Chapter Overview
This chapter is mostly not worth reading. The only things of note in this chapter are
- Cain and Abel apparently don’t exist now
- How Noah came to be
Noah is only important because only he and his family are supposed to survive the flood myth coming up next. You can now skip to the next chapter, you’re free!
Additional Thoughts
This chapter is a mess when it comes to ages. Many Christians literally believe that people used to live that long and that some sort of accumulated “fallen-ness” has caused our ages to decrease. On the contrary, all evidence points to us living longer and healthier lives than our ancestors on average.
I think it’s most likely that the ages represented here are most likely in lunar months. Lunar months are slightly different than our 12 months used today, but it’s close enough that I’ve estimated the ages with (total_months / 12) in order to get an estimate for when they died. The ages of death are actually quite reasonable. The ages for when they started to have kids, however…. no. Except for Lamech and Noah. They waited to have kids.
Additionally, rather than being base 10, these could all be in a different numbering system, base 4 for example, and ALSO calculated in lunar months. Meaning a single “year” would be 4 lunar months, which would really screw with the age calculations. Given that we really don’t know what numbering system the authors used, I’m sticking to 12 months = 1 year to keep calculations simple.
Also note how the second verse says “And called their name Adam”. In this case, this is a reference to humanity as a whole, rather than a single person (remember that “Adam” literally translates to “man”). This means that this chapter, which ignores chapter 4 completely,
The Scientific/logic/sequence mistakes in this chapter
- What happened to Cain and Abel? (Genesis 4, Genesis 5:3)
Chapter 5: People do each other. A lot.
AKA: Honey, everyone is bored. Let’s ALL have kids
- This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
- Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
- And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth:
- And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
- And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
- And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:
- And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:
- And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.
- And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:
- And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:
- And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.
- And Cainan lived seventy years and begat Mahalaleel:
- And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:
- And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.
- And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared:
- And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters:
- And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.
- And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:
- And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
- And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.
- And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
- And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
- And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
- And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
- And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech.
- And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters
- And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
- And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
- And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.
- And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:
- And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.
- And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
- Again… the continual ability for his children to find other women only makes sense if chapter 1 is followed. Which doesn’t have Adam.
- This sounds exactly like the chapter 1 mythology of man being created.
- ORLY? What about Cain and Abel? Are they not his sons? Or did they never exist? Or, more likely, this is a collection of made folk tales.
- This whole “years” thing seems like a translation error. Could it be lunar months? That would make this reasonable.
- In lunar months mistranslated as years: 930 / 12 = 77.5 years old. Reasonable.
- Poor, poor, fabricated Cain and Abel. They don’t exist now.
- Begatting and begatting. Taking that Genesis 1:28 seriously again.
- AKA: 76 years old if this was mistranslated from lunar months.
- That seems young to be a father though. 7.5 years old if lunar months.
- begat begat begat. I’m getting tired of geneologies, and we’ve only just begun.
- 905 / 12 = 75.41 years
- REALLY young to be a father.
- Begatting
- AKA: 75.83 years
- They just keep having kids earlier
- More Begatting
- AKA: 74.5 years
- A little more reasonable child age if lunar months. Also, a second guy named Enoch.
- Apparently these other sons and daughters aren’t important though.
- AKA: 80.16 years
- Really young for begatting if lunar months. They get it on young in the old days.
- So… lived for another 25 years and was yoinked out of life by god?
- AKA: 30.41 years.
- So he never died, therefore, he is the oldest human in the bible.
- Fairly reasonable age to have kids at in older times if lunar months.
- Why don’t these other children matter?
- AKA: 80.75 years
- begatting
- Why would the name Noah be comforting? It’s possible that it shares a root word with “rest” in the original language. AKA: I got a kid, he can do work for me now! Resting!
- Stop with all the begatting already!
- Good, we’re nearly done. Also, 64.16 years
- Oldest we’ve seen someone have kids yet. 41.66 years if lunar months.
Additional Notes
Wasn’t Adam supposed to have, ya know, died after eating the fruit? Living a long and healthy life doesn’t sound like he died due to the fruit. Some people claim that he was immortal while he was in the garden… but why have a “Tree of Eternal Life” (Genesis 2:9) in the garden that you use as an excuse to kick Adam out of the garden then?
Fun fact: IF Christianity is to be believed, all these people who die now just end up languishing in hell. For thousands of years at minimum.
Check Wikipedia for some information on lifespans.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Life_expectancy