Genesis 5 King James Version (KJV)

Genesis 5 King James Version (KJV)

5 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:

4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:

5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

6 And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:

7 And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:

8 And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.

9 And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:

10 And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:

11 And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.

12 And Cainan lived seventy years and begat Mahalaleel:

13 And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:

14 And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.

15 And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared:

16 And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters:

17 And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.

18 And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:

19 And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

20 And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.

21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:

22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:

24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

25 And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech.

26 And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:

27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:

29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.

30 And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:

31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.

32 And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis chapter 5 has always been one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. There is something very intriguing to me about the pre-flood world, and I've always loved reading and thinking about the lives of the people who lived then; particularly the lineage of men listed in this chapter, which is actually the lineage that led to Christ coming into the world. We know that Cain and Abel were the first men born into the world, and possibly the first people (Gen. 4:1,2). We don't know if they had sisters born before them because women were not reckoned in the genealogies. That doesn't mean that women didn't matter, but rather they were included with their fathers or their husbands, depending on whether they were of age and married. We know that females were born to Adam and Eve early, because it is evident that Cain married one of his sisters, as there would have been no one else for him to marry. Actually everyone in our early history married relatives, because everyone originally came from Adam and Eve. So when it's all said and done we are all relatives, because it is certain that we all came from those first two people, and from those whom they produced. The scripture also tells us that Cain killed his brother Abel, and the apostle John tells us exactly why he did it: "For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous" (I Jn. 3:12). Actually God himself told Cain directly that his offering was not accepted because he brought it with a conscience of sin (Gen. 4:7). The genealogy of Cain is given in Genesis chapter 4 along with some interesting facts about his offspring. After Cain was driven out by God from God's presence and from his family, he married and had a son named Enoch, but not the Enoch who was translated by God.

Cain was the first man to build a city, and he named the city after his son Enoch (Gen. 4:10). A few generations later Cain's descendant Jabal became the first to dwell in tents and to raise cattle (Gen. 4:20). Also Jabal's brother Jubal became "the father of all such who handle the harp and organ" (Gen. 4:21). A half brother of those two, named Tubalcain, became "an instructer of every artificer in brass and iron" (Gen. 4:22). So even though Cain had proven to be wicked, both he and his seed managed to produce some things that have been instrumental in the world ever since then. We are told that when Adam was 130 years old, he and Eve had another son who was the replacement seed for Abel, and that his name was called Seth (Gen. 4:25). Also Seth had a son and named him Enos, and the scriptures says that in the days of Enos "men began to call upon the name of the Lord" (Gen. 4:26). This may sound like Adam, Eve, Seth, and any of Seth's many sisters had not been praying or worshiping God before Enos was born. It does not mean that however. It is more properly translated to say that "men began to be called by the name of the Lord." That brings us back to Genesis chapter 5 where we can look at some interesting facts about the pre-flood patriarchs. One of the mathematical facts we have is that the world was 1,656 years old when the flood came. We can come to that result simply by adding the years from Adam being 130 when he had Seth, with the ages of each patriarch when they had their firstborn son. That totals 1,056 years up to the birth of Noah. After we've added Lamech's age when Noah was born, we just add 600 more years, because we are told in Gen. 7:6 that Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. I believe that the next most interesting fact that we are able to divulge mathematically is that Adam lived to see all of his offspring before the flood except for Noah, and Lamech the father of Noah was 56 years old when Adam died.

The death of Adam must have been an event unlike anything in the history of the world. He was the first man, and the only man who was never born; and he was the only man who knew what it was like to live before sin entered the world. He was also the man upon whose shoulders the burden was laid for bringing sin into the world. It is Adam who is 'credited' with bringing sin into the world, not Eve; though it was her that was deceived by the serpent to start the ball rolling in the wrong direction (Rom. 5:12; I Tim. 2:14). I'm certain that Adam rebounded from his massive error and lived his days out as best he could to redeem himself in the sight of God. The history that we have about the beginning of the world was all passed down from Adam to every generation after him. Adam had plenty of time to see far more results of his original sin than I'm sure he cared to see. He was probably one of the most sorrowful individuals in the history of the world, if not the most. When he died they must have had a funeral for him like maybe we've never seen. Never in the history of the world has a man died who was as significant to the entire world as he was [excluding Jesus of course]. We are not told when Eve died, but she obviously has a very special place in the history of the world as well. Another fact we are able to conclude is that all of Noah's ancestors were living during his lifetime except for Adam and Seth, and Seth only missed by 14 years. Another point of interest, to me anyway, is that Jared lived 735 years after his son Enoch was translated from the earth. It must have been quite a point of amazement and a bittersweet experience to raise a son that God favored so much that he just had to have him for himself, and gave him the death bypass route. I believe that tells us that Jared was quite a man of God himself, to be able to raise someone as special as Enoch.

The last mathematical point I'll make is that Methuselah, the longest living man recorded, outlived his son Lamech by five years, and it was the year of Methuselah's death that the flood came. In fact one of the meanings of Methuselah's name is, 'It will come at this death.' So with all of these mega-long lives before the flood, comes the question, Why did these people live so long? I believe personally, as do some scholars, that the answer lies in the account of the creation: "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so" (Gen. 1:6,7). What we see here is that in the beginning there was a layer of waters above the sky that no longer exists. The apostle Peter addresses this issue, though not with absolute clarity: "For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men" (II Pet. 3:5-7). Peter actually says that the heavens and earth that exist now, because of the flood, are basically a different heavens and earth from those before the flood. We also know that rain was heavily upon the earth for forty days and nights when the flood came, and I believe that the 'canopy' of water that existed high in the earth's atmosphere was drained by that long duration of rain, and was never replaced. I also believe that these "waters which were above the firmament" served to give a 'greenhouse effect' to the earth, and to everyone and everything living.

If there was a greenhouse effect upon the earth in the pre-flood world, it would have blocked out the sun's most damaging rays, and would have afforded much better health and much longer lifespans. It would also explain how gigantic creatures like the dinosaurs could have been so large. I believe that the greenhouse effect would have made the people, as well as animals and vegetation, considerably larger than what is the case today. We do see many accounts of giants after the flood, and the grapes in the land of Canaan appear to have been exceptionally large as well, seeing it took two men to carry a single cluster (Num. 13:23,33). These kinds of huge aberrations of the size of men and fruits had to have come from something and someone before them that was geared that way genetically. If the greenhouse effect is the answer for the longevity of people in the pre-flood world, it would also serve to reason that the more harmful rays of the sun after the flood would have worn down the genetic disposition of men, animals, and plants; to eventually what we by and large see and know today. In the account of the post-flood patriarchs in Genesis chapter 10 we see that the lifespan of men after the flood gradually decreased from generation to generation, and I believe that can be accounted for by the removal of the greenhouse effect on the earth; which was created by the layer of waters that existed above the sky. But in any event I don't know that I can claim that to be revelation knowledge, though I am close to being fully persuaded about it. So I think we can truly say that there is a lot more to a chapter in the Bible that consists totally of genealogy, than we might think at first glance. Hopefully you've enjoyed thinking on these things, even as I do. Maybe you will have some additional thoughts about it all. God bless.