1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
So in the grand tradition of Genesis 1. and Genesis 2. we are going to begin again, this time with less detail.
2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
So the species is called Adam, not just Adam?
3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:
Looks like we are starting from Seth. Cain's descendants, in their multitude, may be addressed later but Seth is our man here. No God attribution here in Seth's creation and even a nod to the kind of language used to describe God's Creation of Adam. I suppose that confirms that Adam does have all of the properties of a god beside the infinite longevity.
4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
Screw that last statement, that's quite some longevity. I think we should start keeping count of the years that pass. Adam created from dust in 0AE (After Eden(or the planting there of)). 130AE Seth is Born. Adam lives a further eight-hundred years and has more, probably insignificant children.
5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
Adam dies at 930AE.
6 And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:
Enos is born 235AE.
7 And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:
Seth lives a further eight-hundred-and-thirty years and has more, probably insignificant children.
8 And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.
Seth dies 1042AE.
9 And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:
Cainan is born 325AE.
10 And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:
Enos lives a further eight-hundred-and-fifteen years and has more, probably insignificant children.
11 And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.
Enos dies 1140AE.
12 And Cainan lived seventy years and begat Mahalaleel:
Mahalaleel born 395AE, Cainan was only seventy, I suspect Adam at this point would have been despairing about how the younger generations are having children younger and younger.
13 And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:
Cainan lived a further eight hundred and forty years and has more, probably insignificant children.
14 And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.
Cainan dies... I apologise for how boring this bit is, I'm starting to think this data would lend itself to some sort of tabular format. So, Cainan dies 1235AE
15 And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared:
...Perhaps a timeline of some sort... Jared is born 460AE.
16 And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters:
This is almost exactly where I stopped last time I tried to read this thing but I must press on...
17 And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.
Mahalaleel dies 1290AE.
18 And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:
Enoch is born 622AE. I wonder if he was named after the city in Nod or his distant relative after whom the city was named.
19 And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
Jared has some more inconsequential kids.
20 And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.
Jared dies 1422AE.
21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
Methuselah is born 687AE.
22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
Only ten lines left, but wait! Enoch walked with god for the rest of his life, I'm supposing that this is a walk that takes place on the earth, we've seen God walking about before. I'm guessing he brought his wife along for the trip since he had more children. did God really spend three hundred years walking about with Enoch and his family?
23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
All that walking probably wore him out, I was expecting at least eight-hundred years.
24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Ah. Enoch didn't die then? God took him somewhere, where did God take him? Did god take him to Eden and give him some fruit from the tree of life?
25 And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech.
Lamech is born 874AE. This is not Lamech the Murderer although that guy is most likely still knocking about.
26 And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:
Methuselah continues to live and love.
27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
Methuselah dies in 1656AE after an epic nine hundred and sixty-nine year life. He must have eaten his vegetables and specifically offered none to God.
28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
Noah is born 1056AE. Notably Adam has only died one-hundred-and-thirty years ago.
29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
So the land is still bad for farming, one-thousand-and-fifty-six years after the curse! I'm guessing the people over in the land of Nod are having a better time of it as regards farming. Why stay on really bad farming land for one-thousand-and-fifty-six years?
30 And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:
More sons, more daughters, in fact the population is probably huge by now.
31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.
Lamech dies 1651AE. It's odd that this Lamech should live seven-hundred-and-seventy-seven years while his namesake Lamech, the bigamist, murderer of young men will be avenged by God seventy-seven fold. This Lamech's father is called Methuselah and his namesake in Nod's father is called Methusael, is there some possibility that someone has got both their story lines and their bloodlines crossed?
32 And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Triplets? So Noah has three sons in the year 1556AE.
So what have we learned?
- A lot of people were born and died.
- Your average lifespan is about 800 years.
- God took a 300 year walk with Enoch and his family eventually taking him somewhere of which there is no account.
- The Author only concerns himself with first born sons, which is handy because of what I suspect is coming next, if we had followed some other route we may not have ended this page with 'Noah & Sons' and the narrative would likely take a very odd turn for the worse on the next page.
- No one did anything particularly noteworthy for 1500 years or so other than reproduce and take very long walks.
Next: Genesis 6. I hope it's more interesting.
> we are going to begin again, this time with less detail
ReplyDeleteI think we are seeing concurrent events. We know what's going on in Nod, now we are going to see the "meanwhile, on Earth" bit.
> this data would lend itself to some sort of tabular format
Thinking the same thing.
> Enoch is born 622AE. I wonder if he was named ofter the city in Nod or his distant relative after whom the city was named.
If it is known on Earth that Nod has a city called Enoch, or that second cousin x-times-removed Enoch was born there, logically there must be some communication between Nod and Earth. Unless it's just a coincidence of names.
> And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech
Serious lack of imagination with names, I'm starting to believe the 'coincidence' theory.
> So the land is still bad for farming, one-thousand-and-fifty-six years after the curse!
Perhaps LORD forgot to turn it off, like an immersion heater? "Damn it, left the curse on all millennium. That's going to be expensive."
Did you notice that Enoch was taken while he was 365?.. A solar year reference perhaps?!
ReplyDeleteI did not notice that, I was to busy counting up the years, I should be more diligent.
DeleteAs to the significance though, I'm afraid that assuming any kind of a solar year reference might verge on the either the "Texas Sharp Shooter" fallacy or simply confirmation bias, There are a good number of life-spans in this book that fall inside the 300 to 400 year range, that one of those happens to be the same number (barring the quarter or so days difference) as the number of days in a solar year is pretty much no surprise.
Nice observation though.
"So the land is still bad for farming, one-thousand-and-fifty-six years after the curse!"
DeleteYeah... it's the Middle East, it's a desert!
"Why stay on really bad farming land for one-thousand-and-fifty-six years?"
And why do they fight so hard over it?