At the head of the Adamic race stands the first man, whose career is summarized in three short verses, which serve as a model for the subsequent biographies. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years. Shanah, a repetition, a return of the sun's circuit, or of similar natural phenomena; from shanah, to fold together, to repeat; hence a year (Gesenius, Furst). Cf. Latin, annus; Greek, ἐ νιαυτοì ς; Gothic, Jar, jar, jet; German, jahr; English, year—all of which "seem to carry the same thought, viz; that which comes again" (T. Lewis). "Shanah never means month" (Kalisch). And begat a son in his own likeness,—damuth (cf. Genesis 1:26)—after his image—tselem (cf. GenesisGenesis 1:26); not the Divine image in which he was himself created (Kalisch, Knobel, Alford), but the image or likeness of his own fallen nature, i.e. the image of God modified and corrupted by sin (Keil, Murphy, Wordsworth). "A supernatural remedy does not prevent generation from participating in the corruption of sin. Therefore, according to the flesh Seth was born a sinner, though he was afterwards renewed by the Spirit of grace" (Calvin). The doctrine of inherited depravity or transmitted sin has been commonly held to favor the theory which accounts for the origin of the human soul per traducem (Tertullian, Luther, Delitzsch), in opposition to that which holds it to be due to the creative power of God. Kalisch thinks the statement "Adam begat Seth in his own image ' decisive in favor of Traducianism, while Hodge affirms "it only asserts that Seth was like his father, and sheds no light, on the mysterious process of generation ('Syst. Theol.,' Part I. Genesis 3:1-24. § 2). The truth is that Scripture seems to recognize both sides of this question. Vide Psalms 51:5 in favor of Traducianism, and Psalms 139:14-16; Jeremiah 1:5 in support of Creationism, though there is much force in the words of Augustine "De re obscurissima disputatur, non adjuvantibus divinarum scripturarum certis clarisque documentis." And called his name—probably concurring in the name selected by Eve (Genesis 4:25)—Seth—Appointed, placed, substituted; hence compensation (Genesis 4:25). And the days of Adam after he had begotten—literally, his begetting—Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters. "In that primitive time the births did not rapidly follow each other—a fact which had to indicate that his having a posterity at all was conditioned by the ripeness of his faith. At the same time the lateness of paternity among these primeval men may have been partly due to a physical cause as well, "since in exact accordance with the increasing degeneracy and rankness of human life is there, in a literal sense, the increase of a numerous and wretched offspring" (Lange). And all the days that Adam—not the whole tribe (Gatterer, vide Bohlen; cf. Balgarnie, 'Expositor,' vol. 8.), "as in this case Enoch must have been taken to heaven with his whole family" (Kalisch); but the individual bearing that name—lived were nine hundred and thirty years. The remarkable longevity of the Macrobii has been explained—
1. On the supposition of its non-authenticity.
2. On the basis of its historic credibility; as attributable to—
We prefer to ascribe the longevity of these antediluvian men to a distinct exercise of grace on the part of God, who designed it to be
And he died. "The,solemn toll of the patriarchal funeral bell (Bonar). Its constant recurrence at the close of each biography proves the dominion of death from Adam onward, as an immutable law (Romans 5:11; Baumgarten, Kefi, Lange); "warns us that death was not denounced in vain against men" (Calvin); "is a standing demonstration of the effect of disobedience" (Murphy); "was intended to show what the condition of all mankind was after Adam's fall (Willet). The expression is not appended to the genealogical list of the Fathers after the Flood, doubtless as being then sufficiently understood; and it is not said of the descendants of Cain that they died, "as if the inheritance of the sons of God were not here on earth, but in death, as the days of the deaths of martyrs are held in honor by the Church as their birthdays" (Wordsworth).