The Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures in Five Minutes - Philippe Guillaume
20. Why Are There so Many Genealogies in the Bible?
The Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures in Five Minutes - Philippe Guillaume
Dexter Callender, Jr. [+]
The University of Miami
Dexter E. Callender Jr. holds a Doctorate (PhD) from Harvard University. His research investigates myth theory and cognitive approaches to the Hebrew Bible. He has published Adam in Myth and History: Ancient Israelite Perspectives on the Primal Human (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2000) and Myth and Scripture: Contemporary Perspectives on Religion, Language and Imagination (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2014).
Description
Are sixth cousins still family? As much as mules boast that their ancestors are horses (never donkeys), the genealogies in the Hebrew Bible construct identities. For better or worse, these forbidding lists of ancestors are powerful tools for ongoing production of self- and social definition.