Hello, welcome to Bible Wisdom Today, for those willing to think deeply. This is Stan Watkins.

How much do you know about your family history? Most of us find our family genealogy endlessly fascinating. We want to know where we came from, who our ancestors were, what stories shaped our family. But when we come to genealogies in the Bible—especially passages like Genesis 5, which we have reached, today, we tend to do the exact opposite. We skip them. Or we skim them. Or we endure them.

A Scottish minister stood up in church and began reading from the opening chapter of Gospel of Matthew. “Abraham begat Isaac; and Isaac begat Jacob; and Jacob begat…” 

Then he looked ahead and saw the long list of names. He paused—and said:“…and they kept on begetting one another all the way down this page and halfway into the next.”

Is that how you feel, too? “Please, can we just skip ahead.” I understand. All those names don’t seem like anything that has anything to do with life today. For myself, I am a self-confessed genealogy afficionado. I will tell you how that came about a little bit later, but for now, I have one question for you.

What if this “boring list” actually carries profound theological meaning? Would you miss it?

The account of Adam’s family history

Let’s begin our reading today with Genesis 5:1-2.

This is the written account of Adam’s family line. 
 When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And he named them “Mankind” when they were created.
 Genesis 5:1-2

Genesis is not just a collection of stories but a carefully structured book. As I mentioned in a previous episode, the author of Genesis has organized his narrative into 10 sections, each beginning with the expression “this is the account.” Genesis 5 begins a new section, and this opening is even more specific, “this is the written account. This implies that this section of Genesis is taken from a pre-existing written source. It seems right to assume that the other sources mentioned throughout Genesis were pre-written, as well.

Each section typically follows the same organizational pattern:

• A look back 
• The main narrative 
• A look forward 

And that’s exactly what we see here.

The opening, which I just read, looks back to creation. God made mankind in his likeness, he made them male and female, and he blessed them. He then named them “Adam”—the Hebrew word for “mankind.”

The main body of this section is a genealogy from Adam by his third son, Seth. Its main purpose is to create a bridge from Adam to Noah, from creation to Judgment. Following the genealogy, we have a strange story of the sons of God entering into marriage with the daughters of men, which we will discuss in our next episode.

At the end of this section beginning in Genesis 6:5, we have a look forward. The author summarizes the terrible depravity of the times and introduces Noah, who found favor with God. This effectively links to the next section which gives the account of Noah’s family, with the primary focus on the flood.

Back in the 1960s, there was a young boy named Stanley, who grew up with his parents on a farm in Oregon. With much older brothers and no nearby friends, he spent much of his time alone, finding his own entertainment, mostly in music and books. One day his mother brought home something exciting. Paper! But this was not just normal paper. This was computer paper. Stanley had never seen a computer, but this paper was enough to spark his imagination. It had horizontal green bars to aid the eye in reading side to side, and it had holes on the edges to fit on the sprockets of a printer. It was fan-folded so it would feed through the printer, but that didn’t matter to young Stanley. He didn’t have a computer.

What could he do with this cool paper? “I know,” he thought. “I can make a Bible genealogy chart.” Wouldn’t everyone come to the same inspiration? He began reading in Genesis, stopping at each genealogy and writing down his findings on the plain side of his cool paper. He had never really seen a family tree, but he devised his own idea of how it should be done. He continued reading through the Old Testament until he came to the book of First Chronicles. He could see that that book was almost entirely genealogies and he was really looking forward to that!

When he got to Chronicles, however, he ran into problems. Chronicles covers much of the same genealogy as Genesis and other historical books, but some of the names were spelled differently. Were they the same people? In other places the genealogy in Chronicles had big gaps between what he already had recorded. In other places, it was just the opposite, with extra generations where there had been only one. He started trying to keep track of all this new information, but all the different variations soon became messy and he finally gave up.

You probably have never known anyone who initially read through the Bible in order to discover the genealogies, but now you have. Since that first exploration into the world of biblical genealogies I have discovered a few general principles that would have helped my earlier self. First, when we read “A begat B,” it does not necessarily mean direct parentage. Terms like “son” can mean descendant and “father” can mean ancestor. Further genealogies are often structured, probably to aid in memorization. For example, Matthew arranges his genealogy of Christ into 3 sets of 14 generations, intentionally omitting some ancestors that we know from reading the Old Testament. We cannot approach genealogies as if we were reading a complete family tree. As a result, biblical genealogies cannot be used to calculate the age of the earth. This was the mistake made in the 17th century by Bishop James Ussher, who famously dated creation to 4004 BC based on the genealogy we will read today, and others. He did not understand what these texts are designed to do. They are designed to record identity, not precise chronology.

The genealogy in Genesis 5 provides the connective tissue between Adam and Noah. The first chapters of Genesis revolved around Adam

·       The creation of the world as Adam’s home

·       The creation of Adam and his wife, Eve

·       The disobedience of Adam and Eve and their judgement

·       The consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin in their own family—one son even murdering another

 Adam was the founder of mankind. Now the author wants to move on to the next major event, the flood, and the next major individual, Noah. Noah would be the re-founder of humanity. The writer of Genesis projects us forward at warp speed through the use of genealogy.

 I will read this 10-generation genealogy, beginning with Genesis 5:3.

When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth. After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died. 
 
 When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh. After he became the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died. 
 
 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. After he became the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enosh lived a total of 905 years, and then he died. 
 
 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. After he became the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Kenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died. 
 
 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. After he became the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years, and then he died. 
 
 When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. After he became the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Jared lived a total of 962 years, and then he died. 
 
 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. 
 
 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. After he became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died. 
 
 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed.” After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died. 
 
 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.
 Genesis 5:3-32

If you would like to see this genealogy in chart form, including both names and ages, you can find that in the blog on my website, Biblewisdomtoday.com. I have included that link in your show notes for this episode.

As I read, you must have noticed the repeated formula:

·       So and so lived a certain number of years and then he fathered a son

·       He lived many more years and fathered more sons and daughters

·       His entire life lasted an unbelievably long time

·       Then he died

This formula is modified only four times: 

·       the first generation, Adam

·       the last generation, Noah

·       and also Enoch and Lamech. These extra details regarding Enoch and Lamech distinguish them from the men with the same names in the line of Cain in previous chapter. 

The author of Genesis marks Adam by expanding the typical formula about fathering a child to become “he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image.” Adam passed on his likeness, just like God had previously passed on his. In this way all humanity bears the image of God and the image of Adam. 

Noah was the oldest when he had children, and we also are not told how long he lived after becoming a father or how long he lived in total. We need to wait until after the flood for that information. Noah is also conspicuous by having three sons listed, Shem, Ham and Japheth, rather than just one. Adam, Noah, and Terah, the father of Abraham, were distinctive heads of three great epochs portrayed in Genesis, the Eden epoch, the pre-flood epoch, and the epoch of promise. Each of these heads were the father of three sons.

Did they really live that long?

As we read this genealogy, one of the questions that immediately comes to mind is, “Did they really live that long?” These lifespans seem unbelievably long, and we are right to question them. Did they live that long? Probably not. Let me expand that answer with several observations about the numbers in this list.

First, there are real textual differences between the ancient versions of the Old Testament regarding the ages of these patriarchs. The numbers don’t always agree and there is no easy solution. We cannot argue over the accuracy or meaning of a specific number when we are unsure what that number should even be?

Second, Genesis often interacts with other ancient literature of the time. The Sumerian King List is an ancient cuneiform text recording ancient rulers and their reigns. The kings before the flood ruled an incredibly long time, one of them 28,800 years. The long-lived patriarchs in the Bible seem like children by comparison. The Sumerian King List helped to legitimize certain ruling dynasties, but no one thinks they are historically true numbers. Probably the author of Genesis treats these numbers in a similar manner.

Third, based on these numbers, all Noah’s ancestors died before the flood. Methuselah, the grandfather of Noah who lived the longest of any of them, died in the same year as the flood. Whatever the numbers mean, that “hard stop” at the flood is surely intentional.

Fourth, these numbers appear to be structured, not random, as we would expect from a factual account of actual lifespans. For each man listed there are three ages given, so there are 30 numbers in total. All the numbers end with 0, 2, 5, 7, or 9. At first this doesn’t seem unusual, but think! It means that half of the potential final digits are eliminated. That would be equivalent to having a list of 30 numbers that were all even. We would not think that was a random sample. The chance of this happening randomly is 1 in 100 million.[1] (Thankfully some one else did the math!)

The fifth observation is that all the numbers can be generated with combinations of 60, 5 and 7. The number sixty was a culturally significant number in the ancient near east because they used a base 60 numbering system. Using their thumb as a pointing device, they counted the 12 bones in the remaining fingers. They then could use the other hand to keep track of 5 sets of 12, resulting in 60. We see the remainders of this base 60 numerical system in 12 eggs to a dozen, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 60 minutes in the hour and 360 degrees in a circle. The number five is significant because five years could be understood as 60 months, since each year had 12 months, and the number 7 was prominent for its religious significance.

Finally, the numbers might also be symbolic. The ancient near eastern culture sometimes used numbers for their numeric value as we do, but they also used them with non-numeric meaning. The number 7 is prominent for its symbolic meaning of completeness. There may be additional symbolic meanings included here that we are not aware of.

What should we conclude from these considerations? The numbers were designed to communicate meaning, not just math, even if we are unsure what the meaning was. The primary purpose was to establish one’s identity, not an exact lineage. We should consider this genealogy and its associated numbers as trustworthy, but for its intended purpose only. The precision in the numbers show that the people were real, but the large numbers show that the author considered them ancient, even in his day, and they may communicate additional meaning that is now lost to us.

This genealogy is not just history, however, it is theological storytelling. Hidden beneath the surface of this seemingly boring list are important gems of wisdom, waiting for our discovery. The first gem that we uncover is that…

God is the father of us all

We see this theme in a number of ways. First, God named his children, just like Adam and Eve named theirs. God called them “mankind.” Elsewhere, this word “mankind” is translated “Adam.” The word “adam” is not just the name of one single male ancestor, although it sometimes means that. It also means “all humanity,” as well as “the man,” referring to a single male figure. At creation, God named all the people, “Adam,” including males and females.

It was a common practice for patriarchal fathers to bless their children, and God blessed his as well. This verse at the head of this section is a clear look back to Genesis 1:28: God blessed them and said to them, ‘‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God created mankind in his image. Adam fathered Seth in his likeness. Even though Adam and Eve had rebelled in the garden, the image of God was still passed on. As God’s image bearers we reflect his creativity and dominion in this world. As humans we also reflect the likeness of Adam in our physical mortality, emotional brokenness, and spiritual emptiness.

The second theological gem which we discover is that…

God administers justice

Eight times we read “and he died…and he died.” Genesis 5 is like walking through a graveyard. Each name represents a life.. a story…a family. And each one ends the same way: “and he died.” This is not just a statement of fact. This is theology. Death is a sign of God’s just judgment.

In Genesis 2 God had warned:

You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” Gen. 2:17.

In Genesis 3, the serpent contradicted that warning when he said, “You will not surely die.” This genealogy settles that contradiction. God is working out his judgment through death.

We all know that we will die at some point. Sometimes one will say, “My friend died unexpectedly.” What an odd thing to say. We all expect to die. We just expect to die later. We expect that we will have more time to get around to setting our priorities straight.

It may seem as if death is natural, normal, but from a Biblical perspective death is a most unnatural event. Death was not part of God’s ”very good” creation. It is the great intruder, the last enemy. That is why we fear it.

It is only when we face the fear of death that we can appreciate the hope offered in Jesus Christ. Jesus confronted death, so that we may be spared its pain and fear. Through the power of Jesus’ resurrection we have hope which forces our fears aside. Without hope from Jesus’ resurrection we are left with this chapter’s mournful litany of despair: “and he died…and he died.”

The author of Genesis emphasizes the repeated reality of death in order to highlight one exceptional case, the story of Enoch. Here we find the third gem of wisdom hidden in this graveyard. That is…

God wants to walk with us

This brief account of Enoch is the focus of the chapter. The story of Enoch is like finding a dazzling jewel in a pile of dull stones. Enoch lived only 365 years, but he escaped death because he walked with God. “Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” This is the heart of the chapter.

What does it mean to walk with God? It certainly does not mean to keep the law. Enoch lived before the law was given. Walking with God is an indication of intimacy with God. Enoch was not unique in this regard. We read that Noah also walked with God (6:9) and the prophet Micah describes this as a basic requirement for all.

He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.
 And what does the LORD require of you?
 To act justly and to love mercy
 and to walk humbly with your God.
 Micah 6:8

To walk with God means several things. First it means to…

Walk in God’s direction

Isaiah described humanity as sheep who have gone astray, “each of us has turned to his own way (Isaiah 53:6). To walk with God, we must turn around and walk in God’s direction. This is the meaning of the word “repent.”

Enoch did not always walk with God. During his first 65 years he reflected the godless culture surrounding him. What changed? Signing up for Medicare? Listen again to Genesis’ description.

When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
 Genesis 5:21-22

It seems that the birth of his son was particularly significant in his life of faith. Having a baby often has a sobering effect upon a young father. He begins to live life more responsibly. He sells his sports car and buys a Volvo. He will probably pay less for car insurance too. He may also begin thinking more about spiritual things. Enoch is not alone in the effect of a child. Each life in this genealogy is divided into two parts, before children and after, but with Enoch there was additional significance. 

The name of his son was Methuselah, which means “when he dies, it will come.” What would come? This is a hint of the coming flood. God gave Enoch a revelation of his intended judgment. Every time Enoch looked at his boy, he saw God’s warning of judgment. The very year Methuselah died, the flood came. Methuselah lived longer than anyone else—969 years. Even in this crowd of patriarchs with long lives, the fact that Methuselah lived the longest of all is a testimony to God’s grace. From his heart of compassion, God delayed the flood as long as possible.

This vision for the future was passed on in Enoch’s family line. When it came time to name Enoch’s great-grandson, his father said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed” (Gen. 5:29). And so he called him Noah. This is another poetic etymology, since the final vowel of Noah sounds like the final vowel of “He will comfort us.” Noah’s father looked back to God’s curse on the ground and forward to the central role of his son in God’s plan to reverse it. Painful toil was certainly part of Noah’s story as he spent years building the ark, and the reference to “the ground the LORD has cursed” hints at Noah’s later dominion over the ground by planting a vineyard.

Enoch came to know this God of compassion and judgment through the birth of his son. He learned that to walk with God means to walk in God’s direction. He also learned to…

Walk with confidence in God

We learn this from the summary of his life in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11.

By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.” For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
 Hebrews 11:5-6

A walk is a series of steps. Each step requires trust. You lean forward, almost falling, then catch yourself with the other foot. That is a picture of faith. We walk in confidence, but each step is a risk of faith.

Walking is a biblical picture of fellowship. As you walk, you talk and listen. Enoch wanted to spend time with God. God wanted to spend time with Enoch. This is also God’s desire for you.

Walking with God means to walk in God’s direction, to walk with confidence in God, and it also means to…

Walk toward God’s Destination

Enoch didn’t just walk with God during his earthly life. He walked with God right into eternity. As the Genesis author says,

“He was no more, because God took him away.” (Gen. 5:24)

In another context, “he was no more” could simply be a poetic way of saying that someone died, but here it is a clear contrast to the others listed whose death is recorded so prominently. This is confirmed by the next phrase “because God took him away.” This expression is also used to describe Elijah’s translation to heaven in a chariot of fire.

A mother once asked her little girl what she had learned in Sunday School. “We learned about Enoch, she said. “It seems that every day God would come by Enoch’s house and say ‘Enoch would you like to walk with Me?’ And Enoch would come out of the house, go down to the gate, and down the road with God. He got to the place in his life that he enjoyed it so much that he’d wait at the gate every day. And he and God would go for a walk. Then one day, God came by and said, ‘Enoch, let’s take a long walk. I have much to tell you.’ So, they were walking and walking and finally Enoch said, ‘My, it’s getting late in the afternoon. I’d better get back home!’ And God said, ‘Enoch, you’re closer to my home than you are to your home; why don’t you come on home with me?’ So, Enoch went home with God."

Today, we have uncovered three gems of theological wisdom hidden beneath the dull stones of this genealogy. We have learned that God is the father of us all, that God administers justice, and that God wants to walk with us. Walking with God begins with faith. As we read in John chapter 3, “Whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” 

Enoch did not always walk with God? What will it take for you to walk in God’s direction?

·       The birth of a child?

·       The death of a child?

·       A blessing?

·       A loss?

By walking with God, you can know God’s presence in your life, and you can know that you will arrive at God’s destination.

Closing comments

Well, did you find it beneficial to spend time with this “boring list?” I certainly hope so. There is a lot more, here, than just a list of names.

Next time, we will find a strange tale of the sons of God marrying the daughters of men. What in the world is that about? Some even think that it describes marriage between angels and humans. Really? That will take some serious investigation. We also will begin our discussion of Noah and the flood. Here we will see the tension between God’s justice and his grace on a grand scale.

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[1] Stump, Jim. Long Life Spans in Genesis: Literal or Symbolic? BioLogos, 5 Oct. 2017, biologos.org/blogs/jim-stump-faith-and-science-seeking-understanding/long-life-spans-in-genesis.