The first person we meet after Adam is Seth. Interestingly, there is no mention of Abel at all. Cain’s line recorded in Chapter 4 is also ignored from this point on. Then Seth has Enosh. Genesis 5:9-11 gives us the record of Enosh’s son, Kenan. It says, “When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus, all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died.” We know very little about Enosh and Kenan. Most of the early commentators focused on the meaning of the names. Ambrose, the Bishop of Milan, lived from 333 AD to 397 AD and was the teacher of Augustine. He said, “The name Enosh means ‘man’ in the language of the Chaldeans as well as in Hebrew.” In his “City of God,” Augustine says, “Seth means ‘resurrection,’ and the name of his son Enosh means ‘man.’ The name Adam also means “man,” but in Hebrew, it can be used for any human person, either male or female; as one can see from the text: ‘He created them male and female and blessed them and called their name Adam.’ This text leaves no doubt that Eve was given her proper name, whereas the common noun ‘Adam’ or ‘human being’ applied to both Adam and Eve. It was different with the name Enosh. This means ‘man,’ Hebrew scholars tell us, in the sense of a man as distinguished from a woman. Thus, Enosh was a ‘son’ of ‘resurrection.’”
For the most part, the people mentioned in this genealogy from Seth consist of ordinary people. In contrast to the line of Cain, however, they were people who appeared to have faith in God. They are not known for outstanding accomplishments or innovations. Like most believers, they just lived out their lives in faith. I like the way Exell says about those in this genealogy. He says that, like most people, they “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, remarked briefly upon the weather, and died. Just what many nowadays seem to do.”[1] What’s interesting to notice is that they are in the line of the Messiah! From the line of Seth and other “uninteresting” people, the Messiah will emerge.
The classic commentary by Spence-Jones limits its comments on Genesis 5:6 through verse 20 to one brief paragraph beginning with this comment: “The lives of the succeeding patriarchs are framed upon the model of this Adamic biography, and do not call for separate notice.”[2] Most of us live lives that do not call for “separate notice.” But just as Jesus stopped amidst a crowd and called out to leper, the blind man, the cripple, and little Zacchaeus. He stops and calls out to us. Through faith, we move from being not worth noticing, the Children of God. We’ve been grafted into this genealogy!
[1] Exell, Joseph S. n.d. The Biblical Illustrator: Genesis. Vol. 1. The Biblical Illustrator. London: James Nisbet & Co.
[2] Spence-Jones, H. D. M., ed. 1909. Genesis. The Pulpit Commentary. London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.