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Genesis 5. The Antediluvian Fathers 8 Generations between Adam & Noah. Genesis 5. Three facts about the Ten Antediluvian Patriarchs in Genesis 5 God was preserving and recording the divinely ordained line of the promised Seed, with the appropriate genealogical and chronological data
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Genesis 5 The Antediluvian Fathers 8 Generations between Adam & Noah
Genesis 5 Three facts about the Ten Antediluvian Patriarchs in Genesis 5 • God was preserving and recording the divinely ordained line of the promised Seed, with the appropriate genealogical and chronological data • God’s command to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ was being carried out, since the record recites that each one in the line ‘begat sons and daughters’ • God’s curse was also in effect, since in spite of the fact that each man lived many hundreds of years, each eventually died
Genesis 5 Q: Why even study Genesis Chapter 5 and a list of unknown ‘antediluvian patriarchs’? • Before the catastrophic Flood, each lived to be almost 1000 years old. • They were able to father children from as young as 65 (Enoch), to as old as 500 (Noah). • The names listed were not necessarily the first born, and certainly not the only children these men produced.
Genesis 5 • Seth was the 3rd born son of Adam/Eve after the Fall, and the first 2 aren’t mentioned in chapter 5 (Cain,and his descendants, and Abel---if he was married and had any children) • Shem was perhaps the 2nd or 3rd son of Noah (Genesis 10:21 seems to imply that Japheth was the oldest son of Noah) • The recorded names are only of those who are in the line of the promised Messiah (The Seed of the Woman---Genesis 3:15, fulfilled with Mary when she gave birth to the Lord Jesus)
Genesis 4 Summary In Genesis 4, we have the account of the commencement of that worship of God which consists in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, or in the acknowledgment and celebration of the mercy and help of Jehovah. While the family of Cainites, by the building of a city, and the invention and development of worldly arts and business, were laying the foundation for the kingdom of this world, the family of the Sethites began, by united invocation of the name of the God of grace, to found and to build the kingdom of God (K & D, p. 120)
Genesis 5:1-2 The Image of God in the Human (Genesis 5:1) • The image of God is universal within the human race. • The image of God has not been lost as a result of sin. • There is no indication that the image is present in one person to a greater degree than in another. • The image is not correlated with any variable.
Genesis 5:1-2 The Image of God in the Human • The image should be thought of as primarily substantive or structural---in the way we are made---not something attained • The image refers to the elements in the human makeup that enable the fulfillment of human destiny. The image is the powers of personality that make humans, like God, beings capable of interacting with other persons, of thinking and reflecting, and of willing freely.(Erickson, Christian Theology, p. 532)
Genesis 5:1-2 • This is the written account of Adam’s family line. (KJV: 1 “This is the book of the generations of Adam” ) When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness (image) of God. 2He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created. (NIV)
Genesis 5:1-2 Q: Is the phrase “This is the Book of the Generations of Adam” significant? A: Yes, it marks a major transition in the Book of Genesis The record was WRITTEN, not just translated orally. Genesis 1:1 - 2:4 is the first ‘book’ recorded---the creation of the heavens and the earth Adam may have written chapters 2, 3, 4, which concludes with this statement and signature of Adam in 5:1 Noah does the same thing in Genesis 6:9, saying that he, Noah, wrote Genesis 5:1b – 6:9a
Genesis 5:1-2 Note: In Genesis 4, the descendants of Cain stop at Lamech, who was in the 7th generation from Adam and with his children, Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-cain (8th) In Genesis 5, it is evident that Adam died during the lifetime of Enoch, who was also the 7th generation from Adam, although he was ‘translated’ to heaven early This suggests that Adam still kept up with Cain and his descendants, as long as he lived, even though Cain had so severely alienated himself from his family.
Genesis 5:3-5 3When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.
Genesis 5:3-5 Adam and Eve had other children before they had Seth (certainly Cain & Abel), but Seth was the one whom God revealed should be the true substitute for Abel, the son whose seed would inherit the promises. This possibility would make the previous story of Cain’s exile, his wife, and his city a bit more understandable in terms of the chronology involved (Morris, p. 153) It is possible that all of the descendants up till Noah could have attended the funeral for Adam (Cain, Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methusael, Lamech, Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-cain…) and (Seth, Enos, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech---Noah missing it by just a few years)
Genesis 5:6-32 6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father[b] of Enosh. 7 After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Altogether, Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died. 9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. 10 After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Altogether, Enosh lived a total of 905 years, and then he died.
Genesis 5:6-32 12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 After he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters.14 Altogether, Kenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died. 15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. 16 After he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Altogether, Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years, and then he died.
Genesis 5:6-32 18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. 19 After he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Altogether, Jared lived a total of 962 years, and then he died. 21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. 24 Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.
Genesis 5:6-32 25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. 26 After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters.27 Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died.
Genesis 5:6-32 28When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah[c] and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” 30 After Noah was born, Lamech(the father of Noah, in the line of Seth) lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters.31 Altogether, Lamechlived a total of 777 years, and then he died. 32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Genesis 5:6-32 • “Every attack upon the historical character of its numerical statements has entirely failed, and no tenable argument can be adduced against their correctness” (Keil & Delitzsch, p. 123) • The objection that such longevity as recorded here is inconceivable according to the existing condition of human nature loses force if we consider: • The climate, the weather and other natural conditions were different from those after the flood • That life was much more simple and uniform • That the after-effects of the condition of mankind in paradise would not be immediately exhausted
Genesis 5:6-32 • Adam lived until Lamech, the father of Noah • Lamech was 56 when Adam died • Methusaleh died in the Flood, or the year of the Flood (his name means ‘when he dies, judgment’) • Noah was born just 14 years after Adam died • Jude 14: “Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam…” • 2 Peter 2:5 calls Noah the ‘eighth preacher of righteousness” referring probably to the 8 family fathers who were born between Adam and Noah, if it is speaking of generations
Genesis 5:6-32 • Critics have noted certain similarities in the names of the respective descendants of Cain and Seth, and have claimed that the two lists are therefore corrupted remnants of one original list. • The few similarities that exist can probably be explained by the occasional contacts that the two branches of the family must have maintained with each other • The common tendency to give children names associated with relatives or notable events or circumstances
Genesis 5:6-32 • The patriarchs averaged 912 years of age, except Enoch • The life spans began a slow and steady decline after the Flood, showing evidently that longevity is connected with the antediluvian climatological and environmental conditions. • There is no reason not to take this list in Genesis 5 as sober history. • These names are repeated in I Chronicles 1:1-4 • They are repeated in Luke 3:36-38 (from Jesus back…) • This confirms that they were accepted as historical by later Biblical writers of the Old and New Testaments
Genesis 5:6-32 Q: What about Enoch? A: Genesis 4 gives the evil character of Lamech and his descendants, and Genesis 5 gives the godly character of Enoch. Enoch, the 7th from Adam in Seth’s line, had the same name as Cain’s son. Lamech, the 7th from Adam in Cain’s line, had the same name as Noah’s father, but their characters were diametrically opposite
Genesis 5:6-32 Q: What about Enoch? Enoch ‘walked with God” and was a prophet of God He preached against the godlessness of his generation: Jude 14-16: 14 Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about them: “See, the Lord is coming with thousands upon thousands of his holy ones 15 to judge everyone, and to convict all of them of all the ungodly acts they have committed in their ungodliness, and of all the defiant words ungodly sinners have spoken against him.”16These people are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.
Genesis 5:6-32 Q: What about Enoch? It is remarkable that Enoch would prophesy of the 2nd Coming of Christ, even before the Flood, but this is clearly what Jude says. The promised ‘coming’ in judgment had a preliminary and precursory fulfillment in the great Flood, but its final fulfillment awaits the glorious return and triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ (Morris, p. 156) This quote by Jude is from a 1st Century B.C. writing called the Book of Enoch, an apocraphal writing, which has fictional portions, but this must have been accurately recorded to be quoted by Jude (Enoch 1:9)
Genesis 5:6-32 Q: What about Enoch? The phrase ‘walked with God’ which is only used of Enoch and Noah (6:9), denotes the most confidential conversation, the closest communion with the personal God, a walking as it were by the side of God, who still continued His visible presence with mankind (K & D, p. 125) It is different from ‘walking before God’ (Gen. 17:1, 24:40) and ‘walking after God’ (Deut. 13:4), both phrases used to indicate a pious, moral, blameless life under the law according to the directions of the divine command (K & D, p. 125)
Genesis 5:6-32 Q: What about Enoch? Enoch, like Elijah (2 Kings 2:1-11 “Then it came about as they were going along and talking, that behold, there appeared a chariot of fire and horses of fire which separated the two of them. And Elijah went up by a whirlwind to heaven”), was taken away by God, and carried into the heavenly paradise, so that he did not see (experience) death (Heb. 11:5); he was taken up from this temporal life and transfigured into life eternal, being exempted by God from the law of death and of return to the dust, as those of the faithful will be, who shall be alive at the coming of Christ to judgment, and who in like manner shall not taste of death and corruption, but be changed in a moment (I Cor. 15:20, 23)
Genesis 5:6-32 Q: What about Enoch? “This does not at all affect the truth of the statement in Romans 5:12-14. For the same God who has appointed death as the wages of sin, and given us, through Christ, the victory over death, possesses the power to glorify into eternal life an Enoch and an Elijah, and all who shall be alive at the coming of the Lord without chaining their glorification to death and resurrection. Enoch and Elijah were translated into eternal life with God without passing through disease, death, and corruption, for the consolation of believers, and to awaken the hope of a life after death (K & D, p. 126)