CHAPTER 4: Genealogy of the Believing Race, through Seth. (GENESIS
5)
ONE purpose of Scripture has now been fulfilled. The tendencies for evil of the
Cainite race have been traced to their full unfolding, and "the kingdom of this world"
has appeared in its real character. On the other hand, the race of Seth have gathered
around an open profession of their faith in the promises, and of their purpose to serve
God, and they have on this ground separated themselves from the Cainites. The two
ways are clearly marked out, and the character of those who walk in them
determined. There is, therefore, no further need to follow the history of the Cainites,
and Scripture turns from them to give us an account of "the elders" who "by faith"
"obtained a good report."
At first sight it seems as if the narrative here opened with only a "book," or account,
"of the generations of Adam," containing here and there a brief notice interspersed;
but in truth it is otherwise. At the outset we mark, as a significant contrast, that
whereas we read of Adam that "in the likeness of God made He him," it is now added
that "he begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." Adam was created pure and
sinless in the likeness of God; Seth inherited the fallen nature of his father. Next, we
observe how all the genealogies, from Adam downwards, have this in common, that
they give first the age of the father at the birth of his eldest son,10 then the number of
years which each of them lived after that event, and finally their total age at the time
of death. Altogether, ten "elders" are named from the creation to the time of the flood,
and thus grouped:^11
NAMES A.B.S
#YEAR TOTAL B.A.C D.A.CADAM 130 800 930 1 930
SETH 105 807 912 130 1042
ENOS 90 815 905 235 1140
CAINAN 70 840 910 325 1235
MAHALEEL 65 830 895 395 1290
JARED 162 800 962 460 1422
ENOCH 65 300 365 622 987
METHUSELAH 187 782 969 687 1656
LAMECH 182 595 777 874 1651
NOAH 500 450 950 1056 2006
FLOOD 100
TOTAL 1656