📖 Biblical Definition
In Scripture, "generation" carries two complementary meanings. First, it refers to a specific age-group or time period: "One generation shall commend your works to another" (Psalm 145:4). Each generation bears the responsibility of transmitting the knowledge of God to the next. Second, it describes a class of people by their moral character: "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign" (Matthew 12:39). Scripture calls each generation to faithfulness and warns that apostasy in one generation will corrupt the next: "There arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD" (Judges 2:10). The transfer of faith from one generation to the next is among the most critical themes of the Bible.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
The people of the same period, or living at the same time; an age.
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GENERA'TION, n. 1. The act of begetting; procreation. 2. A single succession in natural descent. 3. The people of the same period, or living at the same time. 4. A family; a race. Note: Webster captured both the temporal and familial senses — a generation is defined both by time and by lineage.
📖 Key Scripture
• Psalm 145:4 — "One generation shall commend your works to another."
• Judges 2:10 — "There arose another generation after them who did not know the LORD."
• Matthew 12:39 — "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign."
• Deuteronomy 6:6-7 — "These words... you shall teach them diligently to your children."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Generation has become a marketing label rather than a covenantal responsibility.
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Modern culture reduces "generation" to a marketing demographic — Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z — defined by consumer preferences and political attitudes rather than moral or spiritual character. The biblical concept of generational responsibility — that each generation must actively transmit the knowledge of God to the next — has been abandoned. Churches target generational demographics with consumer-oriented programming while the actual work of generational discipleship (parents teaching children, elders training young men, older women mentoring younger women) atrophies. The result is precisely what Judges describes: generations arise that do not know the Lord, because no one taught them.
Usage
• "Every generation is one generation away from apostasy — if fathers do not teach their children, the faith dies."
• "Jesus called His contemporaries a wicked and adulterous generation — the term carries moral weight, not just temporal reference."