Tag: Genesis 5

Long Lives

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The Rabbis debate over the ages in Genesis 5 regarding whether or not the long lives were attributed to all humans prior to the flood, or if they pointed to the remarkable ages of the lineage from Adam to Noah.

There is reason for this. They look here:

Pharaoh asked him, “How old are you?”
And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my fathers.”
Genesis 47:8-9 (NIV)

A Hint of the Nephilim

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When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
Genesis 5:3 (NASB)

Genesis 5 says his image about Seth, and nobody else.

The Rabbis wondered about this and suggest that Adam and Eve may have had other offspring after Cain and Abel, before Seth. These offspring were… different. Not like Adam. Something monstrous.

This points to the Nephilim in Genesis 6.

10s and 100s

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Something important is happening with the ages listed in Genesis 5.

With Adam, the Hebrew language descdribes his age as 900, and 30 years.

But for everyone else in the list of ages, the 10s and 100s are reversed: Seth lived 12, and 900 years. Enosh lived 5 and 900.

The next time we see the person’s age listed with the 100s first, it’s with Abraham.

One rabbinical teaching is that when an age is written 100s and then 10s, it means the last years of their lives were good and productive. So we seem to be told that God has redeemed Adam.

That doesn’t mean the rest are not redeemed, but specifically that God has compassion on Adam, the first of the lineage to die from the curse (from dust, to dust).

Comfort from Noah

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And [Lamech] named him Noah, saying, “This one will give us comfort from our work and from the hard labor of our hands caused by the ground which the Lord has cursed.
Genesis 5:29 (NASB)

The last generation listed before Noah is born is through Lamech, who says this perplexing thing about comfort from the toil from the cursed ground.

If you follow the timing of the births and deaths of the line from Adam until Lamech, you’ll see that Adam has only recently died, so perhaps the whole world sees that the consequenced laid out in Genesis 2 and 3 has come to fruition. Maybe the world weeps. Death is reality.

So Lamech names his son “Noah,” which means comfort, and it points to a future where God provides a way out of death, symbolized by a certain boat that rises above the all-consuming flood.

The Book

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This is the book of the generations of Adam. On the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
Genesis 5:1 (NASB)

Genesis 5 starts out mentioning “the book of the generations of Adam.”

It’s the first time we see this word “book.”

It means “book” or “writing,” but it also means “missive” or “instructions.” Like a decree… or a Promise.

So many Sevens

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Lamech said to his wives,

“Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.
If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
Genesis 4:23-24 (NIV)

Seventh from Cain, we have Lamech boasting a 7-fold to 77-fold vengeance. I mentioned previously that Jesus flips this with this a 7-fold to 77-fold forgiveness.

When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died.
Genesis 5:28-31

Eighth down the line from Seth in Genesis 5, we have a different Lamech, tied to the number 777.

Lamech’s son is Noah: Comfort.

In Hebrew numerology, 7 means completion. Perfection. But 8 symbolizes new creation. A new order.

It’s so fascinating. It’s like the numbers tell us about God creating a new order, undoing vengeance and overcoming it with forgiveness to bring us comfort.

Was Enoch “Raptured?”

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Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
Genesis 5:24 (NIV)

Some believe in the “Rapture,” a future event where God will simply whoosh Christian believers away into heaven before the “Great Tribulation,” where God’s judgement is poured out like liquid from a bowl that floods the world in God’s wrath.

They look at Enoch as an example, who is also taken up.

This does make some of us wonder why Noah, who was called “righteous in his generation” was not taken into heaven like Enoch.

In His Image

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When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
Genesis 5:3 (NIV)

We are told something specific about Adam and Seth that we aren’t told about the rest of the genealogy.

Before you say that the text “wouldn’t include any unnecessary repetition,” keep in mind that the whole chapter is repetition. The differences are meant to stand out.

Adam’s Role

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In the Bible, the father is normally the person listed as naming the children, but it’s Eve who names both Cain and Abel in Genesis 3. Adam isn’t involved.

Eve names Seth, but in Genesis 5, the text says Adam does, so the implication may be that they both did. And perhaps that’s the point. We are meant to work together.