The verse records that Eleazar fathered Phinehas, and that Phinehas fathered Abishua. It stands as one link in the unbroken genealogy of Levi, the hereditary priestly line carried forward from Aaron and set out generation by generation in detail. The genealogies of Levi and of Judah were preserved in connection with the continuance of the Aaronic priesthood and with the lineage of Jesus. Such genealogies supplied proof of hereditary descent, which after the exile was needed to establish who was entitled to serve in the temple.
The list of descent from Aaron given elsewhere omits several generations found here, illustrating the Hebrew habit of compressing a genealogy by dropping intermediate links and naming only selected ancestors to show relationship to a remote ancestor. The longer record here and the shorter record there are concise and detailed accounts of the same line, part given for the whole, with no contradiction between them. The same habit of shortening must govern the calculation of time from genealogies, since much more time may have passed than a shortened series suggests.
As part of a long genealogy, the names in the verse can bring comfort, showing that even people forgotten by others are remembered by God, who knows each person by name.
The verse records that Eleazar fathered Phinehas, and that Phinehas fathered Abishua. It stands as one link in the unbroken genealogy of Levi, the hereditary priestly line carried forward from Aaron and set out generation by generation in detail. The genealogies of Levi and of Judah were preserved in connection with the continuance of the Aaronic priesthood and with the lineage of Jesus. Such genealogies supplied proof of hereditary descent, which after the exile was needed to establish who was entitled to serve in the temple.
The list of descent from Aaron given elsewhere omits several generations found here, illustrating the Hebrew habit of compressing a genealogy by dropping intermediate links and naming only selected ancestors to show relationship to a remote ancestor. The longer record here and the shorter record there are concise and detailed accounts of the same line, part given for the whole, with no contradiction between them. The same habit of shortening must govern the calculation of time from genealogies, since much more time may have passed than a shortened series suggests.
As part of a long genealogy, the names in the verse can bring comfort, showing that even people forgotten by others are remembered by God, who knows each person by name.