Mahalalel

Biblical Record

Mahalalel appears in the genealogy of Genesis 5, which traces the line of Seth from Adam to Noah. Genesis 5:12–17 introduces him as the son of Kenan. According to this passage, he fathered Jared at the age of 65, fathered other children during the following 830 years, and died at the age of 895. Apart from this genealogical record, Scripture reports no events in his life and preserves none of his words.

His name also appears in the genealogy of 1 Chronicles 1:2. In the New Testament, Luke 3:37 mentions him in tracing the genealogy of Jesus Christ back to Adam. In that genealogy his father's name is given as "Cainan." His grandson is Enoch, who is recorded to have walked with God before God took him, and his great-grandson is Methuselah.

The same name also appears in Nehemiah 11:4. This individual was an ancestor of descendants of Judah who lived in Jerusalem after the exile; he is a different person from the Mahalalel of Genesis.

Significance in Scripture

The genealogy of Genesis 5 repeats a fixed formula: a man lived a certain number of years and fathered a son, lived a certain number of years afterward and fathered other sons and daughters, and died at a stated age. The record of Mahalalel follows this formula exactly. The genealogy is commonly interpreted as showing that after sin entered the world, death came upon all people, yet God nevertheless carried human history forward through the line of Seth down to Noah. Luke's inclusion of Mahalalel in the genealogy of Jesus is understood as intended to present Jesus as a descendant of Adam, and thus as one connected to all of humanity.

Interpretations and Issues

• Meaning of the name: The Hebrew name is commonly explained as "praising God" or "praise of God." Because the etymology of ancient personal names is difficult to establish with certainty, however, scholars' explanations vary somewhat.
• Long life span: The traditional interpretation takes the long life spans of the antediluvian figures as literal years. Other interpretations regard the numbers as symbolic or as reflecting the conventions of ancient genealogical forms. Views also differ over whether generations have been omitted from the genealogy, a question bound up with calculations of the earth's age in the creation and evolution debate.
• Textual differences: The Septuagint, the ancient Greek translation, generally gives the ages at which several figures in this genealogy fathered their first sons as about 100 years higher than in the Hebrew text, and Mahalalel is reported to be one such case.
• Comparison with the line of Cain: His name resembles that of Mehujael in the line of Cain in Genesis 4, and scholars have offered various explanations of the relationship between the two genealogies.
• Extrabiblical traditions: The pseudepigraphal Book of Enoch adds material not found in Scripture, such as an account of Enoch seeing a vision in the house of his grandfather Mahalalel. Such accounts come from later literature that is not part of the canon.
• Reading the names in sequence: Some sermons and writings present an interpretation that links the meanings of the names from Adam to Noah into a single gospel message. Critics respond that the meanings assigned to the names are uncertain and that this reading goes beyond the intent of the text.

In the Korean Church

Mahalalel is rarely treated as a stand-alone topic in sermons or church school. He is usually mentioned alongside other figures when the genealogy of Genesis 5 is read during through-the-Bible reading programs or in sermons on genealogical passages.