The sons of Hananiah (1 Chr 3:21-3:24)

“The sons of Hananiah were Pelatiah and Jeshaiah. His son was Rephaiah, with his son Arnan. His son was Obadiah with his son Shecaniah. The son of Shecaniah was Shemaiah. The six sons of Shemaiah were Hattush, Igal, Bariah, Neariah, and Shaphat. The three sons of Neariah were Elioenai, Hizkiah, and Azrikam. The seven sons of Elioenai were Hodaviah, Eliashib, Pelaiah, Akkub, Johanan, Delaiah, and Anani.”

The sons of (1) Hananiah from the preceding genealogy were Pelatiah and (2) Jeshaiah with each having 4 people with the same name. There are 5 other people with the name of (3) Rephaiah. Now we move through the generations quickly. The son of Rephaiah was (4) Arnan who only appears here. However, Arnan’s son (5) Obadiah appears as the name of 12 different people. His son (6) Shecaniah appears among 8 different people. His son (7) Shemaiah appears among 18 different people. Shemaiah had 6 sons but only 5 are listed here. The 5 listed are Hattush whose name appears with at least 2 different people, Igal whose names appears with 3 different people, Bariah whose name only appears here, (8) Neariah with 1 other person with the same name, and Shaphat whose name appears with 4 different people. Neariah had 3 sons (9) Elioenai whose name was found among 6 different people, Hizkiah with 2 different people, and Azrikam, with 4 different people. Elioenai had 7 sons (10) Hodaviah with 3 different people, Eliashib with 6 different people, Pelaiah among 2 different people, Akkub among 4 different people, Johanan among 10 different people, Delaiah among 4 different people, and Anani whose name only appears here. After the 4 generations started around 520 BCE, that would mean that about 80 years brings us around 440 BCE. The generations move very quickly through 10 generations to about 240 BCE, based on a conservative 20 years to a generation. That would put his work of 1 Chronicles in the mid 3rd century BCE, around 250 BCE.