This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God’s likeness.
Parallel Translations
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This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in God’s likeness.
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This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
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This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him;
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Genesis 5:1 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ephesians 4:24 and put on the new man, who in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of truth.
- Colossians 3:10 and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator,
- Genesis 1:26-27 God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
- Hebrews 1:3 His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, who, when he had by himself purified us of our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high,
- Ecclesiastes 12:1 Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come, and the years draw near, when you will say, “I have no pleasure in them;”
- 1 Corinthians 11:7 For a man indeed ought not to have his head covered, because he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of the man.
- Ecclesiastes 7:29 Behold, I have only found this: that God made man upright; but they search for many schemes.”
- Matthew 1:1 The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
- Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
- 2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with unveiled face seeing the glory of the Lord as in a mirror, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit.
- Genesis 10:1 Now this is the history of the generations of the sons of Noah and of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Sons were born to them after the flood.
- 1 Chronicles 1:1 Adam, Seth, Enosh,
- Luke 3:36-38 the son of Cainan, the son of Arphaxad, the son of Shem, the son of Noah, the son of Lamech, the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan, the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
- Genesis 2:4 This is the history of the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that Yahweh God made the earth and the heavens.
- Genesis 6:9 This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 1. This is the book of the generations of…
1. This is the book of the generations of Adam. In this chapter Moses briefly recites the length of time which had intervened between the creation of the world and the deluge; and also slightly touches on some portion of the history of that period. And although we do not comprehend the design of the Spirit, in leaving unrecorded great and memorable events, it is, nevertheless, our business to reflect on many things which are passed over in silence. I entirely disapprove of those speculations which every one frames for himself from light conjectures; nor will I furnish readers with the occasion of indulging themselves in this respect; yet it may, in some degree, be gathered from a naked and apparently dry narration, what was the state of those times, as we shall see in the proper places. The book, according to the Hebrew phrase, is taken for a catalogue. The generations signify a continuous succession of a race, or a continuous progeny. Further, the design with which this catalogue was made, was, to inform us, that in the great, or rather, we might say, prodigious multitude of men, there was always a number, though small, who worshipped God; and that this number was wonderfully preserved by celestial guardianship, lest the name of God should be entirely obliterated, and the seed of the Church should fail.
In the day that God created. He does not restrict these “generations” to the day of the creation, but only points out their commencement; and, at the same time, he distinguishes between our first parents and the rest of mankind, because God had brought them into life by a singular method, whereas others had sprung from a previous stock, and had been born of parents. Moreover, Moses again repeats what he had before stated that Adam was formed according to the image of God, because the excellency and dignity of this favor could not be sufficiently celebrated. It was already a great thing, that the principal place among the creatures was given to man; but it is a nobility far more exalted, that he should bear resemblance to his Creator, as a son does to his father. It was not indeed possible for God to act more liberally towards man, than by impressing his own glory upon him, thus making him, as it were, a living image of the Divine wisdom and justice. This also is of force in repelling the calumnies of the wicked who would gladly transfer the blame of their wickedness to their Maker, had it not been expressly declared, that man was formed by nature a different being from that which he has now become, through the fault of his own defection from God.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Read Gen. 1:26.
Read Gen. 1:26.
Or, rehearsal of the stock.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 5:1 This [is] the book of the generations…
Gen 5:1 This [is] the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
Ver. 1. This is the book of the generations.] Sepher, {a} a ciphering of their names, acts, and accidents; that we might know, first, who were Christ’s progenitors; secondly, by whom the Church was continued; thirdly, how long the old world lasted, viz., one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years. {b} Whence some have grounded a conjecture, that the year of Christ one thousand six hundred and fifty-six will bring forth some strange alteration in the world. Others think the world will be then at an end, and they base this on this chronogram, MunDi ConfLagratIo.
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In the likeness of God made he him.] This is much inculcated, that it may be much observed, and we much humbled, that have parted with so fair a patrimony; striving as much as may be to recover it in Christ, who being “the express image of his Father’s person,” {c} is both apt and able to renew that lost image of God in us, by his merit and Spirit, by his value and virtue.
{a} ספד
{b} Alsted, Chron., p. 494.
{c} απαυγασμα και χαρακτηρ. {Heb 1:3}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain This is the book, i.e. the list or catalogue,…
This is the book, i.e. the list or catalogue, as this word is taken, Neh 7:5; Mat 1:1, as it is also put for any short writing, as for a bill of divorce, as Deu 24:1-2.
The generations of Adam, i.e. his posterity begotten by him; the word being passively used. But he doth not here give a complete list of all Adam's children, but only of his godly seed, which preserved true religion and the worship of God from Adam to the Flood, and from whose loins Christ came, Luk 3:1-38.
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God created man. This is here repeated to note the different way of the production of Adam, and of his posterity; his was by creation from God, theirs by generation from their parents. See Gen 1:26.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain The first words of the chapter are the title…
The first words of the chapter are the title or argument of the whole chapter: it is the book of the generations of Adam; it is the list or catalogue of the posterity of Adam, not of all, but only of the holy seed who were the substance thereof (Isa 6:13), and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came (Rom 9:5), the names, ages, and deaths, of those that were the successors of the first Adam in the custody of the promise, and the ancestors of the second Adam. The genealogy begins with Adam himself. Here is,
I. His creation, Gen 5:1, Gen 5:2, where we have a brief rehearsal of what was before at large related concerning the creation of man. This is what we have need frequently to hear of and carefully to acquaint ourselves with. Observe here, 1. That God created man. Man is not his own maker, therefore he must not be his own master; but the Author of his being must be the director of his motions and the centre of them. 2. That there was a day in which God created man. He was not from eternity, but of yesterday; he was not the first-born, but the junior of the creation. 3. That God made him in his own likeness, righteous and holy, and therefore, undoubtedly, happy. Man's nature resembled the divine nature more than that of any of the creatures of this lower world. 4. That God created them male and female (Gen 5:2), for their mutual comfort as well as for the preservation and increase of their kind. Adam and Eve were both made immediately by the hand of God, both made in God's likeness; and therefore between the sexes there is not that great distance and inequality which some imagine. 5. That God blessed them. It is usual for parents to bless their children; so God, the common Father, blessed his. But earthly parents can only beg a blessing; it is God's prerogative to command it. It refers chiefly to the blessing of increase, not excluding other blessings. 6. That he called their name Adam. Adam signifies earth, red earth. Now, (1.) God gave him this name. Adam had himself named the rest of the creatures, but he must not choose his own name, lest he should assume some glorious pompous title. But God gave him a name which would be a continual memorandum to him of the meanness of his original, and oblige him to look unto the rock whence he was hewn and the hole of the pit whence he was digged, Isa 51:1. Those have little reason to be proud who are so near akin to dust. (2.) He gave this name both to the man and to the woman. Being at first one by nature, and afterwards one by marriage, it was fit they should both have the same name, in token of their union. The woman is of the earth earthy as well as the man.
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II. The birth of his son Seth, Gen 5:3. He was born in the hundred and thirtieth year of Adam's life; and probably the murder of Abel was not long before. Many other sons and daughters were born to Adam, besides Cain and Abel, before this; but no notice is taken of them, because an honourable mention must be made of his name only in whose loins Christ and the church were. But that which is most observable here concerning Seth is that Adam begat him in his own likeness, after his image. Adam was made in the image of God; but, when he was fallen and corrupt, he begat a son in his own image, sinful and defiled, frail, mortal, and miserable, like himself; not only a man like himself, consisting of body and soul, but a sinner like himself, guilty and obnoxious, degenerate and corrupt. Even the man after God's own heart owns himself conceived and born in sin, Psa 51:5. This was Adam's own likeness, the reverse of that divine likeness in which Adam was made; but, having lost it himself, he could not convey it to his seed. Note, Grace does not run in the blood, but corruption does. A sinner begets a sinner, but a saint does not beget a saint.
III. His age and death. He lived, in all, nine hundred and thirty years, and then he died, according to the sentence passed upon him, To dust thou shalt return. Though he did not die in the day he ate forbidden fruit, yet in that very day he became mortal. Then he began to die; his whole life afterwards was but a reprieve, a forfeited condemned life; nay, it was a wasting dying life: he was not only like a criminal sentenced, but as one already crucified, that dies slowly and by degrees.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain This is the book of the generations of Adam,....…
This is the book of the generations of Adam,.... An account of persons born of him, or who descended from him by generation in the line of Seth, down to Noah, consisting of ten generations; for a genealogy of all his descendants is not here given, not of those in the line of Cain, nor of the collateral branches in the line of Seth, only of those that descended one from another in a direct line to Noah:
in the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; this is repeated from Gen 1:27 to put in mind that man is a creature of God; that God made him, and not he himself; that the first man was not begotten or produced in like manner as his sons are, but was immediately created; that his creation was in time, when there were days, and it was not on the first of these, but on the sixth; and that he was made in the likeness of God, which chiefly lay in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness, and in dominion over the creatures.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain This chapter is the only authentic history extant of…
This chapter is the only authentic history extant of the first age of the world from the creation to the flood, containing (according to the Hebrew text) 1656 years. The genealogy here recorded is inserted briefly in the pedigree of our saviour, Luke iii, 36, 37. and is of great use to shew that Christ was the seed of the woman, that was promised. We have here an account,
I. Concerning Adam, ver. 1-5.
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II. Seth, ver. 6-8.
III. Enos, ver. 9-11.
IV. Cainan, ver. 12-14.
V. Mahalaleel, ver. 15-17.
VI. Jared, ver. 18-20.
VII. Enoch, ver. 21-24.
VIII. Mathuselah, ver. 25-27.
IX. Lamech and his son Noah, ver. 28-32.
1. The first words of the chapter are the title of argument of the whole chapter; it is the book of the generations of Adam - It is the list or catalogue of the posterity of Adam, not of all, but only of the holy seed, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came; the names, ages, and deaths of those that were the successors of the first Adam in the custody of the promise, and the ancestors of the second Adam.
Where we have a brief rehearsal of what was before at large related concerning the creation of man. This is what we have need frequently to hear of, and carefully to acquaint ourselves with. Observe here.
1. That God created man. Man is not his own maker, therefore he must not be his own master; but the author of his being must be the director of his motions, and the center of them.
2. That there was a day in which God created man, he was not from eternity, but of yesterday; he was not the first-born, but the junior of the creation.
3. That God made him in his own likeness, righteous and holy, and therefore undoubtedly happy; man's nature resembled the divine nature more than that of any of the creatures of this lower world.
4. That God created them male and female, ver. 2, for their mutual comfort, as well as for the preservation and increase of their kind. Adam and Eve were both made immediately by the hand of God, both made in God's likeness; and therefore between the sexes there is not that great difference and inequality which some imagine.
5. That God blessed them. It is usual for parents to bless their children, so God the common Father blessed his; but earthly parents can only beg a blessing, it is God's prerogative to command it. It refers chiefly to the blessing of increase, not excluding other blessings.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain A recapitulation of the account of the creation of…
CHAPTER V
A recapitulation of the account of the creation of man, 1, 2;
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and of the birth of Seth, 3.
Genealogy of the ten antediluvian patriarchs, 3-31.
Enoch's extraordinary piety, 22;
his translation to heaven without seeing death, 24.
The birth of Noah, and the reason of his name, 29;
his age at the birth of Japheth, 32.
NOTES ON CHAP. V
Verse 1. The book of the generations] ספר sepher, in Hebrew, which we generally translate book, signifies a register, an account, any kind of writing, even a letter, such as the bill of divorce. Here It means the account or register of the generations of Adam or his descendants to the five hundredth year of the life of Noah.
In the likeness of God made he him] This account is again introduced to keep man in remembrance of the heights of glory whence he bad fallen; and to prove to him that the miseries and death consequent on his present state were produced by his transgression, and did not flow from his original state. For, as he was created in the image of God, he was created free from natural and moral evil. As the deaths of the patriarchs are now to be mentioned, it was necessary to introduce them by this observation, in order to justify the ways of God to man.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Gen 5:1. The book of the generations of Adam…
Gen 5:1. The book of the generations of Adam — That is, a list or catalogue of his posterity, not of all, but only of the holy seed, from whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came; of the names, ages, and deaths of those that were the successors of the first Adam in preserving the promise, and the ancestors of the second, at whose coming the promise was accomplished.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain - Section V - The Line to Noah
- Section V - The Line to Noah
- The Line of Sheth
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1. ספר sepher “writing, a writing, a book.”
9. קינן qēynān, Qenan, “possessor, or spearsman.”
12. מהללאל mahelal'ēl, Mahalalel, “praise of ‘El.”
15. ירד yerĕd, Jered, “going down.”
21. מתוּשׁלה metûshālach, Methushelach, “man of the missile.”
29. נה noach, Noach, “rest,” נחם nācham “sigh; repent; pity; comfort oneself; be revenged.”
32. שׁם shēm, Shem, “name, fame; related: be high.” חם chām Cham, “hot.” יפת yāpet, Japheth, “spreading; related: spread out.”
We now enter upon the third of the larger documents contained in Genesis. The first is a diary, the second is a history, the third a genealogy. The first employs the name אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym exclusively; the second uses אלהים יהוה yehovâh'ĕlohı̂ym in the second and third chapters, and יהוה yehovâh usually in the fourth; the third has אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym in the first part, and יהוה yehovâh in the second part. The name אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym is employed in the beginning of the chapter with a manifest reference to the first document, which is here quoted and abridged.
This chapter contains the line from Adam to Noah, in which are stated some common particulars concerning all, and certain special details concerning three of them. The genealogy is traced to the tenth in descent from Adam, and terminates with the flood. The scope of the chapter is to mark out the line of faith and hope and holiness from Adam, the first head of the human race, to Noah, who became eventually the second natural head of it.
Gen 5:1-2
These verses are a recapitulation of the creation of man. The first sentence is the superscription of the new piece of composition now before us. The heading of the second document was more comprehensive. It embraced the generations, evolutions, or outworkings of the skies and the land, as soon as they were called into existence, and was accordingly dated from the third day. The present document confines itself to the generations of man, and commences, therefore, with the sixth day. The generations here are literal for the most part, though a few particulars of the individuals mentioned are recorded. But taken in a large sense this superscription will cover the whole of the history in the Old and New Testaments. It is only in the prophetic parts of these books that we reach again in the end of things to the wider compass of the heavens and the earth Isa 65:17; 2Pe 3:13; Rev 21:1. Then only does the sphere of history enlarge itself to the pristine dimensions in the proper and blessed sense, when the second Adam appears on earth, and re-connects heaven and earth in a new, holy, and everlasting covenant.
The present superscription differs from the former one in the introduction of the word ספר sepher, “book”. There is here some ground in the text for supposing the insertion by Moses of an authentic document, handed down from the olden time, in the great work which he was directed to compose. The chapter before us could not have been completed, indeed, until after the birth of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But if we except the last verse, there is no impossibility or improbability in its being composed before the deluge.
The invention of writing at that early period is favored by some other circumstances connected with these records. We cannot say that it is impossible for oral tradition to preserve the memory of minute transactions - sayings, songs, names, and numbers of years up to a thousand - especially in a period when men’s lives exceeded nine hundred years. But we can easily see that these details could be much more easily handed down if there was any method of notation for the help of the memory. The minute records of this kind, therefore, which we find in these early chapters, though not very numerous, afford a certain presumption in favor of a very early knowledge of the art of writing.
Gen 5:2
And called their name man. - This name seems to connect man אדם 'ādām with the soil from which he was taken ארמה 'ădāmâh Gen 2:7. It is evidently a generic or collective term, denoting the species. God, as the maker, names the race, and thereby marks its character and purpose.
Gen 5:3-5
In the compass of Gen 5:3-5 the course of Adam’s life is completed. And after the same model the lines of all his lineal descendants in this chapter are drawn up. The certain particulars stated are the years he lived before the birth of a certain son, the number of years he afterward lived during which sons and daughters were born to him, and his death. Two sons, and most probably several daughters, were born to Adam before the birth of Sheth. But these sons have been already noticed, and the line of Noah is here given. It is obvious, therefore, that the following individuals in the genealogy may, or may not, have been first-born sons. The stated formula, “and he died,” at the close of each life except that of Henok, is a standing demonstration of the effect of disobedience.
The writer, according to custom, completes the life of one patriarch before he commences that of the next; and so the first event of the following biography is long antecedent to the last event of the preceding one. This simply and clearly illustrates the law of Hebrew narrative.
The only peculiarity in the life of Adam is the statement that his son was “in his likeness, after his image.” This is no doubt intended to include that depravity which had become the characteristic of fallen man. It is contrasted with the preceding notice that Adam was originally created in the image of God. If it had been intended merely to indicate that the offspring was of the same species with the parent, the phrase, “after his kind” (למינהוּ lemı̂ynâh, would have been employed, as in the first chapter. This is one of the mysteries of the race, when the head of it is a moral being, and has fallen. His moral depravity, affecting the essential difference of his nature, descends to his offspring.
As this document alludes to the first in the words, “in the day of God’s creating man, in the likeness of God made he him,” quotes its very words in the sentence, “male and female created he them, refers to the second in the words, and called their name man” Gen 2:7, and also needs this second for the explication of the statement that the offspring of man bore his likeness, it presupposes the existence and knowledge of these documents at the time when it was written. If it had been intended for an independent work, it would have been more full and explanatory on these important topics.
Gen 5:21-24
The history of the Shethite Henok is distinguished in two respects: First, after the birth of Methushelah, “he walked with the God.” Here for the first time we have God אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym with the definite article, with which it occurs more than four hundred times. By this he is emphatically distinguished as the God, now made known by his acts and manifestations, in opposition to atheism, the sole God in opposition to polytheism, and the true God in opposition to all false gods or notions of God. It is possible that in the time of Henok some had forsaken the true God, and fallen into various misconceptions concerning the Supreme Being. His walking with “the God” is a hint that others were walking without this God.
The phrase “walked with God” is rendered in the Septuagint εὐηρέστησε τῷ Θεῷ euērestēse tō Theō, “pleased God,” and is adduced in the Epistle to the Hebrews Gen 2:5-6 as an evidence of Henok’s faith. Walking with God implies community with him in thought, word, and deed, and is opposed in Scripture to walking contrary to him. We are not at liberty to infer that Henok was the only one in this line who feared God. But we are sure that he presented an eminent example of that faith which purifies the heart and pleases God.
He made a striking advance upon the attainment of the times of his ancestor Sheth. In those days they began to call upon the name of the Lord. Now the fellowship of the saints with God reaches its highest form, - that of walking with him, doing his will and enjoying his presence in all the business of life. Hence, this remarkable servant of God is accounted a prophet, and foretells the coming of the Lord to judgment Jud 1:14-15. It is further to be observed that this most eminent saint of God did not withdraw from the domestic circle, or the ordinary duties of social life. It is related of him as of the others, that during the three hundred years of his walking with God he begat sons and daughters.
Secondly, the second peculiarity of Henok was his teleportation. This is related in the simple language of the times. “And he was not, for God took him;” or, in the version of the Septuagint, “and he was not found, for God translated him.” Hence, in the New Testament it is said, Heb 11:5, “By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death.” This passage is important for the interpretation of the phrase ואיננוּ ve'ēynenû καί ουχ εὑρίσκετο kai ouch heurisketo “and he was not (found).” It means, we perceive, not absolutely, he was not, but relatively, he was not extant in the sphere of sense. If this phrase do not denote annihilation, much less does the phrase “and he died.” The one denotes absence from the world of sense, and the other indicates the ordinary way in which the soul departs from this world. Here, then, we have another hint that points plainly to the immortality of the soul (see on Gen 3:22).
This glimpse into primeval life furnishes a new lesson to the men of early times and of all succeeding generations. An atonement was shadowed forth in the offering of Habel. A voice was given to the devout feelings of the heart in the times of Sheth. And now a walk becoming one reconciled to God, calling upon his name, and animated by the spirit of adoption, is exhibited. Faith has now returned to God, confessed his name, and learned to walk with him. At this point God appears and gives to the antediluvian race a new and conclusive token of the riches and power of mercy in counteracting the effects of sin in the case of the returning penitent. Henok does not die, but lives; and not only lives, but is advanced to a new stage of life, in which all the power and pain of sin are at an end forever. This crowns and signalizes the power of grace, and represents in brief the grand finale of a life of faith. This renewed man is received up into glory without going through the intermediate steps of death and resurrection. If we omit the violent end of Habel, the only death on record that precedes the translation of Henok is that of Adam. It would have been incongruous that he who brought sin and death into the world should not have died. But a little more than half a century after his death, Henok is wafted to heaven without leaving the body. This translation took place in the presence of a sufficient number of witnesses, and furnished a manifest proof of the presence and reality of the invisible powers. Thus, were life and immortality as fully brought to light as was necessary or possible at that early stage of the world’s history. Thus, was it demonstrated that the grace of God was triumphant in accomplishing the final and full salvation of all who returned to God. The process might be slow and gradual, but the end was now shown to be sure and satisfactory.
Gen 5:25-27
Methushelah is the oldest man on record. He lived to be within 31 years of a millenium, and died in the year of the flood.
Gen 5:28-31
In the biography of Lamek the name of his son is not only given, but the reason of it is assigned. The parents were cumbered with the toil of cultivating the ground. They looked forward with hope to the aid or relief which their son would give them in bearing the burden of life, and they express this hope in his name. In stating the reason of the name, they employ a word which is connected with it only by a second remove. נוּח nûach and נחם nācham are stems not immediately connected; but they both point back to a common root נח (n-ch) signifying “to sigh, to breathe, to rest, to lie down.”
This is only another recorded instance of the habit of giving names indicative of the thoughts of the parents at the time of the child’s birth. All names were originally significant, and have still to this day an import. Some were given at birth, others at later periods, from some remarkable circumstance in the individual’s life. Hence, many characters of ancient times were distinguished by several names conferred at different times and for different reasons. The reason of the present name is put on record simply on account of the extraordinary destiny which awaited the bearer of it.
Which the Lord hath cursed. - Here is another incidental allusion to the second document, without which it would not be intelligible. If the present document had been intended to stand alone, this remark would have had its explanation in some previous part of the narrative.
Gen 5:32
And Noah was the son of five hundred years. - A man is the son of a certain year, in and up to the close of that year, but not beyond it. Thus, Noah was in his six hundredth year when he was the son of six hundred years Gen 7:11, Gen 7:6, and a child was circumcised on the eighth day, being then the son of eight days Lev 12:3; Gen 17:12.
When the phrase indicates a point of time, as in Lev. 27, it is the terminating point of the period in question. The first part only of the biography of Noah is given in this verse, and the remainder will be furnished in due time and place. Meanwhile, Noah is connected with the general history of the race, which is now to be taken up. His three sons are mentioned, because they are the ancestors of the postdiluvian race. This verse, therefore, prepares for a continuation of the narrative, and therefore implies a continuator or compiler who lived after the flood.
From the numbers in this chapter it appears that the length of human life in the period before the deluge was ten times its present average. This has seemed incredible to some, and hence they have imagined that the years must have consisted of one month, or at least of a smaller number than twelve. But the text will not admit of such amendment or interpretation. In the account of the deluge the tenth month is mentioned, and sixty-one days are afterward indicated before the beginning of the next year, whence we infer that the primeval year consisted of twelve lunar months at least. But the seemingly incredible in this statement concerning the longevity of the people before the flood, will be turned into the credible if we reflect that man was made to be immortal. His constitution was suited for a perpetuity of life, if only supplied with the proper nutriment. This nutriment was provided in the tree of life. But man abused his liberty, and forfeited the source of perpetual life. Nevertheless, the primeval vigor of an unimpaired constitution held out for a comparatively long period. After the deluge, however, through the deterioration of the climate and the soil, and perhaps much more the degeneracy of man’s moral and physical being, arising from the abuse of his natural propensities, the average length of human life gradually dwindled down to its present limits. Human physiology, founded upon the present data of man’s constitution, may pronounce upon the duration of his life so long as the data are the same; but it cannot fairly affirm that the data were never different from what they are at present. Meanwhile, the Bible narrative is in perfect keeping with its own data, and is therefore not to be disturbed by those who still accept these without challenge.
The following table presents the age of each member of this genealogy, when his son and successor was born and when he himself died, as they stand in the Hebrew text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, and Josephus:
Line of Noah
Hebrew
Sam. Pent.
Septuagint
Josephus
Date
Son’s Birth
Own Death
Son’s Birth
Own Death
Son’s Birth
Own Death
Son’s Birth
Own Death
Of Birth
Of Death
1. Adam
130
930
130
930
230
930
230
930
0
930
2. Sheth
105
912
105
912
205
912
205
912
130
1042
3. Enosh
90
905
90
905
190
905
190
905
235
1140
4. Kenan
70
910
70
910
170
910
170
910
325
1235
5. Mahalalel
65
895
65
895
165
895
165
895
395
1290
6. Jared
162
962
62
847
162
962
162
962
460
1422
7. Henok
65
365
65
365
165
365
165
365
622
987
8. Methuselah
187
969
67
720
187
969
187
969
687
1656
9. Lamek
182
777
53
653
188
753
182
777
874
1651
10. Noah
500
950
500
950
500
950
500
950
1056
2006
100
100
100
100
Deluge
1656
1307
2262
2256
On comparing the series of numbers in the Hebrew with those in the Samaritan, the Septuagint, and Josephus, it is remarkable that we have the main body of the original figures in all. In the total ages of the first five and the seventh, and in that of Noah at the flood, they all agree. In those of the sixth and eighth, the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Josephus agree. In that of the ninth, the Hebrew and Josephus agree, while the Samaritan and Septuagint differ from them and from each other. On examining the figures of the Samaritan, it appears that the sixth, eighth, and ninth total ages would have reached beyond the flood, if the numbers found in the other authorities had been retained. And they are so shortened as to terminate all in the year of the flood. This alteration betrays design. The totals in the Hebrew, then, have by far the preponderating authority.
Of the numbers before the birth of a successor, which are chiefly important for the chronology, the units agree in all but Lamek, in regard to whom the Hebrew and Josephus agree, while the Samaritan and the Septuagint differ from them and from each other. The tens agree in all but two, Methushelah and Lamek, where the Hebrew, the Septuagint, at least in the Codex Alexandrinus, and Josephus agree, while the Samaritan differs from them all. In the hundreds a systematic and designed variation occurs. Still they agree in Noah. In Jared, Methushelah, and Lamek, the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Josephus agree in a number greater by a hundred than the Samaritan. In the remaining six the Hebrew and Samaritan agree; while the Septuagint and Josephus agree in having a number greater by a hundred. On the whole, then, it is evident that the balance of probability is decidedly in favor of the Hebrew. To this advantage of concurring testimonies are to be added those of being the original, and of having been guarded with great care.
These grounds of textual superiority may be supported by several considerations of less weight. The Samaritan and the Septuagint follow a uniform plan; the Hebrew does not, and therefore has the mark of originality. Josephus gives the sum total to the deluge as two thousand six hundred and fifty-six years, agreeing with the total of the Hebrew in three figures, with that of the Septuagint only in two, and with that of the Samaritan in none. Some MSS. even give one thousand six hundred and fifty-six, which is the exact sum of the Hebrew numbers. Both these readings, moreover, differ from the sum of his own numbers, which itself agrees with the Hebrew in two figures and with the Septuagint in the other two. This looks like a studied conformation of the figures to those of the Septuagint, in which the operator forgot to alter the sum total. We do not at present enter into the external arguments for or against the Hebrew text. Suffice it to observe, that the internal evidence is at present clearly in its favor, so far as the antediluvian figures go.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain Adam and Seth.—The Sethites or Macrobii (the long-lived).—The living…
THIRD SECTION
Adam and Seth.—The Sethites or Macrobii (the long-lived).—The living Worship and the Blessing of the Life-renewing in the Line of the Sons of God
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Gen_5:1-32 (compare 1Ch_1:1-4)
1This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. 2Male and female created he them; and blessed them and called their name Adam [man] in the day when they were created. 3And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth [fixed, compensation]. 4And the days of Adam after Hebrews 5 had begotten Seth were eight hundred years; and he begat sons and daughters. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. 6And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begat Enosh1 [man, weak man]. 7And Seth lived after he begat Enosh eight hundred and seven years and begat sons and daughters.
8 9And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died. And 10Enosh lived ninety years and begat Cainan [gain, gainful, industrious]. And Enosh lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters. 11And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years; and he died. 12And Cainan lived seventy years and begat Mahalaleel2 [renown, praise of God]. 13And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters. 14And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years; and hedied. 15And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years and begat Jared [descent, one descending]. 16And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters. 17And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years; and he died. 18And Jared lived a hundred and sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch3 [the devoted, mysterious]. 19And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. 20And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty and two years; and he died. 21And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah [Gesenius: man of the arrow; First: man of war; Delitzsch: man of growth]. 22And Enoch walked4 with God [lived in communion with God] after he begat Methuselah three hundred years and begat sons and daughters. 23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty and five years. 24And Enoch walked with God and he was not 25[disappeared suddenly], for God took him. And Methuselah lived a hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech [the strong young man, or hero]. 26And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters. 27And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty and nine years; and he died. 28And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years and begat a son. 29And he called his name Noah [rest, rest-bringer], saying, This same shall comfort us5 concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. 30And Lamech lived after he begat Noah, five hundred ninety and five years and begat sons and daughters. 31And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years; and he died. 32And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begat Shem [name, preserver of the name] and Ham [heat, from חמם] and Japheth [wide-spreading, room-making, from פתה].
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
1. The line of Seth, as the line of the pious worshippers of God, is carried on to Noah, with whom the first humanity from the stem of Seth, now purified in the flood, passes over to a new age: so that the name Seth, as in verification of Eve’s maternal prophecy, becomes established in contrast with Abel the mere breath of life, and the line of Cain drowned in the flood. The question may be asked, Why is not the superscription placed before the 25th verse of the fourth chapter? The documentary hypothesis answers: it is because here again the Elohim document takes up the history. We let that question rest, though here verse 29th, with its name Jehovah, does not have the look of an interpolation. It must be remarked, nevertheless, that in the preceding section it was necessary for Seth to appear as the representative of Abel. But here again begins the history of Seth as the history of Adam himself; since only through Seth does Adam live on beyond the flood, and even to the world’s end. In respect to its inner nature, therefore, is the section Elohistic; that is, it presents the universal grounding of the whole human race, not merely that of the line of Shem or of the theocracy of Abraham. Knobel represents the section according to the documentary hypothesis: “The Elohist ranges the genealogical table of Adam immediately after the account of creation, Genesis 1 (?), and connects with it directly his history of the flood, Gen_6:9, etc.; it forms, consequently, an essential part of his work, without which it would have had a hiatus (rather with it, we may add). From the same author who concerned himself with the connected genealogies and chronologies, as being predominantly Elohistic, whilst the Jehovist took little notice of them, originated also the other genealogical tables and chronological series that are introduced in their order throughout the Pentateuch.” The section before us, in its entire contents, evidently presupposes Genesis 2, 3. There is special proof of this in verses 3, 24, and 29, as also in the constant refrain: and he died.
2. Gen_5:1. The book of the generation of Adam.—The genealogies of Adam become permanent and continuous alone through Seth.
3. Gen_5:2. In the likeness of God.—This is expressed here by ב, not by כ, as in Genesis 1. It means, when He created him He made him in the likeness, etc.; that is, the divine ideal form was the model of his making,—or of the finishing of his human form in distinction from its creation. The name man (Adam) is ascribed here in common to both man and woman. The creation in the divine image is repeated, because the line of God’s sons is grounded on its divine origin (see Luk_3:38).
4. Gen_5:3. Seth.—For the significance of the name in relation to the names of the Cainitic line, see the preceding section. Of Seth it is said, He begat him in his own likeness, after his image. That is, as his image, Seth was similar to him, indeed, but not identically like; he was distinguished from him individually, he was like him in his Adamic nature. And this is said, doubtless, with a consciousness of Adam’s fallen state, although in the ground ideas of this fifth chapter the nature of Adam as made in the divine image, and its pious direction, are still made prominent. Even if the names further on denote, in the average probability, the first-born of the genealogies (although this does not always hold good, as is shown by the examples of Ishmael, Esau, Reuben, etc.), yet it does not follow that Seth also is to be regarded here as a first-born; just as little as the three sons of Noah, taken together, can be thus regarded. Seth has become the spiritual first-born of the Adamitic house; he is the continuance of the line of Adam in its pious direction, and in its historical duration.
5. Gen_5:4. The ages of the Patriarchs who lived before the flood are individually stated in the following manner: 1. Adam 930 years, 2. Seth 912 years, 3. Enosh 905 years, 4. Cainan 910 years, 5. Mahalaleel 895 years, 6. Jared 962 years, 7. Enoch 365 years, then translated, 8. Methuselah 969 years, 9. Lamech 777 years, 10. Noah, before the flood, 600 years (Gen_7:6), in the whole 950 years (Gen_9:29). In relation to the dates, the following things are to be remarked. Adam is 130 years old at the begetting of Seth, whom Cain and Abel naturally preceded. Seth begets Enosh when 105 years old. Enosh is presented to us as a father at the age of 90 years, Cainan 70 years, Mahalaleel 65 years, Jared 162 years, Enoch 65 years, Methuselah 187 years, Lamech 182 years, Noah even 500 years. Since, moreover, there is mentioned in each case the begetting if other sons and daughters, it becomes very questionable whether we are to understand all these genealogical heads as being first-born. The numbers, as given, do, indeed, indicate late marriages having proportion to the length of life. That, however, no ascetic idea is necessarily bound up in this, is shown by the case of Enoch, who with Mahalaleel had a son the earliest of all the patriarchs. Even between he repeated mention, moreover, that he walked with God, it is said that he begat sons and daughters. The age 65, as a year for begetting, is also worthy of note, as showing to be impossible every attempt to reduce these patriarchal years to shorter sections of time. This numbering of their years is of richest significance. It expresses clearly the blessing of longevity as emphatically exhibited through the Sethic piety; it is the history of the devout Macrobii, or long-livers of the primitive time. In Enoch the line reaches the highest point of its life-renovation; since in him the peculiar death-form falls away; he departs without dying, and by a divine translation. In Methuselah this grand march of life reaches its extreme longevity in this world. The line then sinks down in Lamech, as is indicated by his sighing over the labor and pain that comes from the curse-ladened earth. The whole line, in its apparent monotony, is a most lively expression of a powerful strife of life with death, of the blessing with the curse. They advance far in years, these pious sons of God; the numbers reach a high figure, but ever again there comes that tragic word וַיָּמֹת: and he died. Once, and only once, is there reached the silver glance of the life-renewing, and of that life-transformation without death, which comes up to the original form. This is in the life of Enoch, the seventh patriarch. It must be observed, in accordance with what is implied in the following chapter, that the line of Seth, in its development, suffers a gradual disturbance, which does not permit it to reach the ideal aim,—a fact which seems to be indicated by this name Methuselah, and the sighs of Lamech. When in respect to this long life-endurance, we add the consideration of the enormous breaking up that was suddenly occasioned by the flood, it must not be overlooked that Noah, although already six hundred years old when the flood took place, survived its storms three hundred and fifty years.
Two main difficulties are objected to the foregoing statement: 1. the length of life; 2. the authenticity of the chronology. “The highest possible age,” says Valentine (“Compendium of Physiology,” 2. p. 894), “appears to be from about 150 to 160 years; and in fact, none of the highest ages which men are known to have reached attain the height of 200 years (Pritchard’s ‘Natural History of the Human Race’). It cannot be shown that men after the flood differed in any remarkable manner from those who lived before. In Gen_11:10, moreover, the narrator represents some as attaining, even after the flood, to the age of 40 or 600 years.” Knobel. Special treatises on the preceding question are contained in the writing of De Lapasse: Essai sur la conservation de la vie, Paris, Masson, 1860. In general, there is no deciding this question by any appeal to strong constitutions, simple modes of life, uuweakened powers of life, &c. First of all, do both extremes of humanity need to be settled according to the Scriptures and the christological ideas; and, in fact, in correspondence with the middle point of humanity. The truth of Christ’s resurrection, not as a return out of death to the life of this world, but as a transition from the first form of human life into a second imperishable form, casts light as well upon the paradisaical beginning as upon the eschatological end of humanity. It testifies to an ideal capability for the preservation of life even to the point of a death-like, yet not deathly transformation into the incorruptible. To this testifies also, in symbolical form, the paradisaical tree of life, as well as, in its dogmatic acceptance, the words of Paul concerning the longing “to be clothed upon” (2Co_5:1-5) that lies in the depths of human nature (compare Lange’s Miscellaneous Writings, ii. p. 232). So also what he says of Christ as the life-giving spirit of man from heaven, and of the transformation that awaits those who live long at the world’s end (1Co_15:45; 1Co_15:51). The christological idea that lies at the foundation is this: As the historical death, the death of corruption, in its gradual course first breaks through from the spiritual sphere of sin into the province of the soul, and from the province of the soul into the corporeity, so also does the healing of the new life make its passage; first in renewing the spirit-life, then the life of the soul, and finally becoming visible in the restoration of a new corporeal capacity for transformation at the world’s end. Thus the decreasing longevity of the primitive time furnishes the contrast to the increasing longevity at the end of the world (see also Isaiah 65). But it was not only through the original power of a corporeity not yet wholly shattered that the death of the Sethites was retarded; it was also kept back through the progress of life in the Jehovah-faith of the Sethites, as it culminated in Enoch, and had, therefore, already, as its consequence, a typically prophetic pre-representation of the transformation and the resurrection in his mysterious taking. The difficulty which is found in the supposition of such long life in the Sethites, has given rise to various hypotheses. Some have supposed that along with the patriarchs named their races and peoples are meant to be included; Rosenmüller, Friedreich, and others, think that from these orally transmitted genealogies, many names had fallen out; Hensler holds that the expression שָׁנָה (year) denotes among the patriarchs lesser spaces of time, namely, three months, till the time of Abraham, thence to the time of Joseph eight months, and afterwards, for the first time, twelve. Raske: from Adam to Noah the year was equal to one month. See against this, Knobel, p. 68 ff. To the first supposition is opposed the definite characterizing of single persons; to the second the fact that in the same manner the son always follows the father; to the third the constant signification of the year as tropical, periodical.6 “No shorter year than the period of a year’s time have the Hebrews ever had. Against any shortening of the שׁנה stands the fact that in that case some of the patriarchs must have begotten children at an age in which they were not capable.” Knobel. By him and many of the moderns it is explained as a mythical conception, with reference to the old representation that in the more happy primitive period, men lived longer, but were ever becoming weaker and of shorter life. “This representation (of the brevity of life) presents itself very clearly in the Old Testament. In the historical time a man among the Hebrews became 70 or 80 years old (Psa_90:10); in the Mosaic and patriarchal time, when there meet us statements of 100, 120, 123, 133, 137, 147, 175, and 180 years, man reached an age between 100 and 200 years; for the time of Abraham, and thence up to Noah, the dates maintain themselves, with one exception, between 200 and 600 years (Gen_11:10-32): whilst in the time from Noah to Adam (there too with one exception) they are between 700 and 1000 years. According to the Hebrew belief therefore, in respect to the duration of human life, it became worse with men in the course of the times. Thence the hope in a restoration of the old longevity in the Messianic time (Isa_65:20; Isa_25:8). So also the rest of antiquity assumed a greater length of life for the oldest time, and Josephus (Antiq. i. 3, 9) names Manetho, Berosus, Moschus, Hestiæus, Hieronymus, Hesiod, &c., as giving accounts similar to that of Genesis.” In the number ten of the patriarchs, there is, in truth, a symbolical significancy (the Chaldeans, too, according to Berosus, number ten antediluvian patriarchs), but a symbolical number is not on that account a mythical number, and under the mythical point of view Knobel does not know what to do with the unlike and uneven numbers.
Concerning the chronological treatises that relate to our section, namely the assumed rectification of the Bible chronology through the Ægyptian, compare Delitzsch, p. 220 ff. For the motives which lie at the ground of the chronological changes of our text in the Samaritan Pentateuch and the Septuagint, or their deviations (as well Genesis 11 as Genesis 5, compare Knobel, p. 70) the reader is referred to Keil, p. 76. According to our chronology, from the creation to the flood there were 1656 years,7 according to the Samaritan text 1307 years, and according to the Septuagint 2242 years. The time after the flood until Abraham was, according to the Hebrew text 365 years, according to the Samaritan 1015, according to the Septuagint 1245. “The translation of Enoch falls nearly in the middle point of years from Adam to the flood,—that is, in the year 987 after the creation of Adam. At that time Seth, Enosh, Cainan, Mahalaleel, and Jared, were still living, as there was also living his son Methuselah, and his grandson Lamech, then 113 years old; Noah only was not yet born, and Adam of all the line was the only one dead.” Keil. We will remark in general, in relation to our treatment of the chronology in the Introduction, that the genealogical chronology throughout corresponds to the fundamental biblical ideas, or to that significance of personality which determines everything as actual fact. In their experience, however, of the way in which the blessing of piety advanced their length of life, the Macrobii must have found a special warning to number their days, and in the unsymbolical form of the numbers it was easier to admit misreckonings in single cases than any arbitrariness in respect to the whole. In consideration of the extraordinary impression which the year-period must have made upon the first men of our race, in consideration of its symbolical dying and living again with nature, as well in the change [in the length] of day and night, as in that of summer and winter, they could have had, in general, no occasion or inducement to learn the reckoning of numbers more vivid than that which was furnished by these annual vicissitudes.
6. Gen_5:1. This is the book.—“סֵפֶר means any finished writing, whether it consists of only one pair of leaves, or even of a single one; as, for example, the book (or bill) of divorce, Deuteronomy 24.” Delitzsch.—The generations of Adam.—The nearest bound to this book of the generations of Adam, is the genealogical register of Noah. In a wider sense, then, does this register of Adam go on in the genealogical register of Noah (Genesis 10) and in the genealogical register of Shem (Genesis 10), even to Abraham. After that it goes on through the whole Old Testament, until it becomes the genealogical register of Jesus Christ (Matthew 1).
7. Gen_5:4. And Adam lived.—“The narrator reckons the years of each forefather unto the begetting of his first-born, who carries on the main line, then the remainder of his life, and after that he reckons both periods together, so as to give the whole length of his life and name.” Delitzsch.—Begat in his likeness.—Adam bore the image of God. Seth bore the image of Adam: 1. according to its disposition in respect to the image of God; 2. according to the measure of its deformity by sin; 3. according to the hereditary blessing of his piety. “In that primitive time the births did not rapidly follow each other—a fact which had not a physical, but only an ethical ground,” says Delitzsch. There is, however, a physical cause, since in exact correspondence with the increasing degeneracy and rankness of human life, is there, in a literal sense, the increase of a numerous and wretched offspring.
8. Gen_5:5. And he died.—Baumgarten: “In its constant return does this expression וַיָּמֹת prove the dominion of death, from Adam onward, as an immutable law (Rom_5:14). Still, on this dark background of a conquering death shows still more clearly the power of life. For man dies when ne has already propagated anew the life, so that in the midst of the death of the individual members, the life of the race holds on, and the hope grows stronger and stronger in the seed that is to conquer the author of death.” The unceasing refrain, and he died, denotes here also the limit of the long and elevated line of life that seems to be ever mounting towards heaven, but ever breaks off in the end,—with the exception of Enoch. And so we get a clear view of the battle of life with death.
9. Gen_5:22-27. And Enoch walked with God.—This expression, which occurs once more in respect to Noah, Gen_6:9, is afterwards enlarged. It becomes (Gen_17:1; Gen_24:40), “to walk before the face of God,”—“to follow Jehovah,” Deu_13:5—and similarly, Mal_2:6, it occurs in respect to the priest. It denotes the most intimate intercourse with God, or, so to speak, a permanent view of a present deity, a continual following after His guidance. The word occurs here twice. In its first usage it denotes the character of his life, and gives assurance of the perseverance and soundness of his piety; he walked with God three hundred years, he begat sons and daughters. In the second, it gives confirmation of the wonderful translation of Enoch. According to the Jewish tradition, Enoch had, in all probability, borne witness against the Cainitic antinomists of his day, and had announced to them the judgment which came with the flood. From this Jewish tradition the book of Enoch and the epistle of Jude took in common (Dillmann, Buch Henoch); for there is no necessity of referring the place in Jude to the apocryphal book, since the apostles, as is well known, have cited popular traditions in other places, although even Delitzsch seems to connect the epistle with apocryphal story. With this prediction, and in correspondence with fundamental biblical principles, does the epistle of Jude make him the type of the prophetic testimony against that anti-Christian Antinomianism of the New Testament day, which is comprehended in its unity as “the last time,” and also a typical prophet of the last day itself. The translation of Enoch has two sides. וְאֵינֶנּוּ means, in the first place: he was no longer there, he had disappeared (Gen_42:13; Gen_42:36). Thereby is it indicated that his people had missed him, as the sons of the prophets missed Elijah when he was taken away (2Ki_2:16, etc.). Luther has pictured in a most vivid manner this missing of Enoch, as reflecting itself in the case of Jesus in His death, and on Easter morning. According to Luther, they had some thought that he had perished, had probably been slain by the Cainites, and then received a special revelation concerning his taking away.—God took him.—This word לקח is also used in the taking up of Elijah (2Ki_2:9-10; Psa_73:24; Psa_49:16). A death so early in a line of men for whom life was a blessing, could only be regarded, in this connection, as a punishment. It would seem to make Enoch of least worth among the patriarchs, whereas, on the contrary, he was the most eminent. It is clear, therefore, that there is narrated here a transition which did not go through the form of death. The Christian tradition (Heb_11:5), as well as the Jewish (Sir_44:15; Sir_49:16), hold fast the unmistakable sense of the text, in which here, in place of the ever-returning “and he died,” there comes in that other expression, “for God took him.” It is also confirmed by the analogous representations of the Bible (Elijah, Christ, the transformed, 1Th_4:17; 1Co_15:51). But whither? and to what state was Enoch translated? Delitzsch: “To a closer nearness with God, with whom he had hitherto walked; not that he became a partaker of that glorification which awaits the justified in the resurrection; for in this glorification Christ is the first fruits.” On the contrary, Keil: “Not in the glorification is Christ the first fruits according to 1Co_15:20; 1Co_15:23, but in the resurrection.” By a transformation, of by a clothing upon, were Enoch and Elijah translated into everlasting life with God. We must distinguish, however, between the transformation and the glorification, between the heavenly region of the pious, that is, Paradise, and the perfect heaven of Christ. “His 365th year of life corresponds probably to our 33d,” remark Delitzsch and Knobel: “Enoch lived as many years as the year has days.” In respect to the legendary parallels in the extra biblical antiquity, comp. Knobel, p. 72; in which it is clear that we must distinguish the biblical tradition from the kindred stories. According to Knobel the motive for the translation was probably to rescue Enoch from the age in which he lived,—with relation to Gen_4:10. Beyond a doubt, however, the main reason was the fact that he had become personally ripe for transformation, and that through his faith there might be introduced into this world the faith in a new life in the world beyond (Heb_11:5-6). If we would seek farther, we must compare the translations that follow in sacred history. Elijah is translated because his consistent legalism must become a judgment of fire, and a Last Day for the apostate Israel; Christ is translated, because His staying longer in this world must have come to a sudden conflict of life and death with the old world,—that is, must have had for its consequence the Last Day; the believers at the end of the world are translated, because now the Last Day has actually appeared. Judging from these analogies, we may conjecture that the translation of Enoch denoted a decided turning-point in the life of the old world. At all events, he had not in vain announced the day of judgment before his departure. At this time, it is probable, there was the beginning of the corrupt alliances between the Sethites and the Cainites. It is the probable middle time between Adam and the flood. The Jewish and Arabian fables, according to which Enoch is said to have discovered the art of writing and book-making, together with arithmetic and astronomy, must rest, for the most part, on his name, חניך, from חנך (to initiate, educate), and upon the astronomical significance of the number 365.
10. Gen_5:27. Methuselah.—The highest age, 969 years.
11. Gen_5:28. Lamech.—“At so great an age did these pious forefathers, who had renounced the self-created worldly lust, confess their experience of the burden and painfulness of life, in all its gravity and in all its extent; and it is easily explained how it is that the history of the Sethites closes with language of such a different sound from that of the Cainites. Lamech the Cainite is full of an evil drunken confidence. Lamech the Sethite, on the contrary, is filled with the most extreme dejection in respect to the present, and has no other joy than in the promise of the future.” Delitzsch. The name נֹחַ, which he gives to his son, is put in relation to נחם, from which it does not follow that this relation is etymologically significant. The confident hope of the wearied is ever some bringer of rest. Without doubt does the life-labor and toil of the Sethites stand in relation to the pride of the Cainites, even as it forms a contrast to their confident and false security. It is this pride which has power to trouble their life more than the unfruitfulness of the earth. In respect to Lamech’s language in which he greets Noah as the bringer of rest, Luther remarks: Sicut Heva fallitur, ita quoque desiderio restitutionis mundi fallitur ctiam bonus Lamech. Still is he mistaken in supposing that Noah was to bring in the closing sabbath of humanity; that there came with him a great reckoning, and a preliminary new world, he correctly anticipated.
12. Gen_5:32. And he begat Shem.—Ranke: “The naming of the three sons of Noah leads us to expect that whilst hitherto the line has moved on ever through only one member, in the farther course of time all three of Noah’s sons must simultaneously lay the foundations of a new beginning.” “The order of the ages of Noah’s sons is Shem, Japheth, Ham (see Gen_10:21). In the enumeration, however, Japheth ever stands last, because his name of two syllables makes the best close in the collective arrangement.” Knobel. The series of the three sons, however, in regard to their age, makes a difficulty in relation to Gen_10:21. (See Keil, p. 104.) According to the passage before us, Noah begat Shem first when he was 500 years old. According to Gen_7:6, he was 600 years old when the flood came. According to Gen_11:10, Shem was 100 years old two years after the flood. Either then must we here regard the 100 years of Shem as a round number, or the word גָּדוֹל, Gen_10:21, must relate to Japheth, as Michaelis and others think. On the contrary, see the remarks of Knobel, p. 120, and of Keil, p. 104. Keil, however, would take הקטן as merely a comparative designation of Ham, Gen_9:24 : the younger instead of the youngest; so that the series Shem, Ham, Japheth, would be the actual order of their ages. This consequence does not appear to be confirmed by the גָּדוֹל of Gen_10:21, since הקטן expressly refers to Noah in connection with בְּנוֹ, a position that fails in respect to גָּדוֹל, in Gen_10:21. Assuming it as not grounded on the analogue of the theocratic history, that the physical first-born must always be the spiritual first-born, it would remain doubtful whether, in the passage before us, Shem was not placed first on the ground of worth.
[Note on the Translation of Enoch, and the earliest ideas of Death among the Primitive Men.—יְאֵינֶנּוּ כִּי לָקַח אֹתוֹ אֱלֹהִים. A right understanding of this remarkable language respecting Enoch, depends upon our getting the right standpoint from which to determine the earliest notion that man must have had of death. This could hardly have been the modern idea, either in its materializing, or in its more spiritual, aspect. That is, it was not, on the one hand, a cessation of being, nor was it, on the other, any distinctly formed thought of a separation of two things, soul and body, one of which no longer pertained to the man, or the selfhood, and the other passed off to a wholly separate and immaterial existence. God had not defined to them the nature of this fearful doom, and experience showed them nothing but the fact of an awful outward change on the once moving and active personality. It had not ceased to be, though now it was motionless and ghastly. They could not regard it as a fallen tree, or a slain animal, not from any metaphysical or physiological distinction, but from the strong feeling of social personality which they had ever connected with the living man, and which they could not get rid of. This was the germ, the God-implanted germ, we may say, of the idea of a continuous being, or a future life, as we find it in the earliest parts and throughout the Old Testament. To this they held on even against appearances, against the sense we may say, or any reasoning from sense, even as it is yet found among the rudest and simplest nations,—the very antagonisms it has had to encounter from the outer phenomenal world only showing the strength and the indestructibility of the sentiment. This one personality had not wholly vanished, though what had once appeared as a human form they now saw undergoing a rapid and fearful transformation. Death presented itself in contrast with that moving outward thing they called life, but it was not necessarily a breach of all continuity, or an utter extinction of all selfhood, with its rights and claims, as in the case of Abel’s complaining blood. The self, the man was there, but he was dead, or in the state of being they called death. Or he was still somewhere near, in what connection with the body, or with themselves, they could not imagine. They gazed in astonishment at this wonderful phenomenon, but they did not reason about it, or draw nice distinctions. They had no data from which to draw them. It was the dread penalty of which they had heard from their progenitors, and that was all they knew about it. Of its extent, or its consequences, or of any recovery from it, they had little or no conception. Death was not to them, as it has come to be regarded in our thinking, a single terminating event, but a state, a state of being, very strange indeed, but still real and actual. They did not separate it into death (the act of dying) and something after death. All earliest language is grounded on the idea of such after state as a going on, or linked identity; but they did not distinguish between it and its incipiency. Hence, among all ancient people, the great care for funeral rites, not merely in memory of, but as something due to a still continued being, and as essential to its quietude. It was not the idea of resurrection, as some have thought, that made this so ancient and so universal, but the ineradicable feeling of a personality, or selfhood, as somehow inhering in the poor remains, whether embalmed with costliest spices, or buried in the bosom of their mother earth, or purified and so preserved by fire. There is a selfhood in the body; Paul affirms it strongly of the sleeping Christian remains; there is something sacred in the human dust; it is not like other matter, though sown in corruption; we may thank God that the feeling still lingers in our souls, in spite of that contempt for the body which is sometimes manifested by a reckless science on the one hand, or a hyper-spiritual philosophy on the other.
It is very important to bear in mind, that to the early view there could be no distinctions such as we now make. It was all death, whatever it might include, as opposed to acting, moving being; and when very early there arose the thought of a dwelling in the earth (as an underworld), of a Sheol or cavity, of a Hades or the Unseen—all arising from the act of burying or putting out of sight—this was not a state succeeding death, but the very world of the dead, the בֵּיתעוֹלָם, the House of Olam (Ecc_12:5), the House of Eternity, not as a figure for nonexistence, but as real continuous being, though in striking contrast with the busy, knowing (sense-knowing), remembering, loving, hating, upper life “beneath the sun” (Ecc_9:5-6). Superstition held that there was some mode of intercourse with these שוכני עפר, or dwellers in Sheol. There is little said about them in the Hebrew Scriptures, for there was little known that could be said; but there is an undercurrent of thought and feeling throughout the Old Testament which shows that they are never forgotten. They were dead, but still in being; they had not perished (per-iit, inter-iit, gone through, fallen out), become extinct, ceased to be. Hence they called them the רְפָאִים, the weak, the weary, the inactive, as the Homeric and the ante-Homeric Greek called them οἱ κάμοντες, and ἀμενηνὰ κάρηνα. In all this there was great logical inconsistency, bewilderment of conception, contradiction even of the sense, so far as the phenomenal body was concerned, but it was a holding fast of that idea of continuous being, in some way, which was from the beginning, and which the human mind never gave up until Christ came and poured light upon this dark Sheol, this gloomy Hades, or world of the unseen. The imagery everywhere was drawn, mainly from the last appearances in life, or from the associations of sepulchral acts, but the real underlying idea was never lost. Very early a better hope dawned upon the pious, or it came as a revelation from God, born in the travail of their earth-weary, rest-seeking souls, but it was mainly of a deliverance at some time from Sheol, or of blessedness therein as lying under the shadow of the divine protection. It was, however, still death, doom, μοῖρα, the great penalty, an idea expressed somehow in the most ancient tongues, Shemitic or Japhetic, with which we are acquainted. It was the great wrath for whose turning the pious dead are represented as waiting; as Job prays, “O that thou wouldst hide me in Sheol until thy wrath be past, עַד שׁוּב אַפֶּךָ (until thy wrath turn), that thou wouldst appoint me a time and then remember me” (Job_14:13).
From such a doom Enoch was spared. No grave received him. He disappeared from earth. He was not found, as the LXX. have rendered איננו, and as it is given in Heb_11:5; that is, his body was not found, though men, doubtless, made long search for him, as they did afterwards for the body of Elijah (2Ki_2:16-17). Enoch may be said to have shared in the great penalty in so far that for 365 years he bore a dying and corruptible body, and yet it is testified of him that he did not see death, Heb_11:5, that is, he did not enter into Hades, which is the real death, although the change that his body must have undergone in the translation was greater than that which passes upon the dissolving human frame. See the clear remarks of Dr. Murphy on איננו, in his excellent Commentary on Genesis.
Dr. Lange has well distinguished between this Old Testament belief of a future life, or rather of continuous being, and the ζωὴ αἰώνιος, the eternal life, revealed by Christ. Great confusion arises from confounding the two, and the distinction becomes of great importance in refuting the reasoning of those who teach the annihilation of the wicked.
The word לקח here, though a common one, is to be noted as used in a strikingly similar connection in the account of Elijah (2Ki_2:9, אֶלָּקַח), Psa_49:15, “God shall redeem my soul from Sheol, for He shall take me,” יִקָּחֵנִי, and Psa_73:24 : “Thou wilt guide me by thy counsel, and afterwards take me (to) glory.” It is worthy of note, too, how exactly in Psa_73:24 the Hebrew אַחַר corresponds to the use of the cognate Arabic ַײ ֹ (Heb. אַהֲרִיתNum_23:10 et al.), the frequent Koranic and ante-Mohammedan word for the after or future life. In these two passages from the Psalms, לקח may not denote the hope of a translation, yet the similarity of context, which strongly seems to be suggested by the passage in Genesis, takes them clearly out of the Rationalist’s limitation to a mere worldly deliverance.—T. L.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Concerning the line of Seth, see the Exegetical annotations, No. 1.
2. Concerning the meaning of the image of Adam, see the Exegetical annotations, No. 3; as also for the significance of the names that here occur, No. 4.
3. Concerning the Macrobii, or the long-lived of the primitive time, see Exegetical annotations, No. 5. It ought to be considered that not only had death, as yet, failed to make his full breach upon them, but that, on the other hand, through their inward intercourse with God, their life-power had been wonderfully advanced in the opposite direction of the transformation form. Concerning the chronology, see No. 5.
4. For the meaning of Enoch, see No. 7, Exegetical annotations. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, is a very ancient witness: 1. For the degrees of piety; 2. for the truth of the mystical or the mysterious core of religion, communion with God; 3. for that assurance of eternal life that wells out of a life of faith and peace in God. In this is he, in a special sense, a type of the life of Christ: 1. His divine human walk; 2. his glorification and translation to heaven. Concerning the language of Lamech, see No. 8.
5. For the meaning of Noah, see the extracts from Starke below. According to Heb_11:7, Enoch is the mediator of the idea of a revelation of deliverance, or of salvation from judgment.
6. A main point of view of the Holy Scriptures and of the religion of revelation, is the significance of the personal life. This presents itself in the genealogies as they stand in their simple grandeur even to this day. It is like the granite of the earth in a highland landscape.
7. Enoch, Elijah, Christ, three stages in the unfolding of the facts of the world beyond, of the higher life of the world beyond, of its region of glory, and of the wonderful transition to it, as well as of the belief in those facts. In Christ the perfection of what is here prefigured.
8. Noah and his house a figure of the pious of the last time (Mat_24:34).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
The race of Adam, according to the ground-features of its life: 1. Birth; 2. marriage and the family; 3. death.—The constant repetition, and he died, a powerful memento mori. [Through this constant refrain, and he died, the reading of this chapter is said to have awakened men to repentance.]—Adam, through Seth and Noah, the ancestor of the human race: 1. In the continuance of the divine vocation; 2. of sinfulness, pain, and labor upon the earth; 3. of strife with sin: Seth, Enoch, Lamech, Noah; 4. of the prospect of the future of the perfected Seth (meaning compensation and established), of the perfected Enoch (devoted), of the perfected Noah (rest-bringer).—The conflict of life with death in the line of the Sethites: 1. How it holds back death through the blessing of piety (the long-living); 2. how it ever opposes to death new generations (and he begat sons and daughters); 3. how it finds a way of life beyond death (Enoch).—Seth as the again-risen Abel.—The time of Enosh, that is, of the feeling of human weakness, as a time of the first glorifying of the divine power and covenant faithfulness.—The names of the Sethites (see above).—Enoch the mediator of the faith of a new life in the world beyond (Heb_11:5-6), on the ground of the experience of the divine complacency (justification in its first form), through faith, that is, in the unfolding of his communion with God, and in the bearing of his prophetic testimony against ungodliness (Jude).—Enoch’s walk with God and his blessing.—The long life of Enoch and the long life of Methuselah.—Enoch the wonderful height in the experience of the blessing, in the race of the blessing.—Enoch a turning-point in the primeval history, as Elijah in the history of Israel, and as the ascension to heaven of Christ in the history of the human race generally.—The history of Enoch the first germ of the doctrine of a heavenly inheritance.—Enoch as a type of Christ.—The Cainitic Lamech and the Sethitic Lamech.—Lamech’s word of confidence in respect to Noah, 1. a delusion, and yet, 2. no delusion.—The line of the Sethites and the line of the Cainites: 1. Worldliness; spirituality; 2. pride and confidence; sorrow and patience; 3. an end, with terror; a newer, fairer beginning of life.—Noah as a type of Christ.—Adam the ancestor of two lines: a pious and a godless.—Noah the ancestor of three lines: a line of faith and worship, a line of human culture, and a line of sensual barbarity.
Starke: It is this genealogical record that has been preserved by God’s wonderful care, and is to be found, 1 Chronicles 1, Matthew 1, Luke 3.—Cramer: There has always been a church of God, and will remain even to the last day (Mat_16:18). The evangelical religion is the oldest and the truest of all.
Gen_5:3. All men are by nature children of wrath, and stained with the hereditary sin (Eph_2:3).—Long life is also from God; well for him who seeks to apply it to his honor.—Osiander: We have lived long enough when we know how to learn Christ.
Gen_5:5. It is an old covenant: thou, O man, must die (Sir_14:18).—Cainan. He had (like Enoch) seen all the patriarchs.—The example of Enoch is a glorious proof that the marriage state can and ought to be holily maintained.—Whether now children and babes enjoy any such intimate intercourse with God, there are still degrees herein, so that husbands and fathers in Christ have thereby a much closer communion with God. Jewish, as well as some old patristic and papistical interpreters say, that he (Enoch) was carried into the earthly paradise, where he will remain to the end of the world, when he will come back and be slain by Antichrist, and thereupon rise again and be taken up into heaven. We may readily see, however, what a mere fable this is. Rather has he been taken up into this heavenly paradise (Luk_23:43).—Aim of Enoch’s translation: 1. Thereby was the doctrine that the good man was rewarded in a future life established as against the prevalent security of that day; 2. thereby, in the seventh from Adam, was there given a pattern which even to the time of the seventh trumpet should serve as an example to believers whom the day of Christ might find alive; 3. thereby Enoch was set before us as a type of Christ in his ascension. (Then follows a comparison of the translation of Enoch with the ascension of Christ.)—Methuselah. No one of the patriarchs reached a thousand years, for that number is a type of the perfection to which no man in this life can attain.—He died in the year 1656, and, therefore, in the year in which the flood broke in upon the world.—Noah (Luk_3:36; 1Pe_3:20; Heb_11:7). Noah is a glorious type of Christ: 1. In respect to his name: Noah signifies rest and peace, or consolation and comforting; so is Christ, too, our Prince of peace, who makes for us peace and tranquillity (Isa_9:6; Rom_5:1; Jer_6:16). 2. According to his threefold office: Noah was a prophet (2Pe_2:5), and announced many years beforehand the destruction of the first world and its sons, which was to befall them (Mat_24:25). Noah was a priest, for he offered sacrifice; Christ has offered himself (Heb_7:27). Noah prayed for the wicked world (Eze_14:14); so also is Christ our advocate (Rom_8:34; 1Jn_2:1; Heb_5:7). Noah blessed Shem and Japheth; so also Christ (Mar_10:16). Noah was a king, the head of his family and of the new world, the builder of an ark at God’s command: Christ was king and head of his threefold kingdom, the builder of the church (Psa_2:6).—The sons of Noah. They are not born in the order in which they here stand, but Japheth was the first-born (Gen_10:21), Shem the middle son (Gen_11:10), and Ham the youngest (Gen_9:24).
Schröder: Genealogies may be called the threads on which history, chronology, and everything else in the first book of Moses moves. The Adamitic genealogical table, Genesis 5, throws a bridge between the fall and the flood. In the plan of Genesis, the eye of Moses is firmly directed to Israel. The object of this constantly keeping the eye upon Israel, has for its ground the placing, in the most visible manner, before the eyes of the latest descendants, Jehovah’s covenant faithfulness in the outer as well as inner preservation and assistance of the woman’s seed. On this account the genealogies of the Old Testament, and of Genesis especially, form a part not to be overlooked in the great history of the divine assumptions of humanity before the incarnation of God in Christ.
Gen_5:1-2. According to Luk_3:38, man stands in a genealogical relation to God; his descent loses itself in the divine hand of the Creator (Act_17:28).
Gen_5:3-5. The significance of the time depends upon the significance of the person who is born, lives, and dies in it. The meaning of the time is nothing else than that there appears in it the birth and life of the human personality. To the mere dead number the coming man first gives life and content, and so too he first makes history.—Abel is murdered, Cain is cursed; and now Seth enters, a first birth, as it were, into history.—Val. Herberger: Adam and Eve may have wept long for the death of the pious Abel, and the wickedness of that wretched son Cain; but now God makes them to rejoice again in a pious child whom he presents to their eyes. Such vicissitudes of joy and sorrow befall all pious people. Be not, therefore, proud when it goes with thee according to thy heart’s wish; be not cast down though it may rain and snow crosses. God will again rejoice thee with a cheerful sunshine in thy long, wearisome domestic trouble.—Whether the rest of the patriarchs who followed were all first-born sons, is made doubtful by the case of Seth.—“From Adam onward to the patriarch Jacob, hath the Holy Spirit signified to us in what year each named ancestor, who propagated that line out of which Christ was to spring, begat that son who in turn was to become a specially-named ancestor in the course of descent.” Roos.—Seth’s genealogical register is the line of “the sons of God,” that is, of the true church. “With reverence and awe do I draw nigh to thee, O holy people who dwell under his shadow and before his presence, O thou light of the world, thou salt of the earth! Thou wast a chosen race, a patriarchal priesthood, to make known the virtues of Him who called thee.” Herder.—Luther: Eve, too, it is probable, lived to the eight hundredth year, and so must have seen a numerous race. How much care must she have had, how much industry, and labor, in visiting, dressing, and teaching, her children and her children’s children! The first oral fountain of oral and written traditions that have come down to us, could in this way maintain itself through the possibility of a personal converse between Lamech and Shem, between Shem and Abraham. The original undying destiny of the human race comes powerfully before us in the numbers of this genealogical register. That sharp appendage, and he died, forms a standing refrain of sorrow to the joyful picture of life that precedes.—Roos: So should the thought arise in us: I too must die, and after a shorter pilgrimage than that of these fathers; I too must watch.
Gen_5:6-20. Arabian stories concerning Seth and Jared, p. 111. Jared: an enigmatical name, out of which, however, as out of most of the Sethic names, there evidently enough breathes a tone of sorrow and of pain. Sharp contrast with the namings of the Cainites, which express might and pride.
Gen_5:21-23. Whilst the Enoch of Gen_4:17 bears upon himself the Cainitic consecration, and gives to the earthly his consecration (say rather receives it from the earthly), the Enoch of our chapter shows the consecration of God (Sir_44:15; Heb_11:5). The subjective side of patriarchalism is its faith, the objective the divine acceptance.—Luther: From this we take it that there was in Enoch a peculiar consolation of the Holy Spirit and an excellent and noble courage, so that with the highest confidence and boldness he bore himself against the church of Satan and the Cainites, in the presence of the other patriarchs. For to walk reverentially with God means not to roam in a desert, or to hide oneself in a corner, but to come forth according to his calling, and to bear himself bravely against the unrighteousness of Satan and the world. (In this, however, the question still remains, whether we are to think of Enoch as having the contemplative Johannean, or the zealous Petrine form; we may rather suppose the first than the second.)—Roos: We never find this mode of speech, to walk with God, after the giving of the law, but rather the terms perfect, upright. In the New Testament pious men are called holy (saints), and beloved of God. In this way there shines clearly before the eyes the difference of the divine economies, namely: before the law, and under the law, and under the grace of the New Testament. In respect to the language, to walk with God, it expresses the patriarchal piety in a very becoming and lovely manner. There were, at that day, no literally expressed prescriptions as to what ought to be done or left undone. God himself stood in place of all such prescriptions.—Hengstenberg: The main thing was that each should become a partaker of the life of God. When this took place, then had he eternal life, and the assurance of it in his consciousness. In all the Holy Scripture this term (translation) is used only of three persons: of Enoch in the old world, of Elijah in the old covenant, and of Christ in the new. The first is a “type of the second, and both are Old Testament figures” of the last.—Herder: The seventh from Adam cannot be without God in a world which scorns him; God forgot him not, but made him immortal and an everlasting monument of this divine truth.—Hengstenberg: Everything arbitrary must be far removed from a religion whose God is the unchangeable Jehovah; what God does in the case of one is, at the same time, a prediction of what he will do to all who occupy with him a like stand-point.—Baumgarten: When we confine our looks to the bare catalogue, we find, indeed, life followed close by death, but this opens up to us a series in which we see no close. But that this series has an actual conclusion, namely, the victory of life over death, is for the first time assured to us through the translation of Enoch.—Luther: So shines out, in the midst of this narration of the dead, like a fair and lovely star, the pleasing light of immortality. The old doctors of the church say: Abel confessed another life after death, for his blood cries out and is heard; Cain acknowledged another life before death, for he was afraid to die, and his soul foreboded that something more awaited him than this world’s unhappiness; Enoch confesses another life without death, for, out of this world’s misery, and without the pain of dying, he goes straight to everlasting life. In the Koran and among the Mohammedans Enoch bears the name of Edris. So also the heathen legends mention him under the names of Annak, Cannak, Nannak (for the further treatment of these stories, p. 119). Methuselah means either man of the arrow-shooting, because, by standing on his defence and using his skill in weapons, in these last times of the first world, he was able to resist the robberlike, murderous Cainites; or his name means man of the shoot or germ, that is, of a great posterity; one rich in children and in children’s children.—Val. Herberger: God can prolong our life, as in the case of Hezekiah. While Methuselah lived the great distress came not upon the world, for he could pray from the heart and keep back the wrath of God; but as soon as Methuselah’s white snow dissolves, and his gray hair descends into the grave, then grows the weather foul, the rain comes down, out swells the flood, and all the world must drown.—At the speech of Lamech, Gen_4:1, it was the wife whose mother-feelings sang joyfully together; in the passage before us (of the Sethic Lamech) we perceive the loud pulse of a father’s heart.—The advancing corruption of the time, and of his cotemporaries, give no doubtful coloring to his soul’s longing; on this dark background first falls that hard fate of eating bread in the sweat of the brow (Gen_3:17).—In such a consolation of a pious son did the old pious fathers find their rest.—Roos: From such a man must the patriarchs have been greatly comforted, and gained new courage. (Similar examples in the Old Testament, Moses, Samuel, Elias; in the New Testament time, John the Baptist, the Apostles; in modern times, Huss, Luther, and others.) It all presupposes Christ the middle point.—Theodoret names him (Noah) the other or second Adam.—Drechsler: Here, in the mention of Noah, there is an extension to the whole chapter in contrast to the previous concise declarations.—(Comparison of the three sons of Adam and the three sons of Noah.) Shem the first-born, the most like to his father, who carries farther on the golden thread; he is the representative of the divine principle in humanity, p. 125. The opposite views of Luther and Calvin respecting the declaration that Noah was five hundred years old. Luther: He lived so long unmarried, because, in that corrupt time, it was better to have no children than evil, degenerate ones; but then he may have become married from the admonition of the patriarchs, or the command of an angel. Calvin: It is not said that he had hitherto been unmarried, nor in what year he began to be a father, but, on the occasion of noting the point of time when the future flood is announced to him, Moses adds that at this time he had already become the father of three sons [this explanation, however, is not in harmony with the allegations of a middle time which he cites as analogous to those in our chapter].—Herder: Remarkable history of humanity; the form it ever presents. These, under the curse are singing their song of jubilee; those others, under the blessing are full of sighs. These are building, singing, inventing; those live, bring up children, and walk with God. The number of the one class is ever growing more numerous, the gathering of the other grows ever less and less. It ends with one race, with one man, and the seven souls that are with him. So will it also be, says Christ, at the end of the days. Be not disheartened, little flock.—Luther: This chapter presents to us a form and image of the whole world. As, therefore, there may be seen in our chapter a fair form and image of the early world, so also is it God’s overwhelming wrath, and a most fearful ruin, that we behold in the fact that the whole race of these ten patriarchs perished, with the exception of only eight that survived.—The same: We ought not to think that these are common names of mean and common men, for, in fact, they are great heroes.—The same: Our world of to-day, the third, and still a world of mercy, how full of blasphemy and cruelty!—It must be punished with a flood of fire; for so prophesy the colors in the rainbow (then follows an interpretation of the three chief colors).
Gerlach: God himself stands at the head of the genealogical table, not merely as creator, as he is of all other beings, but as the father of men, as appears Luk_3:38. Not without purpose is there mentioned the divine origin of the human race at the very apex of this series. It contains the patriarchs that remained true to the covenant of God, and who, on that very account, are called the Sons of God (Gen_6:2).
Gen_5:5. “Who was like his image.” This expression contains no allusion to the fall, but there is rather indicated a continuance of the divine image according to the original position of man. As Adam was created in the divine image, so could he also beget a son who should be like to his own image. That the predominance of sin is inherited along with it, is taken for granted through the whole history (therefore is it here also indicated, although the author rightly saw that here, in the representation of the higher Sethic line, and in accordance with its connections, there should be a special emphasis given to the continuance of a side of light in humanity).—Enoch: Most worthy of note as a very ancient witnessing to the earliest human race of a blessed eternal life.
Lisco: Enoch, that is, devoted. He is the seventh from Adam, wherein there may be some indication that after the six long world-times of sin and death, there should be introduced, in the seventh period of the world, through one, that is, Christ, a divine life, with freedom from death [“Calculus of the Biblical Chronology,” p. 23].
Calwer Handbuch: Seth. Eve looks upon him as a present from God; but thinks no more, as in the case of Cain, that she actually has the Lord. Still does her faith behold a new beginning for the promise, of the seed of the woman, bearing in itself the pledge of its sure ongoing, whilst she believingly receives this “other seed” from the hand of God. [Indication that in the birth of Cain she had ascribed to herself too great a share.]—Methuselah, the eighth from Adam, lives nearly one hundred years cotemporaneously with Adam, whilst Noah lives eighty-four years with Enoch, the grandson of Adam, and, in the other direction, was one hundred and twenty-eight years cotemporaneous with Terah the father of Abraham.—Abel died early a violent death; Adam was the first who died a natural death (?); fifty-seven years after him was Enosh translated. A threefold way. [Enoch. Under the name of Idris (learned man) he is said to have been the inventor of letters and writing, of arithmetic, and astronomy.]—Bunsen, on the word of Lamech, Gen_5:29 : This indicates very hard times and great disturbing events of nature, in the last period of the old world. Men labor hard, but nothing thrives. They toil in vain; the crop is little, or it is wholly lost. Now there is a breathing again (according to the root-meaning of naham (נחם) and the Arabic usage) after the fruitless labor. [Here, in the first place, it is overlooked that the object of Lamech’s lamentation has an ethical background (a commencing corruption), and in the second place, that the destined limitation of that old period through a sudden and destroying flood excludes earlier catastrophes.]—From the name of the Cainite Mahujael, Gen_4:18 : “Detruit de Dieu,” and with reference to a Lydian and Indian tradition, Von Rougemont concludes that: sa génération a été en majeure partie enlevée par une effroyable sécheresse, which lasted at least eighteen years.Histoire de la Terre, p. 98. [In reference, however, to this meaning of the name Mahujael, it is to be remarked that it would be contrary to the analogy of the Cainitic names].—Taube: What Enoch’s life and destiny proclaims to us: 1. That a godly life in faith pleases God; 2. that God in his grace rewards it with the gift of everlasting life.—The name of Noah: 1. A significant index to the state of soul of the Sethites and of all children of God; 2. a figure of Christ.—Hofmann (p. 40): Fathers ever hope for deliverance in their sons. [Then follows a reference to Seth, Enosh, Enoch, Noah.]
Footnotes:
[1][Gen_5:5.—אֱנוֹשׁ. In general little reliance can be placed upon the etymological significance of these early names as given by the lexicographers, whether we regard them as purely Hebrew, or as having been transferred from some older Shemitic tongue. In a few of them, however, there appear contrasts that can hardly be mistaken. Thus, for example, between Seth the established, the firm, and Enosh the weak, the frail (βροτός, mortalis, homo), the contrast is similar to that between Cain and Abel (gain, as the promised seed, and vanity or disappointment), as though the hopes of men, from generation to generation, were alternately rising and falling.—T. L.]
[2][Gen_5:12.—מַהֲלַלְאֵל: Praise of God, or one who praises God. This is very plain, and seems to be followed by another contrast in the name יֶרֶד, a descending, whether it denotes degeneracy, despondency, or a plain, pious humility without the high rapture which seems to be indicated in that of the predecessor.—T. L.]
[3][Gen_5:18.—חֲנוֹךְ: rendered devoted, initiated. This, however, seems to be a later sense of the root, although it is well applicable to the one to whom it is applied. From the Arabic there may be got the sense of instructed, learned, and from this came the notions of the Mohammedans and later Jews respecting Enoch’s great scientific attainments, as also, perhaps, the other name, Edris, by which he is mentioned in the Koran, though it would seem also as though they most unchronologically confounded him with Ezra.—T. L.]
[4][Gen_5:22.—יּחְהַלֵּךְ. Compare the similar phrase Gen_17:1; Gen_24:40; Gen_48:15, to walk before God. Here and in Gen_6:9 to walk with God. In both cases it denotes concord, and the LXX. were justified in rendering it εὐηρέστησε “pleased God.”—T. L.]
[5][Gen_5:29.—יְנַחֲמֵנוּ. The Jewish interpreters regard this as explanatory of the name Noah (rest), but not its etymological ground. Otherwise, says Rashi, he should have been called מְנַחֵם, Menahem. They also distinguish between etymology in the sound, and in the sense. They say (see Aben Ezra) that Noah invented instruments of agriculture (as the son of the Cainite Lamech invented weapons of war), and thus delivered their agriculture, in some measure, from the barrenness which had been brought upon it by the curse, and by bad tillage. This is grounded by them on the words of Lamech, and on what was said of Noah after the flood, that he was אִישׁ הָאֲדָמָה, γεωργὸς, agricola, Gen_9:20, a husbandman. יְנַחֲמֵנוּ, shall comfort, rather, shall revive, restore, make us breathe again, like the Greek ἀναψύχω. Compare Psa_23:4 : “Thy rod and thy staff shall revive me.” It is the good shepherd restoring to life and vigor the fainting, dying sheep—to bring back the gasping breath. Hence the Syriac ܒܘܰܚܳܘܳܠܐ for the resurrection. It is not the sense of consolation, as some give it, but resuscitation, revivification.—T. L.]
[6] [Besides the reasons given by Lange against the idea of any lesser time being denoted by שָׁנָה, there are others arising from the etymology of the word. This makes it the most fixed and most distinct of all the measures of time. Not only in the Hebrew, but in the Greek, the radical idea of the word for year is repetition, or a coming over again in a second recurrence of the same astronomical series. Thus the primary sense of the verb שׁנה is to repeat, to do a second time; hence the word for the numeral two. In Greek there can be no doubt that ἔτος has the same idea, as we see it in Hom. Odyss. i. 16, ἔτος ἦλθε περιπλομένων ἐνιαυτῶν. Compare it with the particle ἔτι (Lat. et, iterum, iterare, Saxon yet, addition, repetition). So also in the word ἐνιαυτός (that which returns into itself), an etymology which, though condemned by some, is not to be rashly rejected. In harmony with this is the Latin annus, a ring, or circle. So the Gothic iar, jar, jer, the old Anglo-Saxon gear, German jahr, English year, seem all to carry the same thought, that which comes again,—being connected with the Greek ἔαρ (Latin ver), the spring, the repetition, the new life, and not with the indefinite Greek καιρός, as some lexicographers suppose. So marked a word carrying this distinct conception in all these languages, would be the last one to be used for any smaller, or less marked division, and this view is confirmed by the fact that neither in the Hebrew writings nor anywhere else do we ever find any such substitution. Years in the plural, שָׁנוֹת, seems sometimes to be used for larger designations, or for æonic time; as in such expressions as שְׁנוֹת יְמִין עֶלְיוֹן, “years of the right hand of the Most High,” Psa_77:10, or “thy years, שְׁנוֹתֶיךָ, are for all generations,” Psa_102:24; though even in these cases it may have its fixed astronomical measure, denoting God’s doings in time and human history.
We get a confirmation of these views by considering how the whole idea of time is divided for us into the astronomical and the æonic,—the former measured by the sun and other heavenly bodies, the latter above such measurement, entirely independent of it, having its division from inward evolutions, and thus presenting a higher and an independent chronology of its own. In astronomical time the day is the unit, complete in itself with its dual evolution, and having no smaller astronomical subdivisions, although it may be cut up into hours and watches by arbitrary numberings. In æonic time, the single αἰών or olam is the unit, and the greater measures are made by its reduplications and retriplications, its ages of ages (αἰῶνες τῶν αἰώνων) and worlds of worlds. We see from this why, of all astronomical measures, the day is used to represent the æonic unit, and to stand for an αἰὼν or an olam, as in the ἡμέρα αἰῶνος of 2Pe_3:18. From its peculiar position as the unit in the one department, it becomes the most easy and natural term for this purpose in representing the higher chronology on the earthly scale. For the opposite reason, year and month are less fitted for such a parallelism; and hence we find the usage referred to so strongly verified in so many, perhaps in all, languages. A year is not only astronomical in itself, but internally divided by astronomical periods. Hence it is generally used for nothing longer or shorter than its own solar measurement. Everywhere, however, day is thus employed, not only in philosophical language where a magnus annus is artificially spoken of, but in common idioms, where we feel its natural propriety as used to denote any long internally completing, or self-evolving time, series, or cycle; as in that line of Virgil, Æn. vi. Genesis 745:
Donee longa dies perfecto temporis orbe,
or in that peculiar Latin phrase venire in diem, to be born, to come into the world, or in the still greater Scriptural phrases “before the day I am He,” Isa_43:13, or the ἡμέρα αἰῶνος already cited. We should feel it as a philological discord if year were thus used, whether in poetry, or in any other animated language. On the same ground it must appear as forced when any one would interpret שָׁנָה, ἔτος, ἐνιαυτός, jahr, year, of any shorter period. Besides, the Hebrews had two distinct names for months, neither of which is ever used in giving the lengths of lives, or in keeping the record of genealogies, although employed in the designation of festal times.—T. L.]
[7][In the excellent commentary on Genesis by Dr. James G. Murphy, of Belfast College (p. 196), there is a very clear and convincing comparison of the Hebrew text chronology with that of the Septuagint, the Samaritan, and Josephus. The internal evidence is shown to be decidedly in favor of the Hebrew from its proportional consistency. The numbers in the LXX. evidently follow a plan to which they have been conformed. This does not appear in the Hebrew, and it is greatly in favor of its being an authentic genealogical record. The numbers before the birth of a successor, which are chiefly important for the chronology, are enlarged in the LXX. by the addition of just one hundred years in each of six cases, making Adam 230 years old at the birth of Seth, Seth 205 at the birth of Enosh, and so on, whilst the sum-total of each life remains the same as in the Hebrew, with a slight exception of 25 years in the case of Lamech. The interest, here, is evident, to extend the total chronology without changing the other numbers of the macrobiology. It is not easy to imagine what motive could have led in the other direction, or to the shortening, if the original had been as given in the Septuagint; since all ancient nations have rather shown a disposition to lengthen their chronology. On physiological grounds, too, the Hebrew is to be preferred; since the length of the life does not at all require so late a manhood as those numbers would seem to intimate. There is no proof that these were all first-born sons. It was the line of the pious, of those that had the spiritual birth right. The unevenness of the Hebrew birth-figures, varying from 65 and 70 to 157, shows this, whilst the added 100 years, in each case, by the Septuagint, shows a design to bring them to some nearer proportional standard, grounded on some supposed physiological notion, and the unwarranted idea that each is a natural first-born. To all this must be added the fact that the Hebrew has the best claim to be regarded as the original text, from the well-known scrupulous, and even superstitious, care with which it has been textually preserved.—T. L.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 1. This is the book — ספר, translated book,…
1. This is the book — ספר, translated book, is not necessarily an extended treatise; it is simply a writing complete in itself, long or short. The “bill of divorcement” (Deu_24:1; Deu_24:3) is ספר. In this passage the word is applied to an ancient genealogical register, perhaps of the age of Noah, which the inspired author incorporates in his work.
In the likeness of God — Repeated from chapter 1:26, setting forth, in a single phrase, man’s original nature and character.
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The Book of the Generations of Adam, Gen_5:1 to Gen_6:8.
Here begins another of the main divisions of our volume. As observed in the Introduction, (p. 50,) it is not an account of the origin or creation of Adam, nor even of his oldest progeny, but of his posterity through the line of Seth, who is treated as having taken the place of Abel. Gen_4:25. It is our author’s habit to unfold a series of events connected as in a chain of causes and effects, and then to return and take up one or another for further development and detail. So in the following genealogy, the age, offspring, and death of each patriarch are given, and then the record returns in every case to narrate events in the lives of his descendants which transpired before his death.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 1. This is the book, &c.] The word rendered…
1. This is the book, &c.] The word rendered “book” (Heb. sêpher) is used of any written document. Our word “book” gives rather too much the meaning of a piece of literature. The word is often used in a much more general sense, e.g. Isa_50:1, “where is the bill (Heb. sêpher) of your mother’s divorcement?” Jer_32:10, “and I subscribed the deed (Heb. sêpher), and sealed it”; 2Sa_11:14, “David wrote a letter (Heb. sêpher) to Joab.” Here it is equivalent to “a written list.”
the generations] See note on Gen_2:4, “The generations of Adam,” i.e. the genealogy from Adam to Noah. LXX γενέσεως, Vulg. “generationis,” regarded the Hebrew word as singular.
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Adam] The proper name, Adam, not ha-adam = “the man” or “mankind.”
God created man] The words “God” (Elohim), “created” (bara), “in the likeness,” reproduce the distinctive language of Gen_1:26-28.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (1) This is the book of the generations of…
V.
PATRIARCHAL GENEALOGY FROM ADAM TO NOAH.
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(1) This is the book of the generations of Adam.—See on Gen_2:4, and Excursus on the Books of Generations.
In the likeness of God.—Man is now a fallen being, but these words are repeated to show that the Divine likeness was not therefore lost, nor the primæval blessing bestowed at his creation revoked. As man’s likeness to God does not mainly consist in moral innocence (see on Gen_1:26), it was not affected by the entrance into the world of sin, except so far as sin corrupted the vessel in which this great gift was deposited. (Comp. 2Co_4:7.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. H. Mackintosh 1880 · Public Domain Genesis 4 - 5
Genesis 4 - 5
As each section of the Book of Genesis opens before us, we are furnished with fresh evidence of the fact that we are travelling over, what a recent writer has well termed, "the seed-plot of the whole Bible;" and not only so, but the seed-plot of man’s entire history.
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Thus, in the fourth chapter, we have, in the persons of Cain and Abel, the first examples of a religious man of the world, and of a genuine man of faith. Born, as they were, outside of Eden, and being the sons of fallen Adam, they could have nothing, natural, to distinguish them, one from the other. They were both sinners. Both had a fallen nature. Neither was innocent. It is well to be clear in reference to this, in order that the reality of divine grace, and the integrity of faith, may be fully and distinctly seen. If the distinction between Cain and Abel were founded in nature, then it follows, as an inevitable conclusion, that they were not the partakers of the fallen nature of their father, nor the participators in the circumstances of his fall; and, hence, there could be no room for the display of grace, and the exercise of faith.
Some would teach us that every man is born with qualities and capacities which, if rightly used, will enable him to work his way back to God. This is a plain denial of the fact so clearly set forth in the history now before us. Cain and Abel were born, not inside, but outside of Paradise. They were the sons, not of innocent, but of fallen Adam. They came into the world as the partakers of the nature of their father; and it mattered not in what ways that nature might display itself, it was nature still - fallen, ruined, irremediable nature. "That which is born of the flesh is (not merely fleshly, but) flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is, (not merely spiritual, but) spirit." (John 3)
If ever there was a fair opportunity for the distinctive qualities, capacities, resources, and tendencies of nature to manifest themselves, the lifetime of Cain and Abel furnished it. If there were ought in nature, whereby it could recover its lost innocence, and establish itself again within the bounds of Eden, this was the moment for its display. But there was nothing of kind. They were both lost. They were "flesh. They were not innocent. Adam lost his innocence and never regained it. He can only be looked at as the head of a fallen race, who, by his "disobedience," were made "sinners." (Rom. 5: 19) He became, so far as he was personally concerned, the corrupt source, from whence have emanated the corrupt streams of ruined and guilty humanity - the dead trunk from which have shot forth the branches of a dead humanity, morally and spiritually dead.
True, as we have already remarked, he himself was made a subject of grace, and the possessor and exhibitor of a lively faith in a promised Saviour; but this was not anything natural, but something entirely divine. And, inasmuch as it was not natural, neither was it within the range of nature’s capacity to communicate it. It was not, by any means, hereditary. Adam could not bequeath nor impart his faith to Cain or Abel. His possession thereof was simply the fruit of love divine. It was implanted in his soul by divine power; and he had not divine power to communicate it to another. Whatever was natural Adam could, in the way of nature, communicate; but nothing more. And seeing that he, as a father, was in a condition of ruin, his son could only be in the same. As is the begetter, so are they also that are begotten of him. They must, of necessity, partake of the nature of him from whom they have sprung. "as is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy." (1 Cor. 15: 48)
Nothing can be more important, in its way, than a correct understanding of the doctrine of federal headship. If my reader will turn, for a moment, to Rom. 5: 12-21, he will find that the inspired apostle looks at the whole human race as comprehended under two heads. I do not attempt to dwell on the passage; but merely refer to it, in connection with the subject in hand. The fifteenth chapter of first Corinthians will also furnish instruction of a similar character. In the first man, we have sin, disobedience, and death. In The Second man, we have righteousness, obedience, and life. As we derive a nature from the former, so do we also from the latter. No doubt, each nature will display, in each specific case, its own peculiar energies; it will manifest in each individual possessor thereof, its own peculiar powers. Still, there is the absolute possession of a real, abstract, positive nature.
Now, as the mode in which we derive a nature from the first man is by birth, so the mode in which we derive a nature from the Second man is by new birth. Being born, we partake of the nature of the former; being "born again," we partake of the nature of the latter. A newly born infant, though entirely incapable of performing the act which reduced Adam to the condition of a fallen being, is, nevertheless, a partaker of his nature; and so, also, a newly born child of God - a newly regenerated soul, though having nothing whatever to do with the working out of the perfect obedience of "the man Christ Jesus," is, nevertheless, a partaker of His nature. True it is that, attached to the former nature, there is sin; and attached to the latter, there is righteousness. man’s sin, in the former case; God’s righteousness in the latter: yet, all the while, there is actual, bona fide participation of a real nature, let the adjuncts be what they may. The child of Adam partakes of the human nature and its adjuncts; the child of God partakes of the divine nature and its adjuncts. The former nature is according to "the will of man," (John 1) the latter is according to "the will of God;" as St. James, by the Holy Ghost, teaches us, "Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth, (James 1: 18)
From all that has been said, it follows, that Abel was not distinguished from his brother Cain by anything natural. The distinction between them was not grounded upon ought in their nature or circumstances, for, as to these, "there was no difference." What, therefore, made the vast difference? The answer is as simple as the gospel of the grace of God can make it. The difference was not in themselves, in their nature, or their circumstances; it lay, entirely, in their sacrifices. This makes the matter most simple, for any truly convicted sinner - for any one who truly feels that he not only partakes of a fallen nature, but is himself, also, a sinner. The history of Abel opens, to such an one, the only true ground of his approach to, his standing before, and his relationship with, God. It teaches him, distinctly, that he cannot come to God on the ground of anything in, of, or pertaining to, nature; and he must seek, outside himself, and in the person and work of another, the true and everlasting basis of his connection with the Holy, the Just, and only True God. The eleventh chapter of Hebrews sets the whole subject before us, in the most distinct and comprehensive way. "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice (pleiona thusian) than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God bearing witness (parturountos) to his gifts; and by it he being dead yet speaketh." Here we are taught that it was, in no wise, a question as to the men, but only as to their "Sacrifice" - it was not a question as to the offerer, but as to his offering. Here lay the grand distinction between Cain and Abel. My reader cannot be too simple in his apprehension of this point, for therein lies involved the truth as to any sinner’s standing before God.
And, now, let us enquire what the offerings were. "And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto Jehovah. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fruit thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering; but unto Cain and to his offering, he had not respect." (Gen. 4: 3-5) This sets the difference clearly before us: Cain offered Jehovah the fruit of a cursed earth, and that, moreover, without any blood to remove the curse. He presented "An unbloody sacrifice," simply because he had no faith. Had he possessed that divine principle, it would have taught him, even at this early moment, that "Without shedding of blood, there is no remission." (Heb 9) This is a great cardinal truth. The penalty of sin is death. Cain was a sinner, and, as such, death stood between him and Jehovah. But, in his offering, there was no recognition whatever of this fact. There was no presentation of a sacrificed life, to meet the claims of divine holiness, or to answer to his own true condition as a sinner. He treated Jehovah as though He were, altogether, such an one as himself, who could accept the sin-stained fruit of a cursed earth.
All this, and much more, lay involved in Cain’s "unbloody sacrifice." He displayed entire ignorance, in reference to divine requirements, in reference to his own character and condition, as a lost and guilty sinner, and in reference to the true state of that ground, the fruit of which he presumed to offer. No doubt, reason might say, "what more acceptable offering could a man present, than that which he had produced by the labour of his hands, and the sweat of his brow?" Reason, and even man’s religious mind, may think thus; but God thinks quite differently; and faith is always sure to agree with God’s thoughts. God teaches, so faith believes, that there must be a sacrificed life, else there can be no approach to God.
Thus, when we look at the ministry of the Lord Jesus, we see, at once, that, had He not died upon the cross, all His services would have proved utterly unavailing as regards the establishment of our relationship with God. True, "He went about doing good" all His life; but it was His death that rent the veil. (Matt. 27: 61) Nought but His death could have done so. Had he continued, to the present moment, "going about doing good," the veil would have remained entire, to bar the worshipper’s approach into" the holiest of all." Hence we can see the false ground on which Cain stood as an offerer and a worshipper. An unpardoned sinner coming into the presence of Jehovah, to present "an unbloody sacrifice," could only be regarded as guilty of the highest degree of presumption. True, he had toiled to produce his offering; but what of that? Could a sinner’s toil remove the curse and stain of sin Could it satisfy the claims of an infinitely holy God! Could it furnish a proper ground of acceptance for a sinner? Could it set aside the penalty which was due to sin? Could it rob death of its sting, or the grave of its victory? Could it do any or all of these things? Impossible. "Without shedding of blood is no remission." Cain’s "unbloody sacrifice," like every other unbloody sacrifice, was not only worthless, but actually abominable, in the divine estimation. It not only demonstrated his entire ignorance of his own condition, but also of the divine character. "God is not worshipped with men’s hands as though he needed anything." And yet Cain thought he could be thus approached. And every mere religionist thinks the same. Cain has had many millions of followers, from age to age. Cain-worship has abounded all over the world. It is the worship of every unconverted son, and is maintained by every false system of religion under the sun.
Man would fain make God a receiver instead of a giver; but this cannot be; for, "it is more blessed to give than to receive;" and, assuredly, God must have the more blessed place. "Without all contradiction, the less is blessed of the better." "Who hath first given to him?" God can accept the smallest gift from a heart which has learnt the deep truth contained in those words, "Of thine own have we given thee;" but, the moment a man presumes to take the place of the "first" giver, God’s reply is, "if I were hungry, I would not tell thee;" for "He is not worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all "life and breath and all things." The great Giver of "all things" cannot possibly "need anything." Praise is all that we can offer to God; but this can only offered in the full and clear intelligence that our sins are all put away; and this again can only be known by faith in the virtue of an accomplished atonement.
My reader may pause, here, and read prayerfully the following scriptures, namely, Psalm 1; Isaiah 1: 11-18; Acts 17: 22-34, in all of which he will find distinctly laid down the truth as to man’s true position before God, as also the proper ground of worship.
Let us now consider Abel’s sacrifice. "And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof." In other words, he entered, by faith, into the glorious truth, that God could be approached by sacrifice; that there was such a thing as a sinner’s placing the death of another between himself and the consequence of his sin, that the claims of God’s nature and the attributes of His character could be met by the blood of a spotless victim - a victim offered to meet God’s demands, and the sinner’s deep necessities. This is, in short, the doctrine of the cross, in which alone the conscience of a sinner can find repose, because, therein, God is fully glorified.
Every divinely convicted sinner must feel that death and judgement are before him, as "the due reward of his deeds;" nor can he, by ought that he can accomplish, alter that destiny. He may toil and labour; he may, by the sweat of his brow, produce an offering; he may make vows and resolutions; he may alter his way of life; he may reform his outward character; he may be temperate, moral, upright, and, in the human acceptation of the word, religious; he may, though entirely destitute of faith, read, pray, and hear sermons. In short, he may do anything, or everything which lies within the range of human competency; but, notwithstanding all, "death and judgement" are before him. He has not been able to disperse those two heavy clouds which have gathered upon the horizon. There they stand; and, so far from being able to remove them, by all his doings, he can only live in the gloomy anticipation of the moment Then they shall burst upon his guilty head. It is impossible for a sinner, by his own works, to place himself in life and triumph, at the other side of "death and judgement - yea, his very works are only performed for the purpose of preparing him, if possible, for those dreaded realities.
Here, however, is exactly where the cross comes in. In that cross, the convicted sinner can behold a divine provision for all his guilt and all his need. There, too, he can see death and judgement entirely removed from the scene, and life and glory set in their stead. Christ has cleared the prospect of death and judgement, so far as the true believer is concerned, and filled it with life, righteousness, and glory. "He hath abolished death, and brought life and incorruptibility to light, through the gospel." (2 Tim. 1: 10) He has glorified God in the putting away of that which would have separated us for ever, from His holy and blissful presence. "He has put away sin," and, hence it is gone. (Heb. 9: 26) all this is, in type, set forth in Abel’s "more excellent sacrifice." There was no attempt, on Abel’s part, to set aside the truth as to his own condition, and proper place as a guilty sinner - no attempt to turn aside the edge of the flaming sword, and force his way back to the tree of life - no presumptuous offering of an unbloody sacrifice" - no presentation of the fruit of a cursed earth to Jehovah - he took the real ground of a sinner, and, as such, set the death of a victim between him and his sins, and between his sins and the holiness a sin-hating God. This was most simple. Abel deserved death and judgement, but he found a substitute.
This is it with every poor, helpless, self-condemned, conscience-smitten sinner. Christ is his substitute, his ransom, his most excellent sacrifice, his ALL. Such an one will feel, like Abel, that the fruit of the ground could never avail for him; that were he to present to God the fairest fruits of earth, he would still have a sin-stained conscience, inasmuch as "without shedding of blood is no remission." The richest fruits, and the most fragrant flowers, in the greatest profusion, could not remove a single stain from the conscience. Nothing but the perfect sacrifice of the Son of God can give ease to the heart and conscience. All who by faith lay hold of that divine reality, will enjoy a peace which the world can neither give nor take away. It is faith which puts the soul in present possession of this peace. "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5: 1) "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain."
It is not a question of feeling, as so many would make it. It is entirely a question of faith in an accomplished fact, faith wrought in the soul of a sinner, by the power of the Holy Ghost. This faith is something quite different from a mere feeling of the heart, or an assent of the intellect. Feeling is not faith. Intellectual assent is not faith. Some would make faith to be the mere assent of the intellect to a certain proposition. This is fearfully false. It makes the question of faith human, whereas it is really divine. It reduces it to the level of man, whereas it really comes from God Faith is not a thing of today or tomorrow. It is an imperishable principle, emanating from an eternal source, even God Himself; it lays hold of God’s truth, and sets the soul in God’s presence.
Mere feeling and sentimentality can never rise above the source from whence they emanate; and that source in self; but faith has to do with God and His eternal word, and is a living link, connecting the heart that possesses it with God mho gives it. Human feelings, however intense; human sentiments, however refined, could not connect the soul with God. They are neither divine nor eternal, but are human and evanescent. They are like Jonah’s gourd, which sprang up in a night, and perished in a night. Not so faith. That precious principle partakes of all the value, all the power, and all the reality of the source from whence it emanates, and the object with which it has to do. It justifies the soul; (Rom. 5: 1) it purifies the heart; (Acts 15: 9) it works by love; (Gal. 5: 6) it overcomes the world. (1 John 5: 4) Feeling and sentiment never could accomplish such results; they belong to nature and to earth, faith belongs to God and to heaven; they are occupied with self, faith is occupied with Christ; they look inward and downward, faith looks outward and upward; they leave the soul in darkness and doubt, faith leads it into light and peace; :they have to do with one’s own fluctuating condition, faith has to do with God’s immutable truth, and Christ’s eternally enduring sacrifice.
No doubt, faith will produce feelings and sentiments spiritual feelings and truthful sentiments - but the fruits of faith must never be confounded with faith "itself. I am not justified by feelings, nor yet by faith feelings, but simply by faith. And why? Because faith believes God when He speaks; it takes Him at His word; it apprehends Him as He has revealed Himself in the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is life, righteousness, and peace. To apprehend God as He is, is the sum of all present and eternal blessedness. When the soul finds out God, it has found out all it can possibly need, here or hereafter; but He can only be known by His own revelation, and by the faith which He Himself imparts, and which, moreover, always sees divine revelation as its proper object.
Thus, then, we can, in some measure, enter into the meaning and power of the statement, "By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain." Cain had no faith, and, therefore, he offered an unbloody sacrifice. Abel had faith, and, therefore, he offered both "blood, and fat," which, in type, set forth the presentation of the life, and also the inherent excellency of the Person of Christ. "The blood," set forth the former; "the fat," shadowed forth the latter. Both blood and fat were forbidden to be eaten, under the Mosaic economy. The blood is the life; and man, under law, had no title to life. But, in the sixth of John, we are taught, that unless we eat blood, we have no life in us. Christ is the life. There is not a spark of life outside of Him. ALL out of Christ is death. "In him was life," and in none else.
Now, He gave up His life on the cross; and, to that life, sin was, by imputation, attached, when the blessed One was nailed to the cursed tree. Hence, in giving up His life, He gave up, also, the sin attached thereto, so that it is, effectually, put away, having been left in His grave from which He rose triumphant, in the power of a new life, to which righteousness as distinctly attaches itself, us did sin to that life which He gave up on the cross. This will help us to an understanding of an expression used by our blessed Lord, after His resurrection, "a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see we have." He did not say, "flesh and blood;" because, in resurrection, He had not assumed, into His sacred person, the blood which He had shed out upon the cross, as an atonement for sin. "The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood which maketh an atonement for the soul." (Lev. 17: 11) Close attention to this point will have the effect of deepening, in our souls, the sense of the completeness of the putting away of sin, by the death of Christ; and we know that whatever tends to deepen our sense of that glorious reality, must, necessarily, tend to the fuller establishment of our peace, and to the more effectual promotion of the glory of Christ, as connected with our testimony and service.
We have, already, referred to a point of much interest and value, in the history of Cain and Abel, and that is, the entire identification of each with the offering which he presented. My reader cannot possibly bestow too much attention upon this. The question, in each case, was not as to the person of the offerer; but, entirely, as to the character of his offering. Hence, of Abel we read that "God testified of his gifts." He did not bear witness to Abel, but to Abel’s sacrifice; and this fixes, distinctly, the proper ground of a believer’s peace and acceptance before God.
There is a, constant tendency, in the heart, to ground our peace and acceptance upon something in or about ourselves even though we admit that that something is wrought by the Holy Ghost. Hence arises the constant looking in, when the Holy Ghost would ever have us looking out. The question for every believer is not, "what am I" but, "what is Christ?" Having come to God "in the name of Jesus," he is wholly identified with Him, and accepted in His name, and, moreover, can no more be rejected than the One in whose name he has come. Before ever a question can be raised as to the feeblest believer, it must be raised as to Christ Himself. But this latter is clearly impossible, and thus the security of the believer is established upon a foundation which nothing can possibly move. Being in himself a poor worthless sinner, he has come in the name of Christ, he is identified with Christ, accepted in and as Christ, bound up in the same bundle of life with Christ. God testifies, not of him, but of his gift, and his gift is Christ. ALL this is most tranquillising and consolatory. It is our happy privilege to be able, in the confidence of faith, to refer every objection, and every objector, to Christ, and His finished atonement. ALL our springs are in Him. In Him we boast all the day long. Our confidence is not in ourselves, but in Him who hath wrought everything for us. We hang on His name, trust in His work, gaze on His Person, and wait for His coming.
But the carnal mind, at once, displays its enmity against all this truth which so gladdens and satisfies the heart of a believer. Thus it was with Cain. "He was very wroth, and his countenance fell." That which filled Abel with peace, filled Cain with wrath. Cain in unbelief, despised the only way in which a sinner could come to God. He refused to offer blood, without which there can be no remission; and, then, because he was not received, in his sins, and because Abel was accepted, in his gift, "he was wroth, and his countenance fell." And yet, how else could it be? He should either be received with his sins, or without them; but God could not receive him with them, and he would not bring the blood which alone maketh atonement; and, therefore, he was rejected, and, being rejected, he manifests in his ways, the fruits of corrupt religion. He persecutes and murders the true witness - the accepted, justified man - the man of faith; and, in so doing, he stands as the model and forerunner of all false religionists, in every age. At all times, and in all places, men have shown themselves more ready to persecute on religious grounds, than on any other. This is Cain-like. Justification - full, perfect, unqualified justification, by faith only, makes God everything, and man nothing: and man does not like this; it causes his countenance to fall, and draws out his anger. Not that he can give any reason for his anger; for it is not, as we have seen, a question of man at all, but only of the ground on which he appears before God. Had Abel been accepted on the ground of ought in himself, then, indeed, Cain’s wrath, and his fallen countenance, would have had some just foundation; but, inasmuch as he was accepted, exclusively, on the ground of his offering; and, inasmuch as it was not to him, but to his gift, that Jehovah bore testimony, his wrath was entirely without any proper basis. This is brought out in Jehovah’s word to Cain:" If thou doest well, (or, as the LXX reads it, if thou offer correctly, (orthos prosenegkes) shalt thou not be accepted?" The well-doing had reference to the offering. Abel did well by hiding himself behind an acceptable sacrifice. Cain did badly by bringing an offering without blood; and all his after-conduct was but the legitimate result of his false worship.
"And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." Thus has it ever been; the Cains have persecuted and murdered the Abels. At all times, man and his religion are the same; faith and its religion are the same: and wherever they have met, there has been conflict.
However, it is well to see that Cain’s act of murder was the true consequence - the proper fruit - of his false worship. His foundation was bad, and the superstructure erected thereon was also bad. Nor did he stop at the act of murder; but having heard the judgement of God thereon, despairing of forgiveness through ignorance of God, he went forth from His blessed presence, and built a city, and had in his family the cultivators of the useful and ornamental sciences-agriculturists, musicians, and workers in metals. Through ignorance of the divine character, he pronounced his sin too great to be pardoned.* It was not that he really knew his sin, but that he knew not God. He fully exhibited the terrible fruit of the fall in the very thought of God to which he gave utterance. He did not want pardon, because he did not want God. He had no true sense of his own condition; no aspirations after God; no intelligence as to the ground of a sinner’s approach to God. He was radically corrupt - fundamentally wrong; and all he wanted was to get out of the presence of God, and lose himself in the world and its pursuits. Be thought he could live very well without God, and he therefore set about decorating the world as well as be could, for the purpose of making it a respectable place, and himself a respectable man therein, though in God’s view it was under the curse, and he was a fugitive and a vagabond.
{*The word used by Cain occurs in Ps. 32: 1 whose transgression is forgiven. The LXX renders it by aphethenai, to be remitted.}
Such was "the way of Cain in which way millions are, at this moment, rushing on. Such persons are not, by any means, divested of the religious element in their character. They would like to offer something to God; to do something for Him. They deem it right to present to Him the results of their own toil. They are ignorant of themselves, ignorant of God; but with all this there is the diligent effort to improve the world; to make life agreeable in various ways; to deck the scene with the fairest colours. God’s remedy to cleanse is rejected, and man’s effort to improve is put in its place. This is "the way of Cain." (Jude 11)
And, my reader, you have only to look around you to see how this "WAY is prevailing at the present moment. Though the world is stained with the blood of "a greater than" Abel, even with the blood of Christ; yet see what an agreeable place man seeks to make of it As in Cain’s day, the grateful sounds of "the harp and organ," no doubt, completely drowned, to man’s ear, the cry of Abel’s blood; so now, man’s ear is filled with other sounds than those which issue from Calvary; and his eye filled with other objects than a crucified Christ. The resources of his genius, too, are put forth to render this world a hot-house, in which are produced, in their rarest form, all the fruits for which nature so eagerly longs. And not merely are the real wants of man, as a creature, supplied, but the inventive genius of the human mind has been set to work for the purpose of devising things, which, the moment the eye sees, the heart desires, and not only desires, but imagines that life would be intolerable without them. Thus, for instance, some years ago, people were content to devote three or four days to the accomplishing of a journey of one hundred miles; but now they can accomplish it in three or four hours; and not only so, but they will complain sadly if they happen to be five or ten minutes late. In fact, man must be saved the trouble of living. He must travel without fatigue, and he must hear news without having to exercise patience for it. He will lay iron rails across the earth, and electric wires beneath the sea, as if to anticipate, in his own way, that bright and blissful age, when "there shall be no more sea."*
{*True, the Lord is using all those things for the furtherance of His own gracious ends; and the Lord’s servant can freely use them also; but this does not hinder our seeing the spirit which originates and characterises them.}
In addition to all this, there is abundance of religion, so called; but, alas charity itself is compelled to harbour the apprehension, that very much of what passes for religion is but a screw in the vast machine, which has been constructed for man’s convenience, and man’s exaltation. Man would not be without religion. It would not be respectable; and, therefore, he is content to devote one-seventh of his time to religion; or, as he thinks and professes, to his eternal interests; and then be has six-sevenths to devote to his temporal interests; but whether he works for time or eternity, it is for himself, in reality. such is "the way of Cain." Let my reader ponder it well. Let him see where this way begins, whither it tends, and where it terminates.
How different the way of the man of faith! Abel felt and owned the curse; he saw the stain of sin, and, in the holy energy of faith, offered that which met it, and met it thoroughly - met it divinely. He sought and found a refuge in God Himself; and instead of building a city on the earth, he found but a grave in its bosom. The earth, which on its surface displayed the genius and energy of Cain and his family, was stained underneath with the blood of a righteous man. Let the man of the world remember this; let the man of God remember it; let the worldly-minded Christian remember it. The earth which we tread upon is stained by the blood of the Son of God. The very blood which justifies the Church condemns the world. The dark shadow of the cross of Jesus may be seen by the eye of faith, looming over all the glitter and glare of this evanescent world. "The fashion of this world passeth away." It will soon all be over, so far as the present scene is concerned. "The way of Cain" will be followed by "the error of Balaam," in its consummated form; and then will come "the gainsaying of Core;" and what then "The pit" will open its mouth to receive the wicked, and close it again, to shut them up in "blackness of darkness for ever." (Jude 13)
In full confirmation of the foregoing lines, we may run the eye over the contents of Chapter 5 and find therein the illuminating record of man’s weakness, and subjection to the rule of death. He might live for hundreds of years, and "beget sons and daughters;" but, at last, it must be recorded that "he died." "Death reigned from Adam to Moses." "It is appointed unto men once to die." Man cannot get over this. He cannot, by steam, or electricity, or anything else within the range of his genius, disarm death of its terrible sting. He cannot, by his energy, set aside the sentence of death, although he may produce the comforts and luxuries of life.
But whence came this strange and dreaded thing, death? Paul gives us the answer: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." (Rom. 5: 12) Here we have the origin of death. It came by sin. Sin snapped asunder the link which bound the creature to the living God; and, that being done, he was handed over to the dominion of death, which dominion he had no power whatever to shake off. And this, be it observed, is one of the many proofs of the fact of man’s total inability to meet God. There can be no fellowship between God and man, save in the power of life; but man is under the power of death; hence, on natural grounds, there can be no fellowship. Life, can have no fellowship with death, no more than light with darkness, or holiness with sin. Man must meet God on an entirely new ground, and on a new principle, even faith; and this faith enables him to recognise his own position, as "sold under sin," and, therefore, subject to death; while, at the same time, it enables him to apprehend God’s character, as the dispenser of a new life - life beyond the power of death - a life which can never be touched by the enemy, nor forfeited by us.
This it is which marks the security of the believer’s life - a risen, glorified Christ - a Christ victorious over everything that could be against us. Adams life was founded upon his own obedience; when he disobeyed, life was forfeited. But Christ, having life in Himself, came down into this world and fully met all the circumstances of man’s sin, in ever possible form; and, by submitting to death, destroyed him who had the power thereof, and, in resurrection, becomes the life and righteousness of all who believe in His most excellent name.
Now, it is impossible that Satan can touch this life, either in its source, its channel, its power, heaven its sphere, or its duration. God is its source; a risen Christ, its channel, The Holy Ghost, its power; heaven, its sphere; and eternity its duration. Hence, therefore, as might to one possessing this wondrous life, the whole scene is changed; and while, in one sense, it must be said, "in the midst of life we are in death," yet, in another sense it can be said, "in the midst of death we are in life". There is no death in the sphere into which a risen Christ introduces His people. How could there be? Has not he abolished it? It cannot be an abolished and an existing thing at the same time, and to the same people; but God’s word tells us it is abolished. -Christ emptied the scene of death, and filled it with life and, therefore, it is not death, but glory that lies before the believer, death is behind him for ever. As to the future, it is all glory, cloudless glory. True, it may be his lot to "fall asleep" - to "sleep in Jesus" - but that is not death, but "life in earnest." The mere matter of departing to be with Christ cannot alter the specific hope of the believer, which is to meet Christ in the air, to be with Him, and like Him, for ever.
Of this we have a very beautiful exemplification in Enoch, who forms the only exception to the rule of Gen. 5. The rule is, "he died;" the exception is, "he should not see death." "By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation be had this testimony, that he pleased God." (Heb. 11: 5.) Enoch was "the seventh from Adam;" and it is deeply interesting to find, that death was not suffered to triumph over "the seventh;" but that, in his case, God interfered, and made him a trophy of His own glorious victory over all the power of death. The heart rejoices, after reading, six times, the sad record, "he died," to find, that the seventh did not die; and when we ask, how was this? the answer is, "by faith." Enoch lived in the faith of his translation, and walked with God three hundred years. This separated him, practically, from all around. To walk with God must, necessarily, put one outside the sphere of this world’s thoughts. Enoch realised this; for, in his day, the spirit of the world was manifested; and then, too, as now, it was opposed to all that was of God. The man of faith felt he had nought to do with the world, save to be a patient witness, therein, of the grace of God, and of coming judgement. The sons of Cain might spend their energies in the vain attempt to improve a cursed world, but Enoch found a better world and lived in the power of it.* His faith was not given him to improve the world, but to walk with God.
{*It is very evident, that Enoch knew nothing whatever about of "making the best of both worlds." To him there was but one world. Thus it should be with us}
And, oh! how much is involved in these three words, "walked with God!" What separation and self-denial! what holiness and moral purity! what grace and gentleness what humility and tenderness! and yet, what zeal energy? What patience and long-suffering! and yet what faithfulness and uncompromising decision! To walk with God comprehends everything within the range of the divine life, whether active or passive. It involves the knowledge of God’s character as He has revealed it. It involves, too, the intelligence of the relationship in which we stand to Him. It is not a mere living by rules and regulations! nor laying down plans of action; nor in resolutions to go hither and thither to do this or that. To walk with God is far more than any or all of these things. Moreover, it will sometimes carry us right athwart the thoughts of men, even of our brethren, if they are not themselves walking with God. It may, sometimes, bring against us the charge of doing too much; at other times, of doing too little; but the faith that enables one to "walk with God," enables him also to attach the proper value thoughts of man.
Thus we have, in Abel and Enoch, most valuable instruction as to the sacrifice on which faith rests; and, as to the prospect which hope now anticipates; while, at the same time," the walk with God" takes in all the details of actual life which lie between those two points. Lord will give grace and glory;" and between the grace that has been, and the glory that is to be, revealed, there is the happy assurance, that "no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly." (Psalm 84: 11)
It, has been remarked, that "the cross and the coming of the Lord form the termini of the Church’s existence on earth," and these termini are prefigured in the sacrifice of Abel, and the translation of Enoch. The Church knows her entire justification through the death and resurrection of Christ, and she waits for the day, when He shall come and receive her to Himself. She, "through the Spirit, waits for the hope of righteousness by faith." (Gal. 5: 5) She does not wait for righteousness, inasmuch as she, by grace, has that already; but she waits for the hope which properly belongs to the condition into which she has been introduced.
My reader should seek to be clear as to this. Some expositors of prophetic truth, from not seeing the Church’s specific place, portion, and hope, have made sad mistakes. They have, in effect, cast so many dark clouds and thick mists around "the bright and morning star," which is the proper hope of the Church, that many saints, at the present moment, seem unable to rise above the hope of the God-fearing remnant of Israel, which is to see "the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings." (Mal. 4) Nor is this all. Very many have been deprived of the moral power of the hope of Christ’s appearing, by being taught to look for various events and circumstances previous to the moment of His manifestation to the Church. The restoration of the Jews, the development of Nebuchadnezzar’s image, the revelation of the man of sin - all these things, it is maintained. must take place ere Christ comes. That this is not true, might be proved from numerous passages of New Testament scripture, were this the fitting place to adduce them.
The Church, like Enoch, will be taken away from the evil around, and the evil to come. Enoch was not left to see the world’s evil rise to a head, and the judgement of God poured forth upon it. He saw not the fountains of the great deep broken up," nor "the windows of heaven opened." He was taken away before any of these things occurred; and he stands before eye of faith as a beautiful figure of those," who shall not all sleep, but shall all be changed, in a moment in the twinkling of an eye." (1 Cor. 15: 51, 52) Translation, not death, was the hope of Enoch; and, as to the Church’s hope, it is thus briefly expressed by the apostle, "To wait for the Son from heaven." Thess. 1: 10) This, the simplest and most unlettered Christian can understand and enjoy. Its power, too be can, in some measure, experience and manifest. He may not be able to study prophecy very deeply, but he can, blessed be God, taste the blessedness, the reality, the comfort, the power, the elevating and separating virtue of that celestial hope, which properly belongs to him as a member of that heavenly body, the Church; which hope is not merely to see "the Sun of Righteousness" how blessed soever that may be in its place, but to see "the bright and morning star." (Rev. 2: 28.) And as in the natural world, the morning star is seen, by those who watch for it, before the sun rises, so Christ, as the morning star, will be seen by the Church, before the remnant of Israel can behold the beams of the Sun.
C. H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Pentateuch — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The present section carries forward the inspired narrative another…
THE GENERATIONS OF ADAM (CH. 5:1-6:8)
The present section carries forward the inspired narrative another stage, in which the onward progress or development of the human race is traced, in the holy line of Seth, from the day of Adam"s creation, through ten successive generations, till the point is reached when the first great experiment of attempting to save man by clemency rather than by punishment is brought to a termination, and Jehovah, whose mercy has been spurned and abused, determines to destroy the impenitent transgressors. First, in brief and somewhat monotonous outline, the lives of the ten patriarchs are sketched, scarcely more being recorded of them than simply that they were born, grew to manhood, married wives, begat children, and then died. In only two instances does the history diverge from this severely simple style of biographical narration, namely, in the cases of Enoch, who, as he eclipsed his predecessors, contemporaries, and successors in the elevation of his piety during life, was honored above them in the mode of his departure from the earth; and of Noah, whose birth was welcomed by his parents as a happy omen in a time of social degeneracy and religious declension, but who lived to see the hopes of reform which his pious parents cherished disappointed, and the world for its wickedness overwhelmed by a flood. Then, after sketching the uneventful lives of the patriarchs in a few bold strokes, the sacred penman sets before us a vividly arresting and profoundly impressive picture of the wickedness of the human race on the eve of that appalling catastrophe, at once indicating the cause of the earth"s degeneracy in morals, and representing that degeneracy as a sufficient justification for the threatened judgment. Throughout the genealogical register the name Elohim is employed to designate the Deity, the subject being the evolutions of the Adam who was created in the image of Elohim. In the paragraph depicting the growth of immorality among men, and recording the Divine resolution to destroy man, the name Jehovah is used, the reason being that in his sin and in his punishment man is viewed in his relations to the God of redemption and grace.
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Vers. 1, 2. This is the book. Sepher, a register, a complete writing of any kind, a book, whether consisting of a pair of leaves or of only a singleblov; (Deu_24:1, Deu_24:3; "a bill of divorcement;" LXX, bi cf. Mat_1:1; Luk_3:36, Luk_3:38) The expression presupposes the invention of the art of writing. If, therefore, we may conjecture that the original compiler of this ancient document was Noah, than whom no one would be more likely or better qualified than he to preserve some memorial of the lost race of which he and his family were the sole survivors, it affords an additional corroboration of the intelligence and culture of the antediluvian men. It is too frequently taken for granted that the people who could build cities, invent musical instruments, and make songs were unacquainted with the art of writing; and though certainly we cannot affirm that the transmission of such a family register as is here recorded was beyond the capabilities of oral tradition, it is obvious that its preservation would be much more readily secured by some kind of documentary notation. Of the generationsi.e. evolutions (tol"doth; cf. (Gen_2:4) of Adam. In the preceding section the tol"doth of the heavens and the earth were exhibited, and accordingly the narrative commenced with the creative labors of the third day. Here the historian designs to trace the fortunes of the holy seed, and finds the point of his departure in the day that God (Elohim) created man (Adam), i.e. the sixth of the creative days. More particularly he calls attention to the great truths which had been previously included in his teaching concerning man; viz., the dignity of his nature, implied in the fact that in the likeness of Elohim made he him; his sexual distinction male and female created he them ; their Divine benediction and blessed them; (cf. Gen_1:27, Gen_1:28) at the same time adding a fourth circumstance, which in the first document was not narrated, that their Maker gave to them a suitable and specific appellation and called their name Adam (vide, (Gen_1:26) in the day when they were created.
Vers. 1-32.
The antediluvian saints.
I DESCENDANTS OF ADAM. AS such they were
1. A sinful race. Adam"s son Seth was begotten in his father"s image. Though still retaining the Divine Image (1Co_11:7) as to
2. nature, in respect of purity man has lost it. Inexplicable as the mystery is of inherited corruption, it is still a fact that the moral deterioration of the head of the human family has transmitted itself to all the members. The doctrine of human depravity, however unpleasant and humbling to carnal pride, is asserted in Scripture (Gen_6:5, 12 8:21; Job_15:14 Job_25:4; Psa_14:2, 3 51:5; Isa_53:6; Rom_3:28) implied in the universal prevalence of sin and death, (Rom_5:12-21) assumed in the doctrines of regeneration, which is declared to be necessary absolutely and universally, (Joh_3:3) and redemption, of which one part of the design was to deliver men from the power as well as guilt of sin (Eph_5:25-27; Tit_2:14; Heb_9:12-14 Heb_13:12) and abundantly confirmed by experience, which testifies that "the wicked are estranged from the womb, and go astray as soon as they be born, speaking. (Psa_58:3)
3. A long-lived race. Whether their remarkable longevity was due to the original vigor of the primus homo, or to the influence of the tree of life, or to the eminency of the Sethites" piety, it was
(1) A great privilege, affording to themselves ample opportunity for self-cultivation and family training; to the world enlarged facilities for advancement in intelligence and civilization; and to the Church the means of transmitting truth from. age to age, and of drawing more closely together the bonds of religious communion.
(2) An unexpected privilege. Upon the mind and heart of Adam in particular it must have come with much surprise to find that life, which had been forfeited by sin, prolonged to well-nigh a millennium of years; and this impression, though perhaps it might become less as patriarch succeeded patriarch, would not, we think, entirely disappear. And so let us hope they came to recognize it as
(3) a gracious privilege, due not to any secondary cause whatsoever, but primarily and solely to the infinite mercy of God, who had given them the promise of a Woman"s seed to sustain their faith and hope. And as such also
(4) a suggestive privilege, emblematic of the immortality they had lost by sin, but received again through grace.
4. A dying race. Though a sinful, they were yet a pardoned race; but though a pardoned, they were yet a mortal race. A portion of the original penalty remains to remind man of his past history and present condition; and so although the Sethites "lived many hundred years, yet none of them filled up a thousand, lest they should have too much flattered themselves in long life; and seeing a thousand is a number of perfection, God would have none of them to attain to a thousand, that we might know that nothing is perfect here" (Willet).
II MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH Or GOD. Great as was the former distinction, it is completely eclipsed by this. It is a great thing to be born, but a greater to be born again. To be in God"s world is much, to be in God"s Church is more. To be of the line of Adam by nature is questionable honor, to be of Adam"s line by grace is unquestionable glory. These ten names from Adam to Noah represent the leaders of the Church of God in the primeval age of the world. Whether distinguished by rare talent, great wealth, or high position, whether they invented arts, built cities and composed hymns like the Cainites, is not said. Their chief distinction lay in
1. Their possession of faith in God. Not perhaps all with the same tenacity, but all with the same reality, they clung to the promise of the woman"s seed. This it was which made them members of the antediluvian Church. Without faith it is impossible to please God. (Heb_11:6)
2. Their observance of religious worship. From the beginning of the world the practice of sacrificial worship was maintained by believers. For two generations it appears to have been private rather than public in its character. In the days of Enos, according to one of the interpretations of Gen_4:26, the Sethites began to worship God in social assemblies, as a means at once of fostering their own piety and of defending themselves against the rising tide of ungodliness; and we cannot doubt the godly practice would continue till the number of believers became so small that Noah could discover no one of like heart and spirit with himself to participate in his devotions.
1. Their nonconformity to the world. According to another reading of Gen_4:26, in the third generation the holy seed began to make clearer and more distinct the lines of demarcation between themselves and the Cainites by calling themselves by the name of Jehovah, i.e. by adopting to themselves the appellation of the worshippers of the Lord. The fact that "the sons of God" are mentioned in Gen_6:1 lends a sanction to this view. If it was so, doubtless the assumption of this particular title was only a sign or symptom of a great religious movement that began to effect the age, a movement of separation in heart and life from the unbelievers of
2. the time, and that with a greater or lesser intensity perpetuated itself through each successive generation, not even dying "away when there was only one man to be affected by it.
3. Their witness-bearing against the wickedness of the ungodly world. This comes out not indeed here, but in other Scriptures, in connection with two patriarchs, Enoch and Noah; the first of whom prophesied of the coming of the Lord, (Jud_1:14) and the second of whom was a preacher ofrighteousness to the men of his generation; (2Pe_2:5) and what was true of them was doubtless characteristic in a measure of them all. They were unquestionably prophets, priests, and kings in their families and in relation to their contemporaries.
4. Their eminently godly lives. As much as this is implied in what has been already said. But of two of them it is distinctly stated that they walked with God: of Enoch, that before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God; and of Noah, that he was a perfect man and an upright; and though not perhaps entitled to say that all of them lived at the same spiritual elevation as did those two fathers, yet we are fairly warranted to conclude that all of them maintained a holy walk and conversation in a rapidly degenerating age.
III PROGENITORS OF THE PROMISED SEED. This was the chief distinction of these saintly men, and the real reason why their names and ages have been so carefully preserved to the Church of God. They were all links in the chain leading on to the woman"s seed. So to speak, they were the ten first heralds sent out to proclaim the approach of the king; the ten first shadows or adumbrations of the great Prophet, Priest, and King to whom the faith of the Church was looking forward. True, it is not much that we know about them beyond their names, and certainly there is consider able vagueness and uncertainty about their import; but still, accepting those meanings which have the greatest probability in their favor, it is interesting to note how they all indicate points of character or features of history which met in Christ. Adam we know was a prophecy of Christ, the second Adam, in more than his name. (1Co_15:45) Abel, the first martyr, prefigured him m dying by a brother"s hand. Seth, the Substituted One, was a shadow of him who took our room and stead; (Rom_5:8) Enos, the Frail One, of him who, as to his human nature, was as "a tender plant, and a root out of a dry ground"; (Isa_53:2) Cainan, Possession, of him who was the gift of God. (2Co_9:15) Mahalaleel, Praise of God, of him who "was not ashamed to call us brethren, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee"; (Heb_2:11, Heb_2:12) Jared, Descent, of him who came down from heaven; (Joh_6:38) Enoch, the dedicated and instructed child who walked with God, and was translated that he should not see death, of him who for his people "sanctified himself", (Joh_17:19) "in whom were hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge", (Col_2:3) who with regard to his Father could say, "I do always those things that please him", (Joh_8:29) and who, after accomplishing his Divine mission on the earth, was received up into glory; (Act_1:11) Methuselah, Man of the Dart, of him of whom the royal psalmist sang, "Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king"s enemies"; (Psa_45:5) Lamech, Strong Youth, of the strong One whom David saw in vision raised up for Israel"s help; (Psa_89:19) Noah, Rest, of him in whose sacrifice God smelled a sweet savor of rest. (Eph_5:2)
Lessons:
1. As descendants of Adam, let us remember we are sinners, and, repenting, believe the gospel; let us measure our days, and, observing their shortness, apply our hearts unto wisdom; let us think of our mortality, and prepare for the narrow house appointed for all the living.
2. As members of the Church of Christ, have we the marks that distinguished these antediluvian saints?
3. As the spiritual posterity of Jesus Christ, do we reflect him as his progenitors foreshadowed him?
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain This is the book of the generations of Adam
Gen_5:1-32
This is the book of the generations of Adam
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Distinguished men
I.
SOME MEN ARE RENDERED DISTINGUISHED BY THE PECULIARITY OF THE TIMES IN WHICH THEY LIVE. Adam; the first human being to
(1) inhabit the earth,
(2) hold communion with God,
(3) be led astray.
II. SOME MEN ARE RENDERED DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR MARVELLOUS LONGEVITY. Methuselah.
III. SOME MEN ARE RENDERED DISTINGUISHED BY THE VILLAINY OF THEIR MORAL CONDUCT.
IV. SOME MEN ARE RENDERED DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR ANCESTRAL LINE OF DESCENT. Feeble lights in a grand constellation.
V. SOME MEN ARE RENDERED DISTINGUISHED BY THEIR TRUE AND EXALTED PIETY. Enoch. This is a distinction of the very truest kind; it arises from the moral purity of the soul. Lessons:
1. That a good old age is often the heritage of man.
2. That noble lineage is the heritage of others.
3. That true piety may be the heritage of all.
4. That true piety has a substantial reward as well as a permanent record. (J. S. Exell, M. A.)
Thoughts
I. THE LONGEVITY OF THE ANTEDILUVIAN RACE.
1. Their longevity might be explained on natural principles.
2. Their longevity was for special ends.
3. Their longevity contributed to their depravity.
II. THE POVERTY OF HUMAN HISTORY. The record of a thousand is in these few verses.
III. THE MATERIALIZING TENDENCIES OF SIN. All that is recorded here of these great men, except Enoch, is that they begat sons and daughters. They thought only of material things.
IV. THE INEVITABLENESS OF MANS MORTALITY. It is said of each, He died. No money can bribe Death, no power avert his blow.
V. THE BLESSEDNESS OF PRACTICAL GODLINESS. Enoch walked with God. (Homilist.)
The genealogy
1. It is a very honourable one. The Son of God Himself descended from it.
2. Neither Cain nor Abel have any place in it. Abel was slain before he had any children, and could not; and Cain, by his sin, had covered his name with infamy, and should not. Adams posterity, therefore, after a lapse of one hundred and thirty years, must begin anew.
3. The honour done to Seth and his posterity was of grace; for he is said to have been born in Adams likeness, and after his image. Man was made after the image of God; but this being lost, they are born corrupt, the children of a corrupt father. What is true of all mankind is here noted of Seth, because he was reckoned as Adams firstborn. He, therefore, like all others, was by nature a child of wrath; and what he or any of his posterity were different from this, they were by grace.
4. Though many of the names in this genealogy are passed over without anything being said of their piety, yet we are not from hence to infer that they were impious. Many might be included among them who called upon the name of the Lord, and who are denominated the sons of God, though nothing is personally related of them. (A. Fuller.)
The original vitality of men
Whether we are to think that the original vitality of the human frame faded only by slow degrees, or whether there was something salubrious in the air of the ages after Eden, has often been asked, but can never be answered. Some have fancied that the immense lives ascribed to the antediluvians imply that each name represents a tribe, the lives of whose leading members are added together; others have understood the years to mean only months; while others have sought to prove that from Adam to Abraham the year had no more than three months, from Abraham to Joseph eight, and from Josephs time twelve months, as at present. But such explanations have no sufficient warrant, and it is perhaps best, on the whole, to keep in mind what Bishop Harold Browne has pointed out, that numbers and dates are liable in the course of ages to become obscured and exaggerated. It is quite possible that some of the early Rabbis, desirous of emulating the fabled age ascribed by heathen nations to their heroes and demigods, may have added to the Bible figures, so as to secure the patriarchs an equal honour. Our present bodies certainly could not live more than two hundred years, at the very most, from the decay of one part after another, and hence we must either take Bishop Brownes solution of antediluvian longevity, or suppose that exceptional circumstances in the first ages produced exceptional results. (C. Geikie, D. D.)
The apostate and the godly seeds
I. IT IS ESPECIALLY IN THE LINE OF CAIN THAT WE FIND THE ARTS OF SOCIAL AND CIVILIZED LIFE CULTIVATED. They increased in power, in wealth, and in luxury. In almost all earthly advantages they attained to a superiority over the more simple and rural family of Seth. And they afford an instance of the high cultivation which a people may often possess who are altogether irreligious and ungodly, as well as of the progress which they may make in the arts and embellishments of life.
II. THE GODLY SEED WAS PERPETUATED IN THE FAMILY OF SETH, whose name signifies appointed, placed, or firmly founded. For on him now was to rest the hope of the promised Messiah. So God ordained, and so Eve devoutly believed. The posterity of Seth maintained the cause of religion in the midst of increasing degeneracy. It is true they did not always maintain it very successfully; perhaps they did not always maintain it very consistently. In the first place, in the days of Enos, the grandson of Adam, a signal revival took place among those who adhered to the true faith (Gen_4:26). Again, secondly, several generations later, contemporary with Lamech in the house of Cain, lived Enoch in the family of Seth, the seventh from Adam. He was raised up as a remarkable prophet, and the burden of his prophetic strains is preserved to us by the Apostle Jude (verses 14, 15). Once more, in the third place, still later in this melancholy period, the Lord raised up Noah, or Nee, as his name is often written. That name signifies comfort or consolation. Thus, in three successive eras, the Lord remarkably interposed to arrest the progress of the sad apostasy.
1. It is interesting in this view to consider the longevity of the patriarchs. The length of their days well fitted them for being the depositories of the revealed will of God, preserving and transmitting it from age to age; and so many of them surviving together to so late a period must have formed a holy and reverend company of teachers and witnesses in the world. So, at least, it should have been; since, at all events, this longevity of the fathers was a boon and privilege to the Church. It served the purpose of the written Word. It transmitted, not a treacherous and variable tradition passing quickly through many hands, such as some would fondly prefer even to the Bible, but a sure record of the truth of God. Hence it was fitted to rally with no uncertain sound, and not by the artifice of any dead and nominal uniformity, but on a trustworthy principle of living unity, the Church of the living God. If the effect was otherwise--if the testimony of the long-lived fathers then, like the teaching of the abiding Word now, failed to keep the sons of God at one among themselves, and separate from the world, their sin was on that account all the greater. Nor was the agency wanting which alone can give a spiritual discernment of the truth. The Spirit, who searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God, was, throughout these ages, continually striving with men, and by the Spirit Christ was ever preaching to the successive generations of that antediluvian world.
2. But it is not the length of their lives only that is to be taken into account when we would estimate the effect which the testimony of the godly patriarchs was fitted to have in stemming the torrent of ungodliness. Their deaths also must have been instructive and significant. That they all lived so long, witnessing for God, believing and showing forth His righteousness, was a standing reproof to the wicked. That, long as they might live, they all died at last, gave a warning more affecting still. The death of each, coming surely in the end, though long delayed, must have rung emphatically the knell of judgment. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)
Lessons
1. Providence hath made a sufficient register of the Churchs rise and growth and state, for faith, not for curiosity.
2. Gods will is made out, that His Church was to be propagated by generation, not creation.
3. The generations of the Church were ordered to be from Adam fallen, that grace might appear.
4. Gods blessing makes man only fruitful to propagate His Church. (G. Hughes, B. D.)
Nobodyism
You must have already noticed that this chapter is as true as any chapter in human history, especially as it shows so clearly, what we ourselves have found out, that the most of people are extremely uninteresting. They are names, and nothing more. They are producers and consumers, tenants and taxpayers, and that is all; they are without wit, music, piquancy, enterprise, or keenness of sympathy. Such people were Seth and Enos, Mahalaleel and Jared; respectable, quiet, plodding; said good night to one another regularly, and remarked briefly upon the weather, and died. Just what many nowadays seem to do. Now, I want to show you that such people are often unjustly estimated, and to remind you that if all stars were of the same size the sky would look very odd--much like a vast chessboard with circles instead of squares. I want to remind you also that really the best part of human history is never written at all. Family life, patient service, quiet endurance, the training of children, the resistance of temptation--these things are never mentioned by the historian. Because we admire brilliance we need not despise usefulness. When your little child is ill, he needs kindness more than genius, and it will be of small service to him if his mother is good at epigrams but bad at wringing out a wet cloth for his burning brow. I am, then, quite willing to admit that Seth and Enos, Mahalaleel and Jared, are not one-thousandth part so well known by name as the man in the moon, but I believe they did more real good than that famous character ever attempted. You should remember, too, that a long fiat road may be leading up to a great mountain. There are some very plain and uninteresting miles out of Geneva, but everyone of them brings you nearer Merit Blanc. Oh, so dull that long road from Seth to Jared, but round the corner you find Enoch, the Mont Blanc of his day! Many a child who never heard the name of Jared knows well the name of Enoch. So you do not know to what high hill your life may be quietly leading up. Even if you yourself are nobody, your son may be a man of renown, or his son may be a valiant and mighty man. Enoch reaches the point of renown in godliness; he walked with God three hundred years at least; his walk was on the high hills--so high that he simply stepped into the next world without troubling Death to go through his long, dark process. He was not, for God took As if he had walked so near that God opened the window and took him in; and we, too, might pass in as easily if we walked on the same sunny heights. But we are in valleys and pits, and God must needs send Death to dig us out and send us to heaven by a longer road. After Enoch, we come to Methuselah. He, too, is well known, although for nothing but length of days apparently; yet as a matter of fact he ought to be known for something much more highly distinguished. He was the grandfather of Noah; that is his glory, not his mere age! You cannot tell what your boy may be, or his boy; so keep yourself up to the mark in all mental health and moral integrity, lest you transmit a plague to posterity. It may be that Nature is only resting in you; presently she will produce a man! Precisely the same thing we have in this chapter we find in the catalogue of the names of the early disciples of our Lord. We know Peter and James and John. But how little as compared with them do we know of Thomas and Bartholomew and Philip, of Lebbaeus, and Simon the Canaanite? Yet they were all members of one company, and servants of the same Lord. We speak of men of renown, forgetting that their renown is principally derived from men who have no renown themselves! Unknown people make other people known. The hills rest upon the plain ground. Besides, there is a bad repute as well as a fair fame: Judas Iscariot is known as widely as the Apostle John! Be not envious of those who have high place and name; could we know them better, perhaps we should find that they long for the quietness of home, and sigh for release from the noise and strain of popular applause. Happily, too, we should remember that a deed may be immortal, when the mere name of the doer may be lost in uncertainty. (J. Parker, D. D.)
The Divine image in man hidden
A researcher of art in Italy, who, reading in some book that there was a portrait of Dante painted by Giotto, was led to suspect where it had been placed. There was an apartment used as an outhouse for the storing of wood, hay, and the like. He besought and obtained permission to examine it. Clearing out the rubbish and experimenting upon the whitewashed wall, he soon detected the signs of the long-hidden portrait. Little by little, with loving skill, he opened up the sad, thoughtful, stern face of the old Tuscan poet. Sin has done for man what the whitewash did for the painting. It has covered over the likeness of God upon the soul; and it is only by the Spirit of God Himself that the long-hidden likeness can be manifested again.
Long life and death of the patriarchs
From the 4th verse to the 22nd two things chiefly are noted, the long life of these fathers and their assured death. Many years they continued, yea, many hundreds; but at last they died. Death was long ere it came, but at last it came.
1. And touching their long life, some questions are moved: First, why it was so long; secondly, whence or how it came to be so. Of the first, two causes are alleged, one for the propagation of mankind so much the faster and more speedily, the other for continuance of remembrance of matters, and deducing of them to posterity the better. The indifferent mixture, equal temperature, and good disposition of the chief and first qualities, heat, cold, moisture, dryness, is in nature the ground of life, and by all probability in that beginning this was so more than now; their diet better, and temperance more from surfeiting and fleshly pleasures than is now; their minds quieter from eating and gnawing cares, the shortness of mans life, since, iniquity then being not so strong, many woes and vexations were unfound; and lastly, the fruits of the earth, in their purity, strength, and virtue, not corrupted, as after the flood, and ever since still more and more, might be to them a true cause, and a most forcible cause, of good health, greater strength, and longer life than ever since by nature could be.
2. Their certain death is noted, to show the truth of Gods Word, ever infallible and unmovable. The Lord said, if they did eat they should die: they did eat, then death must follow; for He will be true, do what we can, and we shall find it so. Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years, but he died; Sheth nine hundred and twelve, and he died; Methuselah nine hundred threescore and nine, and yet he died. Died, died, is the end of all, that God might be true, how long soever they lived. The same word of the Lord is no falser now than then, but the same forever. Would God this repetition of death, death, to all these fathers might make us as duly to remember it as we are sure truly to find it--to find it, I say; and God knoweth, not we, how soon. Today I, tomorrow thou, saith the wise man. His conceit was not unprofitable that imagined mans life to be as a tree, at the root whereof two mice lay gnawing and nibbling without ceasing, a white mouse and a black. The white mouse he conceived to be the day, and the black mouse the night, by which day and night mans life, as a tree, by continual gnawing, at last is ended. Who can now tell how far these two mice have eaten upon him? Haply the tree that seemeth yet strong ere night may shake, and ere day again fall flat down. Oh, let us think of this uncertainty! But you see the snow, how blind it makes a man by his great whiteness; so doth this world, by his manifold pleasures, baits, and allurements, dazzle our eyes, and blind us so, that we forget to die; we dream of life when there is no hope, and we cannot hear of it to go away. O death, how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that liveth at rest in his possessions, unto the man that hath nothing to vex him, and that hath prosperity in all things, yea, unto him that is yet able to receive meat. (Bishop Babington.)
Lessons from the longevity of the antediluvians
1. Now, here is a lesson in human experience which one would think would silence forever the advocates of the theory of human perfectibility. The race of antediluvians were blessed with all possible capacities and facilities for indefinite improvement in knowledge and happiness. They were not called to die when they had just began to live, nor to quit their investigations forever when they had just learned how to study. Mens minds might have been formed and disciplined in the revolution of nine hundred years under an accumulation of influences and circumstances in the highest degree powerful and favourable. A ladder was let down to them from heaven; but instead of rising thither, they employed every endowment of being, and every capability of life, for growth in unkindness, and corrupted themselves to such a height before God, that their sufferance on earth was no longer possible. So much for human perfectibility.
2. Only one event is recorded alike of them all, no matter what may have been their situation in life--whether princes of the earth or beggars in rags. Their life is reduced down to the bald, unvaried epitaph--He died! The only thing of absolute value is that which connects us with God. Crowns are playthings; dukedoms and dominions of no more importance than the grains of sand that go to make up an ant-hill.
3. The consideration of the great age of the antediluvians, and its effect upon their state on earth, might lead to some faint conception of what an apostle calls the power of an endless life.
(1) The power of such a life for the increase of holiness.
(2) In the progressive accumulation of depravity.
4. We are all naturally as wicked as the race of mankind destroyed by the deluge. And doubtless it will be less tolerable for us than the antediluvians in the Day of Judgment.
5. The mere duration of years does not constitute a long life, but the fulfilment of lifes purposes.
6. There was a time in the life of every ungodly antediluvian in which his wickedness had reached such a point, his long habits of sin had gained such strength, that all hope of his salvation departed. At such a moment, though long before the close of his mortal career, it might have been said with awful emphasis--He died! (Christian Age.)
Gods way of writing history
Bible history is written on the principle of abridgment and selection. God Himself is the abridger and selector. He has written the story of His own world in His own way, and according to His own plan, keeping such things as these in view--
1. What would most glorify Himself.
2. What would most benefit the Church upon the whole.
3. What would mark distinctly the stages leading on to the incarnation of His Son.
4. What would prove the true humanity of Messiah as the seed of the woman, and so the embodiment of the grace and truth wrapt up in the first promise to man.
The first verse carries us back to the earlier chapters, and repeats the statement already given as to mans creation in the Divine image. It is plain from it that God desires us to look at and ponder such things as these--
1. Mans creation by God.
2. His creation in the likeness of God.
3. His creation, male and female.
4. His being blessed by God, and that he enters this world as a blessed being, not under the curse at all.
5. His receiving the name of Adam, or man, from God Himself, as if God specially claimed the right of nomenclature to Himself.
How much importance must God attach to these things when He thus repeats them at so brief an interval! He does not repeat in vain. Every word of God is pure, and it is full of meaning, even though we may not now see it all. It is not a mere grain or atom; it is a seed, a root. (H. Bonar, D. D.)
Ten biographies in one chapter
A single chapter contains ten biographies. Such is Gods estimate of man, and mans importance! How unlike mans estimate of himself! How unlike are the biographies contained in this chapter to those volumes of biography over which are spread the story of a single life! Is not this man worship, hero worship? And was it not to prevent this that God has hid from us the details of primitive history--everything that would magnify man and mans doings? Just as He has taken pains to prevent the grosser idolatries of sun worship and star worship by exhibiting these orbs in the first chapter as His own handiwork, so in this fifth chapter He has sought to anticipate and prevent the more refined idolatry, not only of past ages, when man openly and grossly deified man, but of these last days, when man is worshipping man in the most subtle of all ways, and multiplying the stories of mans wisdom, or prowess, or goodness, so as to hide God from our eyes, and give to man an independent position and importance, from which God has been so careful to exclude him. We might say, too, that this chapter is Gods protest against that special development of hero worship which is to be exhibited in the last Antichrist, when God shall be set aside and man be set up as all. The importance attached to these recorded names is just this, that they belong to the line of the womans seed. It was this that made them worthy of memory. The chain to which some precious jewel is attached is chiefly noticeable because of the gem that it suspends. The steps which led up to the temple were mainly important because of the temple to which they led. So it was the connection of these ten worthies of the worlds first age with the great Coming One that gave them their importance. Standing where we now do, far down the ages, and looking back on the men of early days, we are like one tracing some great river back to its distant source amid the lonely hills. The varied beauties of its banks, however great, yet derive their chief attraction and interest from the mighty city reared upon its margin, at some turn of its far downward course, and from the mighty ones which that city has given birth to. It is Bethlehem that gives all its interest to the river whose beginnings this chapter traces; or rather, it is He who was there born of a woman--Jesus the son of Abraham, the son of Adam. Save in their bearing upon Him, how unmeaning do these names appear! (H. Bonar, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain Genesis 5-9
THE FLOOD
Genesis 5-9
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THE first great event which indelibly impressed itself on the memory of the primeval world was the Flood. There is every reason to believe that this catastrophe was co-extensive with the human population of the world. In every branch of the human family traditions of the event are found. These traditions need not be recited, though some of them bear a remarkable likeness to the Biblical story, while others are very beautiful in their construction, and significant in individual points. Local floods happening at various times in different countries could not have given birth to the minute coincidences found in these traditions, such as the sending out of the birds, and the number of persons saved. But we have as yet no material for calculating how far human population had spread from the Original centre. It might apparently be argued that it could not have spread to the seacoast, or that at any rate no ships had as yet been built large enough to weather a severe storm; for a thoroughly nautical population could have had little difficulty in surviving such a catastrophe as is here described. But all that can be affirmed is that there is no evidence that the waters extended beyond the inhabited part of the earth; and from certain details of the narrative, this part of the earth may be identified as the great plain of the Euphrates and Tigris.
Some of the expressions used in the narrative might indeed lead us to suppose that the writer understood the catastrophe to have extended over the whole globe; but expressions of similar largeness elsewhere occur in passages where their meaning must be restricted: Probably the most convincing evidence of the limited extent of the Flood is furnished by the animals of Australia. The animals that abound in that island are different from those found in other parts of the world, but are similar to the species which are found fossilised in the island itself, and which therefore must have inhabited these same regions long anterior to the Flood. If then the Flood extended to Australia and destroyed all animal life there, what are we compelled to suppose as the order of events? We must suppose that the creatures, visited by some presentiment of what was to happen many months after, selected specimens of their number, and that these specimens by some unknown and quite inconceivable means crossed thousands of miles of sea, found their way through all kinds of perils from unaccustomed climate, food, and beasts of prey; singled out Noah by some inscrutable instinct, and surrendered themselves to his keeping. And after the year in the ark expired, they turned their faces homewards, leaving behind them no progeny, again preserving themselves intact, and transporting themselves by some unknown means to their island home. This, if the Deluge was universal, must have been going on with thousands of animals from all parts of the globe; and not only were these animals a stupendous miracle in themselves, but wherever they went they were the occasion of miracle in others, all the beasts of prey refraining from their natural food. The fact is, the thing will not bear stating.
But it is not the physical but the moral aspects of the Flood with which we have here to do. And, first, this narrator explains its cause. He ascribes it to the abnormal wickedness of the antediluvians. To describe the demoralised condition of society before the Flood, the strongest language is used. "God saw that the wickedness of man was great," monstrous in acts of violence, and in habitual courses and established usages. "Every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually,"-there was no mixture of good, no relentings, no repentances, no visitings of compunction, no hesitations and debatings. It was a world of men fierce and energetic, violent and lawless, in perpetual war and turmoil; in which if a man sought to live a righteous life, he had to conceive it of his own mind and to follow it out unaided and without the countenance of any.
This abnormal wickedness again is accounted for by the abnormal marriages from which the leaders of these ages sprang. Everything seemed abnormal, huge, inhuman. As there are laid bare to the eye of the geologist in those archaic times vast forms bearing a likeness to forms we are now familiar with, but of gigantic proportions and wallowing in dim, mist-covered regions; so to the eye of the historian there loom through the obscurity colossal forms perpetrating deeds of more than human savagery, and strength, and daring; heroes that seem formed in a different mould from common men.
However we interpret the narrative, its significance for us is plain. There is nothing prudish in the Bible. It speaks with a manly frankness of the beauty of women and its ensnaring power. The Mosaic law was stringent against intermarriage with idolatresses, and still in the New Testament something more than an echo of the old denunciation of such marriages is heard. Those who were most concerned about preserving a pure morality and a high tone in society were keenly alive to the dangers that threatened from this quarter. It is a permanent danger to character because it is to a permanent element in human nature that the temptation appeals. To many in every generation, perhaps to the majority, this is the most dangerous form in which worldliness presents itself; and to resist this the most painful test of principle. With natures keenly sensitive to beauty and superficial attractiveness, some are called upon to make their choice between a conscientious cleaving to God and an attachment to that which in the form is perfect but at heart is defective, depraved, godless. Where there is great outward attraction a man fights against the growing sense of inward uncongeniality, and persuades himself he is too scrupulous and uncharitable, or that he is a bad reader of character. There may be an undercurrent of warning; he may be sensible that his whole nature is not satisfied, and it may seem to him ominous that what is best within him does not flourish in his new attachment, but rather what is inferior, if not what is worst. But all such omens and warnings are disregarded and stifled by some such silly thought as that consideration and calculation are out of place in such matters. And what is the result? The result is the same as it ever was. Instead of the ungodly rising to the level of the godly, he sinks to hers. The worldly style, the amusements, the fashions once distasteful to him, but allowed for her sake, become familiar, and at last wholly displace the old and godly ways, the arrangements that left room for acknowledging God in the family; and there is one household less as a point of resistance to the incursion of an ungodly tone in society, one deserter more added to the already too crowded ranks of the ungodly, and the life-time if not the eternity of one soul embittered. Not without a consideration of the temptations that do actually lead men astray did the law enjoin: "Thou shalt not make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, nor take of their daughters unto thy sons."
It seems like a truism to say that a greater amount of unhappiness has been produced by mismanagement, folly, and wickedness in the relation subsisting between men and women than by any other cause. God has given us the capacity of love to regulate this relation and be our safe guide in all matters connected with it. But frequently, from one cause or another, the government and direction of this relation are taken out of the hands of love and put into the thoroughly incompetent hands of convenience, or fancy, or selfish lust. A marriage contracted from any such motive is sure to bring unhappiness of a long-continued, wearing, and often heartbreaking kind. Such a marriage is often the form in which retribution comes for youthful selfishness and youthful licentiousness. You cannot cheat nature. Just in so far as you allow yourself to be ruled in youth by a selfish love of pleasure, in so far do you incapacitate yourself for love. You sacrifice what is genuine and satisfying, because provided by nature, to what is spurious, unsatisfying, and shameful. You cannot afterwards, unless by a long and bitter discipline, restore the capacity of warm and pure love in your heart. Every indulgence in which true love is absent is another blow given to the faculty of love within you-you make yourself in that capacity decrepit, paralyzed, dead. You have lost, you have killed the faculty that should be your guide in all these matters, and so you are at last precipitated without this guidance into a marriage formed from some other motive, formed therefore against nature, and in which you are the everlasting victim of natures relentless justice. Remember that you cannot have both things, a youth of loveless pleasure and a loving marriage-you must make your choice. For as surely as genuine love kills all evil desire; so surely does evil desire kill the very capacity of love, and blind utterly its wretched victim to the qualities that ought to excite love.
The language used of God in relation to this universal corruption strikes every one as remarkable. "It repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart." This is what is usually termed anthropomorphism, i.e., the presenting of God in terms applicable only to man; it is an instance of the same mode of speaking as is used when we speak of Gods hand or eye or heart. These expressions are not absolutely true, but they are useful and convey to us a meaning which could scarcely otherwise be expressed. Some persons think that the use of these expressions proves that in early times God was thought of as wearing a body and as being very like ourselves in His inward nature. And even in our day we have been ridiculed for speaking of God as a magnified man. Now in the first place the use of such expressions does not prove that even the earliest worshippers of God believed Him to have eyes and hands and a body. We freely use the same expressions though we have no such belief. We use them because our language is formed for human uses and on a human level, and we have no capacity to frame a better. And in the second place, though not absolutely true they do help us towards the truth. We are told that it degrades God to think of Him as hearing prayer and accepting praise; nay, that to think Of Him as a Person at all, is to degrade Him. We ought to think of Him as the Absolutely Unknowable. But which degrades God most, and which exalts Him most? If we find that it is impossible to worship an absolutely unknowable, if we find that practically such an idea is a mere nonentity to us, and that we cannot in point of fact pay any homage or show any consideration to such an empty abstraction, is not this really to lower God? And if we find that when we think of Him as a Person, and ascribe to Him all human virtue in an infinite degree, we can rejoice in Him and worship Him with true adoration, is not this to exalt Him? While we call Him our Father we know that this title is inadequate; while we speak of God as planning and decreeing we know that we are merely making shift to express what is inexpressible by us-we know that our thoughts of Him are never adequate and that to think of Him at all is to lower Him, is to think of Him inadequately; but when the practical alternative is such as it is, we find we do well to think of Him with the highest personal attributes we can conceive. For to refuse to ascribe such attributes to Him because this is degrading Him, is to empty our minds of any idea of Him which can stimulate either to worship or to duty. If by ridding our minds of all anthropomorphic ideas and refusing to think of God as feeling, thinking, acting as men do, we could thereby get to a really higher conception of Him, a conception which would practically make us worship Him more devotedly and serve Him more faithfully, then by all means let us do so. But if the result of refusing to think of Him as in many ways like ourselves, is that we cease to think of Him at all or only as a dead impersonal force, then this certainly is not to reach a higher but a lower conception of Him. And until we see our way to some truly higher conception than that which we have of a Personal God, we had better be content with it.
In short, we do well to be humble, and considering that we know very little about existence of any kind, and least of all about Gods, and that our God has been presented to us in human form, we do well to accept Christ as our God, to worship, love, and serve Him, finding Him sufficient for all our wants of this life, and leaving it to other times to get the solution of anything that is not made plain to us in Him. This is one boon that the science and philosophy of our day have unintentionally conferred upon us. They have laboured to make us feel how remote and inaccessible God is, how little we can know Him, how truly He is past finding out; they have laboured to make us feel how intangible and invisible and incomprehensible God is, but the result of this is that we turn with all the stronger longing to Him who is the Image of the Invisible God, and on whom a voice has fallen from the excellent glory, "This is My beloved Son, hear Him."
The Flood itself we need not attempt to describe. It has been remarked that though the narrative is vivid and forcible, it is entirely wanting in that sort of description which in a modern historian or poet would have occupied the largest space. "We see nothing of the death-struggle; we hear not the cry of despair; we are not called upon to witness the frantic agony of husband and wife, and parent and child, as they fled in terror before the rising waters. Nor is a word said of the sadness of the one righteous man, who, safe himself, looked upon the destruction which he could not avert." The Chaldean tradition which is the most closely allied to the Biblical account is not so reticent. Tears are shed in heaven over the catastrophe, and even consternation affected its inhabitants, while within the ark itself the Chaldean Noah says, "When the storm came to an end and the terrible water-spout ceased, I opened the window and the light smote upon my face. I looked at the sea attentively observing, and the whole of humanity had returned to mud, like seaweed the corpses floated. I was seized with sadness; I sat down and wept and my tears fell upon my face."
There can be little question that this is a true description of Noahs feeling. And the sense of desolation and constraint would rather increase in Noahs mind than diminish. Month after month elapsed; he was coming daily nearer the end of his food, and yet the waters were unabated. He did not know how long he was to be kept in this dark, disagreeable place. He was left to do his daily work without any supernatural signs to help him against his natural anxieties. The floating of the ark and all that went on in it had no mark of Gods hand upon it. He was indeed safe while others had been destroyed. But of what good was this safety to be? Was he ever to get out of this prison house? To what straits was he to be first reduced? So it is often with ourselves. We are left to fulfil Gods will without any sensible tokens to set over against natural difficulties, painful and pinching circumstances, ill health, low spirits, failure of favourite projects and old hopes-so that at last we come to think that perhaps safety is all we are to have in Christ, a mere exemption from suffering of one kind purchased by the endurance of much suffering of another kind: that we are to be thankful for pardon on any terms; and escaping with our life, must be content though it be bare. Why, how often does a Christian wonder whether, after all, he has chosen a life that he can endure, whether the monotony and the restraints of the Christian life are not inconsistent with true enjoyment?
This strife between the felt restriction of the Christian life and the natural craving for abundant life, for entrance into all that the world can show us, and experience of all forms of enjoyment-this strife goes on unceasingly in the heart of many of us as it goes on from age to age in the world. Which is the true view of life, which is the view to guide us in choosing and refusing the enjoyments and pursuits that are presented to us? Are we to believe that the ideal man for this life is he who has tasted all culture and delight, who believes in nature, recognising no fall and seeking for no redemption, and makes enjoyment his end; or he who sees that all enjoyment is deceptive till man is set right morally, and who spends himself on this, knowing that blood and misery must come before peace and rest, and crowned as our King and Leader, not with a garland of roses, but with the crown of Him Who is greatest of all, because servant of all-to Whom the most sunken is not repulsive, and Who will not abandon the most hopeless? This comes to be very much the question, whether this life is final or preparatory?-whether, therefore, our work in it should be to check lower propensities and develop and train all that is best in character, so as to be fit for highest life and enjoyment in a world to come-or should take ourselves as we find ourselves, and delight in this present world? whether this is a placid eternal state, in which things are very much as they should be, and in which therefore we can live freely and enjoy freely; or whether it is a disordered, initial condition in which our main task should be to do a little towards putting things on a better rail and getting at least the germ and small beginnings of future good planted in one another? So that in the midst of all felt restriction, there is the highest hope, that one day we shall go forth from the narrow precincts of our ark, and step out into the free bright sunshine, in a world where there is nothing to offend, and that the time of our deprivation will seem to have been well spent indeed, if it has left within us a capacity permanently to enjoy love, holiness, justice, and all that is delighted in by God Himself.
The use made of this event in the New Testament is remarkable. It is compared by Peter to baptism, and both are viewed as illustrations of salvation by destruction. The eight souls, he says, who were in the ark, "were saved by water." The water which destroyed the rest saved them. When there seemed little hope of the godly line being able to withstand the influence of the ungodly, the Flood came and left Noahs family in a new world, with freedom to order all things according to their own ideas. In this Peter sees some analogy to baptism. In baptism, the penitent who believes in the efficacy of Christs blood to purge away sin, lets his defilement be washed away and rises new and clean to the life Christ gives. In Christ the sinner finds shelter for himself and destruction for his sins. It is Gods wrath against sin that saves us by destroying our sins; just as it was the Flood which devastated the world, that at the same time, and thereby, saved Noah and his family.
In this event, too, we see the completeness of Gods work. Often we feel reluctant to surrender our sinful habits to so final a destruction as is implied in being one with Christ. The expense at which holiness is to be bought seems almost too great. So much that has given us pleasure must be parted with; so many old ties sundered, a condition of holiness presents an aspect of dreariness and hopelessness; like the world after the flood, not a moving thing on the surface of the earth, everything levelled, prostrate, and washed even with the ground; here the corpse of a man, there the carcase of a beast: here mighty forest timber swept prone like the rushes on the banks of a flooded stream, and there a city without inhabitants, everything dank, dismal, and repellent. But this is only one aspect of the work; the beginning, necessary if the work is to be thorough. If any part of the sinful life remain it will spring up to mar what God means to introduce us to. Only that is to be preserved which we can take with us into our ark. Only that is to pass on into our life which we can retain while we are in true connection with Christ, and which we think can help us to live as His friends, and to serve Him zealously.
This event then gives us some measure by which we can know how much God will do to maintain holiness upon earth. In this catastrophe every one who strives after godliness may find encouragement, seeing in it the Divine earnestness of God-for good and against evil. There is only one other event in history that so conspicuously shows that holiness among men is the object for which God will sacrifice everything else. There is no need now of any further demonstration of Gods purpose in this world. and His zeal for carrying it out. And may it not be expected of us His children, that we stand in presence of the cross until our cold and frivolous hearts catch something of the earnestness, the "resisting unto blood striving against sin," which is exhibited there? The Flood has not been forgotten by almost any people under heaven, but its moral result is nil. But he whose memory is haunted by a dying Redeemer, by the thought of One Whose love found its most appropriate and practical result in dying for him, is prevented from much sin, and finds in that love the spring of eternal hope, that which his soul in the deep privacy of his most sacred thoughts can feed upon with joy, that which he builds himself round and broods over as his inalienable possession.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain CRITICAL NOTES.—Notwithstanding the measure of difficulty standing in the…
CRITICAL NOTES.—Notwithstanding the measure of difficulty standing in the way of ascertaining the meaning of the proper names of Scripture, the subject cannot be wisely neglected: what we do know is every now and then most striking and suggestive; and what we do not know, and with existing appliances cannot learn, occasionally possesses an interest almost amounting to fascination. We know enough to feel intensely curious to know more. In fact, these old names have the charm of fossils—they were once living, and had a place in a living sphere of human hopes and fears, and passions and disappointments; and by them we seem every now and then to get a glimpse into a now buried world. These glimpses come like snatches of reality, and may be of considerable indirect service, even where we most feel that positive knowledge eludes our grasp. In the following summary of the meanings (certain or probable) of the proper names of this chapter, the reader will understand the appended initials to signify as follows:—G, Gesenius; F, Fürst; D, Davies; M, Murphy. Where the meaning has had to be gleaned inferentially from the author, it is enclosed in parenthetical marks “( )”: where the author expressly intimates a doubt as to the signification of a name, it is followed by the sign of interrogation “?”
Gen_5:1. Adam] “Red”? G.; “made of dust or earth,” F.; “ruddy”? but prob. “earth born,” D.; “red” (from red soil), M.—
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Gen_5:3. Seth] “Placing,” “setting,” G.; “compensation,” F.; prob. “substitute,” D.; “placed,” “put,” M.—
Gen_5:6. Enos] “Mortal, decaying man,” F.; “man,” D.; “man,” “sickly,” M.—
Gen_5:9. Cainan] “Possession”? G.; “a child, one begotten,” F.; “smith,” or “lancer,” D.; “possessor” or “spearsman,” M.—
Gen_5:12. Mahalaleel] “Praise of God,” G., D., M.; “praise or splendour of El,” F.—
Gen_5:15. Jared] “Descent,” G., D.; “low ground,” “water,” or “marching down,” F.; “going down,” M.—
Gen_5:18. Enoch] “Initiated,” or “initiating,” G.; “teacher,” “initiator,” F.; “teaching,” or “initiation”? D.; “initiation,” “instruction,” M.—
Gen_5:21. Methuselah] “Man of a dart,” G.; “man of military arms,” F.; “missile man,” D.; “man of the missile,” M—.
Gen_5:25. Lamech] “Strong,” or “young man,” G.; “overthrower” (of enemies), “wild-man,” F.; “destroyer,” D.; “man of prayer,” “youth,” M.—
Gen_5:29. Noah] (“Rest”), G.; “consolation,” or “rest,” F.; “rest,” or “comfort,” D.; “rest,” M.—
Gen_5:32. Shem] (“Name”), G.; “name,” “renown,” “height,” F.; “celebrity,” D.; “name,” “fame,” M. Ham] “Hot,” G., M.; “dark-coloured,” “black,” F.; “swarthy,” D.—Japhet] “Widely-extending,” G.; “extender,” or “spreader”; “or “beautiful”? (of white races), F.; “extension,” D.; “spreading,” M.
“In general little reliance can be placed upon the etymological significance of these early names as given by the lexicographers, whether we regard them as purely Hebrew, or as having been transferred from some older Shemitic tongue. In a few of them, however, there appear contrasts that can hardly be mistaken. Thus, for example, between Seth, the established, the firm, and Enosh, the weak, the frail (βροτός, mortalis, homo), the contrast is similar to that between Cain and Abel (gain, as the promised seed, and vanity or disappointment), as though the hopes of men, from generation to generation, were alternately rising and falling.”—Prof. T. Lewis, in Lange’s “Genesis.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Gen_5:1-32
DISTINGUISHED MEN
History is full of distinguished men, and it is interesting to study how they became so. There are many methods of becoming a distinguished man, and we shall notice a few as suggested by the names contained in this immortal chapter of early history.
I. Some men are rendered distinguished by the peculiarity of the times in which they live. Adam was thus distinguished. He was the first human being to inhabit the earth, to look out upon its bright glories, and to care for its produce. He was the first human being to hold sweet communion with God, and to feel the rapture of holy prayer. He was also, with his wife, the first human being to be led astray, into the woful experiences of sin, by the devil. Hence Adam as the first man is invested with a most wonderful and interesting history, from the time of his coming into the world, over which he had no control. God made him, and he entered into life under these unexceptionable circumstances. Hence his fame. Had Adam lived in these days the probabilities are that his name would have been unknown to the crowd, and unspoken by the multitude. He was not by any means a man of great genius. We are not aware that he had any extraordinary mental or moral gifts, he was commonplace in the measure of his soul. We do not read that like Cain he built a city, or that like Jabal he was the father of such as dwelt in tents, or that like Jubal he was efficient in musical arts and accomplishments, or that like Tubal Cain he was capable of numerous mechanical artifices. He was simply an ordinary man, who in different times, under less extraordinary circumstances, would not have attracted the slightest public attention, and in this respect Adam is a type of multitudes whose lives are chronicled in the world’s history. They were not intrinsically great men, either in their intellectual abilities or moral sentiments. They never once in their lives had a thought so sublime that they were under the necessity of calling for pen and ink to pursue an angel clad in such bright clothing. They were never capable of moral passion. Their lives were a stagnation, there were no great billows of impulse rolling in as from a great heart, indicative of the wild music of the soul. They were men, and that was all. You could see all they were. You could hear all they had. They were possessed of no unknown quality of being. Yet they rise to fame. Yes! But there was nothing meritorious in their notoriety. They were renowned because they could not help it. Some men are fortunate in the accidents of their lives. They happen to be born in a certain family, at a certain time, and as a consequence they become the world’s rulers and favourites. Such men should learn that a true and worthy fame is not the outcome of time or circumstance, but of earnest personal effort and achievement. It is not unlikely that the man who is born a hero may die a fool. He will be greater at his birth than at his death. At his birth wise men may come to pay him homage, but at his death there may be none to attend his funeral. Thus we find that some are distinguished men from the mere circumstances of their advent into the world.
II. That some men are rendered distinguished by their marvellous longevity.—We find that the men whose names are given in this list were remarkable for the length of their lives, Methuselah living to the age of nine hundred and sixty-nine years. There are multitudes of men who are remarkable for nothing else but their longevity. They had a good physical manhood, and consequently they were enabled to endure the storm of life for many years. They were men of bone and muscle rather than of thought and moral energy. They would be more useful in the army than in the church; better soldiers than Christian workers. But we gauge men’s lives by a wrong estimate. We cannot measure a man’s life by the number of years he has passed in the burden and battle of the world. A long life may be lived in a very short space of time, and a number of years may be the chronicle of a brief life. Man’s truest life is spent in and measured by deeds, thoughts, sympathies, and heroic activities. A man may live a long life in one day. He has during the day been instrumental in the salvation of one soul, then in that day he has lived a short eternity. A man who writes in a year a thoughtful book, which shall instruct and culture the minds of men, lives a century in that brief space of time. The schoolmaster who teaches a boy to think, the minister who helps men to be pure and good, the gentle spirits who aid by visitation and prayer the sorrowful and the sick, these are the world’s longest lives, these are the world’s true Methuselahs. Hence we should endeavour to live well if we would live long. Immortality will consist in moral goodness rather than in the flight of ages. But society is hardly awake to this measurement of time and this computation of the years, and hence it still continues to laud the man of three score years and ten, and to reckon him amongst its curiosities. Society gives fame to many men because it regards them in this light. We cannot say that such a fame is worthy of envy. Grey hairs, when found in the paths of rectitude, are worthy of all honour and respect, but he who can find no other claim upon the world’s admiration is destitute of that which can alone win the truest homage of mankind.
III. That some men are rendered distinguished by the villainy of their moral conduct. There are many in this list whose lives are characterized by utter degeneracy. In the first verse we are told that God created man in his own pure image, and then by way of contrast, and of shewing the extent of the fall of man, we have given several names by way of illustration. The image of God and the life of man is in terrible contrast. But it is well that sin is not always made known in its full extent in human history. These verses do not contain a record of the sins of which some of the men named were guilty. They sum up the life in a name. History cannot write the wickedness of men. It is too dark for the pen to sketch. It would be too awful for the world to read and contemplate. When men die it is well that the remembrance of their sins should be buried with them. Their villainies are best forgotten. But history will not altogether permit the sins of men to pass from remembrance. The annals of crime soon allow their heroes to banish from the world’s memory. But monarchs who have been despots, place-seekers who have been murderers, and the outbreaks of popular rage, are retained on the pages of history. And these men owe their historic distinction to their crimes. Crime soon brings men into unenviable fame; a fame they had better be without.
IV. That some men are rendered distinguished by their ancestral line of descent. This chapter contains the line from Adam to Noah, in which are stated some common particulars concerning all, and certain special details concerning three of them. The genealogy is traced to the tenth in descent from Adam and terminates with the flood. The scope of the chapter is to mark out the line of faith, and hope, and holiness from Adam, the first head of the human race to Noah, who became eventually the second natural head of it. And so it is, some men are only known in the line of their ancestral relationships. They are slight links in a great chain. They are feeble lights in a grand constellation. Their greatness is reflected from the toils or achievements of others who have lived before them. They catch a borrowed lustre. Such lives are the relief of history. They subdue its grandeur. They contrast with its pageantry. They make it approachable. If the pages of history were filled with the exploits and records of men essentially and intrinsically great, they would be unapproachable by the ordinary reader. Hence we gladly welcome, now and then in its annals, the little manhood of great ancestry, but destitute of moral force.
V. That some men are rendered distinguished by their true and exalted piety.—We are told in this chapter, that Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him. This is a distinction of the very truest kind, it arises from the moral purity of the soul. It is not always that the men who walk the most intimately with God are the most famous on earth. Sometimes they are persecuted. They are often rejected by the common multitude. Some envy the beauty of their moral characters. Others mock them. But the favour of national crowds is very fickle and transient, and is not worth having. But the favour of all worthy spirits will ever be the heritage of the good. Heaven will also take notice of them, and cause its benediction to rest upon them. Good men are the true kings of the world, the true prophets, the great victors, and the only ones worthy of permanent fame and celebration. And when the great ones of the earth, whose praise has been from men, shall be forgotten, then the good shall shine as stars in the Kingdom of God for ever and ever. Then let all young men seek the distinction which cometh from above, that only is worthy their search, and alone will repay the energies of their immortal souls. LESSONS:—
1. That a good old age is often the heritage of man.
2. That noble lineage is the heritage of others.
3. That true piety may be the heritage of all.
4. That true piety has a substantial reward as well as a permanent record.
I. The longevity of the antediluvian race. Here are men who lived through periods varying from eight hundred to almost a thousand years. This longevity might be explained on natural principles. These men inherited good constitutions; they were of stalwart frames, with pure blood coursing through their veins, and every part of their organization well strung together. The varying temperatures, the fogs and malaria belonging to these western regions, so inimical to health, had no place in their land. Their diet was simple; those intoxicating beverages and unwholesome confectionaries which come to our tables were probably unknown to them. They knew not the anxieties and competitions of the merchant. Who but God can tell how long the human body organically strong, and thus guarded, would live? Their longevity was for special ends. It served to populate the world. It supplied the want of a written revelation. From the death of Adam to the call of Abraham was a period of about eleven hundred years. During that period a large population grew, discoveries were made, great deeds were wrought, great communications received from God; but there was no historian to hand down to the children the experiences of their sires. Thus the longevity of man supplied the place of books. Their longevity contributed to their depravity. The fear of death somewhat restrains evil even in the worst men. Death is a useful minister. Were the Herods, the Neros, the Napoleons to live nine hundred years, would society be better than hell? As long as depravity is in the world, it is necessary there should be mortality.
II. The poverty of human history. All that we have of the human race for upwards of a thousand years is to be found in these verses. The myriads who lived during this period sustained the same relation to each other, to God, and to the universe as we do; and the ideas, feelings and habits common to the race were theirs. Each had a history of his own, but there is no record, the pale of oblivion is over them. They are only mentioned. There is an awful sadness in this. To leave the world in which we have lived and laboured, enjoyed and suffered, and to be forgotten for ever, is humbling to our vanity, and sickening to our very heart. The millions are forgotten as a dream, a few years after their death. A few by literature and art are kept in memory a little longer; but the hour comes with them, when the last letter in their names is washed out from the sands of life by the tidal wave of time.
III. The materializing tendencies of sin. All that is recorded here of these great men, except Enoch, is that they begat sons and daughters. There is no harm in this, but there is no virtue in it. There is in it that which indicates their alliance with the lower creation, nothing to indicate their alliance with the spiritual universe and with God. There is no spiritual act here recorded of them. It is not said that they read the meaning of some page in the volume of nature, or that they reared altars to the God of heaven. Why are these things not recorded? Because not accomplished? Why? Had they not souls? Had they not a God to worship? Their souls were materialized. The material pleasures are the pleasures taught by the million.
IV. The inevitableness of man’s mortality. These men lived hundreds of years, yet it is said of each, “he died.” Death may delay his work, but does not forget his mission. No money can bribe death, no power can avert his blow.
“All that tread
The globe, are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom.”
V. The blessedness of practical Godliness. “Enoch walked with God.” This expression implies an abiding consciousness of God’s presence. He “saw Him who is invisible.” The Divine presence was not with him a mere dogma; it was a living conscious fact. He felt God nearer to him than nature, nearer than any other being, the constant companion of his spirit. The language implies cordial fellowship. To walk with another implies a mutual sympathy and agreement of soul. Spiritual progress. He walks, every step bearing him onward into higher truths and richer experiences.—(Homilist.)
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Gen_5:1-2. Providence has made a sufficient register of the rise, growth, and state of the Church to satisfy faith rather than curiosity.
The genealogy of the Church revealed by God ought to be known and believed by men.
God’s will is that His Church should be propagated by generation, not by creation.
The generations of the Church were ordered to be from Adam fallen, that grace might appear.
The record of man’s creation in God’s image is necessary to be studied by man in his fall.
God’s blessing only makes man fruitful to propagate His Church.
One name and nature has God given to both sexes of man, that they may learn their union in conjugal estate.
Gen_5:3-5. The Spirit of God hath taken care to give a sufficient chronology unto the Church from the first.
Some distance of time may be in delaying the reforming seed of the Church, but it shall come.
Sinful Adam begets his seed in his full image, sinful as himself.
Grace can make a sinful seed of man to be a settled Church reformer.
Providence gave large progenies, and long time, to the first fathers.
The Spirit has willingly silenced the history of all the first times but of the Church.
God’s pleasure has been to give the world a full witness of his creation.
ENOCH, ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREAT TEACHERS
Gen_5:22-24. (Compare Gen_5:22-24; Heb_11:5; and Jud_1:14-15.) There are three very strange things that strike us in connection with the history of Enoch. It is strange that so little is said about him. The verses we have read comprehend all our reliable knowledge of him. It is true that there is a book called by his name—a book which, although perhaps as ancient as the Epistles, is evidently apocryphal, and therefore not to be trusted. Reference is also made to him in Ecclesiasticus, a book which, although bound up in some of our Bibles, has no right to a place in canonical writings. One might have expected that a man who lived so many years as he did, lived a life so divine and useful, would have had an ampler history in the Book of God. Another thing that strikes us as strange in this man’s history is the comparative shortness of his stay on earth. It is true that he was here three hundred and sixty-five years, a period which, although commanding a space equal to ten of our generations, was not so much as half of the age of many of his contemporaries. We should have thought that he would have lived longer than the wicked around him. Another thing that strikes us as strange in this man’s history is the manifest singularity of the life he lived.
I. He taught the world by his life.
1. “He walked with God.”
2. “He had the testimony that he pleased God.” How this testimony came to him we are not told. It is not necessary to suppose that it came in any miraculous way. It was the testimony of his conscience. How blessed such consciousness. Such a life as his was indeed a teaching life. As the load-star seems to beam more brilliantly in the firmament, the darker grows the clouds that float about it, so Enoch’s life must have been a luminous power in his age of black depravity. There is no teaching like life teaching. All mere verbal and professional teaching is as the tinkling cymbal to this true trump of God. It is the most intelligible teaching. Men reason against your Paleys, but they can’t reason against a good life. It is the most constant teaching. Letter and logic teaching is only occasional. But life teaching is constant. Its light streams through all the acts and events of every day life. It is not the brooklet that rattles after the shower, and is silent in the drought, but it is the perennial river rolling in all seasons, skirting its pathway with life and beauty, and reflecting on its bosom the heavens of God.
II. He taught the world by his translation. “He was not.” The expression, “was not found,” suggests that he was missed and sought for. Such a man would be missed. No doubt his age knew him well. How he was taken to heaven we know not. We learn—
1. That death is not a necessity of human nature. He did not see death. There are those who say that men are made to die; that, like all organized bodies, their dissolution is inevitable; that death with them, as with all animal existence, is a law of nature. Hence they say that the doctrine that men die because of sin is a mere theological fiction. It is also said that God intended men to die, otherwise He would not have allowed them to multiply so rapidly without giving them a world immeasurably larger than this. The translation of Enoch is an answer to all this. It shows that if death is the law of man’s nature, God is stronger than law, and can annul it at His pleasure. If the earth can only support a limited number of men, God could have taken a thousand generations in the same way.
2. That there is a sphere of human existence beyond this. Perhaps the men in those antediluvian times had lost all ideas of a future state of being. The translation of Enoch would reveal another sphere of life to them.
3. That there is a God in the universe who approves of goodness.
4. That the mastering of sin is the way to a grand destiny. Just as a man overcomes sin, and walks closely with his Maker, he gets translated.
III. He taught the world by His preaching. Jude gives a specimen of his preaching, and it includes three things:—
1. The advent of the Judges
2. The gathering of the saints.
3. The conversion of sinners.—(Homilist.)
THE HEAVENLY WALK
I. That it may be pursued notwithstanding the prevalency of sin around. The age in which Enoch lived was, probably, the darkest the world has ever known. It had wandered from God in thought, in purpose, in worship, and in life. It was altogether degenerate. We have a Divine description of it.
1. Lust was made the basis of marriage. “And the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
2. The longevity of man was productive of sin. “And the Lord said, my spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.”
3. Violence was prevalent amongst men. “There were giants in the earth in those days.” “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” This is God’s description of the age in which Enoch was called to live. He was one star amid the darkness. He was one ray of light in the terrible storm of evil. He was one flower in that neglected garden. He was an oasis in the desert of wickedness. His life was in sublime contrast to all around him. He was the prophet of the age. He was the guide of the age. He was the benefactor of the age. This shows the intrinsic force of a godly spirit, in that it can repel the sin by which it is surrounded, and keep its own conscience from defilement. This shows three things:—
(1.) That man can be good notwithstanding the natural depravity of his heart.
(2.) Notwithstanding the wickedness of his companions. Man is not the creature of circumstances. He need not commit sin because he is surrounded by it. He can repel it in the home—in the workshop—whatever may be the disadvantages of his condition His surroundings are no excuse for evil doing. The soul can rise above them into the heavenly path of fellowship with God.
(3.) That man can be good notwithstanding the difficulty of the Christian life. It is not an easy thing to be a Christian. It is not natural for man to be good. Goodness is a conflict. Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads into the paths of moral rectitude. But this need not impede the spiritual progress of the soul in the ways of God, even in the most degenerate times. The darkness calls for light, and wickedness needs piety in its midst, if only to keep it from utter ruin, and to pray for its reformation.
II. That it may be pursued in the very prime of busy manhood. The life of Enoch was a comparatively busy one; he died in the prime of manhood. And yet at this period he was celebrated for his moral goodness. Some people have an idea that piety is all very well for little children, for women who are comparatively unoccupied, and for the aged; but they intimate that for men in the prime of life, in the midst of business, and who are thus in severe competition with the world, that it is an absurdity and an impossibility. These men hope soon to amass a fortune and retire from active life, and then they will commence the period of devotion. Who can estimate the folly and the moral wrong of such an idea? Piety is good for the most active business man. It will enrich his soul. It will sooth his care. It will quiet his anxiety. It will refresh his soul. It will give him the guidance of a Divine Father. Men can be honest in business. Multitudes are. They prosper the best. If the age is sinful, it likes to do business with a reliable man. Let the business men of England seek to enter upon the heavenly walk so gladly enjoyed by Enoch.
III. That it may be pursued in the very midst of domestic anxiety and care. “And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters.” He was not the mere creature of passion. He was not materialistic in his ideas. He walked with God amidst his family enjoyments, duties, and anxieties. Many people have lost their religion through the increase of domestic cares. But a godly soul can walk with God in family life, and take all its offspring in the same holy path. Enoch would instruct his children in the right way. He would pray for them. He would commend them to his Divine Friend. Happy the home where such a godly parent is at its head.
IV. That it may be pursued into the very portals of heaven and eternal bliss. Enoch walked with God, and one day walked right into heaven with Him. Heaven is but the continuation of the holy walk of earth. Going to heaven does not imply a cessation in the walk of moral goodness. With the good man life on earth naturally breaks into the glory of the skies. Some people imagine that heaven will consist in a miraculous change wrought upon the soul whereby it will enter into some grand, inexplicable sphere of being. No: Heaven is the soul’s walk with God on earth, rendered closer and more spiritual by the conditions of the new life above. The soul’s walk with God is a progress to eternal light. Let our prayer be—
“O for a closer walk with God,
A calm and heavenly frame;
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!”
ENOCH: ACCOUNTING FOR MEN’S DISAPPEARANCE FROM THE EARTH
“God took him.”
I. We should take an interest in the destiny of men.
II. We should recognize the hand of God in the removal of men
III. We should believe in the particularity of God’s oversight of men. When God takes a good man—
(1.) He takes that man to a higher blessing.
(2.) He will fill that man’s place as a Christian worker upon earth.
(3.) He trains survivors towards self-reliance and emulous work. Or, thus:
1. God took him—the assertion of a sovereign right.
2. God took him—an illustration of Divine regard.
3. God took him—an assurance of eternal blessedness.
4. God took him—a pledge that all like him will be associated. (City Temple.)
God of his own will hath chosen some eminent witness to bear out His name to all ages—Enoch, Elijah.
Eminent piety becomes those who are God’s chosen witnesses in a dark age.
Men who walk with God must discover Him to others.
God will take and crown those souls that walk with Him.
The advantages of walking with God:
1. The best security.
2. The purest happiness.
3. It will secure eternal life.
Gen_5:25-27. The longest life on earth:—It will not give perfection.
2. It will yield to change.
3. It may yield to sin.
4. It must die.
Gen_5:28-31. Outward names may be the same to the righteous and the wicked. Chapter Gen_4:18. Compare Gen_5:28.
God has set times for eminent refreshing to His church.
The first times before the flood had real and typical discoveries of God’s rest in Christ.
God makes the names of his seed prophetical of the peace of His church.
Gen_5:32. A stated and full time of warning does God vouchsafe to men of His requirements.
It is a blessing upon the holiest to have families.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 5
BY THE
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Adam! Gen_5:1. The Apocalypse of Moses is a mythical narrative of the sickness and death of Adam and Eve. In it Adam is represented on his expulsion as petitioning the seraphim to allow him to carry away some of the perfume of Paradise. The boon is granted, and Adam takes that aroma of Eden which afterwards became the sacrificial incense. It also narrates how Adam sent his son Seth to go and fetch the oil of consolation, which flows from, the Tree of Life in Paradise—and how this favour was refused him because he was appointed unto death.
“Yes, I must die—I feel that I must die;
And though to me has life been dark and dreary,
Yet do I feel my soul recoil within me
As I contemplate the dim gulf of death.”—White.
Adam’s Death! Gen_5:5. Tradition has invented an account of the last scene. Scarcely had he breathed his last than his soul was carried away by angels, and his body borne into Eden—there to await the resurrection. The death of him, who was created for eternal life, and was not to die, produces a deep tremor of awe throughout the universe. The earth refuses to receive his body—the sun and moon cover themselves with a veil—and wonders are wrought far and wide; all of which accounts are no doubt as deserving of Christian credence as are the startling phantoms of heathen prodigy or Roman calendar. Seth is represented as stating that Adam was buried by him in the “Cave of Treasures”—along with the incense and myrrh from Paradise—to which cave came in after times the magi to obtain the frankincense and myrrh which were brought to the Infant Saviour.
Godless Grey-hairs! Gen_5:9. There is not a more repulsive spectacle than an old man who will not forsake the world, which has already forsaken him. As Spurgeon so wittily and weightily says, of all fools, a fool with a grey head is the worst fool anywhere. With one foot in the grave, and another foot on a sandy foundation, of him it may be asked: A few more nights, and where art thou?
“What folly can be ranker? Like our shadows
Our wishes lengthen as our sun declines:
No wish should loiter then this side the grave.”—Young.
Despots! Gen_5:9. In pictured stone we see traces which speak of perfectly-organized, strong and beautiful life, and a record there also of imperfection and deformity; as in the records of the Bible are traces not only of those who excel in virtue, but of those who made a strong impression on their age through the magnitude of their vileness. Among such are those mentioned in this chapter. But
“Think’st thou there is no tyranny but that
Of blood and chains? The despotism of vice,
The weakness and the wickedness of luxury.”—Byron.
Adam to Noah! Gen_5:9. The golden age was the first period of history in which truth—right—innocence and happiness universally prevailed. There were no instruments of war, and the earth brought forth her fruits spontaneously. Spring was perpetual—flowers grew up spontaneously—the rivers flowed with milk and wine, and honey dropped from the boughs of the oak. Then came the silver age—then the savage brazen age—then the murderous iron age, followed by the flood of Deucalion—while
“Faith fled, and piety in exile mourned:
And Justice, here opprest, to heaven returned.”—Dryden.
Ancestry! Gen_5:10. King James I., in his progress in England, was entertained at Lumley Castle, the seat of the Earl of Scarborough. A relative of the noble earl was very proud in showing and explaining to his Majesty an immensely large genealogical line of the family. The pedigree he carried back rather farther than the greatest strength of credulity would allow, whereupon the witty Monarch quietly remarked that “he did not know before that Adam’s name was Lumley.”
“Of all the wonders which the eventful life
Of man presents—
Not one so strange appears as this alone,
That man is proud of what is not his own.”—More.
Memorials! Gen_5:14. When we explore the caverns of Egypt we come upon the sculptured forms of ape and ibis. These serve to illustrate the shapes and idolatries of human conceits. They speak to us in language more powerful than the most minute details of history. And so, when we examine the vaults of pre-Noachic man, we come upon the names of successive generations which suffice to exemplify to us life-history of that era. They testify with more power and fulness than if there were a thousand rolls inscribed with their deeds and thoughts.
“Those strong records,
Those deathless monuments alone shall show
What, and how great, the Roman Empire was.”—May.
Rivers! Gen_5:17. Life bears us on like the stream of a mighty river. Our boat glides down the narrow channel, through the playful murmuring of the little brook, and the winding of its grassy borders. The trees shake their blossoms over our young heads, and the flowers on the brink seem to offer themselves to our young hands; we are happy in the hope, and grasp eagerly at the beauties around us—but the stream hurries on, and still our hands are empty. Our course in youth and manhood is along a wider flood, amid objects more striking and magnificent. We are animated at the moving pictures of enjoyment and industry passing us—we are excited at some short-lived disappointment.
“It may be that the breath of love,
Some leaves on its swift tide driven,
Which, passing from the shores above,
Have floated down from heaven.”—Bell.
The stream bears us on, and our joys and grief are alike left behind us. We may be shipwrecked; we cannot be delayed. Whether rough or smooth, the river hastens to its home, till the tossing of the waves is beneath our feet, and the land lessens from our eyes, and floods are lifted around us, and we take our leave of earth and its inhabitants until of our further voyage there is no witness but the Infinite and Eternal.—(Heber.)
Antiquity! Gen_5:20. Wandering during a bright autumnal afternoon over one of the loftiest chalk cliffdowns in our island, and often looking out over the great far-stretching ocean that rolled up in monotonous murmurs to the foot of the precipitous white rock walls, on the top of which he then stood, Mr. Leifchild was deeply impressed with a feeling of the limitations of all human knowledge. Down below, some 800 feet under him, and for many miles before him was the vast unsounded sea. High up above that was the lofty, inaccessible sky. Immediately beneath his feet were solid layers upon layers of accumulated and piled-up chalk. He beheld the sea and sky under a full sunshine, but he knew nothing absolutely of what was in them—of what was below them—of what was above them. Even of the visible and sea-derived rock underneath, he knew little more than that it was the white sepulchre of countless centuries—the mighty monument of historic ages—the dead deposit of once boundlessly swarming life. So may we stand in regard to the generations of men recorded in Genesis 5. We see around and above them; but we cannot see what is in them. Full blazing light is over all, but light is not in all.
“When fain to learn we lean into the dark,
And grope to feel the floor of the abyss.”—Ingelow.
Faith-vision! Gen_5:24. Birds have an extraordinary power of changing the focus of the lens of their eye, at will and instantly. By this means they are enabled to perceive distant objects invisible to human gaze, as if just under their beaks. The optician cannot give you an eye-glass to distinguish with equal clearness near objects and remote. Yet birds possess this power. And so the Christian possesses this twofold spiritual vision. The prophet Enoch—without increasing or diminishing—was able to cause the faith of his soul to change instantly the globular form of the crystalline lens, and thus augment the power of refraction. Looking at will and instantly, he could see the sins near at hand, and yet behold the grand solemnities of the last assize far off.
“From Adam to his youngest heir,
Not one shall ’scape that muster-roll;
Each, as if he alone were there,
Shall stand, and win or lose his soul.”—Montgomery.
Immortality! Gen_5:24. All heathen nations have believed in the immortality of the soul. The Greeks and Romans had their Hades—their Elysian fields—their infernal regions; but these, as Macmillan remarks, were only ghost worlds, inhabited by the shades of the departed. They felt that the dust could not be the end of him who has been privileged to walk with God among the trees of the garden, and to hold communion with the Divine in the thoughts that breathe and words that burn in all the magnificence of Nature’s creation.
“Thus man
Was made upright, immortal made, and crowned
The king of all.”—Pollok.
Wickedness! Gen_5:22. There was never a ray of starlight in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky—only the red glare of torches ever lights its walls. So there were many men in the era from Adam to Noah whose minds were all underground, and unlighted save by the torches of selfishness and passion.
“Meanwhile the earth increased in wickedness,
And hasted daily to fill up her cup.”—Pollok.
Family! Gen_5:22. The religious father may be regarded in his family as the keystone to the arch of a building which binds and holds all the parts of the edifice together. If this keystone be removed, the fabric will tumble to the ground, and all its parts be separated from each other. Or, he is to his family as the good shepherd, under whose protection and care the flock may go in and out, and find pasture; but when the shepherd is smitten, the sheep will be scattered. Yet
“His hand who rent shall bind again,
With firmer links, thy broken chain,
To be complete for ever.”—Fitzarthur.
Holy Walk! Gen_5:24. The Emperor of Germany was one day visiting one of the public schools of Prussia; and, being desirous of personally testing the intelligence of the children, he held up a stone, and enquired to what “kingdom” it belonged. Having received the reply that it was a member of the mineral kingdom, he held up a little flower, and repeated the question to what kingdom it rightly belonged. The prompt response was given that it was classed in the vegetable kingdom; whereupon the veteran monarch, drawing himself up to his full stature, enquired: “To what kingdom do I belong?” To his pleased surprise, a voice immediately shouted: “To the kingdom of heaven.” True indeed of the aged champion of the Kingdom of Christ on earth; would that it could be said of every child of man: “To the kingdom of heaven!” This is secured by “walking with God;” and
“Though small the seedling, from it grows
Heaven’s boundless bliss.”—Judson.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain I. No sooner was Adam made, than it was…
Gen 5:2
I. No sooner was Adam made, than it was at once resolved that he should not be alone; and God proceeded to create Eve. So even in heaven Christ’s happiness was not complete without His Church. He came that His yearning heart might have a people to be His own.
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II. As Eve was brought to Adam, so the Church was brought to Christ.
III. As from that moment Adam and Eve were treated as one, so in everything Christ’s people are one with their Lord.
IV. In the dignity and happiness of Adam and Eve we see a type of Christ and the Church, the Church as it is now, but much rather as it will be at last.
J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 10th series, p. 116.
References: Gen 5:2.—J. Laidlaw, Bible Doctrine of Man, p. 98. Gen 5:3.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 382; Christian World Pulpit, vol. v., p. 193. Gen 5:4.—B. Waugh, Sunday Magazine (1887), pp. 423, 425. Gen 5:5.—J. Van Oosterzee, Year of Salvation, vol. i., p. 156.
Gen 5:21-24
In the Bible, besides its ordinary characters, and besides its simply extraordinary men such as David, Solomon, or Isaiah, there is another and a still more interesting order, around whom hovers a shade of supernaturalism and mystery. Such are Melchisedec, Elijah, Moses, and Enoch.
I. Consider the life of Enoch. He "walked with God." These words seem to imply that Enoch possessed a remarkable resemblance to God in moral excellence; that he realised God’s presence, and enjoyed His communion in an extraordinary measure, and that he publicly avowed himself to be on God’s side, and stood almost alone in doing so.
We notice especially the quietness and unconsciousness of his walk with God. The life of David or of Job resembled a stormy spring day, made up of sweeping tempest, angry glooms, and sudden bursts of windy sunshine; that of Enoch is a soft grey autumn noon, with one mild haze of brightness covering earth and heaven.
II. Notice Enoch’s public work of protest and prophecy. The Epistle of Jude supplies us with new information about Enoch’s public work. It was not simply his walk, but his work, that was honoured by translation. He not only characterised and by implication condemned his age, but predicted the coming of the last great Judgment of God. He announced it (1) as a glorious and overpowering event; (2) as one of conclusive judgment and convincing demonstration.
III. Look now at Enoch’s translation. How striking in its simplicity is the phrase "He was not, for God took him!" The circumstances of his translation are advisedly concealed: "translated that he should not see death." Many a hero has gathered fame because he stood "face to face with death," and has outfaced the old enemy; but death never so much as dared to "look into Enoch’s eye as it kindled into immortality." The reasons why this honour was conferred on him were probably (1) To show his transcendent excellence; (2) To abash an infidel world; (3) To prove that there was another state of being, and to give a pledge of this to all future ages.
G. Gilfillan, Alpha and Omega, vol. i., p. 217.
References: Gen 5:21-24.—Expositor, 2nd series, vol. vii., p. 321; Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii., No. 1307; Congregationalist, vol. xii., p. 561.
Gen 5:23-24
Heb 11:5
We are told that Enoch "pleased God," not by any special superhuman experiences and endeavours, but just in such a way as we may all imitate. Consider—
I. The necessity for pleasing God. In the Epistle to the Hebrews God is spoken of as "Him with whom we have to do." We have little to do with each other compared with what we have to do with Him. If God is not pleased with us, we cannot be right.
II. The method of pleasing God. To describe this would be to describe the whole Christian life. The way to all goodness and to the pleasing of God is the old way of repentance, faith and obedience to Christ.
III. The results of pleasing God will be manifold and very good. (1) We shall in this way please ourselves better than in any other. (2) If we please God, we shall have pleasure in life and the world. (3) Whatever may come in this life, one thing is always sure: "He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him."
A. Raleigh, The Way to the City, p. 408.
References: Gen 5:23, Gen 5:24.—G. Matheson, Moments on the Mount, p. 16; Cumming, Church before the Flood, pp. 438, 471.
Gen 5:24
Few words are needed to describe the salient features of the majority of human lives. It is not needful to write a volume to tell whether a man has spent a noble or a wasted life. One stroke of the pen, one solitary word, may be enough.
I. Here is a life suddenly and prematurely cut short; for although Enoch lived 365 years, it was not half the usual age of the men of his day.
II. Enoch’s was a life spent amid surrounding wickedness.
III. It was a life spent in fellowship with God. This expression "walked with God" has a very peculiar force. There is in it the idea of strong persistence and determination. There is also the idea of progress.
IV. Enoch’s was a life of noble testimony.
V. Enoch’s was a life crowned by translation. His translation was (1) A reminder to the men of his day that there was another state above and beyond the present; (2) An intimation of the final reward of the saints. The eternal life which was given to him will be granted, sooner or later, to every child of God.
J. W. Atkinson, Penny Pulpit, No. 908.
References: Gen 5:24.—G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 382; Homiletic Magazine, vol. xii., p. 332; Old Testament Outlines, p. 5. Gen 5:27.—Parker, vol. i., p. 362, and Hidden Springs, p. 358.
Gen 5:29
These words, used by Lamech, apply far more truly to the descendant of Noah after the flesh, even Jesus Christ.
I. When our Lord appeared among men, the world was in almost as sad and hopeless a condition as when Lamech looked around him. Among the Gentiles there was ignorance, darkness, and false imaginations, among the chosen people there was hardness and impenitence. Christ comforted His disciples after His resurrection by raising up the temple of their wrecked faith, as He raised again the temple of His own body. He comforted them with the assurance that their faith was not in vain, that He had the keys of death and hell, and was able to succour to the uttermost those who trusted in Him.
II. The risen Christ comforted also the fathers of the ancient covenant. Moses and Elias appeared unto Him on Tabor, speaking with Him of the things concerning His passion. The ancient patriarchs could not enter into heaven till the gates were opened by the cross of Christ, and the handwriting that was against all sinners was taken away.
III. The Resurrection of Christ is a joy and comfort to us also: (1) because in Him a way of safety was opened to the world; (2) because He will repay a hundredfold all that is done for Him.
S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, 2nd series, vol. i., p. 217.
This passage teaches us:
I. The hardness and difficulty of life. These words are the words of parents. Lamech, "the powerful," is not ashamed to confess that he needs comfort; and when this child comes to him he accepts him as a Divine gift, as a commissioned, competent, and thrice-welcome messenger of comfort from God.
II. The comfort that comes into the world with children. These words of Lamech are the permanent inscription in the horoscope which parents everywhere and always see over the cradle of the latest born. There is a bright prophecy of God concerning the future in this invincible hopefulness of the parental heart.
III. The security we have for this in the great fact of our redemption. Our Noah has been born: the Rest-giver, strong Burden-bearer, all-pitying and all-suffering Saviour. Noah was a preacher of righteousness, but Jesus Christ brings and gives righteousness, instilling it into every believing heart. Noah was a preserver of the world in his own family from a temporary flood, Jesus Christ makes this world itself the Ark which He commands, steering it through this great and wide sea of space and time in safety.
A. Raleigh, From Dawn to the Perfect Day, p. 1 (also Sunday Magazine, 1877, p. 586).
References: Gen 5—Parker, vol. i., p. 154; Expositor, 1st series vol. viii., p. 449, vol. xi., p. 213.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain The Descendants of Adam to Noah
The Descendants of Adam to Noah
The purpose of the historian in giving the names and ages of the antediluvian Patriarchs was, no doubt, to show the glorious ancestry of the chosen race, and to account for the period between the Creation and the Flood. This, according to the Hebrews, was 1656 years. (See on Gen_10:32.) Various attempts have been made to explain the great ages attributed to these Patriarchs, but they are purely conjectural, and the view now generally held is that the Hebrews, like all other ancient nations, had a tradition that the forefathers of the race were vastly longer lived than their descendants. The golden age of the Hebrew lay in the past; and he attributed in preeminent degree to his ancestors in these far-off days the blessing he valued most of all—length of days upon the earth.
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The similarity of the lists of names in Genesis 4, 5 has been discussed in a note on Gen_4:17. Genesis 5 continues the narrative of the Priestly document which we met with in Gen_1:1 to Gen_2:4 a, as appears from (a) the recurrence of Gen_1:27-28 in Gen_5:1-2, (b) the phrase 'the generations of' characteristic of P (see on Gen_2:4), (c) the divine name God, and (d) the formal statistical style of the chapter.
1. The generations of Adam] i.e. the genealogy of Adam's descendants, cp. Gen_2:4 and note.
2. Called their name Adam] This shows that the word 'Adam' was originally applied to the race, and was not a proper name. In the previous v. it is so used for the first time in the Priestly narrative.
3. His own likeness] as he himself was created in the likeness of God.
21-24. Enoch] the one figure which breaks the formality of this chapter His conduct is mentioned in a way which implies that the majority of men lived differently. In all his actions he recognised the duty which he owed to God; from none of his thoughts was God absent; he lived in communion with Him. The meaning of the expression He was not; for God took him, is, no doubt, correctly given by the writer of Hebrews 11, as that Enoch never died, but was translated to heaven, like Elijah, as a reward for the holiness of his life. In Jewish tradition Enoch's walking with God was taken to mean initiation into the mysteries of the universe, and the secrets of the past and future. A whole circle of apocalyptic literature was ascribed to him in the post-exilic days, which is embodied in the so-called book of Enoch. This book is quoted in Jdg_1:14 as the work of 'Enoch the seventh from Adam.'
23. The days of Enoch] It is noteworthy that the life of Enoch is the shortest mentioned in this c.
29. Noah] here connected with nahem, 'to comfort.' The name is really derived from nuah, 'to rest.' The comfort may refer to the invention of wine, which is attributed to Noah in Gen_9:20-27, a passage perhaps from the same source as the present one.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain Adam, as the natural head of the race Luk…
Adam
Adam, as the natural head of the race Luk 3:38 is a contrasting type of Christ, the Head of the new creation. See; Rom 5:14; 1Co 15:21; 1Co 15:22; 1Co 15:45-47.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain Adam and His Seed Through Seth
III. THE BOOK OF THE GENERATIONS OF ADAM
CHAPTER 5
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Adam and His Seed Through Seth
1. Adam (Gen 5:1-5)
2. Seth (Gen 5:6-8)
3. Enos (Gen 5:9-11)
4. Cainan (Gen 5:12-14)
5. Mahalaleel (Gen 5:15-17)
6. Jared (Gen 5:18-20) 7. Enoch (Gen 5:21-24)
8. Methuselah (Gen 5:25-27)
9. Lamech (Gen 5:28-31)
10. Noah (Gen 5:32)
Here we find the record of the seed of Seth. There is a striking contrast with the record of the Cainites in the previous chapter. The Cainites were progressive, built cities and made inventions. Nothing is said of the God-fearing generations in this chapter accomplishing great earthly things. They were pilgrims and strangers, waiting for better things. In the fourth chapter the word “die” is not mentioned. Nothing is said of the duration of the life of Cain and his seed. Eight times in the fifth chapter we read “and he died.” One did not die. We learn from this that the Lord keeps a record of the lives, the work and the years of His people. His saints are in His hands.
The names of ten generations translated give a startling revelation. In them we read the faith of the pious generations before the flood and for what they waited.
Adam -- Man
Seth -- Set
Enos -- Frailty
Cainan -- Deplorable
Mahalaleel -- The Blessed God
Jared -- Descends
Enoch -- Teaching
Methuselah -- Death sent away
Lamech -- Powerful
Noah -- Rest, Comfort
The record of Enoch must be compared with Jud 1:14-16 and Heb 11:5. He was translated before the great judgment swept over the earth. Enoch is a type of the living saints at the close of the present age, who will be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Study Enoch’s walk, Enoch’s faith, Enoch’s testimony, Enoch’s suffering and Enoch’s translation with the help of the New Testament passages.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain From Adam to Seth
From Adam to Seth
v. 1. This is the book of the generations of Adam. This Chapter presents a short summary of the history of the believing Adamites in the form of a genealogical table, with a few explanatory notes. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him;
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v. 2. male and female created he them, and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. The author here goes back to the history of the creation, Gen 1:27-28. God created man male and female, and gave him the blessed knowledge of Himself, as well as perfect righteousness and holiness, besides other external advantages which are often included in this image. And even at that time God called man by that name; Adam bore the name "man" and Eve that of "woman," or "maness. "
v. 3. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth. Since Adam had lost the perfect image of God in the Fall, it was no longer possible for him to transmit the image of God to his offspring. Seth was born in the image of Adam, and therefore subject to sin and death. Since the Fall all men are conceived and born in sin, and all of them are subject to death and damnation, Rom 5:12. Only through the merits of the one Man, who was in Himself sinless, though burdened with the guilt of all men, are we delivered from the inevitable doom of damnation.
v. 4. And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years; and he begat sons and daughters;
v. 5. and all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. That the patriarchs before the Flood lived to such a ripe old age was probably due to the fact that their bodies were not yet so filled with the many tendencies toward sickness which are now so prevalent; they were physically in much better condition than the people of the present time. Then also, as Luther remarks, God had special thoughts of kindness toward the world in having so many pious, wise, and holy men in the world at one time.
v. 6. And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos.
v. 7. And Seth lived, after he begat Enos, eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
v. 8. And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died. In spite of the remarkably great age which these men reached, the ever-recurring refrain "and he died" reminds us of the fact that death had now entered the world, and that it is man’s inevitable lot to become a prey of the king of terrors so far as the body is concerned, Rom 5:14.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
This is the beginning of the list of Adam's descendants.
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in his own likeness
This phrase means that God made mankind to be like him. This verse does not tell in what ways God made people to be like himself. God does not have a body, so it does not mean that people would look like God. See how "after our likeness" is translated in Genesis 1:26. AT: "to truly be like us" (See: Pronouns)
when they were created
This can be made active. AT: "when he created them" (See: Active or Passive)
translationWords
Adam
bless
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 5:1-32 The genealogies of Genesis go beyond simply recording…
5:1-32 The genealogies of Genesis go beyond simply recording history. By selective information and by structure, they communicate spiritual truth. The genealogies highlight God’s blessing, authenticate the family heritage of important individuals, and hold the Genesis narrative together by showing familial continuity. Adam’s genealogy through Seth traces ten generations to Noah (see 1 Chr 1:1-4; Luke 3:36-38), with the flood intervening before another ten generations from Noah to Abram. The number ten indicates completeness (ten plagues, Exod 7:8–11:10; Ten Commandments, Exod 20:2-17). Noah closed history before the flood, and Abram inaugurated a new era.
5:1-2 This is the prologue to the second account in Genesis (5:1–6:8; see study note on 2:4); it connects God’s purpose in creation with Seth’s line rather than Cain’s (4:17-24).
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5:1 written account: Although the previous account (2:4–4:26) focused on Adam, Eve, and their first children, it was technically “the account of the . . . heavens and the earth.” Genesis 5:1-32 is a more typical genealogy. • like himself: See 1:26 and study note.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.