Generation

Generation in biblical usage carries several related meanings: the period of a single human lifespan (typically reckoned as forty years), the people alive during a given era, the descendants of a particular ancestor, or the act of begetting. The genealogical formula these are the generations of (toledoth) in Genesis structures the entire book into a series of family histories, beginning with the generations of heaven and earth (Genesis 2:4) and moving through the patriarchal lineages. The term thus functions as an organizational and theological device linking creation to covenant.

In prophetic and wisdom literature, generation marks the continuity and transience of human existence against the permanence of God: one generation passes away and another comes, but the earth abides forever (Ecclesiastes 1:4). The Psalms speak of declaring God's praise to the generation to come (Psalm 22:30) and of the righteous who are a seed for the generation of the upright (Psalm 14:5). Jesus's use of this generation in the Gospels — particularly in Matthew 24 — has generated sustained interpretive debate about whether it refers to his contemporaries, to the Jewish people, or to the end-time generation that will witness the predicted signs.