Generations of Adam
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The Generations of Adam according to Genesis 5 is the line of descent going through Seth. A second line of descent starting with Cain is listed in Genesis 4. The fact that Cain is not listed as a son in any of Adam's genealogies (1 Chronicles 1, Luke 4) has led to speculation[citation needed] that Cain was an illegitimate son, requiring a separate genealogy of his own. This possibility is evidenced by the fact that elswhere in Scripture, a firstborn son's name is never omitted from a genealogy, though he may forfeit inheritance rights for improper behavior[original research?]. (I Chronicles 2, Gen 49:3-4) Both lines end in the name Lamech, which is given in Genesis. Lamech, the descendant of Cain, at the end of one line is described as the father of Yaval and Yuval (from his first wife Ada) and Tuval Kayin and Na'ama (from his second wife, Tzelah). The other Lamech at the end of the other line descended from Seth is described as the father of Noah.
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[edit] The lines of descent
Both lines start with Adam. The lines are:
| Sethite | Cainite |
|---|---|
| Seth | Cain |
| Enos | Enoch |
| Cainan | Irad |
| Mahalaleel | Mehujael |
| Jared | Methusael |
| Enoch | Lamech |
| Methuselah | -- |
| Lamech | -- |
| Noah | -- |
[edit] The names and ages
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The names, as they appear in the Masoretic text, are traditionally given certain translations:
| Name | Traditional translation[citation needed] |
|---|---|
| Cain | Metal-Worker |
| Cainan | Metal-Worker |
| Enoch | Initiated/Disciplined |
| Enos | Mortal/Sick |
| Irad | Wild ass/dragon |
| Jared | Ruler |
| Lamech | Pauper |
| Mehalaleel | Praise of god |
| Mehujael | Smitten by god |
| Methusael | Champion of god |
| Methuselah | Man of the javelin |
| Seth | Substitute |
The Sethite line also gives ages, and dates of birth. These are given, in the ancient manner of dating, in terms of the age of their predecessor. From these details, a rough chronology can be constructed, taking the birth of Adam as year 1. The Masoretic text varies in this from the Septuagint, which mostly presents the same age at death, but as having been born 100 years later into a parent's life, except for Enoch, who is unchanged in this matter, and for Lamech, who dies 24 years younger, and whose father is presented as being 20 years younger when Lamech was born:
| Masoretic text | Septuagint | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Year of birth | Year of Death | Age of Death | Year of birth | Year of Death | Age of Death |
| Adam | 1 (by definition) | 930 | 930 | 1 (by definition) | 930 | 930 |
| Seth | 130 | 1042 | 912 | 230 | 1142 | 912 |
| Enos | 235 | 1140 | 905 | 435 | 1340 | 905 |
| Cainan | 325 | 1235 | 910 | 625 | 1535 | 910 |
| Mahalaleel | 395 | 1290 | 895 | 795 | 1690 | 895 |
| Jared | 460 | 1422 | 962 | 960 | 1922 | 962 |
| Enoch | 622 | 987 | 365 | 1122 | 1487 | 365 |
| Methuselah | 687 | 1656 | 969 | 1287 | 2256 | 969 |
| Lamech | 874 | 1651 | 777 | 1454 | 2207 | 753 |
| Noah | 1056 | 2006 | 950 | 1642 | 2592 | 950 |
| the flood | 1656 | - | - | 2242 | - | - |
The second century BC Book of Jubilees, regarded as non-canonical except by Coptic Christianity, additionally gives wives for the Sethite line:
| Husband | Wife |
|---|---|
| Seth | Azura |
| Enos | Noam |
| Cainan | Mualaleth |
| Mahalaleel | Dinah |
| Jared | Baraka |
| Enoch | Edna |
| Methuselah | Edna |
| Lamech | Betenos |
[edit] Interpretations
Aside from Cain, and Lamech, his descendant, two other names in the lists are traditionally given significance. Firstly, Methuselah has the oldest age appearing in the bible, and so the name of Methuselah has become a general reference to longevity. Most traditional translations interpret the name as man of the dart or man of the javelin; however, some critical scholars have proposed it should simply be read as man of Selah, since Selah is the title of the Mesopotamian moon god Sin (also known as Nanna). The question of the correct interpretation of his name is further complicated, as the Septuagint renders Methuselah and Methusael with exactly the same name, the latter meaning champion of God, and by the fact that Methuselah is a very northern (Kingdom of Israel), or Babylonian, style name for an otherwise southern (kingdom of Judah) set of names. The ages given in the Lucianic Septuagint for Methusaleh implies that he died 14 years after the year of the Great Flood. Some scholars allege that later Septuagint manuscripts were altered by giving Methuselah an extra 20 years before his son's birth so that he would die before the flood.[1] The Bible as currently translated lines up Methuselah's death in the year of the flood, because most modern editions of Genesis are translated from the Masoretic (Hebrew) text.[2]
The enigmatic description given to Enoch in one of the lines, that he ...walked with God, and was not, has led to the extensive esoteric mythology surrounding him[citation needed], particularly dating from the 2nd century BC, such as the Book of Enoch, which is canonical in Coptic Christianity. The age of Enoch that is given in the Masoretic text, 365 years, is noticeably similar to the number of days in the solar year, and so some critical scholars[who?] have suggested Enoch originally represented the deified sun[opinion needs balancing].
Other interpretations of the names of the Sethite line from the traditional English renderings may better convey the words meaning from their etymological derivations.
| Name | Etymological translation[citation needed] |
|---|---|
| Adam | Earth/Ground - masculine of Hebrew "adamah" |
| Seth | Appointed - Gen 4:25, from the Hebrew "shiyth" |
| Enos | Mortal/Sick - from "anash" meaning "sick", "frail" or "wicked" |
| Qenan | Habitation/Possession/Lot - from a primitive root "qen" originally referring to birds nests |
| Mehalaleel | Glorious God - from a primitive root for "shining forth" and the word for "God" |
| Jared | Will Descend (tense uncertain, but difficult to render accurately in English without implying one) - from a primitive verb meaning "to come down" or "prostrate" |
| Enoch | Discipling/teaching - from a primitive root meaning "to train up" |
| Methuselah | His Death Shall Bring - This translation disagrees with the traditional in taking the first root from "mûth"="death" rather than "m@th"="man" neither is definitive since vowels are implied in ancient Hebrew, "shelach" comes from a root meaning "to send forth" which came to refer to ballistic weapons in later Hebrew but more basically referred to any sending forth. Notably, the Masoretic text gives his year of death as the same as the Flood came. |
| Lamech | Captive/Slave/Pauper - *Origin of this word is disputed, rabbinic sources indicate etymology deriving from "melek" meaning "king" - since the mem and the lamed are reversed lamech is inferred to mean the opposite of a king, hence a captive, slave or pauper.
It is sometimes claimed that this word means something akin to despair and relates to the modern English word "lamentation," but while they are phonetically similar there is no evidence for a shared etymology of these words. |
| Noah | Comfort - from a primitive root meaning "to rest" |
[edit] Comparison between the two lines of descent
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Taking the septuagint rendering of Methusael and Methuselah, and taking the Cainite line back two generations to make up the same number of generations as the Sethite line, the following comparison is reached:
| Sethite line | Cainite line |
|---|---|
| Seth | Yahweh |
| Enos (mortal) | Adam (mankind) |
| Cainan | Cain |
| Mehalaleel | Enoch |
| Jared | Irad |
| Enoch | Mehujael |
| Methuselah | Methuselah (Septuagint) |
| Lamech | Lamech |
The similarity seen in the lines has been noted since ancient times. Traditionally, this is explained[who?] by intermarriage between the lines, such as by the daughter of the Cainite Lamech marrying Methuselah, and naming her child after her father[citation needed]. The names of the Sethite line are traditionally interpreted as being more positive than those of the Cainite line, reflecting a negative attitude towards Cain, for example Jared being ruler compared with Irad being dragon or city of a fugitive, Mehalaleel being praise of God compared to Mehujael being smitten by God, and Methuselah (variant interpretations including Man of God [cf. Akkadian]) compared to Methushael being man of Sheol[citation needed].
Modern critical scholarship[who?] has claimed within the schema of the documentary hypothesis that the lines are copies of one another, the Cainite line being ascribed to the Yahwist, and the Sethite line being ascribed to the Book of Generations. However, consensus does not exist for the differences between the two lists, which are significant. All the names have been changed in their etymological meanings (apart from Lamech), three additional names have been included in one list (Seth, Enosh/Enoch, and Noah), the position of Enoch and Mehujael/Mehalaleel are reversed across an intermediary name (not a simple transposition of adjacent names), and there are no birth or death dates given in the Cainite list although they are given on the Sethite list. Cain's line is terminated by the three sons and two daughters of Lamech, while the three grandsons of Lamech in Seth's line provide the literary parallel and contrast. Commentators[who?] who focus on these differences claim there is no similarity between the two families to suggest a common source. Commentators[who?] who focus on the middle six generations, with the position of Enoch and Mehujael reversed, see obvious similarities in the following table and suggest a common source.
| Genesis 5 | Genesis 4 |
|---|---|
| Cainan | Cain |
| Mehalaleel | Mehujael |
| Jared | Irad |
| Enoch | Enoch |
| Methuselah | Methushael |
| Lamech | Lamech |
While, in the story of Cain and Abel, Cain is presented as being forever condemned to being a nomad, in the Cainite line, he is described as being a city builder. This has led biblical critics[who?] to suggest the two accounts of Cain derive from different sources, and even though the documentary hypothesis still places them both as the Jahwist source, it is nevertheless believed that the Jahwist inserted the list into his work from another source[citation needed].
A moderate proportion of critical scholars[who?] also believe that the Sethite line was inserted into the torah in such a way as to deliberately attempt to distance Noah, traditionally seen as a hero, from Cain, traditionally seen as a villain, and consequently separating Lamech into two different people[citation needed].
[edit] Comparison with the Sumerian king list
Upon the discovery of the antediluvian portion of the Sumerian king list, it was suggested that the biblical list may have been derived from the king list[citation needed]. This idea probably arose because both lists (the Sethite list beginning from Adam, and the Sumerian list) had ten names prior to a flood, and both lists gave the numbers of years living or reigning as much longer than a normal human life. However, there are no apparent homologies among the names on the two lists (with the possible exception of Adapa and Adam). It was suggested that some of the names in the Sumerian king list may at least share some etymological similarity to the names in the biblical list[citation needed]. However, these tentative associations are often dependent on folk etymology and other unfounded assumptions, and therefore may have little credence[citation needed].
Regarding the inflated numbers, the Sumerian kings have significantly larger reigns before the deluge than after it, which has some superficial resemblance to the longer lifespans given in the biblical genealogies before the flood than after it. However, the kings are listed as reigning in the 10's of thousands of years, while the ages in the Sethite genealogy are in the hundreds. The reigns in the Sumerian king list change in their average value every time the kingship moved from one city-state to another, not just after the flood. This has been explained in that each city-state of Mesopotamia had a different number systems than that of its neighbors (and there were usually multiple number systems used for different purposes within each city-state).[3] The compiler of the king list mistranslated the various numerical base systems that were being used in the different city-states. This produced a large factor of error in the duration of the kings' reigns from one city-state to another, including both before and after the flood. The large ages in the Sethite genealogy might also represent a mistranslation of the original numerical base system, but it was not the same base system that is found in the Sumerian king list and there is no known way to relate the numerals in the Sethite list to the numerals in the king list, indicating that the numerals probably do not have any common origin[citation needed].
[edit] References
- ^ Noah's Ark and the Ziusudra Epic, page 105.
- ^ Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, pages 11, 352.
- ^ Hans J. Nissen et al., Archaic Bookkeeping, University of Chicago Press, 1993, pages 27-29, ISBN 0-226-58659-6
