A generation; by implication, an age (the period or the persons)
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γενεά (genea) can name a generation, the people living in a particular period, successive generations, a lineage, or a class of contemporaries marked by a shared response. Matthew counts generations in Jesus’ genealogy.
Reader summary
Full entry for γενεά (G1074) · Open the biblical lexicon
γενεά (genea) can name a generation, the people living in a particular period, successive generations, a lineage, or a class of contemporaries marked by a shared response. Matthew counts generations in Jesus’ genealogy.
The BSB source-word alignment has 43 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include generation (29), generations (6), - (3), . . . (1), descendants (1).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Matthew 1:17. Its strongest book concentrations include Luke (15), Matthew (13), Acts (5), Mark (5).
This entry includes 1 verse guide that explain exact original-language forms in context.
γενεά (genea) can name a generation, the people living in a particular period, successive generations, a lineage, or a class of contemporaries marked by a shared response. Matthew counts generations in Jesus’ genealogy. Mary praises God’s mercy from generation to generation. Jesus confronts a wicked and adulterous generation whose demand for a sign reveals resistance to the One greater than Jonah and Solomon.
Acts says David served God’s purpose in his own generation, and Ephesians gives glory to God in the church throughout all generations. The noun does not carry a fixed number of years, a moral verdict, or a single genealogical sense in every passage. Demonstratives, plurals, prepositions, discourse setting, and the people under discussion establish its reference.
“This generation” sayings require particular care because the noun alone cannot settle disputed questions about audience, time horizon, judgment, or fulfillment. Responsible teaching should avoid generational stereotypes and collective blame. Scripture addresses real historical communities while also calling each generation to receive God’s works, repent of inherited patterns, serve faithfully in its own time, and hand down the truth.
γενεά may describe genealogical succession, a contemporaneous people, repeated generations, or an era’s population. The selected passages show lineage, enduring mercy, accountable contemporaries, service within one’s time, and the church’s praise across generations.
In all, then, there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.
Matthew organizes Israel’s genealogy into remembered generational movements toward the Christ. Here the plural counts lineage units within a literary genealogy rather than defining the length of an age.
His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.
Mary celebrates God’s covenant mercy as enduring through successive generations of those who fear Him. The phrase stresses continuity of divine faithfulness, not automatic faithfulness in every descendant.
Jesus replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.
Jesus addresses contemporaries whose demand for a sign exposes covenant unfaithfulness despite the works already before them. The rebuke is morally specific and should not become a stereotype applied to an age group by birth year.
For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep. His body was buried with his fathers and saw decay.
David’s service is located within his historical contemporaries and contrasted with Jesus, whom God raised without seeing decay. Faithful service matters, but the sermon’s climax is the risen Son of David.
To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
Paul’s doxology stretches the church’s praise through every coming generation and into the age to come. No generation owns the church; all are gathered into glory given to God in Christ.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Verse-level guides showing how this original-language form works in its specific context, including grammar, verse function, and guarded interpretation.
Greek word. A generation as both the people of an age and the timespan of their collective lifetime.
Textus Receptus witness, full corpus Greek token appearances from Scrivener 1894 Textus Receptus in the full New Testament corpus.
16 of 42 Greek text appearances shown. Linked morphology labels have verse guides.
a generation
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Read verseFull New Testament corpus: 260 chapters, 7,957 verses, 140,628 tokens. Data source: honza/textus-receptus (data only), with authority check against byztxt/greektext-textus-receptus.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
This word appears as a noun across 9 case and number patterns. The form changes show how the word functions in a sentence; they do not change the basic lexical meaning by themselves.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 3 selected witnesses from 43 lexical occurrence verses.
γενεά is built from this root:
Anchors prophecy within historical accountability.
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
Every generation receives a time it did not create and leaves a witness it cannot fully control. Matthew’s genealogy remembers generations as part of God’s long movement toward Christ. Mary sings that divine mercy outlasts any one lifetime, reaching generation after generation among those who fear the Lord. Jesus also holds a generation accountable when its demand for signs masks refusal to repent before greater revelation.
Acts honors David’s service in his own time but directs the sermon beyond David’s grave to the risen Christ. Ephesians finally imagines the church giving glory to God across all generations. These texts resist both nostalgia and generational contempt. Older believers are not the sole guardians of faithfulness, and younger believers are not automatically purer, weaker, or more important.
Each cohort can inherit wisdom and sin, receive testimony and distort it, serve God and need correction. The church’s task is to remember God’s works, proclaim Christ, repent of corrupt patterns, welcome gifts across ages, and hand Scripture onward. The gospel, not demographic identity, creates the family whose praise extends into the age to come.
Eph.3.21
γενεά belongs to the γίνομαι and γένος word family, but its contextual senses range from genealogical generation to contemporaneous population or successive ages. Singular ‘this generation,’ plural ‘generations,’ and phrases such as ‘from generation to generation’ function differently. The noun itself supplies no universal forty-year measurement.
The Old Testament repeatedly commands one generation to tell the next God’s mighty works, while also recounting generations that forgot, rebelled, or returned. Genealogies preserve covenant history, the Psalms celebrate mercy across generations, and the prophets address accountable contemporaries. The New Testament brings these lines to Christ, forms a multi-generational church, and directs its praise toward God into the age to come.
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