Genesis 5 Commentary
The holy script has an agenda. We cannot put a finger on it but we can tell from the discrimination found in this chapter.
Yes, Adam did have many other sons and daughters. But the focus is on Seth. Seth had many other sons and daughters but the focus is on Enosh. We have one straight line from Adam down to Noah.
When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. Verse 1. But Seth wasn’t exactly in the likeness of God; he was in the likeness of Adam – the fallen Adam.
The phrase, “Son of” may not always be a straight line as we would understand it today. The phrase “descendant of” may apply in many cases. The holy script uses phrases like “Jesus, the son of David” in a similar way.
It won’t be until the Gospel of Luke that we shall see the genealogy of Jesus traced through a straight line to Adam. The characters in this chapter all appear. It is the route of the seed; the seed mentioned by the LORD God that will defeat the serpent.
We also notice several similarities between Seth’s line and Cain’s line. What is happening here? We have an evil Lamech who feels Cain is a hero, whose record he needs to break. Under Seth, we have a good Lamech who fathers Noah.
Is the serpent creating counterfeits – establishing an evil empire that looks like the godly line of Seth?
More strange concepts exist. The lifespan of these superhumans is maddening! And the author made sure we cannot reduce it to an error or a difference in the numbering system!
The chapter closes with a statement on Noah’s sons. Chapter 4 ended with the statement that “people began to call on the name of the LORD”, probably by the time of Enosh’s birth, the son of Seth. By the time of Noah’s children, godliness was nearly zero. But we shall have more details tomorrow.
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