How long is a generation?

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JillianRose

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Hello Peeps!!

I was wondering, in the bible it says “Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Messiah.” Mt 1:17

How long is a generation?
 
I don’t think it’s a specific rate of time, so much as when this set of people was born to when they started, on average, to have children, to when they started to have children. I’m guessing today the mediun might be, say, every thirty years?
 
I’ve read both that generations are 40 years in length and that generations can vary in length (no set number). I’d be curious to know which of the two it is.

-Byrnwiga
 
It is not a specific number of years. It can be different for everyone. It is simply the average period, generally considered to be about thirty years, during which children grow up and have children of their own. However, in Biblical times people had shorter life spans, so it is likely the number of years would have been viewed differently than we view them today.
 
ABEACHGIRL said:
It is not a specific number of years. It can be different for everyone. It is simply the average period, generally considered to be about thirty years, during which children grow up and have children of their own. However, in Biblical times people had shorter life spans, so it is likely the number of years would have been viewed differently than we view them today.
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Not nessarily. I would think OT was Different then NT. Look at Noah and Abraham.
 
JillianRose said:
Not nessarily. I would think OT was Different then NT. Look at Noah and Abraham.
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Because human life length fell off a cliff subsequent to the flood. However, post the Exodus, at least, it has been relatively stable up to the “biological revolution” of the 19th Century.

A generation is that time required for human children to mature and themselves have children. Given that it requires about fifteen years for this level of maturity, I’d say that 20 years is a good “natural” estimate for a generation, apart from the extended human life known prior to Noah.

ICXC NIKA
 
GEddie said:
Because human life length fell off a cliff subsequent to the flood. However, post the Exodus, at least, it has been relatively stable up to the “biological revolution” of the 19th Century.

A generation is that time required for human children to mature and themselves have children. Given that it requires about fifteen years for this level of maturity, I’d say that 20 years is a good “natural” estimate for a generation, apart from the extended human life known prior to Noah.

ICXC NIKA
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I read that the ages of Noah and so forth were supposed to be divided by 12 (since the ages were measuring lunar cycles).

-Byrnwiga
 
Byrnwiga said:
I read that the ages of Noah and so forth were supposed to be divided by 12 (since the ages were measuring lunar cycles).

-Byrnwiga
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Doesn’t work, as then, you’d have 3-year olds fathering children.

I have no problem believing that patriarchs knew what a year was.

And if they were really confusing months for years, why the steady though rapid decline in human life post Noah?

ICXC NIKA
 
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