And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begot [a son] in his likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth.
Genesis 5 opens a fresh record of the human race by recalling that God made man in His own likeness. Verse 3 then changes the wording — Adam passes on his own likeness, not God's — and what we inherit from our first father turns on that shift.
The verse uses two words: "likeness" and "image." One writer explains the difference.
When God made man (Genesis 1:26), He purposed it to be in His image, after His likeness. So He created him in His image, as Genesis 1:27 says twice. And we have already seen the difference: likeness resembles, image represents. This distinction is important to grasp, since it holds everywhere in Scripture. The "likeness" was the set of qualities matching God, such as no other nature on earth had. The image was man's place in presenting Him to others, a place not even the angels of heaven filled or could fill. But now that the head of the race was fallen, he "fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image." It was in his own likeness, not God's.
The likeness went; the image stayed. That is why taking a human life is still a crime, however far a person has fallen.
"Adam," Scripture says, "fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image." It was no longer in the likeness of God, but always in the image of God. For man, fallen or not, is in the image of God; sin destroyed the likeness... Suppose the crime depended on man keeping the likeness of God. Then someone could deny or justify murder: if a man were not like God, that unlikeness could excuse killing him. But murder is a crime against man made in the image of God. That image remains, fallen or not, so the guilt of murder stands beyond challenge.
Commentators differ on how complete the loss was. One writer sees something of the original left:
It may seem strange that Seth was not born until Adam was 130 years old. But however much time passed, Adam could only bear a child in his own likeness and image. In measure this was still in God's likeness and image, though it had been spoiled by sin.
Adam becomes a father only here, after the fall. That timing settles the condition of everyone who comes after him.
For our racial head we have to go back to Adam — and to Adam in his fallen condition. Only when fallen did he father sons and daughters. His fall came about by an act of sin, and that act produced a state of sin which spread through his very being. It changed his whole spiritual make-up so deeply that the change affected all his descendants. He could only father children "in his own likeness, after his image" (Genesis 5:3) — the likeness and image of a fallen man. Heredity of this sort is a terrible fact, and Scripture bears witness to it.
Adam himself had faith. One writer explains why he could not hand it down.
God made him a subject of grace, and he had and showed a living faith in a promised Saviour. But this was nothing natural; it was divine. And since it was not natural, nature had no power to pass it on. It was in no way hereditary. Adam could not leave or give his faith to Cain or Abel... Whatever was natural Adam could pass on; but nothing more. And since he, as a father, was in a condition of ruin, his son could only be in the same.
A nature reaches us by birth. The second nature reaches us the same way.
We get a nature from the first man by birth. In the same way we get a nature from the Second man by new birth. Once born, we share the nature of the first; once "born again," we share the nature of the Second. A newborn baby could never have done the act that brought Adam into a fallen condition, yet the baby shares his nature. In the same way a newborn child of God had nothing whatever to do with working out the perfect obedience of "the man Christ Jesus," yet shares His nature.
Eve's words at Seth's birth look ahead.
When Eve bore Seth she said, "God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain killed him." These words were no doubt prophetic. Cain the natural man had killed Abel the man of faith. Now God had appointed another godly offspring, so that faith should not die out from the earth.
- Likeness resembles. These were the qualities in man that matched God. Sin destroyed them, so Adam could only father a son like himself.
- Image represents. Man's place of standing for God on earth never went. That is why murder is still a crime, even against a fallen man.
- Heredity is real. Adam had no children until after he fell, so a ruined father could produce only a race in his own ruined condition.
- Faith is not inherited. Adam believed, but he could pass on only what was natural. His faith came from God, and no one hands that down.
- Birth answers birth. Only new birth answers a nature we got by birth. And in Seth, God appointed the line by which faith survived.
And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years; and he begot sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:4 covers eight centuries of Adam's life in a single line, and it names no one. After Seth, the record says only that Adam had other sons and daughters. A whole world of families fits into four words. Why does God's account count so carefully and tell so little?
The chapter just before this one paints a striking picture of the world's rapid progress. Adam's remaining centuries get a single line.
Scripture does not tell us what children Adam had during this early time. It says only that "the days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters." How little this record says about the line of faith! Compare it with the striking picture the previous chapter gives of the world's rapid progress in everything nature counts worth living for.
Cain does not appear in this chapter at all. The same silence covers him when Israel later draws up its national records.
In the Book of Chronicles, where God is recording His people, the Spirit refuses to bring in Cain, that wicked one, or his descendants, or even to mention them... We may ask in passing: how could that man be a link in the records of a chosen people? He walked away from the presence of God and became a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. Seth is the opposite. He is the substituted and appointed one, put in place of righteous Abel, whom Cain killed. With him the generations of men and their family lines begin again in Genesis 5.
Adam's other children may have been many, and some of them may have been remarkable. The record names none of them. It follows one thread only.
Divine purpose is the key... It explains why the general genealogy leaves out every detail beyond the direct line of the chosen people — and above all beyond the line of the Messiah, God's salvation, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel. The rest of their children, however many and however impressive by human standards, are simply merged into the "sons and daughters" they had.
These lives gave the world nothing to put in a history book. Yet God counts their years one by one — something the record never does for Cain's descendants.
Of the men of this generation the record notes only that they lived and died. Yet here, for the first time, we find every year of their quiet lives counted before God — something missing from the account of Cain's race. God shows interest in what holds no interest for man and adds nothing to the world's history.
Eight hundred more years after Seth's birth sounds impossible today. Commentators meet that objection head-on.
It is useless for men to dismiss the long lives of the men before the flood, and after it too, though the years grew shorter... To say this goes against the known laws of physiology is only the refuge of narrow, ignorant unbelief. If God wished, He could reduce man's life from 900 years to 90 simply by changing the conditions. This is a question of fact, and His word vouches for it. There is no need to argue for the plain statements of Scripture. Man before the fall never ate from the tree of life, and once he had fallen, God drove him out so that he would not.
Those long, overlapping lifetimes did real work. Before there was any written Bible, truth travelled by living memory.
The chapter gives each of their ages. It also shows that the very great ages most of them reached let certain "holy prophets," named here, tell many later generations about the wonderful works of God. Before the flood, testimony was passed on by word of mouth. Adam and Methuselah were alive at the same time for over 240 years. Two things are certain: Enoch foresaw coming judgments, and the long life of his son Methuselah was itself a display of God's patience before that judgment by water fell. Methuselah died just before the flood.
- Chosen — the record restarts with Seth, the appointed replacement for Abel. It drops Cain's whole line.
- Silent — eight hundred years of Adam's life get one sentence. The previous chapter tells Cain's line in full.
- Unnamed — Adam's other children, however many or however impressive, become one phrase: "sons and daughters." The record tracks one line only, the line to the Messiah.
- Counted — God numbers what the world would call empty years. His interest rests on lives that add nothing to human history.
- Witness — those long lifespans overlapped. Adam and Methuselah shared more than 240 years, and spoken testimony carried God's works long before anyone wrote them down.
And all the days of Adam that he lived were nine hundred and thirty years; and he died.
Genesis 5 is a family record. Verse 5 gives the first entry its ending: Adam reached 930 years, and then he died. Why should a man made by God end that way at all — and is that the last word?
The words that close Adam's entry are not unique to him. One writer counts how often they return in this chapter, and marks the one place where they are missing.
Genesis 5 is one of the most solemn chapters in Holy Scripture. It is a chapter of death. Eight times over we read of one man after another that "he died." So the ruin of everything here, as the fruit of sin, is set vividly before us. And right in the middle of this grim list of dying men, we read of one who did not die. "He was not, for God took him."
Adam's death was not the natural end of a natural process. One writer argues that dying was never built into man at all.
Those who judge only from what we see now are far from the truth. Man was made at the start to live. Death was sin's wages; it was not then a necessity of his body. God had provided the means to prolong his life if he obeyed, but took that means away outright when he fell. For what greater misery, or moral contradiction, than an everlasting life of sin? So death is in no way a debt owed to nature but to sin. And here we hear its bell toll for each man, even for those who kept clear of Cain's evil way.
God warned Adam that he would die on the day he ate, yet this verse counts out more than nine centuries. The answer offered turns on what the word "death" means.
God threatened Adam with death on the day of his disobedience. Adam disobeyed and lived on to the age of 930 years. Was it, then, an empty threat? Not at all. The day he sinned he died, in the first sense of the word. He became completely separated and estranged from his Maker, "dead in sins." His physical death was put off, because that day the Lord brought death on some other creature or creatures of the garden and clothed the guilty sinners with their skins. Centuries later, physical death arrived.
The same writer defines the word itself:
It is not the end of existence. If it were, no reconciliation would be possible. Death is separation. First, separation from God Himself, the source of all life and happiness. Second, the breaking up of man's whole makeup: spirit and soul parted from the body.
One writer sets man's long years and all his inventions beside the same closing words.
He might live for hundreds of years and have sons and daughters. But in the end it must be recorded that "he died." "Death reigned from Adam to Moses." "It is appointed for man to die once." Man cannot get past this. Steam, electricity, and anything else within reach of his genius cannot disarm death of its terrible sting. He may produce the comforts and luxuries of life, but his own energy cannot set aside the sentence of death.
Enoch is the exception in the list. But the writer is careful about what his case proves — and what it does not.
"He died" is the simple statement the inspired historian adds to the life of all but one named here… And the one exception to the common lot of man is no exception to the rule that no one can deliver himself from death. For we read, "he was not, for God took him." It was God's act, not Enoch's efforts, that kept his body from the grave.
The repeated words of this chapter stand against a very different word spoken of Another.
The words "and he died" are repeated so many times in this chapter. They stand in striking contrast to the words "And He shall live," written about David's Son and Lord in Psalm 72:15.
(Note: the ESV renders Psalm 72:15 "Long may he live"; the writer is quoting an older translation.)
Because of that contrast, one writer draws the line where the chapter's rule stops:
Therefore the iron rule "and he died" does not apply to Christians. Even Genesis 5 points to this in the one exception we find there: Enoch, who walked with God and was taken away without seeing death.
- Sentence. Sin cut Adam off from God the day he ate. His body's death 930 years later carried out that sentence; it was not a new one.
- Wages. Death is not a debt owed to nature but the wages of sin — man was made to live, and dying is the intruder.
- Refrain. Eight times the chapter tolls "he died," so no length of life and no human progress can be mistaken for an escape.
- Exception. Enoch alone is missing from the toll, and even he proves the rule: it was God who took him, not effort that saved him.
- Answer. Against a chapter of men who died stands the word about David's Son: "He shall live." With Him, the refrain is not the Christian's ending.
And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begot Enosh.
Genesis 5 restarts the human story with a list of names, ages and births. Seth's son Enosh is the first link after Adam. The bare record raises large questions: why this family, why such long lives, and why does every entry end the same way?
God's record follows Seth's descendants and leaves others out. Writers see a purpose behind both the bare list and the fuller note on two men in it.
Divine purpose is the key to both. It explains the mention that looks so bare, and also the fuller record in the cases of Enoch and Noah. It also explains why the general genealogy gives no details beyond the direct line of the chosen people, and above all beyond the line of the Messiah — God's salvation, a light of revelation for the Gentiles, and the glory of His people Israel. The rest of their children, however many or however great in a human way, are simply merged into the "sons and daughters" they fathered.
Genesis 5 does not just continue the story. It starts the record again.
Seth is the substitute, the one appointed in place of righteous Abel, whom Cain killed. With him the generations of men and their family lines begin again in Genesis 5.
The son's name has a meaning, and that meaning says something about the father who chose it.
Many children may have been born between Abel and Seth, but the record passes them over in silence. Seth was the seed appointed to carry on the line of faith, in contrast to the line of Cain. That Seth was a man of faith we gather from the name he gave his son — Enosh, meaning mortal, weak.
Owning that weakness changed what Seth's family began to do.
They began to call on the name of the Lord in the awareness of their own weakness and helplessness. They realized that in themselves they were no more than a breath. So they called on Him who lives for ever, the LORD, the eternal I AM. They acknowledged Him as both the Source and the Sustainer of life. Cain's children showed pride and self-glory, if we may read Genesis 4:23-24 that way, while Seth's descendants showed humility and humbled themselves.
Some dismiss such long lifespans as impossible.
For God, if He pleased, could easily reduce man's life from 900 years to 90 by changing the conditions. It is a question of fact for which His word vouches… What men have known since the flood is no argument against the far greater ages Scripture records before it.
In those days no one had written the truth down. People carried it in memory.
How could a revelation that was still only spoken reach the family of Adam? Only by the long life that marked that early day. Methuselah lived to tell Shem what Adam had received from God Himself, and Shem lived to repeat it all to Abraham and Isaac. These were facts and prospects, briefly stated, plain in meaning, and deeply important.
Every life in this chapter closes with the same three words.
He might live for hundreds of years and have "sons and daughters". But at the last the record must say, "he died"… Man cannot get past this. Steam, electricity, and anything else within reach of his genius cannot take from death its terrible sting. He may produce the comforts and luxuries of life, but he cannot set aside the sentence of death by his own energy.
That ending has a cause.
Death was sin's wages, not a physical necessity then. God had provided the means of prolonging man's life if he obeyed. But once man had fallen, God firmly cut him off from that means… So death is in no sense a debt owed to nature but to sin. Here we read its death sentence over each one, even over those who stood apart from the evil way of Cain.
One man in the list never reaches that ending, and death does not have the last word.
Genesis 5 is one of the most solemn chapters in Holy Scripture. It is a chapter of death. Eight times over we read of one man and another that "he died". This puts the ruin of everything here, as the fruit of sin, vividly before our eyes. Yet right in the middle of this bleak list of dying men, we read of one who did not die.
How sad, if this were all! It is not; this is only the first man. "But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead."
- Appointed — Seth stands in place of Abel. With him the family lines of mankind begin again, and this is the line that leads to the Messiah.
- Frail — Enosh means mortal, weak. Seth named his son after human weakness, and that honesty is treated as the mark of faith.
- Calling — Those who admitted they were only a breath called on the One who lives for ever. Pride marked Cain's children; humility marked Seth's.
- Dying — Hundreds of years still end in "he died". Death is owed to sin, not to nature, and no human progress has ever cancelled the sentence.
- Deathless — One man in the list did not die. Christ's resurrection answers the whole chapter: by a man came death, by a man came resurrection.
And Seth lived after he had begotten Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and begot sons and daughters.
Genesis 5:7 is one line of arithmetic: Seth fathered Enosh, lived another 807 years, and had more children. So why does God tell us so little about a man who lived so long, and why count the years at all?
The chapter before this one is full of the world's progress. Then comes Seth's line, and the record goes quiet.
How little Scripture says of the line of faith! Compare it with the striking picture the previous chapter gives of the world's rapid progress in everything that human nature thinks makes life worth living.
Two families lived side by side, and each left a different mark.
Cain's family make all the world's history. They build its cities, they promote its arts, they conduct its trade, they invent its pleasures and pastimes. But in all this Seth's family are not seen. The one generation call their cities after their own names; the other call themselves by the name of the Lord. The one do all they can to make the world their own, and not the Lord's; the other do all they can to show themselves to be the Lord's, and not their own. Cain writes his own name on the earth; Seth writes the Lord's name on himself.
Seth had many children. Scripture names only Enosh.
The inspired writer gives the same short outline for each of these long lives... God's purpose is the key. It explains a record that looks so bare, and also the fuller note about Enoch and Noah. It also explains why details beyond the direct line are left out. The list follows the chosen people, and above all the Messiah — God's salvation, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for His people Israel. The rest of their children, however many, however distinguished in human eyes, the record simply merges into the "sons and daughters" they had.
The name Seth chose for the son mentioned here says something about how this family saw itself.
Abel was a picture of Christ in His death. Seth is a picture of Him in His resurrection, and we read of Seth's line in Genesis 5. His resurrection brings in a new chosen line. Seth's son was Enosh, which means "frail man." This shows that when someone is born of God, he realises his own frailty and dependence. So at this time "people began to call upon the name of the LORD." In this new line of Seth we see the dependence of faith. It is not boastful. It is felt weakness that needs the grace of the Lord.
Such long lives had a use. God's revelation was still spoken, not written down.
How else could a revelation that was still only spoken really reach Adam's family? Only by the long lives of those early days. Methuselah lived to tell Shem what Adam had received from God Himself. Shem lived to repeat it all to Abraham and Isaac. These were facts and things to come, briefly stated, plain in meaning, and deeply important.
The verse also counts sons and daughters no one names. And some readers doubt that anyone ever lived this long.
If God pleased, He could easily change conditions and cut a man's life from 900 years to 90. It is a question of fact, and God's word affirms it... One can also see how well the long lifespan of those days suited God's word of blessing to the first man and woman: "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it."
Nothing Seth built is remembered. His years are.
This chapter says nothing about the God-fearing generations achieving great things on earth. They were pilgrims and strangers, waiting for better things... We learn from this that the Lord keeps a record of the lives, the work and the years of His people. His saints are in His hands.
- Quiet — Scripture gives the line of faith almost no history. The cities, the trade and the inventions all belong to Cain's side of the family.
- Chosen — The list names one son, because it follows one thread: the line running to the Messiah. Everyone else disappears into "sons and daughters."
- Frail — Enosh, the named son, means frail man. This family knew its own weakness and called on the LORD because of it.
- Carried — Long lives had work to do. Overlapping generations passed God's spoken word down intact. They also filled the earth, as He had told them to.
- Counted — Seth left no monument, only a number. Yet God wrote the number down, because He keeps the record of the years of His people.
And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years; and he died.
Seth's whole life folds into a single line: a total of years, then a verdict. The number is large. The last three words are the ones already written over his father Adam, and the chapter repeats them again and again.
Seth is not just the next name on a list. He stands in the place of a murdered brother, and his name carries that meaning.
Son of Adam and Eve, born after the death of Abel, and father of Enos. His name means 'appointed': God in this way continued the line of Abel, whom Cain killed, through the appointment of Seth. So Genesis 4:25-26 says, in connection with Seth, that "people began to call upon the name of the LORD." Right after that comes "This is the book of the generations of Adam," giving the family line through Seth and his descendants, with no mention of Cain and his descendants. From Seth the genealogy is traced to Noah, and the flood swept away everyone else. Genesis 5:3-8; Luke 3:38.
One writer sets Eve's words at Seth's birth beside her words at Cain's birth.
Seth is the man appointed instead of both Abel and Cain: God has appointed, in contrast with I have gotten, as Eve said of Cain. So now, Seth from God.
The closing phrase of this verse is not unique to Seth. It is the drumbeat of the whole chapter.
Genesis 5 is one of the most solemn chapters in Holy Scripture. It is a chapter of death. Eight times over we read of one and another that "he died." This brings the wreck of all things, as the fruit of sin, vividly before us. Yet right in the middle of this dismal list of dying men, we read of one who did not die. "He was not, for God took him."
Death was not part of the original design. One writer shows where it came from, and that Seth's line was no exception.
The fact is, those who judge only from present experience are far from the truth: man was made at the outset to live. Death was sin's wages, not then a necessity of the body. God had provided the means for prolonging his life if obedient, but firmly took that means away when he fell. For what greater misery, or moral contradiction, than an everlasting life of sin? So death is in no way a debt owed to nature. It is owed to sin. Here we read its funeral bell even for each of those who kept clear of the evil way of Cain — the ancestors not only of Israel, but in due time of the Messiah. Of Adam, so of Seth, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared, it was alike said "he died."
One writer explains why those long lives mattered. God's word then travelled by mouth, not by book.
...we can see reasons why the long lifespan of early mankind mattered beyond measure. They had a deep interest in a sure record of where the race came from, and of the earth and heavens. Higher still was to hear of the fall and its solemn results. Highest of all was to know that He, both the Creator and in moral relationship with man, had stepped in... revealing a suffering Deliverer, the woman's Seed, to destroy the enemy... God's revelation was still spoken, not written. How could it reach the family of Adam except by the long lives of that early day? For Methuselah lived to tell Shem what Adam passed on from God Himself, and Shem lived to repeat it all to Abraham and Isaac.
Seth had many other children, and we learn nothing about any of them. The silence is deliberate.
The inspired writer gives the same plain outline for each of these long lives, and that is all the more striking... Divine purpose is the key to both. It explains alike the mention which looks so bare, and the special record in the cases of Enoch and Noah. It explains why the general genealogy leaves out every detail beyond the direct line of the chosen people, and above all of the Messiah... The rest of their children, however many or however distinguished in a human way, simply merge into the "sons and daughters" they fathered.
Seth's birth follows a death. One writer reads a pattern in that.
First we read how Cain's seed developed — man in the flesh. Now we come to the birth of Seth, of whom Eve says, "another seed instead of Abel" (v. 25). Abel was a type of Christ in His death: Seth is a picture of Him in His resurrection, and we read of Seth's seed in Genesis 5... His resurrection introduces a new chosen seed. Cain clings to the first creation and seems to gain the most, but he must lose it all. What Christ has gained in resurrection is eternal.
- Appointed. Seth's name means "appointed." God set him in place of murdered Abel, and traced the line on to Noah.
- Appointed to live. God made man to live. Death came in through sin, and the debt is owed to sin, not to nature.
- Appointed years. Long lives carried God's spoken word down the generations: Adam told Methuselah, Methuselah told Shem, Shem told Abraham.
- Appointed record. The bare outline is purpose, not carelessness. Scripture follows only the line that leads to the Messiah, and merges every other child into "sons and daughters."
- Appointed hope. Abel pictures Christ in death, Seth pictures Him risen — the one gain that cannot be lost.