The Descendants of Adam
The Descendants of Adam
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Hebrew Genealogies
This is the written record of the descendants of Adam.
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Genealogies were very important to the Israelites. They explained how different groups were related to each other, clarified land rights, and established eligibility for certain offices. The priests had to prove descent from Aaron; the Levites, from Levi; Judean kings, from David. The two genealogies of Jesus in Matthew and Luke prove that he was qualified to be the Anointed One, the Son of David, through both Mary and Joseph.
The Bible also uses genealogies to establish the historical validity of certain stories. It does contain fictional accounts, including allegories and parables, but the characters in those stories rarely have names, much less ancestors and descendants. The genealogies of Genesis 4 and 5 disprove claims that the story of Adam and Eve was intended as an allegory.
Understanding several features of Hebrew genealogies helps to interpret them.
The words “mother” and “father” refer to any ancestor
Genesis 3:20 calls Eve the “mother” of everyone. Likewise, Matthew 1:8 calls Jehoram the “father” of Uzziah, his great-great-grandson. The Israelites intentionally skipped generations in their genealogies, often to create a symbolic number of generations.1
The father’s age refers to the birth of his eldest son
Genesis 5:32 seems to claim Noah was 500 years old when Shem, Ham, and Japheth were born. Translated into English, it implies the boys were triplets. However, this is clearly not the way it was understood in Hebrew. When the flood ended, Noah was 601 and Shem was 98.2 This makes Noah 503 when Shem was born. Genesis 9:24 states Ham was the youngest, so only Japheth could have been born when Noah was 500.3
The named son is not necessarily the firstborn
Abram left Harran at the age of 75 after his father, Terah, died at the age of 205.4 So Terah was at least 130 when Abram was born. But Genesis 11:26 states that he was 70 when he fathered his three sons. Again, Terah was 70 when his eldest son (probably Haran) was born. Like most of the chosen line, Shem and Abram were not the firstborn.
The Father of Humanity
When God created Adam, he created him to be like God. He created them male and female, and he blessed them and named them humanity when they were created.
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Genesis 5 continues the story of the chosen line of the promised offspring. By tracing the descendants of Adam through Seth down to Noah and his three sons, it explains how the chosen line survived the disaster of the flood. But the list of the descendants of Adam does not start with Adam. It starts with God.5
God made his children as his own image and named them. Likewise, they had children according to their image and named them. The name Adam (ʾadam) means “human,” and God originally gave this name to both the man and the woman.6 It was not until their rebellion destroyed their unity that the woman was given a different name.
But the fall did not destroy humanity’s shared status as God’s image. Instead they passed that image on to their descendants, who were also considered God’s children. Ultimately, God is the Father of all humanity. Luke 3:23–38 reiterates this point and shows that the chosen line both begins and ends with Yahweh.
Enoch
Enoch lived 65 years, and then he fathered Methuselah. After fathering Methuselah, Enoch walked with God another 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived 365 years. Enoch walked with God and then was no longer there because God had taken him.
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God created Adam as his own image, and Adam fathered Seth according to his image. This passing of the divine image from father to son recalls the creation account and the original blessing on humanity. But Genesis 5 also echoes the fall through the haunting repetition of “then he died.” No matter how long-lived the first humans may seem to modern readers, they could not escape the curse of death.7 Except for Enoch.
The report on the life of Enoch begins just like all the others. He fathered multiple children, including a son who would carry on the line of the promised offspring. But while everyone else lived their lives and died, Enoch walked with God and was taken. Although the text does not explicitly say where he was taken, the fact that God took him implies that he was taken to be with God. He was removed from the cursed earth before he died.8
Enoch is the seventh in the list of Adam’s descendants through Seth. His life starkly contrasts with that of Lamech, the seventh in the list of Adam’s descendants through Cain.9 Like both Adam and Cain before him, Lamech tried to gain control of his own destiny through his own means. He trusted himself and pridefully boasted about his ability to avenge any perceived wrong. But his attempt at self-preservation through brute force failed, and his entire line was wiped out.
Enoch, however, humbly trusted God. Because of his faithful obedience, God saved Enoch from death, proving that the curse of death can be reversed. But no human effort could ever accomplish this. Only God can.
Noah
Lamech lived 182 years, and then he fathered a son. He named him Noah because “this one will bring us relief from the pain our hands have endured from working the ground Yahweh cursed.” After fathering Noah, Lamech lived another 595 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Lamech lived 777 years. Then he died.
Noah lived 500 years, and then he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
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After Enoch, the list of Adam’s descendants continues for three more generations until the birth of Noah, the tenth from Adam. Noah’s father lamented the painful toil humanity had to endure in order to eke out a living from the cursed ground. But he found comfort in the birth of his son, so he named him Noah. Although the name Noah is derived from the verb nuah (“to rest”), Lamech used it as a wordplay on the verb naham (“to comfort, relieve”).
It’s unclear how Lamech thought Noah would bring this relief. His words may simply express his expectation that the joy of having a son would carry him through his work. It’s hard to imagine he foresaw the flood and called it “relief.” But his words would prove prophetic in a way he probably never imagined.
The Sons of God
As humanity began to increase across the face of the earth, daughters were also born to them. The sons of God saw that the daughters of humanity were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
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Genesis 6:1–4 is one of the most controversial passages in the Bible. Theories about its meaning include everything from angel marriages to demigods to giants, elements of pagan mythology that have no place in Scripture. The debate revolves around the identity of the “sons of God” and the mysterious nephilim of verse 4.10 Who were the sons of God?
Were the sons of God the godly line of Seth?
One theory suggests that Seth’s descendants intermarried with Cain’s descendants, a forbidden union between believers and unbelievers.11 But while Scripture uses the line of Cain to illustrate the rapid growth of sin in the world, it never suggests that all of his descendants were wicked. Nor were Seth’s descendants ever forbidden from intermarrying with them. This also illogically identifies Cain’s descendants as the “daughters of humanity.”
Were the sons of God tyrannical despots?
Another theory identifies the sons of God as rulers of the ancient world who acquired large harems by marrying any women they considered beautiful.12 They sinned by following Lamech in the practice of polygamy and possibly by forcing women to marry them. But nothing in the passage suggests the marriages were polygamous or forced. And it’s the nephilim, not the sons of God, who were the “famous warriors of old” who used physical strength to dominate others.13
Were the sons of God fallen angels?
Since the phrase “the sons of God” clearly refers to angelic members of the divine council in Job, a popular theory suggests that spiritual beings lusted after human women and abandoned their role in God’s created order by marrying them.14 The nephilim were their hybrid offspring. But “sons of God” never refers strictly to demons, and Jesus affirmed that angels do not marry.15 Although angels and demons can take on human form, there is no evidence they can take on actual flesh, necessary for procreation.
Were the sons of God just men?
John H. Sailhaimer suggests an alternative theory that better fits the context.16 The sons of God were simply men, made by God to be his own image. The daughters of humanity were simply women, made from Adam, the first human.17
The other theories assume these marriages were somehow inappropriate and a major reason for the flood. But Genesis 6:1–8 is not the introduction to the flood story. The flood is part of the story of the descendants of Noah, which does not begin until 6:9.18 In Hebrew, the form of the verbs in verses 1–3 connects these verses to the list of Adam’s descendants in chapter 5.19 In that context, it’s clear who the sons of God are—Adam’s descendants.20
As the descendants of Adam and Eve married and had children, humanity increased “across the face of the earth.” The situation was exactly as Jesus later described it: all of humanity was going about their daily lives, eating, drinking, and getting married, oblivious of the disaster that was about to overtake them because of their complete disregard for Yahweh.21
120 Years
Then Yahweh said, “My breath will not remain in humanity forever because they are flesh. Their lifespan will be 120 years.”
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As humanity grew in number, they continued to grow further and further away from Yahweh and his will for them. So he decreed a drastic decrease in the human lifespan, which he accomplished by removing his life-giving breath. Although Genesis 2:7 uses a different word for “breath,” it affirms that it was God’s breath that gave life to humanity.22 His breath also sustains life, but it would no longer do so for more than 120 years.
Despite this decree, the list of the descendants of Shem in 11:10–26 shows that the average lifespan remained significantly above 120 years for several generations after the flood. Nonetheless, the 120 years cannot refer to the period of time between the decree and the flood, as some theorize. “Their lifespan” is literally “his days,” a common Hebrew expression referring to the length of someone’s life, in this case the life of the average human. The theory also fails to explain how the removal of God’s breath from humanity would cause a flood.
In the end, there is no real discrepancy between Genesis 6:3 and 11:10–26. God frequently declares his intentions before he acts, often long before, and he sometimes even changes his mind based on humanity’s response.23 Far from contradicting Genesis 6:3, the list of the descendants of Shem shows how, in the proper time, God’s word was fulfilled.
Warlords
The mighty warlords were on the earth in those days, and also later on, when the sons of God would go in to the daughters of humanity, who would bear them children. They were the famous warriors of old.
At the time when humanity was increasing on the earth, a mysterious group called the nephilim appeared. Since the concept of different races of people didn’t exist until God divided humanity at the tower of Babylon, nephilim cannot be the name of an ethnic group.24 Rather, it refers to a specific class of people. They are mentioned elsewhere only in Numbers 13:33, where the Israelite spies claimed they were the predecessors of the Anakites, one of the unusually large and strong peoples who inhabited Canaan.
Though they are often considered the hybrid children of the sons of God and the daughters of humanity, the text says only that they lived at the time when the population was rapidly growing and reappeared later when the population began to grow again after the flood. Although Numbers 13:33 implies they were large and strong like the Anakites, nothing in Scripture suggests they were not fully human.
The text itself explains who the nephilim were. They were “the famous warriors of old,” men whose military exploits made them so famous that people in Moses’s time still told stories about them. This warrior class constitutes the first mention of war in the Bible, which explains their association with population growth and their reappearance after the flood. As the descendants of Adam increased in number, they began to fight over resources made scarce by the curse on the ground. The strongest discovered they could use force to exert authority over others. These were the first warlords, the legendary tyrants of the ancient world.
Regret
Yahweh saw that the evil of humanity had become great on the earth. All the plans they devised were completely evil all the time. Yahweh regretted having made humanity on the earth, and it broke his heart. So he said, “I will wipe from the land the humans I created—not just humans but also the animals, the creatures that glide along the ground, and the birds in the sky. I regret having made them.”
But Yahweh was gracious to Noah.
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Over time, the descendants of Adam increasingly relied on their own devices for self-preservation. They plotted evil and used violence to advance their own schemes without any regard for Yahweh or for the well-being of others. Seeing his children commit such atrocities against each other broke Yahweh’s heart, and he regretted having created them.
To end the violence, he made the heart-rending decision to wipe humanity off the face of the earth, along with the creatures they were created to rule over. The Hebrew verb mahah means to cleanse or erase by wiping.25 Humanity had become an impurity that was destroying the earth and themselves. So Yahweh would cleanse the planet and start over.
By this time, the worship of Yahweh had dwindled until only one man walked with God. A complete eradication of humanity would have wiped out the line of the promised offspring. So God was gracious to Noah, one of Adam’s descendants through Seth, to ensure that his word would not go unfulfilled. With this brief note, the tragic story of Adam’s descendants ends in hope. Through Noah, Adam’s line would survive the coming judgment.
- Walton, Matthews, and Chavalas, Bible Background Commentary, Genesis 5:1–32.
- Genesis 8:13; 11:10.
- See Noah's Youngest Son.
- Genesis 11:32; 12:4; Acts 7:4.
- Sailhamer, “Genesis,” 106.
- See The Sixth Day; Woman; Eve.
- See The Curse of Death.
- See Hebrews 11:5.
- Genesis 4:17–24; see Lamech’s Boast.
- See Hamilton, Book of Genesis: Chapters 1–17, 262–265; Ross, “Genesis,” 67–69; Schnittjer, Torah Story, 97–98; Wenham, Genesis 1–15, 139–140
- For the faithful as God’s children, see Exodus 4:22; Deuteronomy 14:1.
- For rulers as God’s children, see 2 Samuel 7:14–16; Psalms 2:6–7; 82:1–6.
- See The Nephilim.
- For the members of the divine council as God’s children, see Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7.
- Matthew 22:30; Mark 12:25; Luke 20:35–36.
- Sailhamer, “Genesis,” 112–113.
- See Woman.
- See The Families of Genesis.
- Sailhamer, “Genesis,” 114n1–4.
- Genesis 5:1–2; Luke 3:38; see The Father of Humanity.
- Matthew 24:38–39; Luke 17:27.
- The Hebrew word ruah can also be translated as “Spirit” here with no change to the meaning. In Hebrew thought, there is no distinction between God’s life-giving breath and his life-giving Spirit.
- See Exodus 32:9–14; Numbers 13:1–14:45; Jonah 3:4–10; 2 Peter 3:9.
- Genesis 11:1–9; see The Tower.
- Harris, Archer, and Waltke, Wordbook, s.v. “מָחָה.”