Genesis 5: Adam's Descendants

The first Hebrew genealogy is explored with an emphasis on Adam, Enoch, and Noah.

Transcript:

Welcome to the Gospel Thread Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Before I publish the first Gospel Thread episode, I want to re-release the episodes from my previous podcast, Beyond the Basics. The format and purpose of these episodes are the same as the Gospel Thread, to study the book of Genesis chapter by chapter and identify the main themes and message of each chapter and discuss how it points to Jesus. After finishing Genesis I decided to rebrand the podcast into the Gospel Thread. So as I continue to write and produce the first Gospel Thread episodes, I hope you enjoy this journey through the Book of Genesis while you wait.

If you like the podcast, please consider becoming a patron at patreon.com slash the Gospel Thread. For only $4 per month, you will get additional audio not included in the free podcast that you're listening to now. Subscribe now and you won't get charged until I begin releasing new episodes but you will have access to all the previous uncut episodes from Genesis immediately. Thanks for listening.

Welcome to the Beyond the Basics Bible Study Podcast. My name is Dan Snyder and I am your host. Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of Beyond the Basics where we are exploring the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, one chapter at a time.

If you've been with me for the last few episodes, we have gone through the creation of the earth, the creation of Adam and Eve, the fall of man, and then of course the story of Cain and Abel. And so now we get into Genesis 5, which is a nice long list of names, which is everybody's favorite, I'm sure. Everybody loves reading through a list of names.

Needless to say, this is not going to be our most content heavy episode. However, there is still a lot we can learn from this chapter. And so we're going to dive deep into it and see what we can find out and see what the Lord has to show us in this chapter.

So to give a quick overview of Genesis chapter 5, first of all, the author reiterates the creation of man by God, that he is created in God's likeness. However, it's interesting to note the difference of the language in this chapter compared to chapter one. Here, it says when God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. In chapter one, it says God created man in his own image. So in chapter one, God created man in his own image. Here in chapter five he made him in the likeness of God.

I'm not entirely certain the implications of that, and I don't know if there's a difference in the original Hebrew language there, but I do think it's interesting that the serpent promised Eve that she would be like God when she ate. And now, instead of stating the man was created in God's image, man is now created in the likeness of God. So I think the similar vocabulary, the similar language there is interesting and something worth noting.

Then after this introduction in the chapter there are 10 generations listed from Adam to Noah and they all follow a similar pattern. Each man lived a certain number of years. Seth lived 105 years. Enosh lived 90 years. Kenan lived 70 years. After they lived a certain number of years, each one fathered a son. Then that man lived a certain number of years longer. Again, Seth lived 807 years after fathering Enosh. Enosh lived 815 years after fathering Kenan, etc. etc. And it notes that during these years these guys all fathered other sons and daughters. So then it gives the total number of years lived and it says, and he died.

And then the chapter ends with Noah fathering three sons named Shem, Ham, and Japheth. So this is a new section of the book of Genesis and the chapter lists 10 generations, 10 fathers from Adam to Noah and from what I've gathered, these are possible meanings of each one of these guys' names. So, Adam means man, Seth means appointed. We know that. We've already been through those and pointed out those names already in previous chapters.

But moving on, Enosh means mortal man, Mahal-al-al means praise of God or blessed God. Jared means descend. Enoch means dedicate or train up. Methuselah means man of a dart or his death shall bring. Lamech, the meaning is uncertain, possibly despairing or lament. We also discussed in the previous chapter it could be conqueror. And then Noah means rest.

And so when you put all those names together and form a sentence, one translation could be that the ten patriarchs are saying, man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the blessed God will descend and teach that his death will bring the despairing rest.

So the gospel that man is appointed to die. But God will come to earth and die to bring rest to those who live in sorrow. That gospel message is right