The Beginning of the World by Dr. Henry Morris

Author:Dr. Henry Morris [Morris, Dr. Henry]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: RELIGION / Christian Theology / Apologetics, RELIGION / Biblical Studies / General
ISBN: 9781614580829
Publisher: Master Books
Published: 1977-10-01T00:00:00+00:00

Adam (1) 930

Seth 130 1042

Enos 235 1140

Cainan 325 1235

Mahalaleel 395 1290

Jared 460 1422

Enoch 622 (987)

Methuselah 687 1656

Lamech 874 1651

Noah 1056 2006

Assuming that there are no "gaps" in these chronological genealogies (a possibility which cannot be ruled out completely, but one for which there is no internal evidence), there seems to have been a total of 1,656 years from the creation of Adam to the Flood. The recorded ages, however, are somewhat different in the Septuagint and other ancient versions, possibly because of copyists' errors in the numbers. Taking the ages at face value, it is interesting to note that Adam lived until Lamech, the father of Noah, was 56 years old. Most likely the oldest of the living patriarchs maintained the primary responsibility for preserving and promulgating God's Word to his contemporaries. Since both Enoch and Lamech were outlived by their fathers, there were only seven men in the line before Noah who had this responsibility. This probably explains why, in 2 Peter 2:5, Noah is called "the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness" in the "old world."

It is worth noting that the genealogies of Genesis 5 are repeated and thus confirmed as accepted by the later biblical writers, both Old Testament and New Testament, in 1 Chronicles 1:1–4 and Luke 3:36–38.

Three facts seem to be emphasized in the record of the ten antediluvian patriarchs in Genesis 5: (1) God was preserving and recording the divinely ordained line of the promised seed, with the appropriate genealogical and chronological data; (2) God's command to "be fruitful and multiply" was being carried out, since the record recites that each one in the line "begat sons and daughters"; (3) God's curse was also in effect, since in spite of the fact each man lived many hundreds of years, eventually "he died."

The antediluvian line culminates in Noah (whose name means "rest") and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. At Noah's birth, his father Lamech prophesied of a coming time when the Curse would be removed, indicating that the memory of the creation and fall was still fresh in the minds of at least those who had received and believed the records transmitted to them from Adam. Lamech (as well as Adam, Abel, and Enoch) was undoubtedly one of those in Peter's mind when he spoke of "the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:21). Noah, as the one who would by his ark preserve life as the cursed earth was being "cleansed" by the waters of the Flood, was only a precursory fulfillment of Lamech's prophecy, of course. The promised seed was still future, but in Him and His promised coming were true "rest" and "comfort."

The fact that Lamech spoke of the Curse, and thus was evidently still keenly aware of the events in the Garden of Eden, is strong evidence that there cannot be any very large "gaps" in the genealogies of Genesis 5. It

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