Generation

Gen. 2:4, “These are the generations,” means the “history.” 5:1, “The book of the generations,” means a family register, or history of Adam. 37:2, “The generations of Jacob” = the history of Jacob and his descendants. 7:1, “In this generation” = in this age. Ps. 49:19, “The generation of his fathers” = the dwelling of his fathers, i.e., the grave. Ps. 73:15, “The generation of thy children” = the contemporary race. Isa. 53:8, “Who shall declare his generation?” = His manner of life who shall declare? or rather = His race, posterity, shall be so numerous that no one shall be able to declare it. In Matt. 1:17, the word means a succession or series of persons from the same stock. Matt. 3:7, “Generation of vipers” = brood of vipers. 24:34, “This generation” = the persons then living contemporary with Christ. 1 Pet. 2:9, “A chosen generation” = a chosen people. The Hebrews seem to have reckoned time by the generation. In the time of Abraham a generation was an hundred years, thus: Gen. 15:16, “In the fourth generation” = in four hundred years (comp. verse 13 and Ex. 12:40). In Deut. 1:35 and 2:14 a generation is a period of thirty-eight years.

In the long-lived patriarchal age a generation seems to have been computed at 100 years, (Genesis 15:16) comp. Genesis15:13 and Eccl 12:40 But subsequently the reckoning was the same which has been adopted by modern civilized nations, viz. from thirty to forty years (Job 42:16) (Generation is also used to signify the men of an age or time, as contemporaries, (Genesis 6:9; Isaiah 53:8) posterity, especially in legal formulae, (Leviticus 3:17) etc.; fathers, or ancestors. (Psalms 49:19)

GENERA'TION, or GENERA'TIONS, "has three secondary meanings in the A.V.: 1. A genealogical register, as Gen 5:1. 2. A family history, Gen 6:9; Gen 25:1, since early history among the Orientals is drawn so much from genealogical registers. 3. A history of the origin of things as well as persons — e.g. of the earth." — Smith.

GENERA'TION, or GENERA'TIONS, "has three secondary meanings in the A.V.: 1. A genealogical register, as Gen 5:1. 2. A family history, Gen 6:9; Gen 25:1, since early history among the Orientals is drawn so much from genealogical registers. 3. A history of the origin of things as well as persons — e.g. of the earth." — Smith.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. The act of generating or begetting; procreation, as of animals.

2. Origination by some process, mathematical, chemical, or vital; production; formation; as, the generation of sounds, of gases, of curves, etc.

3. That which is generated or brought forth; progeny; offspiring.

4. A single step or stage in the succession of natural descent; a rank or remove in genealogy. Hence: The body of those who are of the same genealogical rank or remove from an ancestor; the mass of beings living at one period; also, the average lifetime of man, or the ordinary period of time at which one rank follows another, or father is succeeded by child, usually assumed to be one third of a century; an age. This is the book of the generations of Adam. Gen. v. 1. Ye shall remain there [in Babylon] many years, and for a long season, namely, seven generations. Baruch vi. 3. All generations and ages of the Christian church. Hooker.

5. Race; kind; family; breed; stock. Thy mother's of my generation; what's she, if I be a dog Shak.

6. The formation or production of any geometrical magnitude, as a line, a surface, a solid, by the motion, in accordance with a mathematical law, of a point or a magnitude; as, the generation of a line or curve by the motion of a point, of a surface by a line, a sphere by a semicircle, etc.

7. The aggregate of the functions and phenomene which attend reproduction.