ContradictionsReading order 491Bible context 3 min read
How many generations from Abraham to Moses?
A fourth generation return is compared with a longer genealogy, but the promise does not explicitly count generations from Abraham to Moses.
- Textual conflict
- Weak contradiction
- The supplied passages do not establish incompatible claims. Different events, meanings, or conditions may account for the difference.
- Importance
- Minor
- A local detail in a story, chronology, or inventory.
The fourth-generation return lacks the Abraham-to-Moses endpoints required to contradict the six genealogical links.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
The descendants are promised a return in the fourth generation
But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full.
Genesis 15:16
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Genesis 15
The family line contains six links from Abraham to Moses
And the Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as he had spoken. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac.
Genesis 21:1-3
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Genesis 21