Genesis 5

This chapter is all genealogy, but unlike some of the later name lists this has two very interesting and unique items:

1) Ages: The account here gives us the age each man was when he fathered the son through which the lineage is traced, and the total age he lived to. Obviously the long lifespans here are noteworthy, but more important to my mind is the number of years from father to son. This gives us the ability to count the years from Adam (whether his age is counted from his creation or from the fall, I don't know) to Noah's birth. That sums to 1056 years, though that might be a year or two off as a total due to months being rounded off each age. Noah himself, as we will find in the next chapters, was quite old when the Flood occurs - but this combined with his age as it will be given is a very cool insight (in my opinion).

2) Enoch: One of two men in the Bible who did not die, or at least that is how I read it. How amazing it must have been - to be so close to God that he would just take you away from all of this trouble! Obviously we don't know the exact circumstance or details of the situation, but I also find it odd that he was taken at such a "young" age (just 365); I wonder what his family thought of that?

This chapter in:
New America Standard, New King James, New International