Generations of Adam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The generations of Adam are the two lines of descent from Adam, both ending in the name Lamech, which are given in Genesis. Lamech, the descendant of Cain, is at the end of one line, and the Lamech at the end of the other is described as the father of Noah.
Contents |
[edit] The lines
One line goes from Adam's son Cain, and the other goes via a son of Adam named Seth. The lines are:
Cain
Seth
| From Adam to Noah | Adam | - Seth | - Enosh | - Kenan | - Mahalalel | - Jared | - Enoch | - Methuselah | - Lamech | - Noah | ||||||||||
[edit] The names and ages
The names, as they appear in the Masoretic text, are traditionally given certain translations:
| Name | Traditional translation |
|---|---|
| Cain | Metal-Worker |
| Cainan | Metal-Worker |
| Enoch | Initiated/Disciplined |
| Enos | Mortal/Sick |
| Irad | Wild ass/dragon |
| Jared | Ruler |
| Lamech | Pauper |
| Mehalaleel | Praise of god |
| Mehujael | Smitten by god |
| Methusael | Champion of god |
| Methuselah | Man of the javelin |
| Seth | Substitute |
The Sethite line also gives ages, and dates of birth. These are given, in the ancient manner of dating, in terms of the age of their predecessor. From these details, a rough chronology can be constructed, taking the birth of Adam as year 1. The Masoretic text varies in this from the Septuagint, which mostly presents the same age at death, but as having been born 100 years later into their parent's life, except for Enoch, who is unchanged in this matter, and for Lamech, who dies 24 years younger, and whose father is presented as being 20 years younger when Lamech was born:
| Masoretic text | Septuagint | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Year of birth | Year of Death | Age of Death | Year of birth | Year of Death | Age of Death |
| Adam | 1 (by definition) | 930 | 930 | 1 (by definition) | 930 | 930 |
| Seth | 130 | 1042 | 912 | 230 | 1142 | 912 |
| Enos | 235 | 1140 | 905 | 435 | 1340 | 905 |
| Cainan | 325 | 1235 | 910 | 625 | 1535 | 910 |
| Mahalaleel | 395 | 1290 | 895 | 795 | 1690 | 895 |
| Jared | 460 | 1422 | 962 | 960 | 1922 | 962 |
| Enoch | 622 | 987 | 365 | 1122 | 1487 | 365 |
| Methuselah | 687 | 1656 | 969 | 1287 | 2256 | 969 |
| Lamech | 874 | 1651 | 777 | 1454 | 2207 | 753 |
The second century BC Book of Jubilees, regarded as non-canonical except by Coptic Christianity, additionally gives wives for the Sethite line:
| Husband | Wife |
|---|---|
| Seth | Azura |
| Enos | Noam |
| Cainan | Mualaleth |
| Mahalaleel | Dinah |
| Jared | Baraka |
| Enoch | Edna |
| Methuselah | Edna |
| Lamech | Betenos |
[edit] Interpretations
Aside from Cain, and Lamech, his descendant, two other names in the lists are traditionally given significance. Firstly, Methuselah has the oldest age appearing in the bible, and so the name of Methuselah has become a general reference to longevity. Most traditional translations interpret the name as man of the dart or man of the javelin; however, some critical scholars have proposed it should simply be read as man of Selah, since Selah is the title of the Mesopotamian moon god Sin (also known as Nanna). The question of the correct interpretation of his name is further complicated, as the Septuagint renders Methuselah and Methusael with exactly the same name, the latter meaning champion of God, and by the fact that Methuselah is a very northern (Kingdom of Israel), or Babylonian, style name for an otherwise southern (kingdom of Judah) set of names. The age given in the Septuagint for Methusaleh implies that he must have survived the Great Flood, despite not being on Noah's ark.
The enigmatic description given to Enoch in one of the lines, that he ...walked with God, and was not, has led to the extensive esoteric mythology surrounding him, particularly dating from the 2nd century BC, such as the Book of Enoch, which is canonical in Coptic Christianity. The age of Enoch that is given in the Masoretic text, 365 years, is noticeably similar to the number of days in the solar year, and so some critical scholars have suggested Enoch originally represented the deified sun.
Other interpretations of the names of the Sethite line from the traditional English renderings may better convey the words meaning from their etymological derivations.
| Name | Etymological translation |
|---|---|
| Adam | Man - human, seems to relate to blood |
| Seth | Appointed - Gen 4:25, from the Hebrew "shiyth" |
| Enos | Mortal/Sick - from "anash" meaning "sick", "frail" or "wicked" |
| Qenan | Habitation/Possession/Lot - from a primitive root "qen" originally referring to birds nests |
| Mehalaleel | Glorious God - from a primitive root for "shining forth" and the word for "God" |
| Jared | Will Descend (tense uncertain, but difficult to render accurately in English without implying one) - from a primitive verb meaning "to come down" or "prostrate" |
| Enoch | Discipling - from a primitive root meaning "to train up" |
| Methuselah | His Death Shall Bring - This translation disagrees with the traditional in taking the first root from "mûth"="death" rather than "m@th"="man" neither is definitive since vowels are implied in ancient Hebrew, "shelach" comes from a root meaning "to send forth" which came to refer to ballistic weapons in later Hebrew but more basically referred to any sending forth |
| Lamech | Captive - this word is difficult to translate, rabbinic literature indicates origin as being the opposite of "Melech" meaning 'king' |
| Noah | Comfort - from a primitive root meaning "to rest" |
[edit] Comparison between the lines
Taking the septuagint rendering of Methusael and Methuselah, and taking the Cainite line back two generations to make up the same numbers as the Sethite line, the following comparison is reached:
| Sethite line | Cainite line |
|---|---|
| Seth | Yahweh |
| Enos (mortal) | Adam (mankind) |
| Cainan | Cain |
| Mehalaleel | Enoch |
| Jared | Irad |
| Enoch | Mehujael |
| Methuselah | Methuselah (Septuagint) |
| Lamech | Lamech |
The similarity seen in the lines has been noted since ancient times. Traditionally, this is explained by intermarriage between the lines, such as by the daughter of the Cainite Lamech marrying Methuselah, and naming her child after her father. The names of the Sethite line are traditionally interpreted as being more positive than those of the Cainite line, reflecting a negative attitude towards Cain, for example Jared being ruler compared with Irad being dragon, and Mehalaleel being praise of God compared to Mehujael being smitten by God.
In modern critical scholarship, it is explained more simply as the lines being copies of one another, the Cainite line being ascribed to the Yahwist, and the Sethite line being ascribed to the Book of Generations, the only differences being corruption of a few names, and the reversal of the position of Enoch and Mehujael/Mehalaleel. A moderate proportion of critical scholars also believe that the Sethite line was inserted into the torah in such a way as to deliberately attempt to distance Noah, traditionally seen as a hero, from Cain, traditionally seen as a villain, and consequently separating Lamech into two different people.
Some biblical critics have drawn the conclusion that, since Seth appears in the same place that Yahweh takes in the Cainite line, Seth must originally have been a god, with the biblical etymology given for his name (substitute) being a later folk etymology. Taking into account the Sumerian king list, the a prominent candidate is identifying the name Seth as a transliteration of Shitti (more obvious in the Hebrew alphabet), which was an epithet of Marduk, the Babylonian chief deity (c.f. the Elamite prince Shitti-Marduk who fought with Nebuchadrezzar).
[edit] Comparison with the Sumerian king list
While, in the story of Cain and Abel, Cain is presented as being forever condemned to being a nomad, in the Cainite line, he is described as being a city builder. This has led biblical critics to suggest the two accounts of Cain derive from different sources, and even though the documentary hypothesis still places them both as the Jahwist source, it is nevertheless believed that the Jahwist inserted the list into his work from another source.
Upon the discovery of the antediluvian portion of the Sumerian king list, its striking similarities with the Sethite line have been noted by critical scholarship. Several surviving inscriptions of this list predate the biblical text by at least a millennium. On the Sumerian king list, identical to the biblical manner, the kings have significantly larger reigns before the deluge than after it, roughly by a factor of 20. The Sumerian list in fact measures the reigns of the kings in sars, units of 3,600 years (the Sumerians primarily used base 60, so this is merely the next unit up - 60x60).
There are several different copies of the list, each mostly listing the same antediluvian kings, in the same order, but with differing amounts of sars for their reigns. Over time the names became more corrupted, resembling the originals only vaguely by the time of Berossus' 3rd Century BC copy of the list. The significant feature of the list, as far as the biblical Sethite genealogy goes, is in the translation of the names and attributes of the kings it lists:
| Berossus' version of the name | Ancient Sumerian name | Interpretation during the late second millennium BC | Original interpretation (where varying) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aloros | Alulim | First ruler, appointed by the chief God, and counseled by Adapa, who had knowledge of good and evil, but was thrown out of heaven for trying to attain immortality | ||
| Alaparos | Alalgar | Very little is known about Alalgar, not even the meaning of his name | ||
| Amelon | Enmenluana | Folk etymology regarded the name as Amelu, meaning Man | This may be an accurate translation | |
| Ammenon | Enmenana | Folk etymology regarded the name as Ummannu, meaning Workman | Actually a corruption, and repetition, of Enmenluana | |
| Megalaros | Enmengalana | Translates as heaven is exalted | ||
| Daonos | Dumuzi | Another name for Tammuz, the Sumerian god of nature, supposed to be a shepherd, and, by the late second millennium BC, seen as an annually dying and resurrecting ruler | ||
| Amempsinos | Ensipadzidana | Folk etymology regarded the name as Amelu-Sin, meaning Man of Sin, the deity | The folk etymology was only possible after the name became corrupted | |
| Euedorachos | Enmendurana | A mythological hero, who associated with the god utu, and was summoned to the heavens by the gods Shamash and Adad, in order to learn its secrets. | ||
| Otiartes | Ubaru-Tutu | A mythological priest of Marduk | See below | |
| Xisouthros | Ziusudra | King during the deluge | Actually a repetition of Ubaru-Tutu, just a different epithet |
Many of the connections are readily apparent, but two require non-traditional etymologies for the two corresponding Sethite names. The first is Methuselah, which as mentioned before can be interpreted as Man of Selah, a reference to the moon god, Sin. The second is Lamech, which linguists who specialise in ancient Akkadian, have proposed is derived from the Akkadian Lamaga, meaning priest. This would accord with the greater likelihood of association with the Akkadian version of the king list, which mostly used 10 names, than an association with the original Sumerian list of 8. The correspondence then appearing are:
| Relative position in Sumerian list | Sumerian King | Correspondence during the late second millennium BC | Sethite | Relative position in Sethite list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alulim | First ruler, appointed by God, spoken to by a person who had knowledge of good and evil, and who was thrown out of heaven before obtaining immortality | Adam | 1 |
| 2 | Alalgar | not enough information is known about Alalgar to make an association | ||
| 3 | Enmenluana | Name means Man | Enos | 3 |
| 4 | Enmenana | Folk etymology regarded the name as meaning some kind of Workman | Cainan | 4 |
| 5 | Enmengalana | Name is praise of God | Mahalaleel | 5 |
| 6 | Dumuzi | Especially named as a ruler | Jared | 6 |
| 7/8 | Enmendurana | Associated himself with (a) god, and was taken to heaven by the god(s) | Enoch | 7 |
| 8/7 | Ensipadzidana | Folk etymology regarded the name as a reference to Sin, the moon god | Methuselah | 8 |
| 9 | Ubaru-Tutu | Especially named as a priest | Lamech | 9 |
| 10 | Ziusudra | Hero during the deluge | Noah | 10 |
As the Sumerian king list has several correspondences with the Sethite line, even featuring the matching names in the same order, it is possible to tentatively associate the missing connection to Alalgar with Seth, the only missing name, though the interpretation of such an association would currently be a mystery. The alternative order between of Enmendurana and Ensipadzidana, present in some versions of the Sumerian king list, also accords with the order of the Cainite line, though the mystery surrounding Alalgar is unhelpful in explaining how the Cainite line can correspond to the first two positions of the Sumerian list.
