1 Chronicles 1 to 9:34
As we approach the first chapters of this book, it seems helpful to insist upon the importance of genealogies for the people of Israel.
They were necessary because, since the promise of the inheritance of Canaan had been made to Abraham and his seed, this seed had to be registered, since it alone had the right to enter the promised land.
Having arrived in Canaan, the people needed their genealogies in order to divide the land among their tribes and fathers' houses.
They were likewise necessary in order to prevent the surrounding nations from mixing with the chosen people.
Finally, and above all, they were indispensable in view of Messiah's kingship, for His lineage must go back through the series of kings, to Judah "the lawgiver," and then from Judah to Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Noah, Adam and God!
The genealogies were also important in order to establish the succession of the Aaronic priesthood, destined to walk continually before the true King, Jehovah's Anointed.
This, in brief, is the value of the genealogies. Their usefulness was all the greater ever since the people, after having fallen under God's judgment, passed through a period of disorder during which it was difficult, often even impossible, to prove their descent, as we see in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Yet we should quickly note that if one wants to enter into the details of the subject before us, one must be very guarded in his conclusions, for Jewish genealogies present innumerable difficulties. First, very frequently those who are called the son of so-and-so are not necessarily his children at all, but his grandsons, or even his grandnephews. Then there are cases where the head of a clan is regarded as the father of a generation, all the generations between being omitted. There are cases where through the "right of redemption" a distant relative (see the Book of Ruth) becomes the head of an extinct family. There are those cases, very frequent during the captivity, where one family took a place in the inheritance of another family which had disappeared, without being related by direct descent to the head of that race. There are cases too where, the name of ancestors being missing, the name of the birthplace replaced, so to say, the name of the family head. There are cases, common among the Jews, where a person had more than one name (see, for example, these well-known names: Benjamin and Benoni, Reuel and Jethro, Solomon and Jedidiah, etc.). And lastly there are cases where an abridged genealogy was given, the names indicated being nothing more than a few pointers to establish the line of descent.
These facts explain why the enumeration of the same tribe, given at two different periods, displays very noticeable differences. This becomes even more complicated due to the fact that the genealogies contain intentional omissions or transpositions of names meant to emphasize the purpose of the Spirit of God, especially in the book which we are studying.
Added to these many difficulties are the following problems. Sometimes the genealogies of Chronicles contain names of very ancient origin, which we do not find elsewhere in the Old Testament. Many names are not those of individuals, but of clans or families. Others are genealogies which we might term geographic, including, for want of other source material, the names of tribes, of districts, of cities. We have mentioned this fact in our study of Ezra 2. We find it again in 1 Chron. 2:18-24, 25-33, 42-55; 4:1-23, 28-33; 5:11-17; 7:37-40, etc.
It would be easy to add other difficulties to this already long list. What has been said already should be sufficient to warn Christians who, when they attempt to study the genealogies, stumble over apparent contradictions at every step. Not that the subject in itself does not edify, as for that matter the entire Word of God does, but it is useless to enter upon it simply with one's own intelligence, as the rationalists have so often done. Moreover, we would hasten to point out that these are not the genealogies which the apostle warns us not to give heed to (1 Tim. 1:4; Titus. 3:9); he was warning against a certain philosophical system that sought to establish endless degrees in a hierarchy of spirits.
As we approach this study we would again insist upon the important fact that after the captivity, due to negligence, indifference, or other causes innumerable gaps existed in the genealogies, and that on this account it was often impossible to recognize certain persons as composing part of Israel, unless at the given moment a divine declaration by the Urim and Thummim should intervene (Ezra 2:63).