CHAPTER 4
Genealogy of the Believing Race, through Seth.
(GENESIS 5)
ONE purpose of Scripture has now been fulfilled. The tendencies for evil of the Cainite race have been
traced to their full unfolding, and "the kingdom of this world" has appeared in its real character. On the other
hand, the race of Seth have gathered around an open profession of their faith in the promises, and of their
purpose to serve God, and they have on this ground separated themselves from the Cainites. The two ways
are clearly marked out, and the character of those who walk in them determined. There is, therefore, no
further need to follow the history of the Cainites, and Scripture turns from them to give us an account of
"the elders" who "by faith" "obtained a good report."
At first sight it seems as if the narrative here opened with only a "book," or account, "of the generations of
Adam," containing here and there a brief notice interspersed; but in truth it is otherwise. At the outset we
mark, as a significant contrast, that whereas we read of Adam that "in the likeness of God made He him," it is
now added that "he begat a son in his own likeness, after his image." Adam was created pure and sinless in
the likeness of God; Seth inherited the fallen nature of his father. Next, we observe how all the genealogies,
from Adam downwards, have this in common, that they give first the age of the father at the birth of his
eldest son,10 then the number of years which each of them lived after that event, and finally their total age at
the time of death. Altogether, ten "elders" are named from the creation to the time of the flood, and thus
grouped:11
NAMES ABS #YEAR TOTAL BAC DAC
ADAM 130 800 930 1 930
SETH 105 807 912 130 1042
ENOS 90 815 905 235 1140
CAINAN 70 840 910 325 1235
MAHALEEL 65 830 895 395 1290
JARED 162 800 962 460 1422
ENOCH 65 300 365 622 987
METHUSELAH 187 782 969 687 1656
LAMECH 182 595 777 874 1651
NOAH 500 450 950 1056 2006
FLOOD 100
TOTAL 1656
Column 1 - Names; Column 2 - Age at Birth of Son; Column 3 - No. of years after that event; Column 4 -
Total Age; Column 5 - Year of Birth from Creation; Column 6 - Year of Death from Creation.
On examining them more closely, what strikes us in these genealogical records of the Patriarchs is, that the
details they furnish are wanting in the history of the Cainites, where simply the birth of seven generations
are mentioned, viz.: Adam, Cain, Enoch, Irad, Mehajael, Methusael, Lamech, and his sons. The reason of this
difference is, that whereas the Cainites had really no future, the Sethites, who "called upon the name of
Jehovah," were destined to carry out the purpose of God in grace unto the end. Next, in two cases the s ame
names occur in the two races - Enoch and Lamech.