Genealogies were always important to the Jewish people. When they conquered the Promised Land, the tribe and clan they belonged to dictated where each family received their land allotment.  Land could be leased, or even sold, but it would always revert to the clan to which it had originally been assigned. When families fell on hard times, they had the security of land ownership to help them recover.

The Kinsman Redeemer, who could bail out a struggling family by buying their property, was always a member of the same clan. When he purchased the land, he also obtained whatever family responsibilities came with it. So, for instance, when Boaz purchased land from Naomi, he acquired her widowed daughter-in-law as a wife, too. This helped ensure that property stayed with the family.

The priests were all descended from the tribe of Levi. A man couldn’t be a priest unless he was a Levite, and the branch of Levi’s family he came from determined the work he did. The first high priest, Aaron, was a Kohathite and his descendants served in the holiest part of the temple. The Gershonites and Merarites served outside the temple as doorkeepers, musicians, secretaries, treasurers, and servants. They assisted the Kohathites with sacrifices and offerings.

People knew who they were and where they belonged based on the tribe and clan they belonged to. Genealogies kept the records straight.

Keeping Track of the Northern Tribes

The genealogies in today’s reading were mostly from the northern tribes who split from Judah during the days of King Jeroboam. Their genealogies were especially important because after Assyria conquered them they were scattered throughout the Assyrian empire and they became known as the Ten Lost Tribes.

But some of them kept track of their identity and records of their tribal affiliations. When the seventy years of exile in Babylon ended, a remnant of Israelites from the north trickled back to Judah, bringing their genealogies with them. Once they proved their family identity through genealogies they joined the Judeans and became known simply as Jews.

Judah and Benjamin

The tribe of Benjamin sat on the border, north of Judah and south of Ephraim. When the ten northern tribes fell, Benjamin became part of Judah and later its people were exiled to Babylon with the Judeans.

Judah had the most important genealogy of all because King David was from Judah and all of the kings of Judah descended from him. David’s royal line is recorded in the first chapters of Matthew and Luke to demonstrate that Jesus descended from King David.

After Babylon captured Jerusalem Judah’s last king, Jehoiachin, died in exile. There were no more Israelite kings in Jerusalem after that, but when the people returned to rebuild the city, Zerubbabel, Jehoiachin’s grandson, led them. King Cyrus of Persia appointed him governor over Judah based on his genealogy and relationship to King David’s line.

Jewish Genealogies Today

The Jews kept their genealogical records intact until the time of Herod the Great. He and Rome were responsible for the loss of all Jewish genealogical records kept at the temple by 70 AD.

The Holocaust in the 20^th century caused interest in Jewish genealogies to rise again. It became important to account for every Jewish person around the globe, to help preserve the memory of those who were lost and to create a nation where Jews could dwell in safety. The modern state of Israel was established and Jewish people everywhere were invited to come and live there.

The Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem is now the repository of Jewish genealogies and memorials. They have created the Hall of Names where the names and life stories of every Holocaust victim is memorialized and so far 4.5 million of them have been identified, with more than a million yet to go. Yad Vashem constantly reaches out to Jewish communities around the world to learn more about the pictures and stories they have collected.

For Orthodox and conservative Jews today, keeping track of the lineage of the priests and Levites is high priority. They are the ones who will serve at the Third Temple, should the temple ever be rebuilt. A man can only be declared a priest or Levite if he can prove an unbroken line of ancestors stretching all the way back to the time of Aaron.

Genealogies don’t mean much to most Bible readers these days, but they were extraordinarily important to the Jewish people, and God considered them a vital part of the Bible. Just like any other historic record, the genealogies wait to be consulted, and when they are, they can change the course of a person’s life.