Chuck Larsen

Methuselah’s son Lamech is the subject of Genesis 5:28-31: “When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, ‘Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.’ Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.” In the lineage, you cannot help but notice with Guzik notices. He observes, “If these genealogies are consecutive, Seth died when Noah was 14. Noah could have known Adam’s son.”^[1] If this is true, Noah could have very well heard the stories of the Garden of Eden, of Cain’s murder, of the lost paradise, and the birth of all the other members of the family from Seth himself.

In the line of Cain, the murderer, as recorded in Genesis Chapter four, we find a bigamist who confesses to double homicide and the furtherance of vengeance and hatred and violence upon the earth. They advanced civilization by building cities, domesticating animals, and using metal for instruments and weapons. The line of Cain went down in depravity until God looked down and saw that the whole world was corrupted, even the descendants of those who come from those in the line of Seth. But the two genealogies are different in one significant way. Butler puts it this way, “There are nine men in this obituary—Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech. They are all in the line of Seth, the godly line from Adam. This line is a vast improvement over the ungodly line of Cain. From this line came the Savior, Jesus Christ. From Cain’s line came nothing—all were destroyed in the flood of Noah’s day.”^[2] Not every commentator sees the two lines this distinctive; one wicked and one righteous. Walton says, “I find it difficult to substantiate the idea that the text is juxtaposing a wicked line against a godly line. The penetration of sin is not just in one line but reaches throughout the human race.”^[3] Of course, the children of all nine on the list will be destroyed in the flood because of their wickedness. McGee says, “Here is mankind, and we are following a godly line now. Where is it going to lead? Is it going to lead to a millennium here upon this earth? Are they going to come to Elysian fields and establish Utopia? No. The very next chapter tells us that a Flood, a judgment from God, came upon the earth.”^[4]

Lamech named his son Noah. The text says that he was named thus because he would deliver us from the works and painful toils of our hands. Many of the early church fathers saw this as a prophecy not to be fulfilled by Noah himself but by the one who will fulfill the line of Noah that would come through Shem, through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and from the house of David that would end the genealogy once and for all with the complete fulfillment of God’s promise made back in Genesis 3:15.  Origin preaches on this. He said, “For how shall it be true that the ancient Noah gave rest to that Lamech or that people who were then contained in the lands? How is there a cessation from the labors and sorrows in the times of Noah? Jesus only has given rest to humanity and has freed the earth from the curse with which the Lord God cursed it.”^[5]

^[1] Guzik, David. 2013. Genesis. David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible. Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.

^[2] Butler, John G. 2008. Analytical Bible Expositor: Genesis. Clinton, IA: LBC Publications.

^[3] Walton, John H. 2001. Genesis. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

^[4] McGee, J. Vernon. 1991. Thru the Bible Commentary: The Law (Genesis 1-15). Electronic ed. Vol. 1. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

^[5] Louth, Andrew, and Marco Conti, eds. 2001. Genesis 1–11. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Jared’s son Enoch is the subject of Genesis 5:21-24: “When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years.  Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” We already read about how it was in this line from Seth that people began to call out “in the name of the Lord.” The pseudepigraphal Book of Jubilee has some interesting Lore about Enoch as well. “He was the first among men that are born on earth who learned writing and knowledge and wisdom and who wrote …a testimony, and he testified to the sons of men among the generations of the earth, and recounted the weeks of the jubilees, and made known to them the days of the years, and set in order the months and recounted the Sabbaths of the years…and what will be he saw in a vision of his sleep, as it will happen to the children of men throughout their generations until the day of judgment; he saw and understood everything, and wrote his testimony, and placed the testimony on earth for all the children of men and for their generations. And in the twelfth jubilee, in the seventh week thereof, he took to himself a wife, and her name was Ednî, the daughter of Dânêl, the daughter of his father’s brother, and in the sixth year in this week, she bare him a son, and he called his name Methuselah. And he was moreover with the angels of God these six jubilees of years, and they showed him everything which is on earth and in the heavens, the rule of the sun, and he wrote down everything.”^[1]

We can’t be sure what the Book of Jubilee says about Enoch, but the biblical text tells us two things we can trust. Enoch did not die but was taken into heaven body and soul. Vos says, “Though some have sought to water down that statement and make it refer to something less than being caught away into heaven alive, Hebrews 11:5 is particular: “Enoch was translated that he should not see death.” The New Testament also fills in another aspect of Enoch’s life. He functioned as a prophet, condemning the ungodliness of his society and predicting that ultimately the Lord would return in judgment on the ungodly and their evil deeds (Jude 14–15).”^[2]

As for “walking with” God, Enoch gives us the first of three different “walks” we see in the Bible. Enoch walked “with” God, as we see in this text. In Genesis 17:1, we’ll see that Abraham walked “before” God. In Deuteronomy, we see that all of Israel was commanded to walk “after” God. Maclaren suggests, “These three prepositions, with, before, after, attached to the general idea of life as a walk, give us a triple aspect—which yet is, of course, fundamentally, one—of the way in which life may be ennobled, dignified, calmed, hallowed, focused, and concentrated by the various relations into which we enter with Him.”^[3]

^[1] Charles, Robert Henry, ed. 1913. Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament. Vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

^[2] Vos, Howard F. 1982. Genesis. Everyman’s Bible Commentary. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

^[3] MacLaren, Alexander. 2009. Expositions of Holy Scripture: Genesis. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

Mahalalel’s son Jared is the subject of Genesis 5:18-20: “When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.” In the Pseudepigraphal book of I Enoch, we read the myth of Mahalalel, interpreting the vision of his grandson Enoch regarding the coming of the flood to destroy all life on the earth. Another Pseudepigraphal book, The Book of Jubilees, tries to fill in information about those in the line of Seth. Parts of these two books were found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls, but they were not understood as being part of the Holy Bible. One writer says, “As for whether the Book of Jubilees should be in the Bible, we must first recognize the fact that God is the One at work in the Scriptures, and if He wanted the Book of Jubilees as a part of Scripture, no man (or Satan) could have prevented it. Hundreds and hundreds of years of Christian (and Jewish) scholars have labored to ensure that the Holy Scriptures remain true and untainted. Part of the problem with the Book of Jubilees is that so little remains of original writings that there is no way to determine if the book as it now exists is the same book that was originally written. This is one huge reason that the Book of Jubilees fails the standards of the canon of Scripture.”[1]

Though it is not scripture, many of the earlier Christians regarded it worthy of reading, and some of the early Christian writers refer to the book of Jubilees. I mention it because it attempts to add information about the people mentioned in Genesis 5 who are in the godly genealogy of Seth. Most modern commentators treat the first 20 verses of Genesis Chapter 5 like Pink does. He says, “Until we reach the twenty-first verse of Genesis 5, there is little else in the chapter which calls for comment.”^[2] They will say about my life: “not much calls for comment.” I like to push the borders a little to say something about them, like the writer of I Enoch and the Book of Jubilees.

The Book of Jubilees tells us about Mahalalel’s birth and his marriage. It says, “In the second week of the tenth jubilee Mahalalel took unto him to wife Dînâh, the daughter of Barâkî’êl, the daughter of his father’s brother, and she bare him a son in the third week in the sixth year, and he called his name Jared.” The name Jared means to go down or to descend. According to the Book of Jubilees, he was named thus because. “In his days, the angels of the Lord descended on the earth, those who are named the Watchers, that they should instruct the children of men, and that they should do judgment and uprightness on the earth.” Then we read about Jared’s wife. “Her name was Bâraka, the daughter of Râsûjâl, a daughter of his father’s brother, in the fourth week of this jubilee, and she bare him a son in the fifth week, in the fourth year of the jubilee, and he called his name Enoch.”^[3]

[1] https://www.gotquestions.org/book-of-Jubilees.html

^[2] Pink, Arthur Walkington. 2005. Gleanings in Genesis. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

^[3] Charles, Robert Henry, ed. 1913. Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament. Vol. 2. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Kenan was Adam’s great-grandson, Seth’s grandson, and Enosh’s son. He is the subject of Genesis 5:12-14. It says, “When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel. Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters.  Thus, all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.” Kenan is included in the genealogy of the kings in 1 Chronicles 1:2 and the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3:37-38. Another “Kenan” is the son of Arphaxad and is called the post-flood Kenan or the second Kenan. According to the Handbook for translators, “In Hebrew, this name is similar in spelling to Cain’s name, and it is thought to be a variant of ‘Cain,’ without suggesting that it is the same person.”^[1] The difference in the Hebrew spelling of the two names is that Cain’s name has only two consonants. Kenan’s name has three. Hebrew was originally made of only consonants, and the vowels were not added until around 900 AD by the Masoretic Scribes. English transliterates Cain’s Hebrew name beginning with a hard “C” sound. Still, the Septuagint transliterates it with a “K.” Greek does not have a letter corresponding to our “C.” To keep the spellings consistent, Cain’s name was KN, and Kenan’s name was KNN.

Kenan lived and died before the flood, according to our Hebrew and English Bibles lists. He appears to have died a normal death. There are more than 200 epic flood stories from around the world. They are similar, yet each has its variant, which makes them somewhat different. According to the Islamic flood tradition, Kenan died in flood. The Religion Wiki page says that there are miniatures of Noah’s Ark that depict a kind of manned diving bell next to it. The bell was the innovation of Kenan, who was trying to escape the flood in his own way. But he ended up drowning in his own “Urine inside his contraption as God punishes him with a bladder infection.”[2]

Kenan lived for over 900 years. It’s interesting to note that none of the Pre-flood patriarchs made it to one thousand years. According to one article from the “Friday Magazine,” we might be the first generation to live that long. It says, “The chief science officer at the California-based Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescene (Sens) Research Foundation, a regenerative medicine research centre, and his team of scientists are working on a project that could make age-related diseases a thing of the past. In a nutshell, their mission is to extend the healthy human lifespan to a 1,000 years. In fact, Aubrey made a breath-taking announcement three years ago that the first person who will live to be 1,000 years has already been born.”^[3] This might be “breath-taking,” but I’m not going to hold my breath! From what I can gather, a thousand-year lifespan is being preserved for those who make it to the millennial kingdom.

^[1] Reyburn, William David, and Euan McG. Fry. 1998. A Handbook on Genesis. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

[2] https://religion.fandom.com/wiki/Kenan#cite_note-3

[3] https://fridaymagazine.ae/life-culture/people-profiles/soon-humans-will-be-able-to-live-1-000-years-1.2199205

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.