Commentary on Genesis, Chapter 5
CHAP. V.
Ver. 1. THis is the Book of the Generations of Adam.] i. e. Here follows a Catalogue of the Poſterity of Adam. So the word Book ſignifies, Matth. I. 1. An Account of thoſe from whom Chriſt the Second Adam came; as here, an Account of thoſe who came from the Firſt Adam. Yet not of all, but of the principal Perſons, by whom in a Right Line, the Succeſſion was continued down to Noah, &c. As for the Collateral Lines, which, no doubt, were very many, by the other Sons and Daughters which the Perſons here mentioned begot, they are omitted: Becauſe no more than I have ſaid, was pertinent to Moſes his purpoſe.
In the Day that God created Man.] This is repeated again, only to imprint on their Minds, that Adam was not produced, like other Men, by Generation, but by Creation.
In the likeneſs of God created he him.] This alſo is again mentioned; to remember Men how highly God had honoured them, and how ſhamefully they had requited him.
Ver. 2. Male and Female created he them, &c.] Of different Sexes, to be joyned together in Holy Marriage: As Moſes had ſhown, Chap. II. 22, 23, &c.
Called their Name Adam.] The common Name to both Sexes; like Homo in Latin, &c.
Ver. 3. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty Years.] This doth not aſſure us he had no Children but Cain and Abel till now: But only acquaints us with his Age, when Seth was born.
And begat a Son in his own likeneſs, after his image.] Not ſo Perfect as himſelf, when he was created; but with thoſe Imperfections which impaired him, after he had eaten the forbidden Fruit: That is, inclined to Sin, and ſubject to Death. For his own Likeneſs and Image, wherein this Son was begotten, ſeems to be oppoſed to the Likeneſs and Image of God, wherein Adam was made, I. 26. which, though not quite loſt, was lamentably defaced.
Maimonides will have this to referr to Seth's Wiſdom and Goodneſs; he proving truly a Man like to his Father Adam: Whereas the reſt before him proved rather Beaſts. More Nevochim, Par. I. c. 7.
Called his Name Seth.] He intends to give here an Account of thoſe deſcended from Seth alone, not of his Poſterity by Cain, (who are only briefly mentioned in the foregoing Chapter, verſes 17, 18.) becauſe in Seth the Poſterity of Adam were preſerved, when all the Children of Cain periſhed in the Deluge.
Ver. 4. And he begat Sons and Daughters.] After the Birth of Seth he begot more Children, (as he had done, it's probable, many before,) whoſe Names are not here recorded: Becauſe Moſes ſets down only that Race of Men, from whom Noah and Abraham, (the Father of the Faithful,) and the Meſſiah were derived.
Ver. 5. Lived nine hundred and fifty Years.] It is not reaſonable to take a meaſure of the length of the Lives of the Patriarchs, by the ſhortneſs of ours. For, as Joſephus well obſerves, (L. I. Antiq. cap. 4. and out of him, Euſebius, L. IX. Praepar. Evang. cap. 13.) they being Men much beloved of God, and newly made by him, with a ſtrong Conſtitution, and excellent Temper of Body, and uſing better Diet, the Vigor of the Earth ſerving at the firſt, for the Production of better Fruits: All theſe things, joyned with their Temperance, conſtant Exerciſe and Labour, a ſweet Temper of Air, their Knowledge in the Nature of Herbs and Plants, &c. might well contribute very much, to as long a Life as is here mentioned. Which was but neceſſary alſo, (and therefore God's Providence took ſpecial Care of them,) that the World might be the ſooner peopled; Knowledge and Religion more certainly propagated, by the Authority of living Teachers; Arts and Sciences brought to a great Perfection, which could not have been effected in a ſhort Life, like ours. And therefore Joſephus ſhows, that herein Moſes hath the Teſtimony of all the Greeks and Barbarians alſo: Who have wrote about ancient Affairs: Of Manethus (for inſtance) who wrote the Egyptian Hiſtory; Beroſus, who wrote the Chaldaean; Mochus, Heſtiaeus, &c. who wrote the Phoenician; with a great Number of Greek Writers whom he mentions: Who all ſay, Men lived anciently a thouſand Years. None indeed came up to that full Summ; but ſome ſo near it, that they who were not exactly acquainted with the Sacred Story, might well ſpeak in that manner.
And this ought not to ſeem incredible to us in theſe Days, when we conſider how long ſeveral have lived in the later Ages of the World; as Pliny reports in his Natural Hiſtory, L. VII. cap. 48. Nay, in Times nearer to us, there are Inſtances of this kind, as the Lord Bacon obſerves in his Hiſt. Vitae & mortis; and Bartholin. in his Hiſtor. Anatom. Rariorum; Cent. V. Hiſt. 28.
But nothing is more remarkable than that which Gaffendus reports in the Life of Nicol. Peirskius, L. V. That he received a Letter from Aleppo, no longer ago than the Year 1636, of a Man then in Perſia, known to ſeveral Perſons worthy to be believed, who was Four hundred Years old: Idque ipſis omnino eſſe exploratum, atque indubium: And the Perſons that wrote this, were fully aſſured of the undoubted Truth of it.
Such Inſtances indeed are rare; and there is one that thinks Men did not generally live to ſuch a great Age in the old World. For Maimonides is of Opinion, That none attained to ſo many Years as are here mentioned; but only the particular Perſons expreſly named by Moſes: All the reſt of Mankind, in thoſe Days, living only the ordinary term, which Man did in after-times. Or, in other words, this extraordinary length of Days, was the Privilege only of theſe ſingular Individuals; either from their accurate way of Living and Diet, or God's ſpecial Favour in Reward of their eminent Vertue and Piety, More Nevoch. Par. II. cap. 47. But Nachmanides (another great Jewiſh Doctor) oppoſes this with much Reaſon; For that their eminent Vertue was not the cauſe they alone had this Privilege, appears by Enoch, the moſt holy Man of them all, who did not live to the Age of Four hundred Years. And as there is no ground to believe theſe were the only Perſons who lived exactly Temperate in all things: So it is manifeſt Moſes doth not deſign to give us an Account of thoſe that lived longeſt, but of thoſe from whom Noah deſcended, and it is incredible that they alone ſhould be very long lived, and no Body elſe, though deſcended from the ſame Parents.
Ver. 6. And Seth lived an hundred and five Years, and begat Enos.] We muſt not think he lived ſo long, before he begat any Children: No more than that Adam had none till he was an Hundred and thirty Years old, when he begat Seth, (verſe 3.) for we know he had Cain and Abel, and, in all likelihood, many others before. Therefore to explain this and other things that follow, verſe 18. and 28. which ſeem more ſtrange (for Jared is ſaid to have lived an Hundred ſixty two Years, before he begat Enoch; and Lamech an Hundred eighty two Years before he begat Noah,) we muſt conſider, as was noted, verſe 4. that Moſes ſets down only thoſe Perſons by whom the Line of Noah was drawn from Seth, and Abraham's Line from Noah, by their true Anceſtors; whether they were the Eldeſt of the Family or no. Seth it's likely had many other Children before Enos was born, as Noah, we may be confident had before he begat Sem, Ham, and Japhet: Which was not till he was Five hundred Years old, verſe 32. As Lamech alſo had ſeveral before Noah was born: Though Moſes doth not mention them; becauſe he was here concerned only to inform us, who was the Father of Noah.
Begat Enos.] The Arabian Chriſtians, as I obſerved before, (IV. 26.) make him to have been a man of ſingular Goodneſs.
Ver. 9. Begat Cainan.] The ſame Writers repreſent him to have been like to his Father; and ſay, he gave his Children a charge not to mingle with the Seed of Cain. So Elmacinus. Yet there is but little difference between his Name, and that of Cain's; no more than between Irad and Jared, and ſome other of Sem's Poſterity and Cain's. Which may teach us, ſays Jac. Capellus, (in his Hiſtor. Sacra & Exotica,) Ne fatale neſcio quod omen nominibus propriis effingamus; that we ſhould not fanſie there is, we do not know what, fatal Omen in Proper Names. The Wickedneſs of Judas Iſcariot did not make the other Judas, called by that Name, to think the worſe of it. And therefore Jared feared not to call his Son Enoch, by the very Name of Cain's eldeſt Son, IV. 17. And Methuſelah alſo gave his Son Lamech, the Name of one of Cain's Grand-Children, IV. 18.
Ver. 12. Begat Mahalaleel.] This Name imports as much as a Praiſer of God: Which Cainan impoſed upon this Son of his, (as Jacobus Capellus fanſies,) becauſe he was born after he had lived ten Weeks of Years, (i. e. when he was Seventy Years old,) in the beginning of the Sabbatick Year: Which was the Eighth Jubilee from the Creation. For, as there were Sacrifices, and a diſtinction of clean Beaſts and unclean; ſo he conceives there might be a diſtribution of Years by Sevens or Weeks, (as they ſpake in after-times,) from the very beginning of the World. But there is no certainty of this: Nor of what the fore-named Arabian Writers ſay of this Mahalaleel, that he made his Children ſwear, by the Blood of Abel, (ſo Patricides,) not to come down from the Mountainous Country where they dwelt, to converſe with the Children of Cain.
He is mentioned alſo by the Mahometans, as Hottinger obſerves in his Hiſtor. Orient. p. 20.
Ver. 15. Begat Jared.] The ſame Arabian Writers make him alſo a ſtrictly Pious Man, and an excellent Governor: But ſay, That in his Days ſome of Seth's Poſterity, (about an hundred in number,) notwithſtanding all his Perſuaſions to the contrary, would go down and converſe with the Children of Cain; by whom they were corrupted. And thence they fanſie he was called Jared, (which ſignifies deſcending;) either becauſe they went down from the Holy Mountain, as they call it, where, Seth's Poſterity dwelt; or Piety, in his time, began very much to decline. See Hottinger's Smegma Orient. L. I. cap. 8. p. 235, &c.
Ver. 18. Begat Enoch.] Whom the Arabians call Edris; and repreſent him as a very learned Man, as well as a Prophet: And eſpecially skilled in Aſtronomy. See Hottinger, Hiſtor. Orient. L. I. c. 3. and Smegma Orient. p. 240. The Greeks anciently had the ſame Notion of him, as appears by a Diſcourſe of Eupolemus, which Euſebius quotes out of Alexand. Polyhiſtor. L. IX. Praepar. Evang. c. 17. where he ſays Enoch was the firſt who taught the knowledge of the Stars, and that he himſelf was taught, foreign, by the Angels of God; and was the ſame Perſon whom the Greeks call Atlas. Certain it is his Story was not altogether unknown to the ancient Greeks; as appears in what they ſay of foreign, or foreign, which is the ſame with Enoch, whoſe Name in Hebrew is Chanoch. For Stephanus in his Book De Ʋrbibus ſays, that this Annacus lived above Three hundred Years, and the Oracle told the People, that when he died they ſhould all periſh; as they did in the Flood of Deucalion: In which he confounds the Hiſtory of Enoch and Methuſelah, as Bochart well obſerve, L. II. Phaleg, c. 13.
Ver. 21. Begat Methuſelah.] Enoch being a Prophet, (as we learn from St. Jude,) and foreſeeing the deſtruction that was coming upon the Earth by a Deluge, immediately after the death of this Son of his, gave him this Name of Methuſela, which imports as much. For the firſt part of it, Methu, evidently carries in it the Name of Death; being as much as, he dies: And ſela ſignifies, the ſending forth of Water, in Job V. 10. And therefore Methuſela, is as much, as when he is dead, ſhall enſue an emiſſion or inundation of Waters, to the deſtruction of the whole Earth. Which ingenious Conjecture of Bochartus, in his Phaleg, L. II. c. 13. is far more probable than any other Account of his Name.
Ver. 22. Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuſelah.] Of all the reſt Moſes only ſays, they lived after they begat thoſe Sons here mentioned; but of this Man, that he walked with God: i. e. Was not only ſincerely Obedient to God, (as we ſuppoſe his Fore-fathers to have been,) but of an extraordinary Sanctity, beyond the rate of other Holy Men; and held on alſo in a long courſe of ſuch ſingular Piety, notwithſtanding the wickedneſs of the Age, wherein he lived. And the very ſame Character being given of Noah, VI. 9. it may incline us to believe, That as Noah was a Preacher of Righteouſneſs; ſo Enoch, being a Prophet, was not only Exemplary in his Life, but alſo ſeverely reproved the Wickedneſs of that Age, by his Word.
Ver. 24. And Enoch walked with God.] Perſevered in that Courſe before-mentioned, to the end of his Days.
And was not.] He doth not ſay, that he died, (as he doth of the reſt in this Chapter, both before and after,) but that he was not, any longer among Men in this World. For,
God took him.] Tranſlated him to another place. Which plainly ſignifies the different manner of his leaving this World; in ſo much that the Apoſtle faith, he did not ſee death, Heb. XI. 5. Which confutes the Conceit of Aben Ezra, and R. Solomon, and others, who would have this word took to ſignifie, that he was ſnatcht away by an untimely death. Contrary to the Opinion of their other better Authors, particularly Menachem; who in his Commentary on this place ſaith; that God took from Enoch his Bodily Cloaths, and gave him Spiritual Raiment.
But whither he was tranſlated we are not told. The Author of the Book of Eccleſiaſticus, Chap. XLIV. (according to the vulgar Tranſlation,) ſaith into Paradiſe. And upon this Suppoſition, the Aethiopick Interpreter hath added theſe words to the Text; God tranſlated him into Paradiſe, as Ludolphus obſerves, L. III. Commentar. in Aethiop. Hiſt. Cap. V. n. 40. And accordingly we find in the Calendar of that Church, a Feſtival upon July XXV. called, The Aſcenſion of Enoch into Heaven, (for they were not ſo fooliſh as to underſtand by Paradiſe a place upon Earth, but a Heavenly Manſion,) unto which he was advanced, foreign, (as Euſebius ſpeaks, L. VII. Praepar. Evang. cap. 8.) becauſe of his conſummate Vertue.
And it is no unreaſonable Conjecture, That God was graciouſly pleaſed to take him unto himſelf at this time, to ſupport and comfort Mankind in their State of Mortality, (Adam, the Father of them all, being dead not above fifty-ſeven Years before,) with the hope of a better Life, in the other World. For which reaſon it is not improbable, that he was tranſlated in ſome ſuch viſible manner, as Elijah afterward was, by a glorious Appearance of the SCHECHINAH, from whence ſome heavenly Miniſters were ſent to carry him up above.
Ver. 25. Begat Lamech.] The ſame Name with one of Cain's Poſterity, IV. 18. But, as he was of another Race, ſo he was the Grand-Child and the Father of the beſt Men in thoſe Days, viz. Enoch and Noah.
Ver. 27. All the Days of Methuſelah, &c.] What was wanting in the Days of his Father, God, in ſome ſort, made up in his Age: Which was extended to the longeſt term of all other Men. He died in the very Year of the Deluge, according to the import of his Name. See Verſe 21.
Ver. 29. He called his Name Noah.] Which ſignifies Reſt, or Refreſhment; which proceeds from Reſt and Quiet. Becauſe, ſays he,
This ſame ſhall comfort us, concerning our work and toil of our Hands.] He expected, ſome think, that he ſhould be the bleſſed Seed, promiſed, III. 15. Or, that it ſhould ſpring immediately from him. But the laſt words, toil of our hands, ſeem to import ſome inferiour conſolation, which he expected from Noah: And the Hebrew Interpreters generally expound it thus; He ſhall make our Labour in tilling the Earth, more eaſie and leſs toilſome to us. Which agrees to what follows.
Becauſe of the Ground which the LORD hath curſed.] There was a general Curſe upon it, for the Sin of Adam; and a particular upon ſome part of it, for the Sin of Cain: Now God, he foretells, would take them both off in great meaſure; and bleſs the Earth to the poſterity of this ſame Man: Who perfected the Art of Husbandry, and found out fitter Inſtruments for plowing the Earth, than had been known before. When Men being chiefly imployed in digging and throwing up the Earth with their own Hands, their labour was more difficult: Which now is much abated, becauſe the pains lie more upon Beaſts than upon Men. And indeed Noah is called, IX. 20. Iſch haadamah, a Man of the Ground (which we tranſlate an Husbandman) one that improved Agriculture, as other famous Men had done Paſtorage, and found out other Arts, IV. 20, &c.
In the ſame place alſo (IX. 20.) we read that Noah planted a Vineyard: With reſpect to which, if he was the firſt inventor of making Wine, he might well be ſaid here, to comfort them concerning their work and toil of their hands: Wine chearing the Heart, and reviving the Spirits of Men, that are ſpent with Labour.
But if the laſt Words of this Verſe be expounded of the LORD's Curſing the Ground, by ſending a Flood upon it, as Enoch had foretold; then Noah is here called their Comforter, with reſpect to his being the Reſtorer of the World, after it had been diſpeopled by that inundation. And ſo Jacobus Capellus, not unreaſonably interprets them to have relation to both Curſes, à maledictione, quam Terrae inflixit, & inflicturus eſt Deus. He ſhall give Men reſt from the Curſe which God hath inflicted, and intends further to inflict upon the Earth. Hiſt. Sacra & Exot. ad A. M. 1053.
Ver. 32. And Noah was Five hundred Years old.] See Verſe 6. where I have ſaid enough to ſhew, it is not reaſonable to think he had no Children 'till this Age of his Life.
And Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japhet.] Here ends the Line of Adam, before the Flood. For tho' theſe Three were married, it appears (VII. 13.) before the Flood came; yet they either had no Children, or they did not live: For they carried none with them into the Ark.
It doth not follow that Shem was the Eldeſt of theſe Three, becauſe he is here, and every where elſe in this Book, mentioned firſt: For I ſhall ſhow plainly in its due place that Japhet was the Eldeſt. (X. 21.) Scaliger indeed would have this a ſetled Rule, that, Hunc Ordinem Filii in Scriptura habent, quem illis natura dedit. That Children are placed in Scripture, according to the Order which Nature hath given them. But it is apparent from many Inſtances, that the Scripture hath regard to their Dignity otherways, and not to the Order of their Birth. As Abraham is mentioned before Nahor and Haran, merite excellentiae, with reſpect to his Excellence (as St. Auſtin ſpeaks) to which God raiſed him, though he was not the Eldeſt Son of Terah, Gen. XI. 28. Thus Jacob is mentioned before Eſau, Mal. I. 1. and Iſaac before Iſhmael, 1 Chron. I. 28. Thus Shem's Eminence in other reſpects, placed him before Japhet, to whom he was inferiour in the order of Nature: As appears even from their Genealogy both in Gen. X. and 1 Chron. I. where Shem's poſterity are placed below thoſe of both his other Brothers.