What are the genealogies in the first chapters of Genesis? Where are they from, and what are they for? Their origin remains unclear to this day. Only one thing is clear: the sacred writer borrowed them from some ancient source that has not reached us. They make no claim to any historical specificity or reliability.

Still, even if they were one hundred percent reliable, what would the names listed in these genealogical records tell us today? Of course, in general these genealogies reflect historical reality: the earth really was inhabited by clans and tribes. Peoples, cities, and states appeared later. But is this the only reason the sacred writer gives these long genealogies? Or is the point something else?

The genealogical tree of the Book of Genesis begins with the first human being, Adam. And the author of the book immediately emphasizes that Adam, created in the image of God, brought into the world offspring who were like not God, but himself. This is the essence of fallen humanity: after the fall, the human being, like all other animals, began to beget offspring not according to the image of God, but according to the image and likeness of himself, of his own fallen nature.

And this nature demanded what was its own, which was not very different from what is its own among the higher apes. And human society, as most sociologists acknowledge, began to resemble a pack of animals, and far from comparatively peaceful animals such as apes. The history of fallen humanity had begun.

Genealogies, ancestral lists, are one of the most characteristic genres of the Bible. In each case the genre has its own meaning and significance, although the genealogies themselves remain what they are: lists of descent of one origin or another. In this case we are dealing with genealogical lists whose origin is unknown, and the names mentioned in them tell a modern historian nothing. One can only note that similar genealogies are found among different peoples of the ancient Near East: they occur in Egypt, Sumer, and Greece.

In practice, such genealogies almost always turn out, when examined, to be half-mythical. This is understandable, since in those times mythology had not yet separated from history; one flowed smoothly and often almost imperceptibly into the other. It remains only to add that the myth of the flood was quite widely spread in antiquity, and almost everywhere this myth is present there are also antediluvian genealogies: lists of descent of tribal chiefs or rulers of cities and states who, according to the compilers of the genealogies, lived before the flood. The sacred writer most likely did not compose the genealogies of the Book of Genesis himself, but used those that already existed in his time. As for their origin and authorship, one can only guess about both.

What stands out is the fantastically long lifespan of the people mentioned in the genealogies, but only if the reference is indeed to specific individuals. The point is that in antiquity in general, and in ancient genealogies in particular, a name could designate not only a particular person, but also the clan founded by that person or, when rulers are in view, the dynasty founded by him.

In the genealogies presented, the same name is usually mentioned twice, as can be seen: once when the birth of a certain heir to the person is mentioned, and here the lifespan named is usually quite normal and natural for a human being; the second time when this same person is said to have fathered "sons and daughters" in some unspecified number, and here the lifespan of the named founder of the clan is given as something completely fantastic. Fantastic, if one thinks the reference is to a human being.

But if we allow that in the second case the clan name is mentioned precisely as such, that it designates here the clan and the duration of the clan's existence, not an individual person and the length of his life, then everything begins to look not nearly so fantastic: the duration of a clan's existence can easily be measured in centuries.

Then the genealogies take their place in the Book of Genesis and in the symbolic history of humanity contained in the book's Prologue: they describe the settlement of people across the earth. They describe it symbolically, but in essence very accurately, because humanity really did settle across the earth by clans and tribes. Nations and states all came later, after some time had passed. After the flood.

This genealogy of the forefathers from the creation of the world to the flood should be regarded as symbolic, in other words, as a kind of theological scheme. For each of the ten forefathers, except Enoch and Noah, the following are given: the name, the age at the birth of the eldest son, and the number of years that passed from that birth until the forefather's death. The purpose of compiling the genealogy was evidently to show that humanity is a family of beings related by blood. For the ancient world this idea was new. The Egyptians, for example, considered foreigners to be creations of an evil spirit. The long life of the forefathers testifies that God's blessing still rests on them to some degree. As some of the Holy Fathers believe, longevity helped preserve religious tradition better. Later, because of the growth of sinfulness, the span of human life is shortened.