Genesis 5: Adam’s Descendants

The first Hebrew genealogy is explored with an emphasis on Adam, Enoch, and Noah.

Transcript:

Welcome to the Gospel Thread Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Before I publish the first Gospel Thread episode, I want to re-release the episodes from my previous podcast, Beyond the Basics. The format and purpose of these episodes are the same as the Gospel Thread, to study the book of Genesis chapter by chapter and identify the main themes and message of each chapter and discuss how it points to Jesus. After finishing Genesis I decided to rebrand the podcast into the Gospel Thread. So as I continue to write and produce the first Gospel Thread episodes, I hope you enjoy this journey through the Book of Genesis while you wait.

If you like the podcast, please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com slash the Gospel Thread. For only $4 per month, you will get additional audio not included in the free podcast that you're listening to now. Subscribe now and you won't get charged until I begin releasing new episodes but you will have access to all the previous uncut episodes from Genesis immediately. Thanks for listening.

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

If you've been with me for the last few episodes, we have gone through the creation of the earth, the creation of Adam and Eve, the fall of man, and then of course the story of Cain and Abel. And so now we get into Genesis 5, which is a nice long list of names, which is everybody's favorite, I'm sure. Everybody loves reading through a list of names.

Needless to say, this is not going to be our most content heavy episode. However, there is still a lot we can learn from this chapter. And so we're going to dive deep into it and see what we can find out and see what the Lord has to show us in this chapter.

So to give a quick overview of Genesis chapter 5, first of all, the author reiterates the creation of man by God, that he is created in God's likeness. However, it's interesting to note the difference of the language in this chapter compared to chapter one. Here, it says when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. In chapter one, it says God created man in his own image. So in chapter one, God created man in his own image. Here in chapter five he made him in the likeness of God.

I'm not entirely certain the implications of that, and I don't know if there's a difference in the original Hebrew language there, but I do think it's interesting that the serpent promised Eve that she would be like God when she ate. And now, instead of stating the man was created in God's image, man is now created in the likeness of God. So I think the similar vocabulary, the similar language there is interesting and something worth noting.

Then after this introduction in the chapter there are 10 generations listed from Adam to Noah and they all follow a similar pattern. Each man lived a certain number of years. Seth lived 105 years. Enosh lived 90 years. Kenan lived 70 years. After they lived a certain number of years, each one fathered a son. Then that man lived a certain number of years longer. Again, Seth lived 807 years after fathering Enosh. Enosh lived 815 years after fathering Kenan, etc. etc. And it notes that during these years these guys all fathered other sons and daughters. So then it gives the total number of years lived and it says, and he died.

And then the chapter ends with Noah fathering three sons named Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So this is a new section of the book of Genesis and the chapter lists 10 generations, 10 fathers from Adam to Noah and from what I've gathered, these are possible meanings of each one of these guys' names. So, Adam means man, Seth means appointed. We know that. We've already been through those and pointed out those names already in previous chapters.

But moving on, Enosh means mortal man, Mahal-al-al means praise of God or blessed God. Jared means descend. Enoch means dedicate or train up. Methuselah means man of a dart or his death shall bring. Lamech, the meaning is uncertain, possibly despairing or lament. We also discussed in the previous chapter it could be conqueror. And then Noah means rest.

And so when you put all those names together and form a sentence, one translation could be that the ten patriarchs are saying, man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the blessed God will descend and teach that his death will bring the despairing rest.

So the gospel that man is appointed to die. But God will come to earth and die to bring rest to those who live in sorrow. That gospel message is right here in chapter 5. Again, potentially. Those are potential meanings and as I've mentioned before, I am no expert on Hebrew, so I don't know how accurate these translations are. I have to kind of rely on the places that I find these translations. So if anybody wants to correct me, please feel free.

So going back through the list, we notice that each patriarch follows the same format, as I mentioned in the overview, except for three men. And that would be Adam, Enoch, and Noah.

So Adam, the differences there are that Adam had a son in his own likeness and in his own image. So that language is very interesting because Adam ate the fruit to become as the gods, or to be in the likeness of the gods, and now he has a son in his own likeness, in his own image, which is a fallen state of sin. So instead of men being birthed in the image of God, now they are being birthed in the image of Adam, and in the likeness of Adam.

Then moving down to Enoch, it tells us that Enoch walked with God, which is interesting because earlier in Genesis chapter 3 it says that God walked alone in the garden, but now Enoch is walking with God. God is walking with Enoch. And then this paragraph tells us that then he was no more for God took him. And Hebrews 11:5 clarifies this and says: By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had taken him. Now before he was taken, he was commended as having pleased God.

So this clarifies that Enoch did not die, but he was taken up to God. Whether that's taken up to heaven or what, it's not clear. But it is clear that Enoch did not die. He was taken up by God. And he is the first of two to do this. Obviously Elijah is going to be the second later on. So obviously it makes us wonder where did he go? We don't know. But I do believe, and this is my opinion, and we will get into this much much later in the study. We may hit on it when we get into Zechariah, otherwise for sure Revelation in about oh, 22 years or so when we finally finish this, and by then my opinions could completely change two decades from now, who knows.

But I do believe that the two prophets in the book of Revelation, well, let's let's turn there. So There are two witnesses in the book of Revelation in chapter 11. There's many different opinions on this and and I don't know what the correct one is. I do have my opinions and the book of Malachi tells us that Elijah will return before Jesus comes back. Now, Jesus did tell us that John the Baptist had the spirit of Elijah, but the book of Malachi is a bit more explicit and John the Baptist was not a complete fulfillment of that prophecy. And so the two witnesses here in Revelation chapter 11, I believe it makes sense for one of those to be Elijah.

And others will say that the second witness would be Moses because it was Elijah and Moses that stood on the Mount of Transfiguration with Jesus. Personally, I believe that if it is two ancient prophets that return to prophesy in Jerusalem in the days before Jesus comes back, it has to be people that haven't died yet, because in Revelation 11 verse 7, when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. So, these two men die after they're done prophesying, and Moses already died. So how could Moses die a second time? It's possible. Lazarus died twice, but he was raised immediately after dying, or four days after dying.

Of course, nobody knows where Moses' grave is, so who knows, but I believe, it's my opinion, that Enoch and Elijah are those two witnesses that they will return in the days leading up to Jesus' return and they will prophesy in Jerusalem and then at that point they will die. I believe God took them up and held them back specifically for those days.

Now it is interesting that Enoch was the first prophet and he is quoted by Jude. He named his son Methuselah meaning again potentially his death shall bring. The idea being that the flood came as soon as Methuselah died.

Now what's interesting about Methuselah is he is at least as far as we have in recorded history or in recorded biblical narrative, Methuselah lived longer than any other human on the entire planet in the entire history of the planet. And so that clearly shows God's mercy that if Methuselah's name is a way of prophesying to the people of his day that judgment is coming. It shows that God is merciful in allowing Methuselah to live longer than anybody else, to give people the maximum amount of time to repent and turn to the Lord.

So then we get to Noah, and Noah has a very different paragraph about his life. Verse 29, it says, "Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief, rest, from our work and from the painful toil of our hands."

So first thing in that sentence is that he comes out of the ground that the Lord has cursed. What comes out of ground? Well, seed comes out of the ground. So that should remind us of Genesis 3 when God says that the seed of the woman shall crush the head of the serpent.

So we're reminded of that, and then it says that he will bring us relief from painful work and toil. So he will bring us rest from our work and toil. Well, what brought rest from work? First, before this, it was the seventh day of creation. It's a Sabbath. Lamech is saying that Noah is the promise of the Sabbath. And so obviously we find out later that Noah can't live up to this. As righteous as he is, he can't live up to this. But he is presented here as a messiah figure. He's presented as the seed and he's presented as the Sabbath. This is very clear messiah imagery so that Noah becomes a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ, who is the seed of the woman that crushed the head of the serpent and who does bring us rest from painful work and toil.

Another thing to note is that every paragraph ends with the words, and he died, with the exception of Enoch and Noah. And this continually reminds us that all men are under the curse of Adam. We are all in his likeness and in his image. That even though, just like it says in verse 26 of chapter 4, at that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Even though people are calling upon the name of the Lord, even though these ten patriarchs are calling upon the name of the Lord, they still die. They are still under the curse of Adam. And it presents us with a dilemma that even calling on the name of the Lord no longer is enough to avoid the curse. And that's why it's so important and so interesting that Noah is presented as a messiah figure at the end of this chapter.

So points that I want to make on genealogies. First is that Hebrew genealogies are often incomplete. So they will often skip generations because especially in the Bible, they're written not to create a perfect account of each family. They're written to make a point. They are written to track the line of the seed. That is why Hebrew genealogies are written, at least in the Bible.

And the point of this genealogy is to point out that there are ten generations until destruction and new creation. And the ten is very important because the number ten represents the law, we have obviously ten commandments. Number ten represents wholeness, it represents new creation, it represents judgment, and it represents authority. Again, we have ten commandments, we have ten plagues, we have ten horns of the beast in the book of Revelation, so it references judgment and it references authority. The image of horns is an image of authority throughout the Bible. So that's what the number 10 is referring to.

And so the fact that there are 10 generations here should tell us something. The point is not that there are exactly 10 people that lived between Adam and Noah. The point is that God had the authority to bring judgment on the earth. He was justified in his authority because the earth belonged to him.

So that's what this is trying to tell us. It's not trying to tell us a perfect recreation of the history of the world. And so many people that attempt to assign an age to the earth based on the genealogy in Genesis chapter 5. They might be right. I have no idea and I don't think anybody else does either. But they could be wrong because there could be many, many, many, many generations that are skipped in this chapter and we would have no idea. So could the earth be 6,000 years old or whatever the math comes out to according to this chapter? Possibly. Could it be a lot older? Very possible.

So how does this all point to Jesus? We've mentioned a couple ways already. We've mentioned, of course, that each paragraph ends with the words, end he died. That the death of all these men show that we need someone to give us life. That we need someone to rescue humanity from death. That we are all destined to die.

And as we mentioned at the beginning of this episode, that their names potentially even reveal a coming Savior whose death will bring life and whose death will bring rest.

And then of course Noah's naming confirms that there is a coming seed. We had the promise from God in chapter 3 that the seed of the woman or the offspring of the woman would crush the head of the serpent and Noah being named by his father Lamech saying out of the ground that the Lord is cursed. It confirms that men are still looking to the coming seed. Thousands of years later, or however long it ended up being, they are still looking to the coming seed. And that coming seed is going to be Jesus, as we will find out, if you didn't know the answer already. And Jesus will break the curse and bring rest.

Alright, questions for reflection.

First, how would you view death if you were to live for 900 years?

What do the words, "and he died," teach us?

Next, what does Enoch's life teach us? What are we reminded of when we read that he did not die? What is the significance of the length of Enoch's life?

What does Noah's name teach us about the purpose of the coming Messiah? We mentioned a couple things. What else can you think of there that we can learn about the purpose of the coming Messiah?

And then finally, how do we find rest in Jesus? How does he bring us rest from our work and from the toil of our hands?

Well thank you for joining me on this episode. Next episode we will get into Genesis chapter 6. We'll talk about the fall of the angels and the building of the ark. I want to remind you this podcast is available on any platform, any app that you want to use. Please, please, please subscribe. Like, follow, all the above. Leave a comment. I would love to hear what you think of the podcast.

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Sources:

Anacioco, A. A. (2019, June 26). Meaning Of The Names In Genesis 5. Biblical Christianity. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://biblical-christianity.com/tag/meaning-of-the-names-in-genesis-5 

Guzik, D. (2018). Study Guide For Genesis 5. Blue Letter Bible. Retrieved April 2, 2023, from https://www.blueletterbible.org/comm/guzik_david/study-guide/genesis/genesis-5.cfm