When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth.
Genesis 5:3 (NASB)
Genesis 5 says his image about Seth, and nobody else.
The Rabbis wondered about this and suggest that Adam and Eve may have had other offspring after Cain and Abel, before Seth. These offspring were… different. Not like Adam. Something monstrous.
This points to the Nephilim in Genesis 6.
With Adam, the Hebrew language descdribes his age as 900, and 30 years.
But for everyone else in the list of ages, the 10s and 100s are reversed: Seth lived 12, and 900 years. Enosh lived 5 and 900.
One rabbinical teaching is that when an age is written 100s and then 10s, it means the last years of their lives were good and productive. Perhaps closer to God. So we seem to be told that God has redeemed Adam.
That doesn’t mean the rest are not redeemed, but specifically that God has compassion on Adam, the first of the lineage to die from the curse (from dust, to dust).
This is the book of the generations of Adam. On the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God.
Genesis 5:1 (NASB)
Genesis 5 starts out mentioning “the book of the generations of Adam.”
It’s the first time we see this word “book.”
It means “book” or “writing,” but it also means “missive” or “instructions.” Like a decree… or a Promise.
When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; and he named him Seth.
Genesis 5:3 (NIV)
We are told something specific about Adam and Seth that we aren’t told about the rest of the genealogy.
Before you say that the text “wouldn’t include any unnecessary repetition,” keep in mind that the whole chapter is repetition. The differences are meant to stand out.
We read that “their eyes were open” in Genesis 3, but perhaps “seeing” does not mean “knowing.” It requires something more.
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.”
Genesis 4:1 (NKJV)
Eve names Seth, but in Genesis 5, the text says Adam does, so the implication may be that they both did. And perhaps that’s the point. We are meant to work together.
Cain means acquired
Abel means a breath; vanity
Seth means appointed
“By the work of my hands, I attempt to acquire a name for myself. But this, too, is vanity, a grasping for the wind.
But God appoints another way. God’s way.
In Genesis 4, Cain is told that HE is cursed FROM the ground; the GROUND accepted Abel, but it REJECTS Cain.
Perhaps the ground is humanity, and Cain has cut himself off from it. A vagabond.
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return.”
Genesis 3:17-19 (NIV)
Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
Genesis 4:11 (NIV)
In Genesis 3, we have:
Adam: A tiller of the ground -> fruit -> broken relationship -> a curse of death -> God’s protection (covering) -> the man has a son.
In Genesis 4, we have:
Cain: A tiller of the ground, -> fruit -> broken relationship -> a curse of death -> God’s protection (a mark) -> he has a son.
We are told that Cain “worked the soil” in the NIV. If you’ve followed along the previous weeks’ studies, you’ve heard this word “worked” before, but in a different form. And connected to a different man.
Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil.
Genesis 4:2 (NIV)
It’s Cain’s own dad, Adam. In Genesis 2, we’re told that Adam’s role was to “till the ground.” This word “till” is the Hebrew word “abad,” which means to “labor” or to “work.” And in Genesis 2, the work is GOOD.
Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground.
Genesis 2:5 (NIV)The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15 (NIV)
But in Genesis 3, the ground gets cursed.
To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’
“Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat food from it
all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:17 (NIV)So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
Genesis 3:23 (NIV)
What does it mean that the ground is cursed? What does it mean that the work will result in painful toil, thorns & thistles? Why does this point to death?
Cain’s name means “acquired.” As in, “I worked to acquire this.”
This is death.
God’s acceptance of Abel’s offering is unrelated to his own accomplishment. He simply brought the best of what he had: the “fat” (or choicest/best part) of the “firstborns.” The best we have.
It’s the same thing God asks of us today. Not the sacrifice, but our heart.