Genealogy of early people
5
📚This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day 📖 that God created man 📖, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 📚He created them male and female and blessed them, and called their name “man”, on the day when they were created.3 📚And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and called his name Seth.
5:3 Adam was now a fallen, sinful man and his nature was passed on to his offspring, and so to succeeding generations and eventually to us (Job 14:4; Ps 51:5). We are all sinners by birth. See, for example, Rom 3:23.
In agreement with this is a well-known prayer used by Hindus for many centuries – “I am a sinner by birth and by deeds. My soul is depraved by sin; I am conceived in sin. Lord, save me, be merciful to me a sinner (Papoham, papakarmanam, papathma, papasambhava, pahi mam kripaya Deva, sharanagata vatsala)”. The godly line of Seth also was sinful.⚜
4 📚And after he had begotten Seth the days of Adam were eight hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters.
5:4 Men lived to a great age before the flood of Noah’s day. After that man’s life span on earth became gradually shorter – note at Gen 50:26.⚜
5 📚And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died.
6 📚And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begot Enos. 7 And after he begot Enos, Seth lived eight hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters. 8 And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years, and he died.
9 📚And Enos lived ninety years, and begot Cainan. 10 And after he begot Cainan, Enos lived eight hundred and fifteen years, and begot sons and daughters. 11 And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years, and he died.
12 📚And Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalaleel. 13 And after he begot Mahalaleel, Cainan lived eight hundred and forty years, and begot sons and daughters. 14 And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years, and he died.
15 📚And Mahalaleel lived sixty-five years, and begot Jared. 16 And after he begot Jared, Mahalaleel lived eight hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters. 17 And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety-five years, and he died.
18 📚And Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years, and he begot Enoch. 19 And after he begot Enoch, Jared lived eight hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. 20 And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years, and he died. 21 📚And Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah. 22 📚And after he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 📖 three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters. 23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years, 24 📚and Enoch walked with God, then he was not seen again, for God took him.
25 📚And Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty-seven years, and begot Lamech. 26 And after he begot Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years, and begot sons and daughters. 27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years, and he died.
28 And Lamech lived a hundred and eighty-two years, and begot a son. 29 📚And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, arising from the ground which the LORD has cursed”. 30 And after he begot Noah, Lamech lived five hundred and ninety-five years, and begot sons and daughters. 31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years, and he died.
32 📚And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
5:6-32 This list gives us the godly line of Seth until Noah who was the last righteous man on earth before the flood. There is no certainty that this list is complete and gives every person in the line between Adam and Noah. There are reasons for this lack of certainty.
In Biblical Hebrew “begot” or “became the father of” sometimes could mean “became the ancestor of”, with many generations missing. If the meaning here is “became the ancestor of” then, for example, “And Seth lived a hundred and five years and begot Enosh” would mean this: “At age 105 Seth had his first son who was in the direct line to Enosh” (who may have been the next generation after or several generations after). To become the ancestor of those who followed, the process had to begin at some age or other of the individual mentioned. This would mean too that only the names of the most outstanding men between Seth and Noah are given in this genealogy. Admittedly this is not the way we use language today in the English-speaking world, but that does not mean that the ancient Hebrews did not. For what may seem a strange use of language to us, see Ex 1:5. There the 70 persons who went into Egypt are all said to have come “from the loins of Jacob”, but that number included his sons’ wives and their children.
In Hebrew usage the word “son” (or “daughter”) sometimes means a descendant that came many generations later. For example, 1 Chron 26:24 in the Hebrew has Shubael the son of Gershom the son of Moses. It is true that Gershom was the son of Moses, but Shubael was born about 400 years later. Matt 1:1 has “a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham”. Christ was born about 1000 years after David, and Abraham lived many centuries before David. So, according to Hebrew usage we can say that Abraham was the father of David, even though Abraham lived centuries before David, and David was the father (meaning ancestor) of Jesus Christ. Would it also be off the mark to say that Abraham lived 100 years and became the father of David, the father of Jesus Christ? Not according to Hebrew usage, even though we know that at age 100 Abraham fathered Isaac who was also an ancestor of David. While we, in our culture, cannot reconcile this seeming inaccuracy, this was an understood cultural usage of the word “father” to the Hebrew.
We should also note that genealogies sometimes omitted names. Ezra 7:3 omits names given in 1 Chron 6:7-11, and Ezra is giving his own genealogy. Ruth 4:18-22 is another example of a genealogy with gaps in it. Matt 1:1-17 omits the names of three kings from the genealogy of Christ. See notes there on vs 1,8.
The Bible does not tell us how long mankind has been on earth and we would derive no spiritual benefit from knowing. And the author of these notes thinks that we can hardly estimate that time accurately by these genealogies, given the above uncertainties. The Bible was not given to satisfy our curiosity, but to point us to God the Creator and Saviour.⚜