Genesis Segment 07 (5:1-6:9)

Updated 06/13/2020

(Gen 5:1) This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

The word for generations, towleda (Uninflected Strong’s 8435), usually means “family History or descent,” as it does here. This book or actually, writing, is about Adam’s descendants. After this chapter and verse, most times the Hebrew word, ‘adam refers to The Man Adam, that is, the man named Adam. So the verse could also be translated “This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created Adam in the likeness of God made he him.” In fact, some translations actually render it this way. Adam, therefore can mean the man Adam, or man, or mankind. Adam (as well as all mankind–see Gen 1:26) was created in the image of God. Likeness is demuwth (Uninflected Strong’s 1823), which means resemblance. In other words, this is the story of Adam’s descendants.

In the likeness of God made he them. Man resembles God in several ways. First, we can see from described accounts of God appearing to man, how God appeared in those instances. Those appearances are called Theophanies. Let us look at the Theophany that Ezekiel saw.

Eze 1:26-27  And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.  (27)  And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.

Ezekiel is describing what he saw. He saw a throne above the heads of the Cherubim that appeared with Yehovah. Yehovah, sitting on the throne appeared somewhat like a man. Ezekiel describes God with a waist. Above the waist was bright and glowing like fire, below the waist was gleaming. In Isaiah 6:1, we see Yehovah sitting on the throne. These things imply that God has a body, or at least appeared to Ezekiel to have a body, in which likeness we are made. How else are we made in His likeness? We have intelligence and can reason, think, speak, read, write, understand. We can know God. We have feelings—we can feel love, sorrow, anger, and mirth. We are also created eternal; when we die our souls live on eternally (Eccl 12:7; Dan 12:2). This list is not exhaustive, but it is enough to make our point that we are indeed made in the image of God.

(Gen 5:2) Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

God created all mankind as male and female. We know from Gen 2:18, that God did not wish for the man Adam to be alone. So He made the woman as a suitable and comparable helper for him. She complemented him. Adam was not made better than Eve. They were to complement each other just as cyan is complementary to red. On a color negative, the color cyan becomes red when a color print is made. They were to go hand in hand with one another. Like puzzle pieces, her strengths fit Adam in places he needed strengthening and his strengths fit Eve in places she needed strengthening. This applies to many if not most married couples today. My wife and I fill in each others weaknesses with strengths we each have that fit the weaknesses of the other.

What does it mean to bless someone? When God’s blessings are upon a person, things go according to God’s plan and the person is happy. He remains in a happy state until he disobeys God, then the blessings may either cease or be lessened. In Adam’s case, the blessings continued until he ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Even then God continued to bless him but the blessings were not as good as before. In fact, Adam probably did not think he was blessed at all. Yet God let him live until he was old and had many offspring and God protected him during those years.

And called their name Adam. They were now known as mankind, or the politically correct “humankind.” We are known as the species of man even to this very day. God named the species.

(Gen 5:3-4) And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: {4} And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:

After Abel and Cain, Seth was born to Adam. Abel was dead, Cain was banished, and so Seth became Adam’s firstborn. That is why Seth is the next person chronicled in this family history. After Seth was born, Adam and Eve had other children of both sexes.

Again, after Seth was born, then Adam lived eight hundred more years and begat other sons and daughters. It is the line of Seth to which God directs our attention. It is through the line of Seth and the others named in this genealogy that Messiah would come, and not through the other sons and daughters begotten by Adam and Eve.

I do believe that the men chronicled here actually lived to the literal ages listed. Some might say they were not literal years, but why not? Prior to the flood there were waters above and below the open firmament of the sky (Gen 1:6-8; 20). There was water on the earth under the atmosphere, and water above the atmosphere or at least in the top layer of the atmosphere. This water must have been vapor, because it stayed aloft, and not clouds, for Adam could see the sun, moon, and stars. Is it not probable that before the flood, this water vapor canopy shielded harmful rays that age us today? Certainly. The water canopy around the earth made the climate comfortable year round, watered the earth with dew, and shielded harmful radiation from space.

(Gen 5:5) And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

Adam lived 930 real, solar years. The Hebrews usually counted 360 days per year. They knew the solar year was actually 365.242 days, so they occasionally added extra days or an extra month: an intercalary month, or day(s) to make up the difference. Adam was actually 930 when he died. This is not allegorical but historical.

(Gen 5:6-21) And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: {7} And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: {8} And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. {9} And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan: {10} And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: {11} And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died. {12} And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel: {13} And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters: {14} And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. {15} And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: {16} And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: {17} And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. {18} And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: {19} And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: {20} And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. {21} And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:

One can add the years together to get a general timeline (there are several available online). It would be a good study to get a Hebrew Lexicon, such as Strong’s Concordance or a similar book, and translate all these names.

(Gen 5:22-23) And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: {23} And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:

Enoch was the seventh from Adam (Jude 14). Seven is the number of Divine Perfection. Enoch means teaching, or initiation, or disciplined. He walked with or was intimate or conversant with God. He was disciplined in the Word of God, which he received from God.

There are many traditions about Enoch. Where the Word of God is concerned, tradition is a very legitimate way to follow history. Much of what we call history is written tradition. Examples of this would be the Welsh Triads, the Indian Vedas, and the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, or the Iliad. These are combinations of history, traditions, folklore, and mythology. History can be gleaned from them.

There is a writing called the Book of Enoch. This writing is quoted in the Bible in Jude 14-15: (Jude 1:14-15) “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.“

The last phrase is a direct quote from 1 Enoch 1:9. I quote 1 Enoch 1:9 in its entirety here:

“And behold! He cometh with ten thousands of His holy ones to execute judgment upon all, and to destroy all the ungodly: and to convict all flesh of all the works of their ungodliness which they have ungodly committed, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

NOTE: This study contains several references to The Book of Enoch.  The BIBLE AND ONLY THE BIBLE IS OUR AUTHORITY on the matters discussed in this study; The Book of Enoch is not. It is used here as an extra-Biblical source to enhance our understanding of the Scriptures. It was a widely read book in Israel in the Second Temple Period that influenced the New Testament Writers. The present form of The Book of Enoch was written circa the second century BC and portions of it have been found in the Qumran scrolls. I wish to reiterate that though it is a very useful and insightful writing, THE BOOK OF ENOCH IS NOT SCRIPTURE!

The fact that the Bible, the inerrant Word of God, contains quotes from the book of Enoch, gives that book some credence. You can download the Book of Enoch here. The book of Enoch was known to Jesus and the apostles and may help in our understanding of the Bible today. For example, it helps us to understand the true identity of the “wicked,” the “tares” and the “serpent.” It teaches that angels could take bodily human form (cf. Gen 18:2-14; Judg 13:6; Mark 16:5, et al.). We know all of these things from the Bible, but it is interesting that an extra-biblical book can give us those meanings, too. The Book of Enoch was written before the advent of Jesus the Christ. The book has been found in the Dead Sea Scrolls proving its existence in pre-Christian times. The text has changed little in those 2200 years.

The reason I bring all this up is that the Book of Enoch is startlingly correct in its prophecy of the coming Messiah. The Book of Enoch calls the Messiah “the Son of Man” just as Jesus called himself. It tells us that the Messiah, the Son of Man, will judge mankind. (Remember the book of Enoch predates Christ by at least 200 years) I quote Enoch 69:27:

And he [the Son of Man] sat on the throne of his glory,
And the sum of judgment was given unto the Son of Man,
And he caused the sinners to pass away and be destroyed from off the face of the earth,
And those who have led the world astray.

The book of Enoch gives the names of the Archangels and their vocations. It details the supposed hierarchy of the angels, and it even names them. (Remember that the Bible does not mention these things, therefore they are the traditions of men; see below). It claims the angels left their first habitation and married the daughters of Adam and produced giants. (This is where the idea originated that Genesis 6:2 is about angels falling to earth and cohabiting with human women). It claims that the flood of Noah was sent to destroy the offspring of the angels. These are things believed by folks in pre-Christian times. Again, the Book of Enoch is not scripture, and not necessarily factual. Therefore, we should only use these things to help in our understanding of the true scripture.

(Gen 5:24) And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Enoch “walked” with God. The use of the term is figurative here. Just as we figuratively use the word for our own relationship with God, i.e., our Christian walk. Enoch walked with God in that he was intimate with God and knew God’s words, and was a man after God’s own heart (as was David). The word translated “walked” can also mean conversant. Enoch was conversant with God on a very personal level.

The words “and he was not” are the translation of the Hebrew word ‘ayin, Strong’s 369, which means “to become nothing.” Again, we are helped to understand this by the Book of Enoch. Enoch 106:7-8 state: “for his [Enoch’s] dwelling-place is amongst the angels.” Enoch was taken away by God before he died and he went to dwell with God and the angels. He was transfigured and taken away. A straight reading of the text in Genesis does not give us any clue that Enoch was translated by God. We find that in Hebrews 11:5 (by faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death). Thus the statement that Enoch never died a human death and was directly translated to Heaven is the truth.

(Gen 5:25-28) And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: {26} And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters: {27} And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. {28} And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:

I really believe that Methuselah lived to be literally 969 earth years old.

(Gen 5:29) And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.

Noah (Heb. Noach) means quiet or rest. Noah did not get much of his namesake. He built an ark, filled it with provision, and then loaded all the animals of his world into the big boat, then suffered through the flood, etc. I’m kidding. Obviously, he was named Noah because of the comfort he gave.

(Gen 5:30-32) And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: {31} And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. {32} And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

This finishes the generations of Adam.

(Gen 6:1) And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

The population of the earth had come to fruition and was rapidly increasing. The population likely numbered in the millions by the time of the flood. This occurs alongside the line of Seth. We have seen the line of Cain and we have seen that Adam and Eve had other sons and daughters in addition to the line of Seth (Gen 5:4). Therefore we must assume that all these people were procreating and the population was now growing exponentially.

(Gen 6:2)  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

There are several schools of thought on this verse. We will consider three. One is that these sons of God were angels or demons that took the form of men and married the daughters of men. Another is that the sons of God were actually the sons of Seth or another godly man in the line of Seth, which were believers in God and walked in His precepts. These sons of God married the daughters of men outside the line of Seth, perhaps the descendants of Cain, but certainly not the descendants of Seth. The third is that the term, “sons of God” refer to kings or nobility.

Let us discuss the third viewpoint first. Ancient kings were called sons of God. An example is an Egyptian Pharaoh. The Pharaohs considered themselves to the sons of Ra (the sun god). While it is true that pagan kings did this, there in no such usage in the Bible and the Israelites did not use the term for their kings. We can disregard this possibility on those Biblical grounds.

In the second viewpoint, there were two lines of men presented in the Bible before the flood. The first is the line of Adam’s wayward son, Cain. He killed his brother Abel and was exiled from the land of his father Adam, and from the presence of God (Gen 4:14). Seth was born after Abel died and Cain was banished. Seth’s offspring were the line of those who followed God, or at least were supposed to. A better way of thinking is this is the line of Noah and eventually of Abraham and of Christ. Not all were godly men, but godliness was the norm for this group. In this view, the sons of God were the sons of the line of Seth, and usually in this view, the daughters of men were those from the ungodly line of Cain.

The sons of God (בני האלהים, benai ha-Elohim) are mentioned here in this passage of Genesis (Gen 6:2-4) and in Job 1:6, 2:1, and 38:7. They are mentioned no where else in the Old Testament. In the book of Job, due to the context, the phrase obviously refers to heavenly hosts in heaven, which includes angels, cherubim, and seraphim, etc. However, we do not have that context here in this passage. Additionally, the New Testament is replete with the phrase “sons of God,” or “children of God,” and there the term refers to human men and women that are believers in Christ, and not to angels. In the KJV, there are 15 references to this effect in the New Testament.

Let us now consider the Nephillim. The King James and several other versions use the word “giants” to render the Hebrew Nephillim in English. This was taken from the Septuagint, which renders the word γιγαντες, gigantes, or giants in the Greek. The Hebrew word is נפלים, nephillim, the plural of נפיל, nef-eel’, Strong’s H5303. According to Strong, this term connotes giants, bullies, or lawless tyrants. However, the Hebrew word is rendered ‘giants’ here in the Septuagint, which was the translation used by the New Testament writers.

There was no prohibition to prevent Seth’s descendants for marrying descendants of Cain. However, it was probably frowned upon due to the banishment of Cain in Gen 4:12. The last of the descendants of Cain mentioned in the passage was Lamech, who was a particularly lawless and boasting man (Gen 4:24). I quote John Calvin’s commentary on this verse, “God had intended that Cain should be a horrible example to warn others against the commission of murder; and for this end had marked him with a shameful stigma. Yet lest any one should imitate his crime, He declared whosoever killed him should be punished with sevenfold severity. Lamech, impiously perverting this divine declaration, mocks its severity; for he hence takes greater license to sin, as if God had granted some singular privilege to murderers; not that he seriously thinks so, but being destitute of all sense of piety, he promises himself impunity, and in the meantime jestingly uses the name of God as an excuse.” (John Calvin’s Commentary on Genesis, Vol. 1)

Thus lawlessness was on the rise in Cain’s land and the Godly offspring of Seth would have tried to prevent their sons from marrying the daughters of Cain. However, apparently many did not heed the advice of their parents and nowhere does the Scripture state or assume that there were no marriages between Seth’s and Cain’s offspring.

If a Godly man marries an apostate woman, then their offspring could become ungodly and be considered fallen men; Nephillim can allude to “fallen ones” (See Strong’s )  Thus if some of the Godly men in the line of Seth married women from the ungodly line of Cain, eventually, after a few generations, they would become  men of violence and bloodshed—thugs and bullies that destroyed men and women and generally wreaked havoc using strong-arm and terror tactics. That was the situation when God destroyed the earth (Gen 6:5). Jesus said that at the time of the end it would be just like it was in the days of Noah (Mat 24:37-38; Luk 17:26-27). I would say the earth is getting that way right now.

In a nutshell, this school of thought implies that the godly sons of Seth, married the beautiful daughters of the ungodly sons of Cain and eventually their offspring became lawless, brutal tyrants who ruled with terror and evildoing. Thus the union between Godly men and ungodly women eventually, over time, cause the collapse of society into a lawless and violent anarchy where every man allowed every evil of his heart to flourish. Given the long lives of the antediluvians, this degeneration may have taken several hundred years to develop.

It would seem that God would not have destroyed that entire population of the earth with the exception of seven souls because of such unions. However, if such unions caused the entire earth to turn away from God and to violence, bloodshed, and evil continually, that could possibly explain it. Yet, let us remember that the word rendered ‘nephillim’ does not mean fallen ones, it means giants.

Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke, John Gill, and Matthew Poole offer this explanation for the sons of God vs. the daughters of men. Yet earlier writers such as Josephus, Philo, Eusebius, Augustine, and later, Wuest, Alford, and Chafer consider the first viewpoint (sons of God = angels) to be the correct one. This was likely the prevailing thought in the Second Temple Period and at the time of Christ as is advocated in the Book of Enoch.

The Second Temple Period is the time between the construction of Zerubbabel’s Temple in 516 BC, and its destruction by the Romans in 70 AD.

Enoch was a writing well read by the New Testament authors. It is thus representative of the thinking of Hebrews in the period the Second Temple Period. Again, Enoch is quoted in the Bible, most obviously in Jude (above), but is also found in several less obvious places in the Bible. There are too many such references to list here; an Internet search will reveal those scriptures.

The first school of thought we discussed was that the sons of God were fallen angels who took the form of human men and married human women and produced offspring. The following paragraphs speak to the understanding that the sons of God in Genesis 6:2 are indeed fallen angels.

There is controversy over who these “sons of God” (benai ha-Elohim) were. Some argue that these were simply men as we saw above. However, the other place the term benai ha-Elohim or “sons of God” is used is in the book of Job. There, it depicts the sons of God as angels.

Nevertheless the term “sons of God” does mean Godly men as well when you take the whole scripture into account. When people are Godly people, they walk with God, and their faith is in God. Therefore, Enoch himself could be considered a son of God. Therefore the term could also mean Godly men and not just angels or angelic beings. Let us here follow the line of thought that the sons of God in our verses refer to angels.

Josephus takes the position that the sons of God are angels: “For many angels of God accompanied with women, and begat sons that proved unjust, and despisers of all that was good, on account of the confidence they had in their own strength; for the tradition is, that these men did what resembled the acts of those whom the Grecians call giants.” (Antiquities Book I 3.1).

Philo of Alexandria also took that position when he wrote, “And when the angels of God saw the daughters of men that they were beautiful, they took unto themselves wives of all them whom they chose. Those beings, whom other philosophers call demons, Moses usually calls angels…” (p. 152, The Works of Philo, “On the Giants,” translated by C.D. Yonge)

The other writing is in the Book of Enoch. The Book of Enoch goes into great detail describing these fallen angels in chapter 6, verses 1-8. Enoch refers to them as “the angels, the children of heaven.” It even names them. You can read the Book of Enoch here.

The following are some of the evidences given that the sons of God that married the daughters of men were angels that left their first estate (Heaven) and rebelled against God, then took on the form of men. We can see from several passages in the scriptures that angels can take on the form of men. Consider Gen 18:1-2; Dan 10:5; Mark 16:5; Luke 24:4; Acts 1:10. If they are able to take on the form of men, then why should they be sexless? And, since angels are spiritual and have supernatural abilities (Gen 19:10-11; Job 1-2; Rev 7:1), they could have taken of the form of men with sexual organs and the ability to procreate.

I outlined three scenarios for the reader’s understanding of those ideas. My position is that the sons of God were angels that rebelled, came to earth and married human females and produced giants as offspring..

(Gen 6:3) And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

(Gen 6:5) And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The thoughts, intentions, and being of men (the sons of Adam) were evil every day all day. There was no righteous thought in them. We have already discussed this in verse 3. I repeat here what I said there. The sinfulness of people had reached the point where everyone alive at that time was continually wicked. There was no redeemable factor in any individual with the exception of Noah and his family (Gen 6:5; 8). That is not to say that there is any redeemable factor in anyone alive today, if not for the Blood of Christ, we would all be condemned just as those antediluvians in Noah’s day.

Apparently, this was brought on by the Nephillim for we see in the previous verse that they were wicked and evil infamous bullies. Verse 9 possibly indicates that all men were of the corrupted seed of the Nephillim except for Noah and his family. We will discuss that later.

(Gen 6:6) And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart

This is a figure of speech known as anthropopathy. It means to ascribe human emotions and reactions to deity. This is not done to say that God made a mistake and was sorry for it. No, it was written to aid us in our understanding. The definition of repent we see here is “to change the course of providential dealings” (Webster 1828 Dictionary). God was not sorry for what He had done. He is omniscient, or all-knowing. Therefore he always knew what men would do. When it came to this point, God changed His dealings with man and approximately 120 years later flooded the earth, destroying all those wicked people.

(Gen 6:7) And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

This decree was completed by the flood that God sent upon the globe.  

(Gen 6:8) But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

The key word in this passage is grace. The Hebrew word for grace is ‘חן’, hen. In the Septuagint is it translated into the Greek word χαριν, charin from the lexical form χαρις, charis. Both words are the equivalent of grace in English. The English definition is “favor; good will; kindness; disposition to oblige another”. It is also the unmerited favor of God. God chose Noah for no other reason than His unmerited favor of grace.

(Gen 6:9) These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Still, in this verse, we find that Noah was a righteous man: “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God“. God chose a righteous man to bestow His grace upon. Even though Noah was righteous, it was the grace of God that was in effect and not anything Noah had done. According to Hebrews, “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith“. It was Noah’s faith that caused the righteousness of God to be imputed to him. He was just because of that imputed righteousness. He walked with God because of his faith.

We need to distinguish between the word rendered “generations” in its first use and its second. In context, the first time it is used, in the phrase, “these are the generations of Noah“, the Hebrew word denotes the family line of a person, in this case Noah. So this verse opens the dialog of Noah’s family, that is, his sons and their wives. We see those sons, which are Noah’s generations, in verse ten.

The second word translated generations in the phrase, “perfect in his generations” is a different Hebrew word that, in this context, connotes a period of time in which Noah’s contemporaries lived. Thus we can understand that Noah was the only one among his contemporaries that was perfect, or righteous in God’s eyes because of his faith.

Series Navigation

<< Genesis Segment 06 (3:20-4:26)Genesis Segment 08 (6:10-8:22) >>