Genesis 5 & 6; Psalm 136;
Questions:
- What these long lifetimes mean?
- Did Enoch go to heaven? How if Jesus didn’t pay the price for us to go to heaven yet?
- Why does the Bible emphasize genealogies so much?
- Nephilim is translated as “giants” in Portuguese, but naphal is the Hebrew word for “to fall”.
- How the biblical flood story differs from other flood stories?
Genesis chapter 4 and chapter 5 present two descendent lines of Adam & Eve. The Seth’s line and Cain’s line.
Noah’s Genealogy, taken from “Was Noah and/or his family fully or partially descendant from Cain?”
When Seth’s line is presented, it is presented by first pointing out that Seth was made in the image and likeness of Adam (alluding to the passage that Adam was made in the image and likeness of God).
Seth’s line has righteous men like Enoch, that “walked with God” (Gen 5:24) and Noah, the one that “shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.” (Gen 5:29).
When Cain’s line is presented, we are presented with Lamech, a polygamist (Gen 4:19) and murderer (Gen 4:23).
And why does Lamech says “If Cain is avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” (Gen 4:24)?
He is referring to the promise God made to protect Cain in Gen 4:15, but God put the mark in Cain and not on his descendants as well. Thus, this is a claim Lamech is making himself. This seems to describe a progression on the effects of sin of the world.
The greater degree of vengeance might describe a progression of violence (with the crime committed being worse), a culture of retribution or Lamech’s bragging about his dominance, which emphasizes his and society’s moral decay.
Who are the sons of God and daughters of men?
Given the clear distinction of the Seth’s and Cain’s line previously, it would make sense that “sons of God” refers to the Seth’s line, specially giving the description that Seth was made in the image and likeness of Adam. Thus the daughters of men would be the Cain’s line.
If this interpretation is correct, the story seems to be about the progressive degradation of the “righteous” line, with the intermarriage symbolizing the adoption of morally evil practices of the other line, one of them polygamy (Gen 6:2), which is previously associated with violence (Lamech’s narrative).
Earth is now fully corrupted and full of violence (Gen 6:11-12). But in amidst all this chaos, there is one righteous man, Noah, that walks with God, and is blameless in his generation (Gen 6:9).