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GENERATION.—A word of several meanings employed to render two different words in OT and four in NT. All are, however, related in thought, and all have a close connexion with the Gospels and Jewish thought in the time of Christ.
1. In OT ‘generation’ is used to render (1) the Heb. ãּåֹø or ãּø ãּø , connected with Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] dârú, ‘to endure,’ means primarily a period of time. This meaning has survived in OT chiefly in poetry, and in the phrases ãּø åָøø Ps 45:18; Psa_61:7, ìִãø ãּø Exo_3:15, ãּø øּøִéí Isa_51:9, Psa_72:5, and such like, to indicate time stretching away into the past (Isa_51:9), or (more generally) into the future (Psa_33:11; Psa_49:12). It may refer both to past and future (Psa_145:13), and is thus parallel to òåìָí (see Eternity).
Originally øã must have meant the period defined by the life of a man or of a family (Job_42:16). Hence by a loose usage it comes to mean the living in that period (Gen_7:1, Exo_1:6, Deu_2:14, Ecc_1:4, Isa_53:8 etc. etc.; cf. the modern use of the word ‘age’). So also it may be used of a of men living contemporaneously and possessing certain characteristics (Deu_32:5, Pro_30:11-14).
(2) The other word in OT (rendered always plural ‘generations’) is úּåֹìְøåֹú . Here the root-idea is ‘birth,’ ‘descent,’ ‘offspring,’ from éìø ‘to bring forth.’ Hence it is used of genealogies (Gen_5:1; Gen_6:9; Gen_10:1; Gen_11:10; Gen_11:27, Rth_4:18 etc.), of divisions by families, etc. (Num_1:20; Num_1:22; Num_1:24 etc.). It is even used of the creation of the world (Gen_2:4 lit. ‘the begettings of the heaven and the earth’).
2. Of the four words rendered ‘generation’ in NT two are unimportant so far as the Gospels are concerned. (1) In 1Pe_2:9 ‘a chosen generation,’ ãÝíïò ἐêëåêôüí , should be rendered as in RV, ‘an elect race.’ (2) In Mat_1:1 the rendering should be ‘the book of the origin of Jesus Christ,’ using the word ãÝíåóéò in its widest sense. The meaning in Mat_1:8, Luk_1:14 is slightly different, and is best expressed by ‘birth’ (EV). (3) The most important word used in the Gospels is ãåíåÜ , meaning (a) ‘race,’ ‘offspring,’ ‘descent’; (b) the people of any given period; (e) a period loosely defined by the life of a man or of a family; (d) in such phrases as åἰò ãåíåὰò ãåíåῶí (Luk_1:50) it is used, apparently as the equivalent of ãֹּø ãּøִéí , to express indefinite time, generally in the future. Cf. the expression in Eph_3:21 åἰò ðÜóáò ôὰò ãåíåὰò ôïῦ áἱῶíïò ôῶí áἰþíùí , which, however, is considered by Dalman (Words of Jesus, p. 165, Eng. tr.) as referring to all the generations of ‘the current age’ of ‘the world period.’ But the phrase seems rather to be the strongest possible way of expressing ‘for ever.’ That ãåíåÜ (rendered ‘generation’) does express ‘the current age’ of ‘the world period’ is obvious in the Gospels (Luk_16:8, Mat_24:34, and less clearly Mat_23:36); also the people of that age (Mat_12:39; Mat_16:4, Mar_8:12, Luk_11:29). In the sense of (c) it is found only in Mat_1:17 and apparently never in its original sense (a). (4) This last is expressed by quite a different word, viz. ãÝííçìá . In Mat_3:7; Mat_12:34; Mat_23:33, Luk_3:7, AV has the phrase ‘generation of vipers.’ The Greek is ãåííÞìáôá ἐ÷éäíῶí , which RV renders ‘offspring of vipers.’ The rendering of AV is due to Tindale (see Hastings’ DB ii. 142b). Elsewhere the word occurs as ãÝíçìá (Mat_26:29, Luk_22:18, 2Co_9:10), rendered ‘fruit.’
G. Gordon Stott.