Genesis Genealogies

Genesis 5:1 begins with “the book of the genealogy of Adam.” 

Tốl℮dấh- generation, family, descent.  Appears in 2:4, 6:9, 10:1,11:10, 11:27, 25:12, 25:19, 36:1, and 36:9 in Genesis.  This term functions as a grouping device, introducing a historical record of families. 

 

The genealogies in Genesis differ from those in Matthew and Luke because they give specific ages of the father before a noted birth and after the birth until the father’s death.

 

For instance: Genesis 5:3- And Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begot a son in his own likeness, and after his image, and named him Seth.  4 After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years, and he had sons and daughters. 

 

Seth is the highlighted son, since the text mentions other sons and daughters, but it does not name them or speak of their lives.  Adam was 130 when Seth was born and he lived 800 more years.  Thus, Adam lived for 930 years. 

 

Because of the Bible’s own numbering, we must understand these numbers to be important.  Furthermore, if the Bible is inerrant, then we must believe that these numbers are correct.  This is something that few Christians, Reformed Evangelicals included, have been willing to do.  This is because the genealogies of Genesis 5 provide a specific number of years from the creation of the world up to the Flood, and the “problem” is that the time is supposedly too short.  Genesis 5 has ceased to be believable after the development of certain archaeological and geological finds, and thus an alternate history of the world has been composed differing from what is found in Genesis. 

 

If one were inclined to trust the Biblical record, even in spite of the risk of ridicule, the results would be this:

 

0-  Adam created

130- Seth born

235- Enosh born

325- Cainan born

396- Mahalalel born

460- Jared born

622- Enoch born

687- Methuselah

874- Lamech

1056- Noah

1536- Beginning of the 120 year grace period (Gen. 6:3)

1656- The Flood and death of Methuselah.  (Methuselah’s dates do not demand that he live through the flood.  This is an argument sometimes used against the dates of Genesis.)

1657- End of Flood

 

This dating would place the age of the earth at well under 10,000 years.  Ussher dated it at 6,000 years, and Bede, living about 1,000 years before Ussher, had produced a similar theory.  It is easy to see why so many are uncomfortable with this, and if one is going to insist that “gaps” are present, it would seem that the case would be easier in the earlier portions of the Bible.  This is really only feasible if we agree that the earlier books are less reliable than the later books, because Genesis is actually more specific than most genealogies in the Bible. 

Ages of the Patriarchs

 

1. Adam- 930 – Seth is born in Adam’s 130th year.

2. Seth- 912 – Enosh is born in Seth’s 105^th year.  

3. Enosh 905- Cainan is born in Enosh’s 90^th year.

4. Cainan- 910- Mahalel is born in Cainan’s 70^th year.

5. Mahalalel- 895- Jared is born in Mahalel’s 65^th year.

6. Jared- 962- Enoch is born in Jared’s 162^nd year.

7. Enoch- 365- Methuselah is born in Enoch’s 65^th year.

8. Methuselah- 969- Lamech is born in Methuselah’s 187^th year.

9. Lamech- 777- Noah is born in Lamech’s 182^nd year.

10. Noah- 950 – The Flood comes in Noah’s 600^th year.

 

Noah lives 500 years and begets three sons.  The flood comes at the 600^th year of Noah’s life (7:11).  The rain lasts for 40 days (7:12).  The waters stay for 150 days (7:24).  The waters begin to decrease and the tops of mountains become visible on the first day of the tenth month (8:5). 52 days of waiting (8:6, 10, 12).  The flood waters dry up at Noah’s 601^st year (8:13).   Noah lives 350 years after the flood and dies at 950 (9:28-29).

We should remember that keeping family records, including the dates of births and deaths, would have been especially important to a people looking for a promised “seed.”  The dates of Genesis are very specific at times, and there is no textual support for claiming that the Bible is uninterested in the accuracy of its dating. 

New Creation, Again (And Again)

Genesis 5 begins with a “Day 1” of creating man and moves through the genealogies ending with a man named Rest. 

 

The beginning of Genesis 6 is analogous to Genesis 2 in that it begins with “Day 6” and falls into sin with an ensuing judgment. 

The flood is the eschatological judgment that comes before Noah can enter into God’s rest.  After the flood he drinks wine and sleeps (9:20-21). 

The Spoils Principle

Cain’s genealogy displays a recurring theme in the Bible.  The spoils principle states that the good works of wicked men are for the good of God’s people.  The inhabitants of Canaan made houses and dug wells which were ultimately for the benefit of the children of Israel who would later inhabit it.  Israel also took spoils from Egypt, and this gold was used to build the tabernacle.  God employs this plundering again and again, and finally Jesus plunders the house of Satan and takes all the captives with him.

Cain and his children are credited with founding the first city, starting the trend of living in tents and keeping cattle, making the first musical instruments, and developing the first forgery.  Far from being evil, these things will appear in Jerusalem, even the holy Jerusalem above.

Cain build the world’s first city and names it after his son (Gen. 4:17).  Jabal decides to sleep in a tent rather than let the mosquitoes bite him, and he discovers that there is much profit to be had in cattle (4:20).  Jubal plays the harp (4:21) , and we can’t help but think of David using the harp to sooth the spirit-plagued Saul much later in history.  Tubal-Cain learns how to make metal (4:22), and this was certainly pivotal in the history of the human race.  In Hebrew, the bet (b) makes the “B” sound as well as the “V” sound depending on the pointing (which wouldn’t be added for a thousand or so years later).  With that in mind, James Jordan has suggested that Tubal-Cain is the same as the Greek’s Vulcan.  Both are the father of the forge, and so this suggestion seems plausible, if not provable.

Each of the inventions made by Cain and his children are of huge importance for the human race.  They are “common grace” in full effect, and the sons of God would make use of all of them.  The pagans did it first, but the Christians reaped the bounty.

This can serve as a lesson for us today.  A cultural creation’s supposed pagan origin is not enough to disqualify its value.  In regards to religious ceremonial practice, of course, we abhor syncretism, but as far as cultural good goes, this is not necessarily the case.  Many times God causes good to come about from evil men so that His children may benefit from it later. 

The Land

I was listening to a debate between Gregg Strawbridge and a hyper-Preterist over the nature of the resurrection. Strawbridge said that the resurrection of the body was important because of God’s concern for all of creation. The hyper-Preterist responded that this ought to imply the redemption of rocks and dirt, which everyone knows is absurd because they don’t have sin. I was reminded of similar argumentation used against the abiding validity of human culture and created institutions, as well as an overall assumption that God is not concerned with non-sentient beings. Strawbridge was correct to take this objection head on, pointing to the fact that the Israelites would often carry bones with them, not wishing for the dead to remain in foreign lands.

I thought more about this, and it seems to be a prevalent disposition amongst Western thinkers. You may remember that Parmenides used this argument against Socrates, and it was pretty devastating in their immediate context. Socrates was not comfortable confessing that there was a form for dirt, bugs, and gunk.

Strawbridge was right though, and I often insist on the integrity of dirt and cows within God’s beatific plan. The Old Testament is full of this sort of emphasis, as holy war was conducted against men, women, children, and livestock, complete with orders to burn cities to the ground and never rebuild them. Conversely, the Israelites gave portions of their herds and harvest to God. They had to honor the very land in which they lived, being commanded to give it a rest on the Sabbath year. When they sinned, the land became punished, and often had “iniquity” “visited upon it” by God.

Genesis 19 speaks of the judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah as including all that grows on the ground:

24Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; 25And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

Leviticus 18: 24-28 explains that a sinful people contaminate the land and indeed make it sinful:

‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants. You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you (for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled), lest the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.

We see that in Deuteronomy 32:43 that there is even mention made of atonement for the land:

Rejoice, O Gentiles, with His people; For He will avenge the blood of His servants,
And render vengeance to His adversaries; He will provide atonement for His land and His people.”

Elsewhere in the Old Testament we see that atonement is made for the altar and for the temple. The land is connected with this too, as it all has to do with God’s holy space. There is a connection between mankind and the ground, just as there is a connection between the priest and the temple or between the sacerdos and the sacrament.

The Epistle to the Hebrews also makes use of the union between mankind and the ground in its metaphor about apostates:

Land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is farmed receives the blessing of God. But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless and is in danger of being cursed. In the end it will be burned. (6:7-8)

We should not make the mistake of calling this “just a metaphor.” Thorns and thistles are an ongoing image, indicative of contentious men, as well as an accursed location. Genesis 3:18 shows that because of Adam’s sin the land produces thorns and thistles, and Hosea 10: 8 also employs this image for terms of judgment. Numbers 33:55 says that any inhabitant of Canaan that is not driven out will be a thorn to Israel. Joshua 23: 13 says the same thing. 2 Samuel 23:6 & 7 says that evil men are like thorns. Isaiah constantly uses thorns to signify eschatological judgment. Ezekiel 28: 24 calls Israel’s neighbors thorns. We also remember the parable of the sower, in which thorns choke out the gospel message.

Jesus is a tree. He also wore a crown of thorns, as he was pierced for the thorny men’s own piercing.

The point of all this is that mankind is the head of all creation. He is made of dirt. He is the land in a real sense. The creation climaxes with man, and he is the king of the land. This is also why Solomon’s bride is so vegetative. The Song of Solomon is about the love between the temple and the land, and that’s the point behind the agricultural and wildlife imagery. After we read the New Testament we realize that Jesus is the temple, and thus we are the land. Jesus wants more than just the promised land though, and Paul extends the promise of the 5th commandment out from land to world. He can do this because Jesus extended the holy space at the great commission. Now all of the world is to be sanctified.

When a people sin, a land sins. This is what God’s concern with “nations” is all about. Jesus’ kingdom is not from these things, but it is for them. It transcends them, but it includes them. It changes them, but it glorifies them.