Genre of Genealogy: A comparative study in the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Cultures
“It is a desirable thing to be well-descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors."— Plutarch.
Genealogy has always been a fascination to me since I was a teenager and I am one of those strange creatures that loves reading the genealogies of the Bible.[1]However in choosing this genre in the Hebrew Bible I soon found that information on its parallels in Ancient Near Eastern literature is an area that seems to have been neglected. The early Biblical higher critics, such as Wellhausen, mostly dismiss the comprehensive genealogical section of the first Book of Chronicles as of little value and of late addition.[2] I would strongly disagree with this assessment by the higher Biblical critics. Thus I have chosen 1 Chronicles 1-9 to discuss in this essay on the genre of genealogy to demonstrate my point of view, along with the genealogies of Genesis 10-11 which includes the genealogy of the Table of Nations in chapter 10.[3] I will compare these with the genre of genealogies in other Ancient Near Eastern literature and cultures.
The problem with Wellhausen and some otherBiblical critics, is a modern concern with the historiographical nature of genealogies, rather than an understanding of the genre of genealogies in the context of their time and culture.[4] The genre of genealogies while having a historical dimension are more concerned with other factors which are a mix of social, political, judicial and religious concerns.[5] Genealogies may be used differently or perceived differently depending on which context they are being used.
The two examples of genealogies I have selected from the Hebrew Bible use the poetic technique of chiasm, which is commonly used in the Hebrew Bible and is found in the literature of other ancient Near Eastern peoples.[6] Chiasms are a two part structure in which the second part in some regards mirrors the first part. A chiasm can be found in one sentence or in a much larger section of text.[7] This chiastic structure can also be found in smaller segments of the overall genealogies of 1 Chron.1-9 and Gen.10-11. These two genealogies have both segmented and linear genealogies whereas many of the other genealogies found in the Hebrew Bible are linear. Most of the examples from other Near Eastern cultures are linear genealogies.[8] The chiasm may have originally been used as a memory device when such genealogies may have been orally recited.[9]
The two examples of genealogies I have selected from the Hebrew Bible use the poetic technique of chiasm, which is commonly used in the Hebrew Bible and is found in the literature of other ancient Near Eastern peoples.[6] Chiasms are a two part structure in which the second part in some regards mirrors the first part. A chiasm can be found in one sentence or in a much larger section of text.[7] This chiastic structure can also be found in smaller segments of the overall genealogies of 1 Chron.1-9 and Gen.10-11. These two genealogies have both segmented and linear genealogies whereas many of the other genealogies found in the Hebrew Bible are linear. Most of the examples from other Near Eastern cultures are linear genealogies.[8] The chiasm may have originally been used as a memory device when such genealogies may have been orally recited.[9]
A segmented genealogy is one that gives a common ancestor and traces two or more different lines of descent demonstrating the relationship of the different lineages.[10] A linear genealogy is one that shows descent from one ancestor in a straight line. A linear genealogy may include the siblings of individuals in the line of descent but it doesn’t give the children or descendants of those siblings.[11] The genealogy of Genesis 10 is a segmented genealogy because it shows the descent of the seventy nations that were established after the Deluge from a common ancestor Noah through his three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth. The genealogy in 1 Chron.1-9 is a more complex mixture of segmented and linear genealogies, however 1 Chron.2-8 is an overarching segmented genealogy that shows the common descent of the different tribes of Israel from their common ancestor Jacob or Israel.[12] Thus the first chapter of 1 Chronicles reiterates the seventy nations of the world as a prelude to the seventy clans of Israel descended from the twelve sons of Jacob/Israel.[13]
Janzen sees 1 Chron.1-9 as a textual monument to the dead of all Israel- both Judah and the northern Kingdom of Israel.[14]While like other Near Eastern monumental genealogies, such as the Sumerian and Assyrian King Lists and the kingly and priestly genealogies of Egypt, the Chronicle’s genealogies don’t just include the Kingly lineages of David and Saul and the priestly lineages of Levi and Aaron but also the non-Kingly and priestly lineages of all the Tribes.[15]Janzen perceives this as some kind of Israelite focus on the ordinary people who are also important to be remembered.[16]However, I would suggest that while Janzen’s idea of a textual monument to the dead has some merit, his “popularist” or democratic understanding of it may not be the original intention of the Chronicler. The descents of the other tribes would be that of their Princely (Nasiim) rulers and heroes rather than the ancestors of the ordinary people.
The ancient Greek or Hellenic genealogies like the Hebrew genealogies have both segmented and linear genealogies. These Hellenic genealogies demonstrate the connection of the different Greek ethnic groups to each other as one people similar to that of 1 Chron.2-8 in regards to the Israelites.[17]The Hebrew genealogies demonstrate not just the kinship or brotherhood of all those descended from Jacob but also their connection with the other nations for whom they are called to be a light.[18] This is part of the religious dimension of the genealogies of the Hebrew Bible which also is connected to the prophetic and messianic nature of the genealogies. This prophetic dimension is unique to the Hebrew genealogies and does not seem to be found in the Near Eastern or Hellenic genealogies.[19]
The Chronicler, who has been traditionally seen as Ezra, has been associated with some as being a supporter of Zerubbabel the Davidic Prince and his project for the rebuilding of Zion.[20]The chiastic structure of 1 Chron.1-9 demonstrates that the Chronicler’s concern is not just for the returning Jews of Judah, Benjamin and Levi but for the restoration of all Israel including the Lost Tribes.[21] At the centre of the chiastic structure in 1 Chron.1-9 are the Levites and Cohenimand the Temple cultus in which Zerubbabel is assisted by the High Priest Yeshua or Joshua.[22]This concern with priestly genealogy is also found in Egypt. In the 22ndDynasty a High Priest of Amun called Horakhbit inscribed his genealogy on a wall of the Temple of Karnak. This showed 18 generations of his ancestors including some of the Viziers of Egypt.[23] The genealogies of their noble ancestry were important to the Egyptian officials and gave them a more respected status.[24] Was this concern connected with the arrival of the Meshwesh (Libyans) in Egypt and the native born Egyptian priests need to prove their superior antiquity to the powerful newcomers, who controlled much of Egypt?
A similarity with both the Hebrews and Egyptian Pharaohs is that Hebrew status depends on the mother and Egyptian Pharaohs needed to either have a Royal Egyptian mother or be married to a wife of Royal maternal ancestry. Even though the written genealogies seem more concerned with male descent, there is a hidden importance of female descent.[25] We see in the Bible that only Abraham’s son by his Hebrew wife Sarah is considered a Hebrew and while Esau is a Hebrew his children are not considered Hebrews because they have non-Hebrew mothers.[26] This explains Abraham’s concern for Isaac to have a Hebrew wife and Isaac and Rebecca’s concern that Jacob go to Mesopotamia in order to marry a Hebrew wife.[27]
Gen.10-11 is, by some scholars, believed to have an overall chiastic structure made up of three chiasms of Gen.10:1-32, Gen.11:1-9, Gen.11:10-32.[28]Bailey stresses that this overarching chiasm does not have its central statement (which is about Japheth) as its point of focus, but the beginning and end of the chiasm that is focused on Shem.[29] It is interesting to note that this chiasm is made up of two genealogical chiasms joined by a narrative chiasm. While other ancient Near Eastern cultures have plenty of examples of literary chiasms I believe this genealogical use combined with narrative is unique to the Hebrew literary tradition.
Some scholars speak about fluidity and telescoping in regard to both Biblical and other ancient Near Eastern genealogies. Fluidity is a changing of certain details of a genealogy to use in a different context.[30]While fluidity does play a part in ancient Near Eastern genealogies, I would propose that it is more restricted in Hebrew use. However a certain type of fluidity can occur in Hebrew lineages due to the practice of yibum and geulah (Levirate marriage).[31]Yibum and geulah is the Israelite practice of a childless widow marrying the brother or other near relative of her husband and the first born son being considered the legal son of the deceased husband.[32] This practice of yibum plays an important role in the Messianic lineage of Judah and David with the yibum son of Tamar (Pharez), the yibum son of Ruth (Obed) among others.[33] When the widow marries a maternal cousin of her husband this then gives the child two genealogies, one based on his biological father (yavam) and the other his legal descent from his yibum father. .Another Jewish practice is the custom of Yichut or Yichus which means status or prestige.[34] Thus a man may take the tribal status of his mother if his father is of a lower status or origin. This has its origin in the Bible with the daughters of Zelophehad whose father had no sons and five daughters. The daughters were permitted to inherit their father’s inheritance in the land and pass it to their sons.[35]In the genealogies of 1 Chronicles we see certain lineages that are included that do not seem to be connected to their tribal founder on the male line. This is especially noticed in the Judah section of the genealogies. However they are descendants of Judah on the maternal lines and are included in the Judah genealogies. Davidic status is also passed through either the paternal or maternal line. Hillel the Elder and his descendants were of maternal Davidic status as Nasiim of the Sanhedrin but of the Tribe of Benjamin on their paternal line.[36] We see a similar practice in Egypt where the Pharaoh will adopt another member of the Royal House as his son especially in the New Kingdom and the practice of adoption was common at all levels of Egyptian society in the New Kingdom period.[37][38]
Telescoping is considered to be also a part of fluidity by Sparks.[39]Telescoping is the missing of a generation or generations in a lineage. While it is a Jewish practice, continued to recent times, to not give every generation, I think when some scholars claim gaps in genealogies of hundreds of years it is not a question of telescoping but of a faulty chronological scheme. Hagens warns, in regard to the Assyrian King Lists, against referring to telescoping when it may be a chronological problem.[40] When Egyptologists proclaim a telescoping event of 250 years in the Memphite priestly genealogy then one has to question the Accepted Chronology of Egypt, as did Velikovsky and others since.[41] A more reasonable example of telescoping is that of the Egyptian priest Tjaenhesret who has a longer and a shorter genealogy. In the shorter it misses out six generations in one place and three in another which are included in the longer fifteen generation genealogy.[42]
In the Royal Mesopotamian texts they tend to usually mention three generations of the King’s ancestors (including the King) and occasionally six to eight generations.[43] In the Bible the linear segments are found giving ten, fourteen or twenty-six generations which numbers have significance in Hebrew gematria.[44]Wilson states that fluidity in regards to the Mesopotamian (Sumerian and Akkadian) genealogies is very limited and is mostly of the telescoping variety.[45] Even then Wilson notes that the term liblibbi is sometimes used where telescoping occurs in these genealogies.[46]
The genealogy of the Gods of the Sumerians is also a fascinating study and like the Greeks, the Sumerian kings link themselves via their genealogies with these Divinities.[47] Due to the monotheism of the Israelites who remain faithful to the Torah this literal descent of families from Gods is not found but the concept of anointing of kings and priests links them spiritually to the Hebrew deity as specially chosen ones. The Judahite chiasm found in 1 Chron.2-4 focuses on the Davidic dynasty with the other two Judahite lineages flanking the Davidic genealogies. Sparks thinks that this focus on the Davidic dynasty is not a correct interpretation, as he sees the importance of the Davidic families as minor in the time of the Chronicler.[48]However if the Chronicler was in the time of Zerubbabel, who was a Davidic Prince as mentioned above, then the Davidic hopes were certainly not peripheral as claimed by Sparks.[49][50] If the chiasm of 1 Chron.1-9 alludes to the restoration of all Israel, then the Davidic Messianic prophecies, found throughout the Hebrew Bible, are intricately connected to this restoration.[51] No matter how peripheral or not the Davidic families were at the time, doesn’t affect their prophetic centrality to the future restoration of all Israel and their salvation, in the minds of all Jews. The importance of Zerubbabel is reflected in later Judaism with the two genealogies of the Davidic Messiah Yeshua in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 showing Zerubbabel and his father Shealtiel (possibly a yibum/geulah son) in both genealogies, as well as the Sefer Zerubbabel which outlines a Jewish understanding of the apocalyptic end of times.[52]
There is an Israeli saying I often heard when I lived in Jerusalem: Two Jews three opinions, two Israelis ten opinions. There are a diversity of different interpretations of the Bible and understanding it, in its Jewish and historical context and its parallels with surrounding Near Eastern cultures, which can aid in one’s understanding. However much depends on what chronological scheme and what interpretations one makes of the evidence of those artefacts or texts that have been preserved. For example, if one accepts the chronology (based on the so-called Accepted Egyptian Chronology), that Ugarit was before the foundation of Israel, one comes to different ideas about the Hebrew texts of the Bible than one, who like Velikovsky, places Ugarit in the time of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.[53] In regard to Ugarit and genealogies, there is little evidence to help us, as most texts from Ugarit only record the name of the king or other personages and sometimes the name of their father. A broken Ugaritic text has been found which seems to be the list of the deceased Ugaritic royalty as part of a ceremony of their cultic worship. Originally there were thirty names but only fifteen remain and they do not seem to be in chronological order or genealogical order but does include the known kings of Ugarit.[54]
In conclusion, I think that the comparative studies have helped overturn for many the rigid and historicist understandings and interpretations of Wellhausen and the Higher Biblical Critics, in general and in particular in regards to genealogy in the Hebrew Bible. The understanding that genealogy was broader than historiography in the mind of the ancient Near Eastern peoples, has led to a fresh look at the genealogies in the Hebrew Bible. However this is a field in which there is limited academic literature and much more work needs to be done. Wilson saw some value in examining the anthropological data in regard to the use of oral genealogies in tribal societies, in order to understand more of the role of genealogies in ancient Near Eastern cultures.[55] In the same way I think that looking at the Jewish understanding and use of genealogies throughout the centuries may also throw light on the genealogies of the Hebrew Bible.[56]
Even today, many people still sense the importance of the genealogy of our Royal Family that goes back from our anointed Queen, Elizabeth II, to William the Conqueror and the Anglo Saxon and Celtic kings in to the mists of time (and according to some to King David of Israel), that provides the mystique that touches the hearts of many of her subjects.[57] The Japanese also have not lost their appreciation of the mystique of their Emperor whose genealogy stretches back to the Sun God.[58]Today many are discovering their dna genealogy through genetic testing which is impacting on their understanding of their ethnic self-identities.[59]Genealogies have always been a form of storytelling rather than just a historical recording of names and this continues today just as it did in Biblical times.
[1]I have been researching Davidic genealogies over the last 40 years and even gave a talk to an Orthodox Jewish organisation in Jerusalem on Davidic genealogies in 2002. Many ultra-Orthodox Jews put an emphasis on one’s yichusor yichut which my ancestor Rebbe Nachman of Breslov disliked, even though he had yichus as the great grandson of the Baal Shem Tov. He thought it was better to be seen as just a simple (tam) yid.
[2]Julius Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel (Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1994), 211-222. I wrote to Emanuel Tov a leading Israeli textual critic to ask his opinion about the Documentary Hypothesis. He sent me his article entitled “The Source of Source Criticism: The Relevance of Non Masoretic Textual Witnesses”. This article concludes that the DH is a subjective 18th century literary theory based on the MT but there is very little relevant evidence of support for it when one examines critically the texts of non-MT provenance such as the LXX and Qumran writings. However these non-MT texts do show evidence for a combining of sources or harmonisation but this process is later and reliant on the MT. Objective evidence for textual criticism of sources- definitely but objective evidence for DH- not found.
[3]Due to the comparative nature and length of this essay I cannot go into much detailed analysis of these two examples, which would be another lengthy essay on its own.
[4]James T Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9 (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2008), 5-10.
[5]Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9, 10.
[6]John W Welch, Chiasmus in Antiquity: Structures, Analyses, Exegesis. USA: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 1998.
[7]Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9, 23.
[8]Robert Rutherford Wilson. Genealogy and History in the Old Testament. (Yale: PhD diss., 1981), 76.
[9] David McLain Carr,"Torah on the Heart: Literary Jewish Textuality Within Its Ancient Near Eastern Context."Oral Tradition 25, no. 1 (2010): Oral Tradition, 2010, Vol.25(1), 22.
[10]Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9, 16.
[11]Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9, 16-17.
[12]Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9, 16.
[13]Eric Burrows, "The Number Seventy in Semitic."Orientalia, NOVA SERIES, 5 (1936): 389.
[14]David Janzen, “A Monument and a Name: The Primary Purpose of Chronicle’s Genealogies”, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43.1 (2018), 46-65.
[15]Shigeo Yamada, “Notes on the Genealogical Data of the Assyrian King List” Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies (January 2003), Vol.כז, 265-275.
[16]Janzen, “A Monument and a Name: The Primary Purpose of Chronicle’s Genealogies”, 51.
[17]Jonathan M Hall, Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity, (UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 42-44.
[18]Isaiah 49:6
[19] This messianic and prophetic dimension to the Hebrew genealogies would be a fascinating area to explore further but am unable to do this here.
[20]David N Freedman, “The Chronicler’s Purpose” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 23 (1961), 441.
[21]Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9, 29.
[22]Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9, 29.
[23]Katarina Nordt, Aspects of Ancient Egyptian Curses and Blessings: Conceptual Background and Transmission, (Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiskell, 1996), 163.
[24]Nordt, Aspects of Ancient Egyptian Curses and Blessings: Conceptual Background and Transmission, 163.
[25]Cynthia R Chapman, The House of the Mother: The Social Roles of Maternal Kin in Biblical Hebrew Narrative and Poetry, (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2016), 1-200.
[26]Genesis 21:8-13
[27]Genesis 24, Genesis 27: 34-35 and Genesis 28: 42-46.
[28]Nicholas Andrew Bailey, “Some literary and Grammatical Aspects of Genealogies in Genesis” in Robert D Bergen (Editor), Biblical Hebrew and Discourse Linguistics, (USA: Summer Institute of Lingistics, 1994), 274.
[29]Bailey, “Some literary and Grammatical Aspects of Genealogies in Genesis”, 274-5.
[30]Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9, 18.
[31]Tractate Yevamos and Ruth 4:7
[32]Shaul Regev, “The Reasons for Yibum - Philosophy and Kabbalah.” Daat,28, 65-86.
[33]Gilbert Bloomer, The Mystery of the Levirate Marriage; Spilling of Seed and Rebbe Nachman of Breslov, June 10 2017 < https://aronbengilad.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-mystery-of-levirate-marriage.html>
[34]Saul Bastomsky. "Yichus in the Shtetl and Dignitas in the Late Roman Republic."Judaism 39, no. 1 (1990): 93.
[35] Numbers 27
[36]Ketubot 62b
[37] Peter Lacovara, The World of Ancient Egypt: A Daily Life Encyclopedia [2 volumes],(USA: ABC-CLIO, 2016), 118-119.
[38]It would seem dna testing of the 18th Dynasty that the earlier Pharaohs have a different y-dna than the later Kings which demonstrates a change in the male line.
[39]Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9, 20.
[40]Graham Hagens, "The Assyrian King List and Chronology: A Critique."Orientalia, NOVA SERIES, 74, no. 1 (2005): 23-41.
[41]Wilson, Genealogy and History in the Old Testament, 154.
[42]Wilson, Genealogy and History in the Old Testament, 154.
[43]Wilson, Genealogy and History in the Old Testament, 74-76.
[44]1 Chronicles 1-9
[45]Wilson, Genealogy and History in the Old Testament, 85.
[46]Wilson, Genealogy and History in the Old Testament, 85-86.
[47]Jacob Klein, “The Genealogy of Nanna-Suen and Its Historical Background” in Tzvi Abusch et al., Historiography in the Cuneiform World, (Bethesda MD: CDL Press, 2001), 279-302.
[48] Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9, 218.
[49] Sparks, Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9, 218.
[50] Freedman, “The Chronicler’s Purpose”, 41.
[51] Ezekiel 37
[52]See Martha Himmelfarb, Jewish Messiahs in a Christian Empire: A History of the Book of Zerubbabel. USA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
[53]Immanuel Velikovsky, Ages in Chaos: From the Exodus to King Akhnaton. (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1952), 191-230.
[54]Wilson, Genealogy and History in the Old Testament, 148.
[55]Wilson, Genealogy and History in the Old Testament, 62-67.
[56]See Arnold E Franklin, This Noble House: Jewish Descendants of King David in the Medieval Islamic East. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.
[57]Iain Moncrieffe, Royal Highness: Ancestry of the Royal Child, (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1982), 8.
[58] See Masanobu Suzuki, Clans and Genealogy in Ancient Japan: Legends of Ancestor Worship. Routledge, 2017.
[59] Turi E King and Mark A. Jobling. "What's in a Name? Y Chromosomes, Surnames and the Genetic Genealogy Revolution."Trends in Genetics 25, no. 8 (2009): 351-360.
Bibliography
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Bastomsky, Saul. "Yichus in the Shtetl and Dignitas in the Late Roman Republic."Judaism 39, no. 1 (1990): 93.
Bloomer, Gilbert The Mystery of the Levirate Marriage; Spilling of Seed and Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. June 10 2017 < https://aronbengilad.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-mystery-of-levirate-marriage.html>
Burrows, Eric. "The Number Seventy in Semitic."Orientalia, NOVA SERIES, 5 (1936): 389-92.
Chapman, Cynthia R. The House of the Mother: The Social Roles of Maternal Kin in Biblical Hebrew Narrative and Poetry. New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2016.
Carr, David McLain, "Torah on the Heart: Literary Jewish Textuality Within Its Ancient Near Eastern Context."Oral Tradition 25, no. 1 (2010): Oral Tradition, 2010, Vol.25(1).
Freedman, David Noel. "The Chronicler's Purpose."The Catholic Biblical Quarterly (1961): 436-442.
Franklin, Arnold E. This Noble House: Jewish Descendants of King David in the Medieval Islamic East. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2012.
Hagens, Graham. "The Assyrian King List and Chronology: A Critique."Orientalia, NOVA SERIES, 74, no. 1 (2005): 23-41.
Hall, Jonathan M. Ethnic Identity in Greek Antiquity. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000.
Himmelfarb, Martha. Jewish Messiahs in a Christian Empire: A History of the Book of Zerubbabel. USA: Harvard University Press, 2017.
Janzen, David. “A Monument and a Name: The Primary Purpose of Chronicle’s Genealogies.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 43.1 (2018), 46-65.
Klein, Jacob. “The Genealogy of Nanna-Suen and Its Historical Background.” in Tzvi Abusch et al., Historiography in the Cuneiform World. Bethesda MD: CDL Press, 2001, 279-302.
King, Turi E., and Mark A. Jobling. "What's in a Name? Y Chromosomes, Surnames and the Genetic Genealogy Revolution."Trends in Genetics 25, no. 8 (2009): 351-360.
Lacovara, Peter. The World of Ancient Egypt: A Daily Life Encyclopedia. [2 volumes]. USA: ABC-CLIO, 2016.
Moncrieffe, Iain.Royal Highness: Ancestry of the Royal Child. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1982.
Nordt, Katarina. Aspects of Ancient Egyptian Curses and Blessings: Conceptual Background and Transmission. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiskell, 1996.
Regev, Shaul. “The Reasons for Yibum - Philosophy and Kabbalah.” Daat,28, 65-86.
Sparks, James T. Chronicler's Genealogies: Towards an Understanding of 1 Chronicles, 1-9. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2008.
Suzuki, Masanobu. Clans and Genealogy in Ancient Japan: Legends of Ancestor Worship. Routledge, 2017.
Velikovsky Immanuel, Ages in Chaos: From the Exodus to King Akhnaton. New York:Doubleday & Company, 1952.
Welch, John W. Chiasmus in Antiquity: Structures, Analyses, Exegesis. USA: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, 1998.
Wellhausen, Julius. Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel. Atlanta: Scholar’s Press, 1994.
Wilson, Robert Rutherford. Genealogy and History in the Old Testament. Yale: PhD diss., 1981.
Yamada, Shigeo “Notes on the Genealogical Data of the Assyrian King List.” Archaeological, Historical and Geographical Studies (January 2003), Vol.כז, 265-275.