NOTES for Gen 5:1-32

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, in the day when they were created.

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

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

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

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

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

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

⁹And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:

¹⁰And Enos 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 Mahalaleel:

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 he died.

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

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 an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 sixty and nine years: and he died.

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

²⁹And 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.

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, Ham, and Japheth.

Genealogies, ancestral lists, are one of the most characteristic genres of the Bible. In each case the genre has its own meaning and significance, although the genealogies themselves remain what they are: lists of descent of one origin or another. In this case we are dealing with genealogical lists whose origin is unknown, and the names mentioned in them tell a modern historian nothing. One can only note that similar genealogies are found among different peoples of the ancient Near East: they occur in Egypt, Sumer, and Greece.

In practice, such genealogies almost always turn out, when examined, to be half-mythical. This is understandable, since in those times mythology had not yet separated from history; one flowed smoothly and often almost imperceptibly into the other. It remains only to add that the myth of the flood was quite widely spread in antiquity, and almost everywhere this myth is present there are also antediluvian genealogies: lists of descent of tribal chiefs or rulers of cities and states who, according to the compilers of the genealogies, lived before the flood. The sacred writer most likely did not compose the genealogies of the Book of Genesis himself, but used those that already existed in his time. As for their origin and authorship, one can only guess about both.

What stands out is the fantastically long lifespan of the people mentioned in the genealogies, but only if the reference is indeed to specific individuals. The point is that in antiquity in general, and in ancient genealogies in particular, a name could designate not only a particular person, but also the clan founded by that person or, when rulers are in view, the dynasty founded by him.

In the genealogies presented, the same name is usually mentioned twice, as can be seen: once when the birth of a certain heir to the person is mentioned, and here the lifespan named is usually quite normal and natural for a human being; the second time when this same person is said to have fathered "sons and daughters" in some unspecified number, and here the lifespan of the named founder of the clan is given as something completely fantastic. Fantastic, if one thinks the reference is to a human being.

But if we allow that in the second case the clan name is mentioned precisely as such, that it designates here the clan and the duration of the clan's existence, not an individual person and the length of his life, then everything begins to look not nearly so fantastic: the duration of a clan's existence can easily be measured in centuries.

Then the genealogies take their place in the Book of Genesis and in the symbolic history of humanity contained in the book's Prologue: they describe the settlement of people across the earth. They describe it symbolically, but in essence very accurately, because humanity really did settle across the earth by clans and tribes. Nations and states all came later, after some time had passed. After the flood.

Other notes

For Gen 5:1-32