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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Genesis 5:1 - 5:8
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From Adam to Seth
v. 1. This is the book of the generations of Adam. This Chapter presents a short summary of the history of the believing Adamites in the form of a genealogical table, with a few explanatory notes. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him;
v. 2. male and female created he them, and called their name Adam in the day when they were created. The author here goes back to the history of the creation, Gen_1:27-28. God created man male and female, and gave him the blessed knowledge of Himself, as well as perfect righteousness and holiness, besides other external advantages which are often included in this image. And even at that time God called man by that name; Adam bore the name "man" and Eve that of "woman," or "maness. "
v. 3. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth. Since Adam had lost the perfect image of God in the Fall, it was no longer possible for him to transmit the image of God to his offspring. Seth was born in the image of Adam, and therefore subject to sin and death. Since the Fall all men are conceived and born in sin, and all of them are subject to death and damnation, Rom_5:12. Only through the merits of the one Man, who was in Himself sinless, though burdened with the guilt of all men, are we delivered from the inevitable doom of damnation.
v. 4. And the days of Adam, after he had begotten Seth, were eight hundred years; and he begat sons and daughters;
v. 5. and all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died. That the patriarchs before the Flood lived to such a ripe old age was probably due to the fact that their bodies were not yet so filled with the many tendencies toward sickness which are now so prevalent; they were physically in much better condition than the people of the present time. Then also, as Luther remarks, God had special thoughts of kindness toward the world in having so many pious, wise, and holy men in the world at one time.
v. 6. And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos.
v. 7. And Seth lived, after he begat Enos, eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
v. 8. And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died. In spite of the remarkably great age which these men reached, the ever-recurring refrain "and he died" reminds us of the fact that death had now entered the world, and that it is man's inevitable lot to become a prey of the king of terrors so far as the body is concerned, Rom_5:14.