DMing the Bible: This guy begot What's his name

Introduction:
Ah, the begots...the foil of so many readers, the bane of study, the bore of the book, in this installment of DMing the Bible we're going to tackle all the first testament genealogies in one extravaganza blowout. While the modern reader may skip over these texts whenever they appear (and they appear with frequency), to the communities that handed done these texts first in oral then in written form they represented important, crucial information about who they were as a people and about their relationship to the land and to God.
The Text:
The genealogies in question begin at the end of Genesis 4, dominate Genesis 5, pick up again after the Noah narrative in Genesis 10 and 11, and are featured in Genesis 36, Exodus 6, Numbers 26, etc. Being able to claim connection to people in generations past imparted a bit of power to the present generation. The genealogies may well have been used by people in the ANE to establish legitimacy for office holders, or as a kind of calendar to track the when of seminal stories. They also held the people together, and, because so many places shared the names of important people in the lists of ancestors, held them to the land.
In the ANE, staying close to the land, having claim on it, was important not just for property reason. It was believed that gods had specific portfolios that applied not only to their domains (sun, fertility, harvest) but also to geographic regions and specific peoples. Therefore to lose one's connection to important ancestors meant not only losing claim on property or political office, but being disconnected from your god. Thus the genealogies in the First Testament carry not just political or chronographic information but theological information as well.
A prerequisite to any claim an individual could make power was a pedigree that demonstrated a god's involvement with your family. In the Bible this use of genealogies is used by the author of Chronicles. These books sought to show God's direct involvement with the history of the people of Israel, and the large sections devoted to lineages were included to show the deep connection between God, the land, and the people. This would have been especially important for the residents of Judea recovering from the shock of Babylonian Captivity.
The Game:
Biblical Genealogies kept the people of Israel connected to each other and to God. The people drew power (political, religious, personal) from the names of their ancestors. In the realm of D&D, player characters usually have to stand on their own two feet when it comes to claims of power. However I can think of a couple of ways to use this idea of pedigree= power.

• Ancestral Knowledge: lately I have become miffed with Bardic Knowledge, it seems to grant the Bard too much information too easily without any requirement that the Bard be able to show a clear connection to the source. If however the player could roll an ancestral knowledge check, then the character will mystically recall some forgotten lore that was known by a relative, now deceased. Clearly this wouldn't be an option for changelings and orphans who don't do research to discover their roots.
• V.I.F.: The very important family might be a feat that could be picked up first level, it would provide a +1 intimidate, +1 diplomacy, + 2 to two of the following Knowledge : Local, History, Nobility, Religion. When playing in the ancestral stomping ground these bonuses are increased by 1.
• Blood of Heros: This would be particularly the case for characters that wield an ancestral weapon, Characters who can trace themselves back to a particular hero gain bonuses in combat that make their opponent more likely to surrender or run away. This trait only works if the bad guys know anything about the legend of the heroic ancestor.