Treasures New and Old
Treasures New and OldGenesis: Chapter Five: Genealogies
Welcome to Genesis, Chapter 5!
Not a lot to comment on except that the genealogy of Adam down to and through Noah is important enough for God to include it in His Bible for us to study. We will look at some trends that the numbers God provides generate for us. Here is all of Chapter 5.
Genesis 5:
This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begot sons and daughters: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begot Enos: And Seth lived after he begot Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters: And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. And Enos lived ninety years, and begot Cainan: And Enos lived after he begot Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begot sons and daughters: And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died. And Cainan lived seventy years, and begot Mahalaleel: And Cainan lived after he begot Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begot sons and daughters: And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begot Jared: And Mahalaleel lived after he begot Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters: And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred and thirty years, and begot sons and daughters: And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. And Jared lived a hundred sixty and two years, and he begot Enoch: And Jared lived after he begot Enoch eight hundred years, and begot sons and daughters: And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.
And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begot Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begot Methuselah three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. And Methuselah lived a hundred eighty and seven years, and begot Lamech: And Methuselah lived after he begot Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begot sons and daughters: And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and begot a son: And 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. And Lamech lived after he begot Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begot sons and daughters: And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
General Outline:
- The Genealogy of the Patriarchs (5:1- 5:32)
- Adam (5:1-5:5)
- Seth through Jared (5:6-5:20)
- Enoch (5:21-5:24)
- Methuselah (5:25-5:27)
- Lamech through Noah (5:28-5:32)
Some Interesting Notes:
- Ages generally stay pretty uniform until after the flood of Noah. Then there is a marked drop off. Although Chapter 5 ends essentially with Noah and his sons, for comparison I have added the lifelines of those that follow Shem’s line through to Jacob.
- Enoch is unique: “And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Therefore, Enoch’s life span is listed in the Scriptures as only 365 years old. (Interesting, same number as the number of days in a year.)
- Actually, if Enoch did not die and was translated instead, then he is the oldest person in the Bible (not including angels and God who is infinite) at something over five thousand years old!!! But I digress . . .
- Another note to look at is the meaning of names, especially those before the flood. Methuselah’s name means “his death shall bring” and it is generally believed that the flood was stayed until the year he died. Let’s do the math . . .
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- Methuselah was 187 years old when Lamech was born.
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- Lamech was 182 when Noah was born.
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- Noah’s flood occurred in Noah’s 600th year of life. Genesis 7:11: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.”
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- Add the 600, 182, and 187 to get Methuselah’s birth backwards from the flood and we get 969 years. That is the age at which Methuselah died.
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- I can see Noah and family watching carefully his grandfather’s health and, as he aged, wondering when the flood would come.
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- Lamech had already died by this time having lived 777 years and having died some 10 years before Methuselah. So, I guess it was up to Noah and his sons to bury Grandpa Methuselah.
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- And then the rains came . . .
Ages and Dating
- By adding up the ages of the patriarchs when they had each of their sons, we get a rough estimate of how many years after the creation of Adam that the flood occurred: ~1,556 years.
- If James Ussher is correct and creation was in 4,004 BC (pg. 17), then we are approximately 4004+2025-1= 6028 years from the creation of the earth.
- According to tradition, the Hebrew calendar started at the time of creation, placed at 3761 BC. The (2024/2025) Hebrew year is 5785. (This is easily found in the Internet.)
- The belief that the seventh millennium will correspond to the Messianic Age is founded upon a universalized application of the concept of Shabbat – the seventh day of the week – the sanctified day of rest. Therefore, we will have 6,000 year of work and 1,000 years of rest we call the millennial reign. Earth mortal time will cease at 7,000 years when the new heaven and earth will be created.
- Problems: We have already exceeded the date for the millennial reign to take place by 28 years per Ussher. The Jewish calendar has another 215 years to go before the reign starts. Who is right? This concept is also called dispensationalism.
- Note the following “unknowns”:
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- “Begat” usually means conceived, but can mean at birth. Therefore, there may be as much as 90 months (10 times 9 months) or an error of 7.5 years.
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- We do not know when within the year of the father each child was born: was it right after his birthday or just before his next birthday? Another possible error of calculation of ~10 years.
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- Some scholars want to add a few generations in between on the argument that only the important generations of people were mentioned and, therefore, some names and times are lost to us and so the time difference is much greater. I reject that assumption since the Bible clearly states that “name one begat name two”, etc.
Patriarch | Begat age | Death | Bible reference |
Adam | 130 | 930 | Genesis 5:4 |
Seth | 105 | 912 | Genesis 5:8 |
Enos | 90 | 905 | Genesis 5:11 |
Cainan | 70 | 910 | Genesis 5:14 |
Mahalaleel | 65 | 895 | Genesis 5:17 |
Jared | 162 | 962 | Genesis 5:20 |
Enoch | 65 |
365 (translated) |
Genesis 5:23 |
Methuselah | 187 | 969 | Genesis 5:27 |
Lamech | 182 | 777 | Genesis 5:31 |
Noah | 500 | 950 | Genesis 5:32; 9:29 |
Shem | 100 | 600 | Genesis 11:10-11 |
Arphaxed | 35 | 438 | Genesis 11:12-13 |
Shelah | 30 | 433 | Genesis 11:14-15 |
Eber | 34 | 464 | Genesis 11:16-17 |
Peleg | 30 | 239 | Genesis 11:18-19 |
Reu | 32 | 239 | Genesis 11:20-21 |
Serug | 30 | 230 | Genesis 11:22-23 |
Nahor | 29 | 148 | Genesis 11:24-25 |
Terah | 70 | 205 | Genesis 11:27, 32 |
Abram (Abraham) |
100 | 175 | Genesis 17:1, 17; 21:5; 25:7 |
Isaac | 60 | 180 | Genesis 25:26; Genesis 35:28-29 |
Jacob (Israel) | 91 (birth of Joseph) | 147 | Genesis 47:28 |
Definition
- “Book of the generations”: (Strong’s H5612): sepher siphrah: a book, an accounting, a record. In this case, the record of the generations of Adam through Noah and his sons.
The Interesting Names Given to Pre-flood Men in Adam’s Line
Hebrew names have definite meanings. The meanings of names have a significant story to tell and what a story the names of Adam’s line through to Noah make. It is as if God had a message to tell everyone as both a warning and a comfort to mankind because of their sin. God did so even before the flood was announced! Their names read in order make a sentence. (Strong’s numbers: (Note: some name definitions in some dictionaries disagree with the names’ meanings or do not attempt to give name definitions.))
Name | Name Meaning |
Adam | Man (H120) |
Seth | Appointed (H7896) |
Enos | Mortal (H582) |
Cainan | Sorrow |
Mahalaleel | The blessed God or The praise of God |
Jared | Shall come down (H3381) |
Enoch | Teaching (H2596) |
Methuselah | His death shall bring |
Lamech | The despairing |
Noah | Rest, comfort (H5118) |
The sentence, therefore, reads: “Man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the blessed God shall come down teaching that His death shall bring the despairing rest and comfort.”
Here, then, is the gospel not yet understood by mankind – that God will one day, by His own death, bring mankind salvation.
The pre-flood world would have been very different than after the flood. Scientists believe that there was an ice or water canopy that circled the earth in the upper atmosphere. If such did exist, then we can see where the windows of heaven were opened in Genesis 7:11 is from as well as the great deep.
If that canopy existed, it would have explained the moderate temperatures over the entire planet, the warmer climates at the poles, and the lush vegetation that animals like the dinosaurs had to have. Also, why bones of creatures that we associate with warmer climates are still found today in Siberia and other year-round cold climates.
Such a canopy would also serve as a radiation filter for life on the earth and sun damage to cells would be greatly reduced. Perhaps allowing fewer mutations, no cancers, and much longer life. Additionally, such a canopy would capture and hold greater air pressure, and that postulates that the air had a greater oxygen concentration than what we experience today. These all contribute to greater, better, and longer life.
Such conditions would allow for reptiles to live longer, and scientists have observed that the longer reptiles live, the larger they become (look at alligators and crocodiles). This might explain the huge size for dinosaurs. I note that archeologists keep finding newer and newer species of basically the same dinosaur, but in some cases much bigger or smaller than their cousin. Could it simply be that they are of the same species but some were much older than others when the flood came and, therefore, much bigger and not a new species after all? Just speculating here.
The attached chart allows us to compare ages and timelines in a way that lets us see how they shrank right after the flood. The birth and death dates for each person is approximate (except for Adam) because of the wiggle room that exists for when a child was born within a man’s lifetime. (Was his son born right after his birthday or days before his next birthday? Giving something approaching a year for variance.)
That brings us to the end of Chapter 5 of Genesis.

Maranatha!
Bro. Joe
References
Strong, J. Strong's Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries. Meyers, R. (2005). e-Sword. [computer software] . Franklin, TN: Equipping Ministries Foundation. (Original work published 1539)
Ussher, J. (2003) The Annals of the World. Green Forest, AR: Master Books. Originally published 1658.