Sunday Sermonette: The begattting is getting to be under par . . .

As we have seen, the chapter divisions, which were added by medieval monks, often seem arbitrary. That's certainly true of Genesis 11, which goes immediately from the preposterous tower of babel story to a recitation of begats. It's really boring but that's actually instructive. Why is it there? Why does the omnipotent creator God want us to read all of this patriarchal genealogy in the midst of his other inerrant words? What are these names supposed to mean to us? I will comment after inflicting it on you.

¹⁰ This is the account of Shem’s family line.

Two years after the flood, when Shem was 100 years old, he became the father^[d] of Arphaxad. ¹¹ And after he became the father of Arphaxad, Shem lived 500 years and had other sons and daughters.

¹² When Arphaxad had lived 35 years, he became the father of Shelah. ¹³ And after he became the father of Shelah, Arphaxad lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.^[e]
14 When Shelah had lived 30 years, he became the father of Eber. ¹⁵ And after he became the father of Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and had other sons and daughters.
¹⁶ When Eber had lived 34 years, he became the father of Peleg. ¹⁷ And after he became the father of Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and had other sons and daughters.
¹⁸ When Peleg had lived 30 years, he became the father of Reu. ¹⁹ And after he became the father of Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and had other sons and daughters.
²⁰ When Reu had lived 32 years, he became the father of Serug. ²¹ And after he became the father of Serug, Reu lived 207 years and had other sons and daughters.
²² When Serug had lived 30 years, he became the father of Nahor. ²³ And after he became the father of Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and had other sons and daughters.
²⁴ When Nahor had lived 29 years, he became the father of Terah. ²⁵ And after he became the father of Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and had other sons and daughters.
²⁶ After Terah had lived 70 years, he became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran.

Note that the lifespans are tending gradually to decline. From the 800-900 year spans we saw before, people start drifting down from Shem, who  lived 600 years; to Arphaxad, Salah and Eber, in the 400s; to Peleg, Reu and Serug, in the 200s, to Nahor who only made it to 148. So we seem to be drifting toward reality as far as longevity is concerned. I don't know what to make of that.

An oddity is that references to this genealogy in the New Testament are inaccurate. For example, in Genesis, Salah is the son of Arphaxad; but in Luke 3, Salah is Arphaxad's grandson.  By the way, in 1 Timothy we find " Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do."

²⁷ This is the account of Terah’s family line.

Terah became the father of Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Haran became the father of Lot. ²⁸ While his father Terah was still alive, Haran died in Ur of the Chaldeans, in the land of his birth. ²⁹ Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milkah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milkah and Iskah. ³⁰ Now Sarai was childless because she was not able to conceive.

³¹ Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there.
³² Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.

At last we get the names of some women. And we meet some characters whose tales will actually be told. Stay tuned.