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?
The Line God Chose to Record
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.
Enosh: The Name of Weakness
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.
Why Such Long Lives
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.
The Refrain That Closes Every Entry
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.
The Break in the Pattern
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."
Summary
- 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.