1This is the Book of Records of the Human. In the day of God’s creating a human, He made it in the likeness of God.
5:1. Records. This word has usually been understood to mean “generations,” but that is inadequate. The word is used both to introduce records of births (as in this verse) and to introduce stories of events within a family (as in Gen 37:2).
5:1. human. In these verses, the Hebrew ’
dm sometimes refers to the species, as in v. 2, where it applies to both male and female; and it sometimes refers specifically to the first male human, so that it also functions as his personal name: Adam.
2He created them male and female, and He blessed them and called their name “Human” in the day of their being created.
3And the human lived a hundred thirty years, and he fathered in his likeness—like his image—and called his name Seth.
5:3. he fathered in his likeness—like his image. The first man’s similarity to his son is described with the same two nouns that are used to describe the first two humans’ similarity to God (1:26–27). It certainly sounds as if it means something physical here. We surely would have taken it that way if we had read this verse without having read Genesis 1. Still, we must be cautious on such a classic biblical question. In any case, the significance of this verse is to establish that whatever it is that the first humans acquire from God, it is something that passes by heredity. It is not only the first two humans but the entire species that bears God’s image.
5:3. Seth. With the birth of Adam’s and Eve’s son Seth, the text begins a flow of generations, narrowing to a particular family, that continues unbroken through the book of Genesis and ultimately through the rest of the Hebrew Bible. Ironically, the element that establishes this flow, that produces the continuity of Genesis, and that sets the history of the family into the context of the universal history is the “begat” lists. It is ironic because these lists are tedious to most readers. They therefore skip, skim, plow through, or joke about them. The result is that many (perhaps most) readers never get the feeling of Genesis as a book. It is a continuous, sensible work, filled with connections, ironies, puns, and character development—which are diminished or even lost when one reads it only as a collection of separate stories.
4And the human’s days after his fathering Seth were eight hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
5:4. he fathered sons and daughters. This is the presumed answer to the question of where Cain’s wife came from.
5And all of the human’s days that he lived were nine hundred years and thirty years. And he died.
5:5. nine hundred years and thirty years. The long life spans in the early portions of the Torah are an old question. Some assume that the ancients must have counted years differently. But that is not correct. (If we divide Adam’s 930 years by ten to get it within normal range, then how shall we divide Moses’ 120?) It is clear that this author thought of a year as a normal solar year because that is how long the flood lasts. The point to note is: life spans are pictured as growing shorter. The ten generations from Adam to Noah approach ages of 1,000. But the last one to live more than 900 years is Noah. The next ten generations start with Shem, who lives 600 years, and life spans decline after him. The last person to live more than 200 years is Terah. Abraham (175), Isaac (180), and Jacob (147) live long lives, but not as long as their ancestors. And Moses lives to be 120, which is understood to have become, at some point, the maximum for human life. (See the comment on Gen 6:3.)
6And Seth lived five years and a hundred years, and he fathered Enosh.
7And Seth lived after his fathering Enosh seven years and eight hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
8And all of Seth’s days were twelve years and nine hundred years. And he died.
9And Enosh lived ninety years, and he fathered Cainan.
10And Enosh lived after his fathering Cainan fifteen years and eight hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
11And all of Enosh’s days were five years and nine hundred years. And he died.
12And Cainan lived seventy years, and he fathered Mahalalel.
13And Cainan lived after his fathering Mahalalel forty years and eight hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
14And all of Cainan’s days were ten years and nine hundred years. And he died.
15And Mahalalel lived five years and sixty years, and he fathered Jared.
16And Mahalalel lived after his fathering Jared thirty years and eight hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
17And all of Mahalalel’s days were ninety-five years and eight hundred years. And he died.
18And Jared lived sixty-two years and a hundred years, and he fathered Enoch.
19And Jared lived after his fathering Enoch eight hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
20And all of Jared’s days were sixty-two years and nine hundred years. And he died.
21And Enoch lived sixty-five years, and he fathered Methuselah.
22And Enoch walked with God after his fathering Methuselah three hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
23And all of Enoch’s days were sixty-five years and three hundred years.
24And Enoch walked with God, and he was not, because God took him.
5:24. Enoch walked with God. This expression is used in ancient Near Eastern texts to express continuous fidelity. So here it would mean that Enoch was faithful to God.
5:24. and he was not, because God took him. I do not know what this means. It was traditionally understood to mean that Enoch does not die. Alternatively, it could be the report of his death. It comes at the point at which all the other entries in this list say “And he died.” The same word is used later by Joseph’s brothers to express the fact that he is gone (Gen 42:13). At that point, the brothers do not know whether he is alive or not. It may possibly mean something like that in the case of Enoch as well: his fate was unknown. At minimum, it means (as with the case of Elijah later) that there is something distinctive and unusual about the man, his relationship to God, and his departure from life among humans.
25And Methuselah lived eighty-seven years and a hundred years, and he fathered Lamech.
26And Methuselah lived after his fathering Lamech eighty-two years and seven hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
27And all of Methuselah’s days were sixty-nine years and nine hundred years. And he died.
28And Lamech lived eighty-two years and a hundred years, and he fathered a son
29and called his name Noah, saying, “This one will console us from our labor and from our hands’ suffering from the ground, which YHWH has cursed.”
5:29. Noah. The name is connected here to the Hebrew root n
m, meaning “console,” though we would naturally connect it to a different root, nw, meaning “rest,” which matches the name Noah and does not have the extra m (Hebrew mem) at the end. Biblical names, like contemporary naming of Jewish children, are not necessarily based on precise etymologies, but rather may be based on similarity of sounds, involving only some of the root letters. See, similarly, the comment on the name Cain (Gen 4:1).
30And Lamech lived after his fathering Noah ninety-five years and five hundred years, and he fathered sons and daughters.
31And all of Lamech’s days were seventy-seven years and seven hundred years. And he died.
32And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Yaphet.
