Genesis 5:3-20 - They lived and they died

5:3-20

We now get “Adam’s family line”. There are a number of points that stand out. Perhaps the one that strikes us most is that these people lived for an awful long time! 900 years being the average life expectancy! There is no denying that this is something of a puzzle to us. There are various offered “solutions”. One is that they simply got it wrong, or the figures are meaningless. I think we have to reject this one. A second is that the figures have a different meaning to what we assume them to have. I guess this is possible, but no one seems to have come up with a plausible “different meaning” yet. The third is that they are correct, and people lived longer because the ill effects of sin had not yet taken full effect, and we do read later that God reduced man’s lifespan. This seems the most plausible and consistent explanation. It should be noted that the three “explanations” I have given are brief summaries, there are all sorts of variations on these themes.

A second feature is that we get mention of the first son of each person, then just a general reference to later sons and daughters. Finally, they all died, with the exception of Enoch. Death is now an intrinsic part of human life.