Genesis/Bereshith 5: "one in his likeness, according to his image"

[The first verse that caught our attention in this chapter is the one about Seth being in the image of Adam. Sorry to keep referring back to what we used to teach as Christians, this is our way of correcting former mistakes.   We would say without thinking:  ‘Adam was made in the image of God, but after the fall, his son was made in his image.’ Not one listener would correct the statement:  ‘er, uhm, excuse me, but there is some mistake:  Seth is third from firstborn Cain and second-born Abel. If original sin made Adam and Eve’s descendants resemble them in terms of ‘fallenness’ and no longer in God’s image, then it should be Cain who is in Adam’s image and thereafter, everyone else.

 

We actually posted this question under Q&A:  

 

 Q&A: Why is Seth the one “in the likeness of Adam” instead of firstborn son Cain? The wonder of it is, the two commentaries we feature here don’t even bother to deal with it; in short, it’s no big deal to them, so no use making a fuss over it.  As someone suggested, perhaps Seth just physically resembled his father Adam, no more. no less, end of speculation.

 

 

The second:  As for the explanation of Enosh not going through death like all mortals, we go along with the idea that he died just like everyone else, but there are euphemistic ways of expressing the demise of a man if one is avoiding the simple ‘he died’: ‘he moved on’, ‘he went to the great beyond’, ‘he was not’, ‘he passed away’, and so on; no big deal as far as Enosh is concerned. The problem is, with not much to go by except for ‘he walked with God’ then ‘is no more’ — a lot of other figures in the Hebrew Scriptures were also described as righteous men but they all died. So it is best to always go with the most natural explanation, it makes the most sense! As for Elijah going to heaven in a chariot of fire, well we will deal with that text when we get there

 

 

The third:  As for the long life of these earliest generations, it is believable that with the pristine conditions of the world during their lifetime — clean air, clean environment, pure water, super-nutritious raw foods, rich soil, etc. —when humankind had not yet ruined everything for every creature on earth, such longevity was probably more the norm than the exception.  Today a shortened life expectancy of 120 years is possible for those who have good genes, live in unpolluted environment, eat healthy diets, are not stressed, sleep well, and all the other factors that contribute to longevity.

 

 

Commentary is from [E&H] Pentateuch and Haftorahs, ed. Dr. J.H. Hertz; translation is [EF] Everett Fox, The Five Books of Moses  Additional commentary from RA/Robert Alter, The Five Books of Moses and Alter’s translation in prose narrative is added at the end..–Admin1].

 

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Genesis/Bereshith 5

 

[RA]  Nothing reveals the difference of the biblical conception of literature from later Western ones more strikingly than the biblical use of genealogies as an intrinsic element of literary structure.  As J.P. Fokkelman (1987) has noted, the genealogicla lists or “begats” (toledo) in Gnesis are carefully placed compositional units that mark off one large narrative segment from another:  here, the story of Creation and the antediluvian founding figures from the Deluge story.  As Fokkelman also observes, the begettings of the genealogical lists are linked thematically with the initial injunction to be fruitful and multiply and with all the subsequent stories of a threatened or thwarted procreative drive.

 

 

Repetition of formula dominates the genealogical list stylistically.  Here the procreative act and life span of each figure are conveyed in identical language, and when there is a divergence from the formula, in the case of Enoch, it is very significant.  Formulaic numbers as well are characteristically used by the biblical writer to give order and coherence to the narrated world.  The seven generations from Adam to Noah of Chapter 4 are here displaced by a different formulaic number, ten. (Some critics have argued that the two lists reflect competing versions that deploy the same group of fathers and sons in different patterns:  some of the names are identical in both lists, others—like Cain-Kenan, Irad-Jared—may well be variants of each other).  The list incorporates both of the formulaic numbers:  Lamech, the last of the antediluvians before Noah lives 777 years; Noah, unlike his predecessors, becomes a begetter at the age of 500, halfway through a round millennium, which is the ten of the ten generations with two decimal places added.  A millennium is the age most of the antediluvians come close to but never attain, as befits their mortality.

 

 

Surely part of the intention in using the genealogy is to give the history the look of authentically archaic documentation.  If, as many assume, Priestly circles in the Second Temple period were ultimately responsible for the list here, they did not hesitate to include the fabulous ages of the antediluvians, which must have had their origins in hoary Semitic antiquity (as the old Mesopotamian parallels suggest), as well as the strange, evidently mythic fragment about Enoch, which could scarcely have been a late invention.

 

1  This is the record of the begettings of Adam/Humankind.  

At the time of God’s creating humankind,

in the likeness of God did he then make it,

 

[P&H]  this is the book.  Heb. sefer does not always mean a volume; it may be used of any written document.  Rabbinic tradition states the Torah is not one continuous work, written at one definite moment.  ‘The Torah was given to Moses in separate scrolls’.  The formula, ‘These are the generations,’ which occurs 10 times in Genesis, each time beginning a new section, would mark the beginning of such scroll or ‘book’.  This explains why some sections, as this Chapter, have introductory verses which recall or summarize facts mentioned in earlier sections.

 

 

The book of the generations of Adam.  One of the early Rabbis, Ben Azzai, translated these words, ‘This is the book of the generations of Man,’ and declared them to be ‘a great, fundamental teaching of the Torah’.  As all human beings are traced back to one parent, he taught, they must proclaim the vital truth of the Unity of the Human Race, and the consequent doctrine of the Brotherhood of Man.  ‘This is the book of the generations of Man’—not black, not white, not great, not small, but Man.  In these Scriptural words we have a concept quite unknown in the ancient world—Humanity.  And only the belief in One God could lead to such a clear affirmation of the unity of mankind.

 

 

in the likeness. A reminder of the dignity of man’s nature.

[EF] At the time . . .: The language is reminiscent of the earlier poem in 1:27.  In this case, however, the Hebrew creates a rhyming effect.  The cola of the poem here end thus: bera’am / otam / shenam / Adam / hibare’am.  Such a rhyming scheme is rare in biblical Hebrew, and usually endows a passage with particular significance (see also, for instance, II Sam. 12:11).

 

[RA]  This is the book.  The Hebrew sefer, which some render as “record,” is anything written down, presumably in the form of a scroll.  In any case, the introductory formula clearly announces this as a separate document.

 

 

Adam. The lack of a definite article would seem to indicate that the term is being used as a proper name.  But the two subsequent occurrences of ‘adam, here and in the next verse, equally lack the definite article and yet clearly refer to “the human creature” or “humankind.”  God’s calling “them” by the name ‘adam (verse 2) is also an explicit indication that the term is not exclusively masculine, and so it is misleading to render it as “man.”

 

2 male and female he created them and gave blessing to them and called their name: Humankind!

 

[RA] in the image of God . . . Male and female He created them. The pointed citation of the account in chapter 1 ties in the genealogical list with the initial story of human origins: creation is recapitulated, and continues.

 

3  When Adam had lived thirty and a hundred years,

he begot one in his likeness, according to his image,

and called his name Shet.

 

[RA] in his likeness by his image. Adam, then, replicates God’s making of the human being (with the order of “likeness” and “image” reversed) in his own act of procreation.

 

4  Adam’s days after he begot Shet were eight hundred years, and he begot (other) sons and daughters.

5.  And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred years and thirty years,

then he died.

 

Various theories have been propounded to explain the abnormally long lives of these antediluvians.  Maimonides holds that only the distinguished individuals named in this chapter lived these long years, but others lived a more or less normal span.  The idea that men in primeval times lived extraordinarily long lives is common to the traditions of most ancient peoples.

Two names in this series of descendants of Seth, Enoch and Lamech are identical with those among the children of Cain.  In both cases, however, the connection makes it evident that they represent different characters.

 

6.  When Shet had lived fie hundred years and a hundred years, he begot Enosh.

7  and Shet lived after he begot Enosh seven years and eight hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters.

8  And all the days of Shet were twelve years and in hundred years, then he died.

9  When Enosh had lived ninety years, he begot Kenan.

10  and Enosh lived after he begot Kenan,

fifteen years and eight hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters.

11  And all the days of Enosh were five years and nine hundred years,

then he died.

12  When Kenan had lived seventy years, he begot Mehalalel,

13  and Kenan lived after he begot Mehalalel forty years and eight hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters.

14  And all the days of Kenan were ten years and nine hundred years,

and he died.

15  When Mehalalel had lived five years and sixty years, he begot Yered.

16  and Mehalalel lived after he begot Yered thirty years and eight hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters.

17And all the days of Mehalalel were ninety-five years and eight hundred years,

then he died.

18  When Yered had lived sixty-two years and a hundred years, he begot Hankoh,

19  and Yered lived after he begot Hanokh eight hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters.

20  And all the days of Yered were sixty-two years and nine hundred years,

then he died.

21  When Hanokh had lived sixty-five years, he begot Metushelah.

22  and Hanokh walked in accord with God after he begot Metushelah three hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters.

 

[P&H]  walked with God.  To avoid the anthropomorphism, Onkelos readers, ‘Enoch walked in the fear of God,’ and the Jerusalem Targum, ‘served in truth before the Lord.’  Whereas the other men enumerated merely existed and preserved the race physically, Enoch led a life of intimate companionship with God in that morally deteriorating age.  The Heb. idiom ‘to walk with God’ is employed to express a righteous course of life, as though the man who is thus described walked with and was accompanied by his Maker.  A similar phrase is used concerning Noah (VO,9).

 

[EF]  and Hanokh walked in accord with God . . . three hundred years:  The variation from the rigid formulations of this chapter draws attention to this key figure, the first pious man (similarly with Noah, 5:29).  “Walked in accord with God” means walked in God’s ways, led a righteous life.

 

[RA]  And Enoch walked with God.  This cryptic verse has generated mountains of speculative commentary, not to speak of two whole books of the Apocrypha.  The reflexive form of the verb “to walk” that occurs here is the same form used for God’s walking about in the Garden.  Instead of the flat report of death, as in the case of the other antediluvians, the euphemism “was no more” (literally “was not”), which is also applied to Joseph, merely supposed by his brothers to be dead, is used.  “Walked with” surely implies some sort of special intimate relationship with God, but what that might be is anyone’s guess.  This is one of several instances in the early chapters of Genesis of a teasing vestige of a tradition for which the context is lost.  Enoch is the seventh generation from Adam, and some scholars have seen an instructive analogy in a Mesopotamian list of kings before the Deluge, in which the seventh antediluvian king, a certain Enmeduranki, is taken up to sit before the gods Shamash and Adad, and is granted preternatural wisdom.  Shamash is the sun god, and the biblical Enoch lives as many years as the days of the solar year.

 

23  And all the days of Hanokh were sixty-five years and three hundred years.

24  Now Hanokh walked in accord with God,

then he was no more,

for God had taken him. 

 

[P&H]  and he was not.  These words may mean either that, as a reward for his piety, Enoch did not meet with the ordinary fate of mortals, but, like Elijah, was taken to Heaven without the agony of death; or, that Enoch died prematurely, Rashi explains that although Enoch was pious, he was weak and liable to go astray.  To avert such a calamity, he was removed from earth.

for God took him. This description of death is profoundly significant.  We come from God, and to Him do we return.  To die is to be taken by God, in whose Presence there is life eternal.

Rabbinical legend was very busy with the story of Enoch.  He was the repository of the mysteries of the universe; and even higher honours were later accorded to him in the circles of the Jewish mystics.

 

[EF]  then he was no more.  He died. Later interpreters found the phrase ambiguous, an fantastic postbiblical legends arose concerning Hanokh.

 

25  When Metushelah had lived eighty-seven years and a hundred years, he begot Lemekh, 

26  and Metushelah lived after he begot Lemekh eighty-two years and seven hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters.

27  And all the days of Metushelah were sixty-nine years and nine hundred years,

then he died.

28. When Lemekh had lived eighty-two years and a hundred years, he begot a son.

29  He called his name: Noah! saying:  

Zeh yenahamenu/  May this-one comfort-our-sorrow

from our soil, from the pains of our hands

coming from the soil, which YHWH has damned.

 

[P&H] comfort.  See III,17.  Only as long as Adam lived was the earth under a curse; and as, according to the chronology of this chapter, Adam, his birth becomes the presage of a new age to mankind (B. Jacob).  Instead of ‘comfort us’, Rashi translates ‘shall give us rest’—referring to the invention  of the plough, that was attributed to Noah, by which human labour was much lightened.

 

[RA] This one will console us.  As usual, the sound-play on the name Noah, which lacks the final mem of the word for “console,” naem, is loose phonetic association.  What the nature of the consolation might be is a cloudier issue.  Rashi’s proposal that Noah was the inventor of the plow has scant support in the subsequent text.  Others, more plausibly, have linked the consolation with Noah’s role as the first cultivator of the vine.  the idea that wine provides the poor man respite from his drudgery (see Proverbs 31:6-7) is common enough in the biblical world.  Wine, then, might have been thought of as a palliative to the curse of hard labor, which is also the curse of the soil: the language of Genesis 3:17-18 is explicitly echoed here.

 

 

the pain in our hands’ work. Most translations render this as “our toil, our work” or something equivalent.  But the second term ‘itsavon, does not mean “labor” but rather “pain,” and is the crucial word at the heart of Adam’s curse and Eve’s.  Given that allusion, the two terms in the Hebrew—which reads literally, “our work and the pain of our hands”—are surely to be construed as a hendiadys, a pair of terms for a single concept indicating “painful labor.”  It should be noted that the “work of our hands” is a common biblical collocation while “pain of our hands” occurs only here, evidently under the gravitational pull of “work” with which it is paired as a compound idiom.  Equally noteworthy is that the word ‘itsavon appears only three times in the Bible (other nominal forms of the root being relatively common)—first for Eve, then for Adam, and now for Noah.

 

30  And Lemekh lived after he begot Noah ninety-five years and five hundred years, and begot (other) sons and daughters.

31  And all the days of Lemekh were seventy-seven years and seven hundred years,

then he died.

 

[EF]  seventy-seven years and seven hundred years. As in 4:24, a man named Lemekh is linked to multiples of seven.

 

32  When Noah was five hundred years old,

Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Yefet.

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[Straight Text, No Commentary]

ROBERT ALTER’S THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES

GENESIS

This is the book of the lineage of Adam: On the day God created the human, ion the image of God He created him. Male and female He created them, and He blessed them and called their name humankind n the day they were created. And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years and begot in his likeness by his image and called his name Seth. And the days of Adam after he begot Seth were eight hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters. And all the days Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years. Then he died. And Seth lived a hundred and five years and he begot Enosh. And Seth lived after he begot Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and he begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years. Then he died. And Enosh lived ninety years and he begot Kenan. And Enosh lived after he begot Kenan eight hundred and fifteen years, and he begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years. Then he died. And kenan lived seventy years and he begot Mahalalel. And Kenan lived after he begot Mahalalel. And Kenan lived seventy years and he begot Mahalalel. And Kenan lived after he begot Mahalalel eight hundred and forty years, and he begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten year. Then he died. And Mahalalel lived sixty-five years and he begot Jared. And Mahalalel lived after he begot Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and he begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Mahalalel were eight hundred and ninety-five years. Then he died. And Jared lived a hundred and sixty-two years and he begot Enoch. And Jared lived after he begot Enoch eight hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Jared were nine hundred and sixty-two years. Then he died. And Enoch lived sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God and he was no more, for God took him. And Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty-seven years and he begot Lamech. And Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty-seven years and he begot Lamech. And Methuselah lived after he begot Lamech seven hundred and eighty-two years and he begot a son. And he called his name Noah, as to say, “This one will console us for the pain of our hand’s work from the soil which the LORD cursed.” And Lamech lived after he begot Noah five hundred and ninety-five years, and he begot sons and daughters. And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred and seventy-seven years. Then he died. And Noah was five hundred years old and he begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth