What does 1 Chronicles 1:1-27 mean?

Genealogies – B.C. 4004.

¹ Adam, Sheth, Enosh, ² Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, ³ Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, ⁴ Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. ⁵ The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. ⁶ And the sons of Gomer; Ashchenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁷ And the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. ⁸ The sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. ⁹ And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabta, and Raamah, and Sabtecha. And the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan. ¹⁰ And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be mighty upon the earth. ¹¹ And Mizraim begat Ludim, and Anamim, and Lehabim, and Naphtuhim, ¹² And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (of whom came the Philistines,) and Caphthorim. ¹³ And Canaan begat Zidon his firstborn, and Heth, ¹⁴ The Jebusite also, and the Amorite, and the Girgashite, ¹⁵ And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite, ¹⁶ And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. ¹⁷ The sons of Shem; Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram, and Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Meshech. ¹⁸ And Arphaxad begat Shelah, and Shelah begat Eber. 19 And unto Eber were born two sons: the name of the one was Peleg; because in his days the earth was divided: and his brother’s name was Joktan. ²⁰ And Joktan begat Almodad, and Sheleph, and Hazarmaveth, and Jerah, ²¹ Hadoram also, and Uzal, and Diklah, ²² And Ebal, and Abimael, and Sheba, ²³ And Ophir, and Havilah, and Jobab. All these were the sons of Joktan. ²⁴ Shem, Arphaxad, Shelah, ²⁵ Eber, Peleg, Reu, ²⁶ Serug, Nahor, Terah, ²⁷ Abram; the same is Abraham. (1 Chronicles 1:1-27 KJV)

Matthew Henry’s Commentary

This paragraph has Adam for its first word and Abraham for its last. Between the creation of the former and the birth of the latter were 2000 years, almost one-half of which time Adam himself lived. Adam was the common father of our flesh, Abraham the common father of the faithful. By the breach which the former made of the covenant of innocency, we were all made miserable; by the covenant of grace made with the latter, we all are, or may be, made happy. We all are, by nature, the seed of Adam, branches of that wild olive. Let us see to it that, by faith, we become the seed of Abraham (Ro 4:11; Ro 4:12), that we be grafted into the good olive and partake of its root and fatness.

I. The first four verses of this paragraph, and the last four, which are linked together by Shem (1Ch 1:4; 1Ch 1:24), contain the sacred line of Christ from Adam to Abraham and are inserted in his pedigree, Lu 3:34-38, the order ascending as here it descends. This genealogy proves the falsehood of that reproach, As for this man, we know not whence he is. Bishop Patrick well observes here that, a genealogy being to be drawn of the families of the Jews, this appears as the peculiar glory of the Jewish nation, that they alone were able to derive their pedigree from the first man that God created, which no other nation pretended to, but abused themselves and their posterity with fabulous accounts of their originals, the Arcadians fancying that they were before the moon, the people of Thessaly that they sprang from stones, the Athenians that they grew out of the earth, much like the vain imaginations which some of the philosophers had of the origin of the universe. The account that the holy scripture gives both of the creation of the world and of the rise of nations carries with it as clear evidence of its own truth as those idle traditions do of their own vanity and falsehood.

II. All the verses between, repeat the account of the replenishing of the earth by the sons of Noah after the flood.

1. The historian begins with those who were strangers to the church, the sons of Japhet, who were planted in the isles of the Gentiles, those western parts of the world, the countries of Europe. Of these, he gives a short account (1Ch 1:5-7), because with these the Jews had hitherto had little or no dealings.

2. He proceeds to those who had many of them been enemies to the church, the sons of Ham, who moved southward towards Africa and those parts of Asia that lay that way. Nimrod the son of Cush began to be an oppressor, probably to the people of God in his time. But Mizraim, from whom came the Egyptians, and Canaan, from whom came the Canaanites are names of great note in the Jewish story; for with their descendants the Israel of God had severe struggles to get out of the land of Egypt and into the land of Canaan; and therefore the branches of Mizraim are particularly recorded (1Ch 1:11; 1Ch 1:12), and of Canaan, 1Ch 1:13-16. See at what a rate God valued Israel when he gave Egypt for their ransom (Isa 43:3), and cast out all these nations before them, Ps 70:8.

3. He then gives an account of those who were the ancestors and allies of the church, the posterity of Shem, 1Ch 1:17-23. These peopled Asia, and spread themselves eastward. The Assyrians, Syrians, Chaldeans, Persians, and Arabians, descended from these. At first, the originals of the respective nations were known; but to this day, we have reason to think, the nations are so mingled with one another, by the enlargement of commerce and dominion, the transplanting of colonies, the carrying away of captives, and many other circumstances, that no one nation, no, nor the greatest part of any, is descended entirely from any one of these fountains. Only this we are sure of, that God has created of one blood all nations of men; they have all descended from one Adam, one Noah. Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us? Mal 2:10. Our register hastens to the line of Abraham, breaking off abruptly from all the other families of the sons of Noah but that of Arphaxad, from whom Christ was to come. The great promise of the Messiah (says bishop Patrick) was translated from Adam to Seth, from him to Shem, from him to Eber, and so to the Hebrew nation, who were entrusted, above all nations, with that sacred treasure, till the promise was performed and the Messiah had come, and then that nation was made not a people.