"Generations of Adam" is a genealogical concept recorded in in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Adam Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam). According to Christianity, Adam ...

's line of descent going through Seth. Another view equates the generations of Adam with material about a second line of descent starting with Cain in Genesis 4, while Genesis 5 is taken as the "generations of Noah".

Seth and Cain

The Sethite line begins with Adam. The Sethite line in Genesis 5 extends to Noah and his three sons. The Cainite line in Genesis 4 runs to Naamah. The seventh generation Lamech descended from Cain is described as the father of Jabal and Jubal (from his first wife Adah) and Tubal-cain and Naamah (from his second wife, Zillah).(; ; ; ). The Sethite line also gives ages at fatherhood and at death. In the Masoretic text, ages at death range from 777 (Lamech) to 969 (Methuselah) (with

Enoch Enoch ( ; ''Henṓkh'') is a biblical figure and Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch prior to Noah's flood, and the son of Jared (biblical figure), Jared and father of Methuselah. He was of the Antediluvian period in the Hebrew Bible. The text of t ...

being "taken by God" at age 365 ), placing the text in the category of longevity narratives. The

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

and

Samaritan Pentateuch The Samaritan Pentateuch, also called the Samaritan Torah (Samaritan Hebrew: , ), is the Religious text, sacred scripture of the Samaritans. Written in the Samaritan script, it dates back to one of the ancient versions of the Torah that existe ...

differ somewhat in the ages given; in the

, the age at fatherhood is often 100 years later than that in the Masoretic text, extending the genealogy by several centuries. The 2nd-century BC

Book of Jubilees The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish apocryphal text of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as by Haymanot Judaism, a denomination observed by members of Ethiopian Jewish ...

, regarded as non-canonical except by the

Ethiopian Orthodox Church The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates bac ...

and the Beta Israel, gives the wives' names for the Sethite line:

Comparisons

Form critics consider the two lines as corruptions of one tradition. Both the similarities and the differences between lines are significant and do not admit simple explanation. Still, there is a general consensus that the Cainite list was from the Jahwist source, while the Sethite was added in from the Priestly source. Republished in The Sethite genealogy may also be connected to the

Sumerian King List The ''Sumerian King List'' (abbreviated ''SKL'') or ''Chronicle of the One Monarchy'' is an ancient Composition (language), literary composition written in Sumerian language, Sumerian that was likely created and redacted to legitimize the claims ...

. Evidence for this include the solar symbolism of the seventh figure on each list (the Sumerian king Enmeduranna sharing his name with the city where worship of the sun god was focused, Enoch living 365 years). Like Enoch, Enmeduranna's advisor Utuabzu ascended to heaven. Fritz Hommel further argued that Amelon was Enosh (both third in the list with names meaning "mankind"), that Ammenon was Cainan/Cain (both fourth and connected to craftsmanship), and so on; noting that the tenth in each line was a hero who survived a world flood. Still, this position is argued against due to linguistic incompatibilities in half the names. Similarities between Irad and Eridu have also been pointed out. Thomas Kelly Cheyne argued that the two genealogies may also be connected to a North Arabian genealogy, one reproducing the other. Cheyne claimed that Mahalalel was a corruption of Jerahmeel, and Methuselah was a corruption of Ishmael. Cheyne's theories are now rejected, however. The following table displays the most common line of comparison between the Sethite and Cainite lines (which reverses much of the Cainite list), as well as North Arabian genealogy (per Cheyne), and the Sumerian king list.

Additional chronology

Post-biblical Jewish chronicles, surviving primarily in Syriac and Geez, elaborate on the genealogies in Genesis. * ''The

Book of Enoch The Book of Enoch (also 1 Enoch; Hebrew language, Hebrew: סֵפֶר חֲנוֹךְ, ''Sēfer Ḥănōḵ''; , ) is an Second Temple Judaism, ancient Jewish Apocalyptic literature, apocalyptic religious text, ascribed by tradition to the Patriar ...

'' * ''The

References

{{Cain and Abel Adam and Eve Bible genealogy Bereshit (parashah)

Seth and Cain

Comparisons

Additional chronology

See also

References