a line almost unbroken spanning 1,000 years (ANET3, pp. 564-566). The relationship of one to another was noted, and the length of reign of each. Heading the list are the names of 'seventeen kings who lived in tents'; long considered legendary, personifications of tribes, or fictitious, they now seem to have an historical basis with the discovery at Ebla of a treaty naming the first of them. From the 17th century bc survives a list of kings of Babylon, their ancestors and predecessors, sharing some names with the early part of the Assyrian King List. Earlier still is the Sumerian King List, completed about 1800 bc, which names kings of S Babylonia reaching back to the Flood, and before (ANET, pp. 265-266). Hittite, Ugaritic and Egyptian scribes have also left us king lists of varying lengths and purposes.
Some of the particular characteristics of biblical genealogies may also be observed in the texts. The lists of names are interspersed with historical or personal notes, comparable with those in Gn. 4:21, 23; 36:24; 1 Ch. 5:9-10, etc. The Sumerian King List has one Mes-kiaga-nuna, king of Ur, as son of Mes-ane-pada, but contemporary records suggest he was in fact the grandson of Mes-ane-pada, his father being one A-ane-pada. Either a scribe has omitted the father's name by error because it was so like the grandfather's, or 'son' is used in a wider sense than in English. The wider usage was common in Babylonian, as in all Semitic languages, for 'member of a specific group', and from 1500 bc onwards, mar ('son') was used in the sense 'descendant of'. An interesting case is found in the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III which refers to Jehu as 'son (mar) of Omri' when in fact he was not related, but simply ruled the same state. A remarkable Egyptian example is a brief text in which King Tirhakah (c. 670 bc) honours his 'father' Sesostris III (c. 1870 bc) who lived some 1200 years before him. Similarly, King Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia was called Ibn (son of) Saud, though he was really the son of Abd-er Rahman, and the Saud whose name he bore died in 1724. The use of relationship words, of family and dynastic names, and many other factors have to be borne in mind when interpreting any ancient genealogies.
There is thus no reason to suppose that all the genealogies in the Bible purport to be complete, since their purpose was more the establishment of descent from some particular ancestor or ancestors, a purpose unaffected by the omission of names, than the reckoning of exact chronologies. It is wrong, too, to dismiss any part of them as legendary, personifications of tribes or deities, or pure fiction in the light of growing evidence that other similar records have factual bases." [New Bible Dictionary, s.v. "Genealogy"]
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Does God's judgment violate the free choice of His creatures? -
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/stealtime.html [bold emphasis and underlining mine])
Did you know that Geisler himself sees the Day-Age interpretation as being Scripturally valid?