Thursday, December 7, 2006

Genesis 5

1This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

2Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

3And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:

4And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:

5And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

6And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:

7And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:

8And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.

9And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:

10And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:

11And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.

12And Cainan lived seventy years and begat Mahalaleel:

13And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:

14And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.

15And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared:

16And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters:

17And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.

18And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:

19And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

20And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.

21And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:

22And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:

24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

25And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech.

26And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:

27And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

28And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:

29And 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.

30And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:

31And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.

32And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
After I read the first verse, one thing stuck in my mind — the theme to "It's Gary Shandling's Show":" "This is the theme to Gary's show, the theme to Gary's show, Gary called me up to see if I would write his theme song."

Boy, you kill one quarter of the earth's population, and they write you out of the story, it seems. Cain's branch of the family tree isn't mentioned here. In Genesis 4 we learn he had an Enoch, not the one mentioned in this chapter... or was he? The linked chart shows he had a bunch of descendents with names similar to those in Seth's line. This is liable to cause some confusion as we plow on toward salvation.

Lamech, who may be the same Lamech who to was be punished 77 times more than Cain, lived to 777 years. Is living a long life supposed to be punishment? In any case, he still had his mojo working at age 195, when he fathered Noah.

Obviously, a lot of these guys lived to ripe, old ages, which seems like another nail in the evolution's coffin.

Are we not Methuselan? We are devo.

5 comments:

Eve said...

*snoring - wakes up with a jerk* What, are we there yet? Oh, good!

* Hmmm - "Seth" sounds like the name of the ancient Egyptian uber-villain Set (spelled "Seth" by the Greeks), son of the earth god and sky goddess-

* -who quite coincidentally - or not - murdered his brother (Osiris) like Cain did.

Other than that, were the men the only ones living that long and keeping their mojo all the time, too? What about the women, you know, the ones we never read about being born - but are birthin' all these babies?

Don said...

Eve,

netbible.org has this to say about Seth's name and how it apparently relates to what Eve says about how God gives (grants) her a child to replace Abel:

The name Seth probably means something like “placed”; “appointed”; “set”; “granted,” assuming it is actually related to the verb that is used in the sentiment. At any rate, the name שֵׁת (shet) and the verb שָׁת (shat, “to place, to appoint, to set, to grant”) form a wordplay (paronomasia).

Anonymous said...

Seth has nothing to do with the Egyptian deity named Sutekh/Seth/Set/Sety. The name Seth is here because of what it means in Hebrew.

Firstly, Enos means the same as Adam - both mean "man" in different ways. Secondly, the genealogy here is mostly a copy of the genealogy via Cain. Documentary hypothesis again; Genesis 4:Jahwist, Genesis 5:Priestly Source.

Adam via Cain to Lamech (Jahwist) = Enos to Lamech (Priestly source). The names are midly changed (due to priestly source bias) - e.g. Methusael <-> Methuselah, Cainan <-> Cain, Jared <-> Ired - and two of the entries are in the opposite place. The Jahwist had Noah being descended from Cain, but Cain is a villain, and Noah a hero, and flawed heroes (by having descent from a villain) are an anathema to the priestly source, hence the addition of Seth. "Cainan" takes the place of "Cain" place in Priestly source version of the genealogy.

What the names mean gives a big clue to where it really comes from. Its a corrupt copy of the pre-flood entries on the Sumerian King List (which originally had just 6 entries, though some got doubled). The descriptions of the kings in the Sumerian list, became the names of the people in the Genesis list.

Brendan said...

So, behind the times on this, but didn't Lamech say he was avenged 77 times in the same fashion as Cain was avenged 7 times? And wasn't that vengance laid on those who would harm Cain? I've always interpreted his statement as saying that God rewards murderers with sanctuary, which seemed bizarre.

Anonymous said...

I find it interesting that you can take the meaning of each name, and it forms a hidden sentence. Beginning with Adam's name, which means "man", and ending with Noah, which means "comfort or rest", it forms this sentence:

Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.

http://www.direct.ca/trinity/hidden.html