Meaning of GENERATION

(a) Heb. "dor", lit. "circle", hence age, period, cycle, is also used in the plural, "many generations" (Deut. 32:7); is used of people living in a cycle, the group of people born at approximately the same time "just before me in this generation" (Gen. 7:1); "four generations" (Jb. 42:16); It is also used of people of a particular type or way of being, with a certain implication of inherited qualities; the wicked (Deut. 32:5; Prov. 30:11); the righteous (Ps. 14:5; 112:2).

(b) Heb. "tõl'dhõth", "births", is thus used to denote

(A) an account of a man and his descendants: "the book of the generations of Adam" (Gen. 5:1);

(B) or of successive families: "the families of the sons of Noah by his descendants" (Gen. 10:32);

(C) or genealogical divisions: "The children of Reuben... by their descendants, by their families" (Num. 1:20);

(D) figuratively, of the story of the origin of created things: "These are the origins of the heavens and the earth" (Gen. 2:4).

(c) Gr. "genea": "a generation", "birth", "nativity"; thus:

(A) the successive members of a genealogy: "All the generations from Abraham to David" (Mt. 1:17);

(B) a race or class, distinguished by common characteristics, always evil in the NT: "O unbelieving and perverse generation!" (Matt. 17:17);

(C) the people who occupy a period: "This generation will not pass away" (Lk. 21:32);

(D) an age (the average time of a generation, 33 years): "Which had been hidden from ages and ages" (Gr.: "hidden from ages and generations) (Col. 1:26). This term is also applied by thought transfer to the duration of eternity "To all ages, forever and ever."

(d) Gr. «genesis» «source» «origin»: «Book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ (Mt. 1:1; Reina-Valera 1909 «Book of the generation»).

(e) Gr. "génnëma", "offspring", "progeny", figuratively "O generation of vipers!" (Luke 3:7)

(f) Gr. "genos", "race", in this case spiritual: "But you are a chosen race" (1 Pet. 2:9).