Genesis 5

Part of the opening section of Genesis, this chapter bridges the accounts of creation and the flood. Genesis 4 records the descendants of Cain and ends with the birth of Seth; this chapter then traces the line from Seth to Noah.

Outline

• Verses 1–2 The chapter restates that God created humankind in the likeness of God, male and female, blessed them, and called their name "Adam" (that is, "mankind").
• Verses 3–5 Adam fathers Seth at 130 and dies at 930.
• Verses 6–20 Seth (912 years), Enosh (905 years), Kenan (910 years), Mahalalel (895 years), and Jared (962 years) follow in the same formula: "begat… begat sons and daughters… and he died."
• Verses 21–24 Enoch fathers Methuselah at 65, walks with God for 300 years, and at 365 is taken by God, so that he is no longer on the earth.
• Verses 25–27 Methuselah lives 969 years, the longest lifespan recorded in the Bible.
• Verses 28–31 Lamech fathers Noah at 182 and names him in the hope that this son will bring comfort to those who toil under the curse on the ground. Lamech dies at 777.
• Verse 32 After Noah reaches 500 years of age, he fathers Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Key Verses

• Genesis 5:1 "In the likeness of God made he him" — This ties the genealogy back to the creation account. It pairs with verse 3, where Seth is born to Adam "in his own likeness, after his image" (Genesis 5:1–3).
• Genesis 5:24 "And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him" — This is the only place where the pattern ending in "and he died" is broken.
• Genesis 5:29 "This same shall comfort us" — This recalls the curse on the ground in Genesis 3:17–19 and provides a thread leading into the flood narrative.

People and Places

• Adam — the first man.
• Seth — the son Adam fathered at 130.
• Enosh — son of Seth.
• Kenan — son of Enosh.
• Mahalalel — son of Kenan.
• Jared — son of Mahalalel and father of Enoch.
• Enoch — the man who walked with God and was taken. He is not the same person as Enoch the son of Cain in Genesis 4.
• Methuselah — son of Enoch, who lived 969 years.
• Lamech — son of Methuselah and father of Noah. He is not the same person as the Lamech of Cain's line in Genesis 4.
• Noah — the central figure of the flood narrative.
• Shem, Ham, and Japheth — the three sons of Noah.

Interpretive Considerations

• Long lifespans and chronology: Some readers add the figures together to calculate the time from creation to the flood. Others hold that generations may have been omitted from the genealogy, and still others regard the numbers as a literary convention of ancient Near Eastern genealogies. In addition, some ancient versions, such as the Septuagint, preserve figures that differ in places from the Masoretic Text.
• Methuselah and the flood: According to the figures in the Masoretic Text, Methuselah died in the year of the flood. However, the claim that the name Methuselah means "when he dies, judgment will come" is not found in the text, and the name's etymology is uncertain.
• Enoch: Hebrews 11 interprets Enoch as having been translated so that he did not see death. Jude quotes a prophecy of Enoch that is connected with the Book of Enoch, a noncanonical writing; it should therefore be read as distinct from the text of Genesis.
• Connection to the New Testament: The genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3 passes through the names in this chapter and traces the line back to Adam and to God.

In the Korean Church

Genesis 5:24 is frequently used as the text for sermons on the theme of walking with God. In Bible read-through programs, the chapter is often passed over quickly as a genealogy.