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- A recapitulation of the account of the creation of
man, 1,2;
- and of the birth of Seth, 3.
- Genealogy of the ten antediluvian patriarchs,
3-31.
- Enoch's extraordinary piety, 22;
- his
translation to heaven without seeing death, 24.
- The birth of Noah, and the reason of his name,
29;
- his age at the birth of Japheth, 32.
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Verse 1. The book of the
generations
sepher, in Hebrew,
which we generally translate book, signifies a
register, an account, any kind of writing,
even a letter, such as the bill of divorce. Here
It means the account or register of the
generations of Adam or his descendants to
the five hundredth year of the life of Noah.
In the likeness of God made
he him
This account is again
introduced to keep man in remembrance of the heights of
glory whence he bad fallen; and to prove to him that the
miseries and death consequent on his present state were
produced by his transgression, and did not flow from his
original state. For, as he was created in the image of
God, he was created free from natural and moral evil. As
the deaths of the patriarchs are now to be
mentioned, it was necessary to introduce them by this
observation, in order to justify the ways of God to man.
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Verse 3. And Adam lived a
hundred and thirty years,
The
Scripture chronology especially in the ages of some of
the antediluvian and postdiluvian
patriarchs, has exceedingly puzzled chronologists,
critics, and divines. The printed Hebrew text, the
Samaritan, the Septuagint, and Josephus, are all
different, and have their respective vouchers and
defenders. The following tables of the genealogies of
the patriarchs before and after the flood,
according to the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Septuagint, will
at once exhibit the discordances.
* The Septuagint account of the ages of the
antediluvian and postdiluvian patriarchs
in the above tables, is taken from the VATICAN copy, but
if we follow the ALEXANDRIAN MS., we shall have in the
first period the whole sum of 2262 instead of
2242; and in the second period, 1072 instead of
1172. On this subject the different MSS. of the
Septuagint abound with various readings.
For much satisfactory information on this subject I
must refer to A New Analysis of Chronology, by
the Rev. William Hales, D.D., 3 vols. 4to.,
London, 1809.*
And begat a son in
his own likeness, after his image
Words nearly the same with those Genesis
1:26: Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness. What this image and likeness
of God were, we have already seen, and we may rest
assured that the same image and likeness are not
meant here. The body of Adam was created
provisionally immortal, i.e. while he continued obedient
he could not die; but his obedience was voluntary, and
his state a probationary one. The soul of Adam
was created in the moral image of God, in
knowledge, righteousness, and true
holiness. He had now sinned, and consequently had
lost his moral resemblance to his Maker; he had
also become mortal through his breach of the law.
His image and likeness were therefore widely different
at this time from what they were before; and his
begetting children in this image and likeness plainly
implies that they were imperfect like himself, mortal
like himself, sinful and corrupt like himself. For it is
impossible that he, being impure, fallen from the Divine
image, could beget a pure and holy offspring, unless we
could suppose it possible that a bitter fountain
could send forth sweet waters, or that a
cause could produce effects totally dissimilar
from itself. What is said here of Seth might have been
said of all the other children of Adam, as they were all
begotten after his fall; but the sacred writer has
thought proper to mark it only in this instance.
Editor's Note: There are no AC references available for verses 4-21.
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Verse 22. And Enoch walked
with God- three hundred years
There
are several things worthy of our most particular notice
in this account:
1. The name of this patriarch; Enoch, from
chanack, which signifies to instruct, to
initiate, to dedicate. From his subsequent
conduct we are authorized to believe he was early
instructed in the things of God, initiated
into the worship of his Maker, and dedicated to
his service. By these means, under the influence of the
Divine Spirit, which will ever attend pious parental
instructions, his mind got that sacred bias which led
him to act a part so distinguished through the course of
a long life.
2. His religious conduct. He walked with God;
yithhallech, he set himself to walk, he
was fixedly purposed and determined to
live to God. Those who are acquainted with the original
will at once see that it has this force. A verb in the
conjugation called hithpael signifies a
reciprocal act, that which a man does upon himself: here
we may consider Enoch receiving a pious education, and
the Divine influence through it; in consequence of which
he determines to be a worker with God, and therefore
takes up the resolution to walk with his Maker, that he
might not receive the grace of God in vain.
3. The circumstances in which he was placed.
He was a patriarch; the king, the priest, and the
prophet of a numerous family, to whom he was to
administer justice, among whom he was to perform all the
rites and ceremonies of religion, and teach, both by
precept and example, the way of truth and righteousness.
Add to this, he was a married man, he had a
numerous family of his own, independently of the
collateral branches over which he was obliged, as
patriarch, to preside; he walked three hundred
years with God, and begat sons and daughters;
therefore marriage is no hinderance even to the
perfection of piety; much less inconsistent with it, as
some have injudiciously taught.
4. The astonishing height of piety to which he
had arrived; being cleansed from all filthiness of the
flesh and of the spirit, and having perfected holiness
in the fear of God, we find not only his soul but his
body purified, so that, without being obliged to visit
the empire of death, he was capable of immediate
translation to the paradise of God. There are few cases
of this kind on record; but probably there might be
more, many more, were the followers of God more faithful
to the grace they receive.
5. Enoch attained this state of religious and
spiritual excellence in a time when, comparatively
speaking, there were few helps, and no written
revelation. Here then we cannot but see and admire
how mighty the grace of God is, and what wonders it
works in the behalf of those who are faithful, who
set themselves to walk with God. It is not
the want of grace nor of the means of grace that is the
cause of the decay of this primitive piety, but the want
of faithfulness in those who have the light, and yet
will not walk as children of the light.
6. If the grace of God could work such a mighty
change in those primitive times, when life and
immortality were not brought to light by the Gospel,
what may we not expect in these times, in which
the Son of God tabernacles among men, in which God gives
the Holy Spirit to them who ask him, in which all things
are possible to him who believes? No man can prove that
Enoch had greater spiritual advantages than any of the
other patriarchs, though it seems pretty evident that he
made a better use of those that were common to all than
any of the rest did; and it would be absurd to say that
he had greater spiritual helps and advantages
than Christians can now expect, for he lived under a
dispensation much less perfect than that of the LAW, and
yet the law itself was only the shadow of the
glorious substance of Gospel blessings and Gospel
privileges.
7. It is said that Enoch not only walked with
God, setting him always before his eyes, beginning,
continuing, and ending every work to his glory, but also
that he pleased God, and had the testimony
that he did please God, Hebrews
11:5. Hence we learn that it was then
possible to live so as not to offend God, consequently
so as not to commit sin against him; and to have the
continual evidence or testimony that all that a man did
and purposed was pleasing in the sight of Him who
searches the heart, and by whom devices are weighed: and
if it was possible then, it is surely, through
the same grace, possible now; for God, and
Christ, and faith, are still the same.
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Verse 27. The days of
Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine
years
This is the longest life
mentioned in Scripture, and probably the longest ever
lived; but we have not authority to say positively that
it was the longest. Before the flood, and before
artificial refinements were much known and cultivated,
the life of man was greatly protracted, and yet of him
who lived within thirty-one years of a thousand
it is said he died; and the longest life is but
as a moment when it is past. Though life is uncertain,
precarious, and full of natural evils, yet it is a
blessing in all its periods if devoted to the glory of
God and the interest of the soul; for while it lasts we
may more and more acquaint ourselves with God and be at
peace, and thereby good shall come unto us; Job
22:21.
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Verse 29. This same shall
comfort us
This is an allusion, as
some think, to the name a Noah, which they derive from
nacham, to comfort; but it is much more likely
that it comes from nach or nuach, to rest,
to settle, comfortable than rest after
toil and labour? These words seem to have
been spoken prophetically concerning Noah, who
built the ark for the preservation of the human race,
and who seems to have been a typical person; for when he
offered his sacrifice after the drying up of the waters,
it is said that God smelled a savour of REST, and said
he would not curse the ground any more for man's sake,
Genesis
8:21; and from that time the earth seems to have had
upon an average the same degree of fertility; and the
life of man, in a few generations after, was settled in
the mean at threescore years and ten. See Genesis
9:3.
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Verse 32. Noah begat Shem,
Ham, and Japheth.
From Genesis
10:21;; 1 Chronicles
1:5, son of Noah, but Shem is mentioned
first, because it was from him, in a direct line, that
the Messiah came. Ham was certainly the
youngest of Noah's sons, and from what we read,
Genesis
9:22, the worst of them; and how he
comes to be mentioned out of his natural order is not
easy to be accounted for. When the Scriptures design to
mark precedency, though the subject be a younger
son or brother, he is always mentioned first; so
Jacob is named before Esau, his elder
brother, and Ephraim before Manasses. See
Genesis
28:5;; 48:20.
AMONG many important things presented to our view in
this chapter, several of which have been already
noticed, we may observe that, of all the antediluvian
patriarchs, Enoch, who was probably the best man, was
the shortest time upon earth; his years were exactly as
the days in a solar revolution, viz., three
hundred and sixty-five; and like the sun he
fulfilled a glorious course, shining more and more unto
the perfect day, and was taken, when in his meridian
splendour, to shine like the sun in the kingdom of his
Father for ever.
From computation it appears, 1. That Adam lived to
see Lamech, the ninth generation, in the fifty-sixth
year of whose life he died; and as he was the first who
lived, and the first that sinned, so he was the first
who tasted death in a natural way. Abel's was not a
natural but a violent death. 2. That Enoch was taken
away next after Adam, seven patriarchs remaining witness
of his translation. 3. That all the nine first
patriarchs were taken away before the flood came, which
happened in the six hundredth year of Noah's life. 4.
That Methuselah lived till the very year in which the
flood came, of which his name is supposed to have been
prophetical methu, "he dieth," and
shalach, "he sendeth out;" as if God had
designed to teach men that as soon as Methuselah died
the flood should be sent forth to drown an ungodly
world. If this were then so understood, even the
name of this patriarch contained in it a
gracious warning. See the genealogical
plate after "Ge 11:32".
       
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Copyright Statement
The Adam Clarke Commentary is a derivative
of an electronic edition prepared by GodRules.net.
Bibliography
Information
Clarke, Adam.
"Commentary on Genesis 5". "The Adam Clarke Commentary".
<http://www.studylight.org/com/acc/view.cgi?book=ge&chapter=005>.
1832.
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