Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Chronicles opens not with a story but with a name — the first man — and then two more, with no verb between them. Why does the book start this far back, and why these three names?
Chronicles keeps its eye on one thing: God's kingdom in David's family. That focus decides where the book begins:
The books of Chronicles look only at the history of God's kingdom in the hands of David and of his race. For that reason we are here at once connected with the whole of God's purposes from the beginning. We have the genealogy... but we begin with the beginning — "Adam, Sheth, Enosh" and so on, down to Noah, a line of ten from the start. Then come the various sons of Noah, and their descendants — seventy nations springing from the sons of Noah.
The first chapter is also complete in a way the next one is not:
The genealogy begins with Adam. Verses 1 to 4 agree with what Genesis reveals. Moreover, there are no gaps in this first chapter. As soon as we approach Israel's history in 1 Chronicles 2, gaps appear. When Chronicles was written, the genealogies of many members of this people remained undetermined, because no one could prove them.
The second name has a meaning, and that meaning explains why this line went on:
Son of Adam and Eve, born after the death of Abel, and father of Enosh. His name means 'appointed': God continued the line of Abel, whom Cain killed, through the appointment of Seth. So in Genesis 4:25-26, in connection with Seth, it says, "At that time people began to call upon the name of the LORD." ... The genealogy runs from Seth to Noah, and the flood swept away all else. 1 Chronicles 1:1 calls him SHETH.
Genesis gives a full family record to Cain's descendants. Chronicles gives none:
Starting with Genesis 4:16-24 we have a list of the descendants of the man Cain. He "went away from the presence of the Lord," and in the land of Nod "he built a city." There he and his descendants made themselves comfortable and cultivated crafts and the fine arts. Meanwhile they plunged deeper into sin. Then God poured out His wrath, and every member of that guilty family perished in the Flood. Now, turning to 1 Chronicles 1:1, we read, "Adam, Sheth, Enosh" — but not one word about Cain and his descendants.
These names are not only labels. Their meanings, read in order, form their own message:
The opening three verses of 1 Chronicles 1 give us one of the wonderful sentences of Inspiration. It is a sentence containing ten proper names and not a single verb... Dr Kitto has pointed out that these ten names, translated in order, form this remarkable sentence in English: Man, Appointed [or Replaced], Miserable, Lamenting, The God of Glory, Shall descend, To instruct, His death sends, To the afflicted, Consolation.
Starting at Adam is not merely a way of reaching back far enough. It also sets an order that runs through these chapters:
Chronicles deals with God's counsels and His ways of grace toward man. Naturally, then, it begins with Adam. It traces the line of man chosen according to the counsels of grace. That line stands in contrast to the line of man according to the flesh. Man has become sinful... In these chapters we therefore find the line of the flesh first, and that of the Spirit second. God does not beget until sinful man has first proven what his nature could produce. This is why the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 15:46: "But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual."
The list has a destination. One writer sees every name pointing to God's Son:
The sin and failure of man, and Satan's determined opposition, are only occasions for the display of sovereign grace and of Almighty power. Christ the Son will be King of the Jews as Son of David, and Inheritor of the promises as Son of Abraham. As Son of Man He will be King of kings and Lord of lords. So His genealogy runs down from Adam: He, the last Adam, is to win back the headship over the lower creation which the first Adam lost. Other names come in and shine among their fellows... but the great purpose of God centres in His Son. The genealogy points to Him.
- Adam — the line starts at the first man. Chronicles traces God's purpose from the beginning, not just Israel's history.
- Seth — the line goes on by appointment. His name means "appointed", and God gave him in place of Abel.
- Cain — the line leaves him out. He built a city, and his family perished in the Flood; Chronicles says nothing of them.
- Order — the line runs flesh first, Spirit second, because the natural comes before the spiritual.
- Christ — the line has a destination. It runs to the last Adam, who wins back what the first Adam lost.
Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared,
Three names sit here with nothing else attached to them — no story, no dates, no deeds. They belong to a run of ten names that runs from the first man to the flood. So why does Scripture keep such a list at all?
The opening verses of this book do not add new history. They repeat the line already given in Genesis, and they repeat it whole.
We see too, as already mentioned, that the genealogy begins with Adam. Verses 1 to 4 agree with what is revealed in Genesis. Moreover, there are no gaps in this first chapter. As soon as we reach Israel's history in 1 Chronicles 2, gaps appear. When Chronicles was written, the family lines of many in this people were still unsettled, because no one could prove them.
Each of these names is a word with its own meaning. Read in order, the ten meanings say something.
The names of ten generations translated give a startling revelation. In them we read the faith of the godly generations before the flood, and what they were waiting for.
Adam — Man. Seth — Set. Enos — Frailty. Cainan — Deplorable. Mahalaleel — The Blessed God. Jared — Descends. Enoch — Teaching. Methuselah — Death sent away. Lamech — Powerful. Noah — Rest, Comfort.
(Cainan and Mahalaleel are older spellings of Kenan and Mahalalel.) The three names of this verse sit at the centre of that sentence. Read straight through, they say: Deplorable. The Blessed God. Descends.
Names were not private in that world. Fathers who believed God gave them, and whole generations heard them.
So the very names of the patriarchs before the flood would be a standing testimony to the world. Methuselah's name in particular was a warning message to the sinners of long ago. The prophet Enoch's own name marked him out as one able "to instruct." He named his son in words that foretold a coming judgment. That judgment would "descend" after his death. The flood came in the very year Methuselah died.
Two families came out of Adam. Only one of them appears in this chapter.
Genesis 4:16-24 gives us a list of the descendants of the man Cain. He "went away from the presence of the Lord," and in the land of Nod he "built a city." There he and his descendants made themselves comfortable, and developed crafts and fine arts. Meanwhile they plunged deeper into sin. At last God poured out His wrath, and every member of that guilty family died in the flood. Now, turning to 1 Chronicles 1:1, we read, "Adam, Seth, Enosh" — but not one word about Cain and his descendants.
The names in this chapter fall into two runs, and both are heading somewhere.
In 1 Chronicles 1, our present subject, we find two series of names highlighted. The first (vv. 1-4) begins with Adam and ends with Noah's sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. The second (vv. 24-27) begins again at Shem and ends with Abraham. These two series form an unbroken chain. It starts with grace toward fallen man. It reaches its high point in the promises made to Abraham and taken hold of by faith.
The chain matters most for one claim of all — the right of the Messiah to His throne.
Finally, and above all, these records were essential for Messiah's kingship. His line must go back through the series of kings to Judah "the lawgiver," and then from Judah to Jacob, Isaac, Abraham, Noah, Adam and God!
Most readers skip these chapters. Yet a bare list of names can teach us something about God Himself.
What are we to learn from those genealogical records? We believe they teach us a most precious lesson about the Lord's faithful care of His people Israel. They show His loving interest in them, and in everything that concerns them. He watches over them, from generation to generation, though they are scattered and hidden from human sight. He knows all about the twelve tribes of Israel, and He will show them in due time, and plant them in the inheritance meant for them, in the land of Canaan, as He promised to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
- Line — Kenan, Mahalalel and Jared are three links in a chain of ten names from Adam to Noah. Genesis gives the same list, with no gaps.
- Meaning — Read as words, the names spell out the hope of those who believed God before the flood. This verse holds the centre: the Blessed God descends.
- Warning — Long lives kept these names in the world's ears as a testimony. Methuselah's name carried the sharpest warning of all.
- Selection — Cain's busy, capable, doomed family never appears here. God records the line He chose to keep.
- Destination — The chain runs on to Abraham, and then to Messiah's right to reign. That is why God tracks His people name by name.
Enoch, Methushelah, Lemech,
Between Adam and Noah stand seven names and no verbs — about seventeen centuries in one line of descent. Chronicles opens this way for a reason: these are not leftover records but the opening links of a chain God is tracing toward one Person.
One writer notes how much history these seven names pass over, and how few men in that whole age stood out for faith:
The King is before the mind of the Spirit, Who hurries onward and with seven names covers the whole time from creation to the flood, a space reckoned at nearly one thousand seven hundred years. In all that time only two men are singled out for their faith until we come to Noah — Abel and Enoch of the old world.
Chronicles spells this name Henoch. Genesis calls the same man Enoch, and what is said of him is short but bright:
Son of Jared, and father of Methuselah. Of him it is said, he "walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." It is also said that by faith he was taken up, and that before this he had this testimony: he pleased God. He is a bright example in those early days. By grace a man can have fellowship with God, and so please God, and know it, enjoying the light of His face while walking with Him in a sinful world. Enoch was taken to heaven without dying, as the living saints will be at the coming of the Lord Jesus. Called HENOCH in 1 Chr. 1:3.
The names themselves carry meaning. Read in order and translated, commentators say, the ten names form one sentence. In it Henoch means "To instruct", Methuselah "His death sends", and Lamech "To the afflicted":
If we turn back to 1 Chronicles 1, the opening three verses give us one of the wonderful sentences of Inspiration. It is a sentence containing ten proper names and not a single verb. The names are these: Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jered, Henoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah. Dr Kitto has pointed out something remarkable. Translated literally, in order, these ten names form this sentence in English: Man, Appointed [or Replaced], Miserable, Lamenting, The God of Glory, Shall descend, To instruct, His death sends, To the afflicted, Consolation. So the very names of the patriarchs before the flood would be a standing testimony to the world. Methuselah's name in particular was a warning message to the sinners of old. The prophet Enoch, whose own name marked him out as one able "to instruct," gave his son a name that foretold a coming judgment: it would "descend" after his death. The very year in which Methuselah died, the Flood came. One cannot help noticing that after the name of the oldest man this world ever saw, God wrote "and he died."
Another family line ran alongside this one, and Chronicles will not touch it. Cain, who left God's presence, has no place in the register:
It is worth noticing here that in this Book of Chronicles, where God is writing up His people... the Spirit refuses to introduce or mention Cain, that wicked one, and his descendants. I judge this was so that the earthly family might be rightly identified by descent... Cain went away out of the presence of God, and became a fugitive and a wanderer in the earth. How could such a man be a link in the chronicles of an elect people?
Later chapters of Chronicles skip generations. This one does not:
We see that the genealogy begins with Adam. Verses 1 to 4 agree with what is revealed in Genesis. Moreover, there are no gaps in this first chapter. As soon as we come to Israel's history in 1 Chronicles 2, gaps appear. When Chronicles was written, the genealogies of many in this people were still uncertain, because no one could prove them.
Why start at Adam, rather than Abraham or David? Because the record reaches wider than Israel:
...the sin and failure of man, and Satan's determined opposition, are only occasions for the display of sovereign grace and almighty power. Christ the Son will be the King of the Jews as Son of David. He will be the Inheritor of the promises as Son of Abraham. But as Son of Man He will also be King of kings and Lord of lords. So His genealogy runs down from Adam, that He, the last Adam, should win back the headship over the lower creation which the first Adam lost... The genealogy points to Him.
- The line begins — from Adam, not from Abraham, because the last Adam must recover what the first Adam lost.
- The line is pure — Cain walked out of God's presence, so God leaves him off the register and writes up only the chosen line.
- The line is exact — chapter 1 has no gaps and matches Genesis. Later chapters admit uncertainty.
- The line preaches — the names in order spell out a message. Methuselah's name warned of judgment, and the Flood came the year he died.
- The line ends in a Person — Henoch walked with God and went to heaven without dying; the whole chain runs on to Christ.
Noah; Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.