Adam lived one hundred thirty years, and became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
Parallel Translations
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Adam lived one hundred thirty years, and became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.
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And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
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And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (11)
Passages linked to Genesis 5:3 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Genesis 4:25 Adam knew his wife again. She gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, saying, “for God has given me another child instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.”
- Job 14:4 Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one.
- Job 15:14-16 What is man, that he should be clean? What is he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he puts no trust in his holy ones. Yes, the heavens are not clean in his sight; how much less one who is abominable and corrupt, a man who drinks iniquity like water!
- Job 25:4 How then can man be just with God? Or how can he who is born of a woman be clean?
- Psalms 14:2-3 Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any who understood, who sought after God. They have all gone aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, no, not one.
- Luke 1:35 The angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore also the holy one who is born from you will be called the Son of God.
- John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
- Romans 5:12 Therefore as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; so death passed to all men, because all sinned.
- 1 Corinthians 15:39 All flesh is not the same flesh, but there is one flesh of men, another flesh of animals, another of fish, and another of birds.
- Ephesians 2:3 We also all once lived among them in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.
- Psalms 51:5 Behold, I was born in iniquity. My mother conceived me in sin.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 3. And begat a son in his own likeness.…
3. And begat a son in his own likeness. We have lately said that Moses traces the offspring of Adam only through the line of Seth, to propose for our consideration the succession of the Church. In saying that Seth begat a son after his own image, he refers in part to the first origin of our nature: at the same time its corruption and pollution is to be noticed, which having been contracted by Adam through the fall, has flowed down to all his posterity. If he had remained upright, he would have transmitted to all his children what he had received: but now we read that Seth, as well as the rest, was defiled; because Adams who had fallen from his original state, could beget none but such as were like himself. If any one should object that Seth with his family had been elected by the special grace of God: the answer is easy and obvious; namely, that a supernatural remedy does not prevent carnal generation from participating in the corruption of sin. Therefore, according to the flesh, Seth was born a sinner; but afterwards he was renewed by the grace of the Spirit. This sad instance of the holy patriarch furnishes us with ample occasion to deplore our own wretchedness.
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 As well concerning his creation, as his corruption.
As well concerning his creation, as his corruption.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Gen 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty…
Gen 5:3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat [a son] in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:
Ver. 3. Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begat.] This was a great trial to his faith, to wait so long for a better issue, when the Cainites spread abroad, erected cities, and perhaps meditated monarchies.
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After his own image.] Corruptus corruptum . For "who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?" says Job. {Job 14:4} "That which is born of the flesh is flesh," {Joh 3:6} saith our Saviour, and we can say no better of it. This is hard to persuade men to; for each one is apt to think his own penny as good silver: and a dead woman will have four to carry her forth, as the proverb has it. The Pharisee, bad enough though he be, yet is very braggardly of his good estate to Godward: And Novatus cries out, Non habeo, Domine, quod mihi ignoscas . How much better St Augustine, Ego admisi, Domine, unde tu damnare potes me; sed non amisisti, unde tu salvare potes me . One has destroyed me, but from you is my help - my safety here, and salvation hereafter. Lord I am hell, but you are heaven, as that martyr {a} once said, &c. “One depth called upon another”; {Psa 42:7} the depth of my misery, the depth of thy mercy. Heaven denies me; earth groans under me; hell gapes for me: help, Lord, or your servant perishes. "Wash me throughly from my iniquity, and purge me from my sin"; {Psa 51:2} whether that imputed to me, inherent in me, or issuing from me.
{a} Bp. Hooper.
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 Adam lived an hundred and thirty years after he…
Adam lived an hundred and thirty years after he was created, in which time he begat other sons and daughters, as appears from what was said before.
After his image; either,
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1. In regard of the natural frame of his body and soul; but this was so evident of itself, that the mention of it had been frivolous. Nor is there any reason why that should be said of Seth, rather than of Cain or Abel. Or,
2. In regard of his corruption, q.d. a weak, sinful, mortal man, like himself; for Adam's image is here plainly opposed to the likeness of God, wherein Adam is said to be created, Gen 5:1. And this is fitly said of Seth to signify, that although he was a worthy and good man, and, Adam excepted, the most eminent person of the whole church of God; yet he, no less than wicked Cain, was begotten and born in sin; and that all the difference which was between him, and consequently between other good men, and the wicked progeny of Cain, was not from the nature which they received from Adam, but from the grace infused into them by God.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years,.... The…
And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years,.... The Septuagint version, through mistaken, gives the number two hundred and thirty years:
and begat a son; not that he had no other children during this time than Cain and Abel; this is only observed to show how old he was when Seth was born, the son here meant; who was begotten
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in his own likeness, after his image; not in the likeness, and after the image of God, in which Adam was created; for having sinned, he lost that image, at least it was greatly defaced, and he came short of that glory of God, and could not convey it to his posterity; who are, and ever have been conceived in sin, and shapen in iniquity; are polluted and unclean, foolish and disobedient; averse to all that is good, and prone to all that is evil: the sinfulness of nature is conveyed by natural generation, but not holiness and grace; that is not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the flesh, but of God, and produced of his own will, by his mighty power impressing the image of his Son in regeneration on his people; which by beholding his glory they are more and more changed into by the Spirit of God. The Jewish writers understand this in a good sense, of Seth being like to Adam in goodness, when Cain was not: so the Targum of Jonathan,"and he begat Seth, who was like to his image and similitude; for before Eve had brought forth Cain, who was not like unto him---but afterwards she brought forth him who was like unto him, and called his name Seth.''So they say (z) Cain was not of the seed, nor of the image of Adam, nor his works like Abel his brother; but Seth was of the seed and image of Adam, and his works were like the works of his brother Abel; according to that, "he begat (a son) in his own likeness". And they assert (a), that Adam delivered all his wisdom to Seth his son, who was born after his image and likeness; and particularly Maimonides (b) observes, that all the sons of Adam before Seth were rather beasts than men, and had not the true human form, not the form and image of men; but Seth, after Adam had taught and instructed him, was in human perfection, as it is said of him, "and he begat in his likeness": but the text speaks not of the education of Seth, and of what he was through that, but of his birth, and what he was in consequence of it; and we are told by good authority, that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh", carnal and corrupt, and such are all the sons of Adam by natural generation; see Job 14:4.
(z) Pirke Eliezer, c. 22. (a) Shalshalet Hakabala, apud Hottinger. Smegma, p. 212. (b) More Nevochim, par. 1. c. 7.
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 Seth was born in the 130th year of Adam's…
Seth was born in the 130th 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 corrupted, he begat a son in his own image, sinful and defiled, frail and 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. He was conceived and born in sin, Psalm li, 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.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 3. And Adam lived a hundred and thirty…
Verse 3. And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, c.] The Scripture chronology especially in the ages of some of the antediluvian and postdiluvian patriarchs, has exceedingly puzzled chronologists, critics, and divines. The printed Hebrew text, the Samaritan, the Septuagint, and Josephus, are all different, and have their respective vouchers and defenders. The following tables of the genealogies of the patriarchs before and after the flood, according to the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Septuagint, will at once exhibit the discordances.
ANTEDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS LIVED BEFORE THEIR SONS' BIRTH
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Heb.
Samar.
Sept.
Adam, Gen. v. 3.
130
130
230
Seth, ---- 6.
105
105
205
Enos, ---- 9.
90
90
190
Cainan, ---- 12.
70
70
170
Mahalaleel, ---- 15.
65
65
165
Jared, ---- 18.
162
62
162
Enoch, ---- 21.
65
65
165
Methuselah, ---- 25.
187
67
167
Lamech ---- 28.
182
53
188
Noah, at the flood, Gen. vii. 6.
600
600
600
Total before the flood,
1656
1307
2242*
In this first period the sum in Josephus is 2256, which is also adopted by Dr. Hales in his New Analysis of Chronology.
POSTDILUVIAN PATRIARCHS LIVED BEFORE THEIR SONS' BIRTH
Heb.
Samar.
Sept.
Shem begot Arphaxad after the flood, Gen xi.10.
2
2
2
Arphaxad, Gen xi.12.
35
135
135
Cainan (2d) mentioned only by the LXX. and Luke iii.36.
0
0
130
Salah, Gen. xi. 14.
30
130
130
Eber, ----- 16.
34
134
134
Peleg, ----- 18.
30
130
130
Reu, ----- 20.
32
132
132
Serug, ----- 22.
30
130
130
Nahor, ----- 24.
29
79
179
Terah, ----- 26.
70
70
70
Total to the 70th year of Terah,
292
942
1172*
In this second period the sum in Josephus is 1002.
* The Septuagint account of the ages of the antediluvian and postdiluvian patriarchs in the above tables, is taken from the VATICAN copy, but if we follow the ALEXANDRIAN MS., we shall have in the first period the whole sum of 2262 instead of 2242 and in the second period, 1072 instead of 1172. On this subject the different MSS. of the Septuagint abound with various readings.
For much satisfactory information on this subject I must refer to A New Analysis of Chronology, by the Rev. William Hales, D.D., 3 vols. 4to., London, 1809.
And begat a son in his own likeness, after his image] Words nearly the same with those Ge 1:26: Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. What this image and likeness of God were, we have already seen, and we may rest assured that the same image and likeness are not meant here. The body of Adam was created provisionally immortal, i.e. while he continued obedient he could not die; but his obedience was voluntary, and his state a probationary one. The soul of Adam was created in the moral image of God, in knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. He had now sinned, and consequently had lost his moral resemblance to his Maker; he had also become mortal through his breach of the law. His image and likeness were therefore widely different at this time from what they were before; and his begetting children in this image and likeness plainly implies that they were imperfect like himself, mortal like himself, sinful and corrupt like himself. For it is impossible that he, being impure, fallen from the Divine image, could beget a pure and holy offspring, unless we could suppose it possible that a bitter fountain could send forth sweet waters, or that a cause could produce effects totally dissimilar from itself. What is said here of Seth might have been said of all the other children of Adam, as they were all begotten after his fall; but the sacred writer has thought proper to mark it only in this instance.
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 5:3. Seth was born in the one hundred…
Gen 5:3. Seth was born in the one 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 corrupted, he begat a son in his own image, sinful and defiled, frail and 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. This was Adam’s own likeness, the reverse of that divine likeness in which he was made, and which, having lost it himself, he could not convey to his seed.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 3. in his own likeness, after his image] Cf.…
3. in his own likeness, after his image] Cf. Gen_1:26. Man was made in God’s image, after His likeness; he begets a son, in his own likeness, after his image. Many Heb. MSS., however, only read “in his image.” On the words “image” and “likeness,” see note on Gen_1:26. The phrase here is evidently intended to shew that the elements of resemblance to the Divine image, which at the first were implanted in man’s nature, were communicated from father to son.
That the priestly document contained any tradition respecting the Fall, or the murder of Abel, seems improbable.
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Seth] See note on Gen_4:25. The father here gives the name; the mother’s name is not mentioned in this genealogy.
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 (3) In his own likeness, after his image.—That is,…
(3) In his own likeness, after his image.—That is, Adam handed down to his posterity that Divine likeness which he had himself received.
Seth.—See on Gen_4:25.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 3-5. At the head of the Adamic race…
Vers. 3-5. At the head of the Adamic race stands the first man, whose career is summarized in three short verses, which serve as a model for the subsequent biographies. And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years. Shanah, a repetition, a return of the sun s circuit, or of similar natural phenomena; from shanah, to fold together, to repeat; hence a year (Gesenius, Furst). Cf. Latin, annus; Greek, ejniautov; Gothic, Jar, jar, jet ; German, jahr; English, year all of which "seem to carry the same thought, viz., that which comes again" (T. Lewis). Shanah never means month" (Kalisch). And begat a son in his own likeness, damuth (cf. Gen_1:26) after his image tselem (cf. Gen_1:26); not the Divine image in which he was himself created (Kalisch, Knobel, Alford), but the image or likeness of his own fallen nature, i.e. the image of God modified and corrupted by sin (Keil, Murphy, Wordsworth). "A supernatural remedy does not prevent generation from participating in the corruption of sin. Therefore, according to the flesh Seth was born a sinner, though he was afterwards renewed by the Spirit of grace" (Calvin). The doctrine of inherited depravity or transmitted sin has been commonly held to favor the theory which accounts for the origin of the human soul per traducem (Tertullian, Luther, Delitzsch), in opposition to that which holds it to be due to the creative power of God (Jerome, Augustine, Calvin, Beza, Turretin). Kalisch thinks the statement "Adam begat Seth in his own image " decisive in favor of Traducianism, while Hodge affirms "it only asserts that Seth was like his father, and sheds no light, on the mysterious process of generation ("Syst. Theol.," Part 1 Ge 3. The truth is that Scripture seems to recognize both sides of this question. Vide Psa_51:5 in favor of Traducianism, and Psa_139:14-16 Jer_50:5 in support of Creationism (cf. Martensen"s "Dogmatics," though there is much force in the words of Augustine "De re obscurissima disputatur, non adjuvantibus divinarum scripturarum certis clarisque documentis." And called his name probably concurring in the name selected by Eve (Gen_4:25) Seth Appointed, placed, substituted; hence compensation. (Gen_4:25) And the days of Adam after he had begotten literally, his begetting Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters. "In that primitive time the births did not rapidly follow each other a fact which had to indicate that his having a posterity at all was conditioned by the ripeness of his faith. At the same time the lateness of paternity among these primeval men may have been partly due to a physical cause as well, "since in exact accordance with the increasing degeneracy and rankness of human life is there, in a literal sense, the increase of a numerous and wretched offspring" (Lange). And all the days that Adam not the whole tribe (Gatterer, vide Bohlen; cf. Balgarnie, "Expositor," vol. 8.), "as in this case Enoch must have been taken to heaven with his whole family" (Kalisch); but the individual bearing that namelived were nine hundred and thirty years. The remarkable longevity of the Macrobii has been explained
1. On the supposition of its non-authenticity.
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(1) As a purely mythical conception (Knobel, Bauer, Hartmann, Bohlen); which, however, may be safely rejected as an altogether inadequate hypothesis.
(2) As due to an error in the traditional transmission of the genealogical registers, several names having fallen out, leaving their years to be reckoned to those that remained (Rosenm but against this conjecture stands the orderly succession of father and son through ten generations.
(3) As representing not the lifetimes of individuals, but dynastic epochs (vide supra); and
(4) as signifying lesser spaces of time e.g. three months (Hensler), or one month (Raske) than solar years; but even Knobel admits that "no shorter year have the Hebrews ever had than the period of a year"s time.
2. On the basis of its historic credibility; as attributable to
(1) The original immortality with which man was endowed, and which was now being frayed away by the inroads of sin (Kalisch).
(2) The superior piety and intelligence of these early father"s of the race (Josephus, "Antiq.," I 3:9).
(3) The influence of the fruit of the tree of life which, while in the garden, Adam ate (Whately, "Ency. Brit.," eighth ed., Art. Christianity).
(4) The original vigor of their physical constitutions, and the greater excellence of the food on which they lived (Willet). But if the first and second opinions are correct, then the Cainites should have died earlier than the Sethites, which there is no reason to believe they did; while the third is a pure conjecture (vide, Gen_2:9) and the fourth may contain some degree of truth.
We prefer to ascribe the longevity of these antediluvian men to a distinct exercise of grace on the part of God, who designed it to be
(1) a proof of the Divine clemency in suspending the penalty of sin;
(2) a symbol of that immortality which had been recovered for men by the promise of the woman"s seed; and
(3) a medium of transmission for the faith, for the benefit of both the Church and the world. And he died. "The,solemn toll of the patriarchal funeral bell (Bonar). Its constant recurrence at the close of each biography proves the dominion of death from Adam onward, as an immutable law; (Rom_5:11; Baumgarten, Kefi, Lange) "warns us that death was not denounced in vain against men" (Calvin); "is a standing demonstration of the effect of disobedience" (Murphy); "was intended to show what the condition of all mankind was after Adam"s fall (Willet). The expression is not appended to the genealogical list of the Fathers after the Flood, doubtless as being then sufficiently understood; and it is not said of the descendants of Cain that they died, "as if the inheritance of the sons of God were not here on earth, but in death, as the days of the deaths of martyrs are held in honor by the Church as their birthdays" (Wordsworth).
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 And Adam begat a son in his own likeness,…
Gen_5:3
And Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image
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Human depravity
I.
THAT HUMAN DEPRAVITY IS TOTAL AS TO ITS INFLUENCE OVER THE HUMAN MIND. By the phrase, human depravity, we mean that corruption of our nature, whereby we are inclined to sin rather than to holiness. The seat of this depravity is within; external forms of wickedness, in words and actions, are only the results and expressions of it, etc. By the heart, we mean the mind and all its faculties and powers; and by the depravity of the heart, we mean that principle within it, call it disposition, energy, or cause, whence those powers receive their inclination and bias, and from the quality of which, they, and the actions resulting from them, derive their character.
II. I now proceed to prove, that THIS DEPRAVITY IS UNIVERSAL IN ITS PREVALENCE AMONGST MANKIND.
1. It exists in all ages. Our proof of this is in universal history.
2. It exists in all countries.
3. In all communities.
4. In all families.
5. In all individuals.
III. IT IS INHERENT IN OUR NATURE, IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE FALL OF ADAM. (T. Raffles, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 130 ... eight hundred
130 ... eight hundred
Translators may write the numerals "130" and "800" or the words "one hundred thirty" and "eight hundred." (The ULB and the UDB use numerals if the number has three or more words; they use words if a number has only one or two words.) (See: Numbers)
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he became the father of a son
"he had a son"
in his own likeness, after his image
These two phrases mean the same thing. They are used as a reminder that God made man in his own image. See how you translated similar phrases in Genesis 1:26.
Seth
See how you translated this name in Genesis 4:25.
He became the father of more sons and daughters
"He had more sons and daughters"
then he died
This phrase will be repeated throughout the chapter. Use the ordinary word for "died."
Adam lived 930 years
"Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years." People used to live a very long time. Use your ordinary word for "years." AT: "Adam lived a total of 930 years" (See: Numbers)
translationWords
Adam
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 5:3 just like him—in his very image: The image…
5:3 just like him—in his very image: The image and likeness of God (see note on 1:26) is preserved in human beings despite sin. Adam’s sinful nature was also carried forward (Rom 5:12-14).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.