Genesis Chapter 5

Reading through the genealogy of Adam we get the sense of the incredible numbers of people that would have been born to people who lived for hundreds of years. It might seem impossible that people could live so long, but before the great flood, the gene pool of mankind was such that he could live to be 900 years old. After the flood the lifespan of man began to drop off very quickly.

“In this chapter, no one lived less than 365 years (and this was Enoch, who was a special case). Methuselah lived a total of 969 years. Several explanations of these long lifespans have been offered. Some have thought the ages are figurative, or they count months as years. Yet on this basis, it would mean that Enoch fathered Methuselah when he was five and one-half years old.” [Guzik]

And then we remember who is writing the story – it is God! It was God who created humans to live such long-life spans, and it was God who created male and female in His own image. And it is God who determines how long each individual person will spend on this earth.

Let's Reflect

1. How old was Adam when he and Eve had Seth, the son that was the replacement for Abel?

2. What do we learn about Adam in the 800 years he lived after Seth was born?

3. One thing we need to keep in mind that the genealogies written in the Bible are not complete, some generations were skipped. We also must remember that many of the people recorded here in Genesis lived coinciding with their ancestors since the lifespans of each were so long. Do a simple test, what year would it be if you subtract 800 years from this year? Think about how many generations of family you would have the opportunity to get to know.

4. There are a few times in Biblical history when a man did not die, but God just took him home. What age was Enoch when God took him?

5. What was so special about Enoch that God would say to him to just come on home with me?

6. In this chapter we find the recording of the longest living man Methuselah. How many years did he live?

7. In this genealogy of Adam, we meet a man who is very famous. His name is found in verse 32, what was it? Notice how old he was when he fathered his sons.