The Sons of Seth

The next genealogy in the Bible is the line from Seth to Noah. The major difference between this genealogy and Cain’s genealogy is the ages provided for both the age at the birth of the next son in the family line and the age at death for each patriarch.

Genesis 5:3-32 ³And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat (a son) in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: ⁴and the days of Adam after he begat Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters. ⁵And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died. ⁶And Seth lived a hundred and five years, and begat Enosh: ⁷and Seth lived after he begat Enosh eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: ⁸and all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died. ⁹And Enosh lived ninety years, and begat Kenan. ¹⁰and Enosh lived after he begat Kenan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: ¹¹and all the days of Enosh were nine hundred and five years: and he died. ¹²And Kenan lived seventy years, and begat Ma-hal’alel: ¹³and Kenan lived after he begat Ma-hal’alel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters: ¹⁴and all the days of Kenan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died. ¹⁵And Ma-hal’alel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: ¹⁶And Ma-hal’alel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: ¹⁷and all the days of Ma-hal’alel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died. ¹⁸And Jared lived a hundred sixty and two years, and begat Enoch: ¹⁹and Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: ²⁰And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died. ²¹And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methu’selah: ²²and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: ²³and all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: ²⁴and Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. ²⁵And Methu’selah lived a hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech: ²⁶and Methu’selah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters. ²⁷And all the days of Methu’selah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died. ²⁸And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: ²⁹and he called his name Noah, saying, ‘This same shall comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, (which cometh) because of the ground which Jehovah hath cursed.’ ³⁰And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: ³¹And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died. ³²And Noah was five hundred years old: And Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (ASV)

The obvious major difference between these two genealogies is the amount of space given to each of them. Cain’s genealogy consists of 6 verses and 131 words, while Seth’s genealogy consists of 30 verses and 464 words. The ages given are the next major difference. There is also the conspicuous lack mention in Seth’s line of any women by name other than Eve, but even her name is only mentioned in an earlier chapter. As far as Seth is concerned, she is not mentioned by name but I believe it is implied that Eve was his mother and that is also what every Jewish text on the subject I have read believes or implies as well.

In Seth’s genealogy also, the writer took special care to tell us, that even though only one son was mentioned, that in each case, including Adam, the individual had many other sons and daughters. How many is never given, but with the long lives they lived, well over one hundred would not be impossible for any one of the patriarchs. After all Noah was still having sons at age 500. We also know that when sons are listed in the Biblical genealogies, it is never in birth order, but rather in order of their importance to the genealogical line.

This fact brings up a curious point about Noah’s three sons. The text says:  ³²And Noah was five hundred years old: And Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth. I once read a commentary that suggested that this passage says that Shem, Ham, and Japheth were triplets, because the literal translation here says that Noah had all three sons when he was 500. There is no Biblical evidence to support this; in fact there is a passage that actually disputes this.

Genesis 10:21 ²¹And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder. (NKJV)

Genesis 10:21 clearly states that one brother was older than the other, although which was the eldest is also debatable as some versions, such as the one above says that Japheth was the eldest, but other versions such as American Standard Version shown below, says that Shem was the eldest:

Genesis 10:21 ²¹And unto Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the elder brother of Japheth. (ASV)

Of course the argument here is that one was older only by birth order, not by years, but I think that is a long stretch of the facts and intent of the writer. If they were triplets, I think there birth would have been recorded in much the same way that Esau’s and Jacob’s birth was recorded. Even though the three brothers are almost always listed as Shem, Ham, and Japheth, I believe this passage suggests that Ham was the youngest of the three, but anytime you say the three names in sequence, Shem, Ham, and Japheth just seems to roll off the tongue easier. Whether Shem or Japheth was the oldest cannot be known with certainty; however, the majority of translations suggest Shem was the elder, so in my fiction books (http://thewitnesschronicles.com/WC_Books.htm) I always put Shem as the eldest, then Japheth, then Ham. One more point regarding Noah and his sons, is that there is no mention of Noah having other sons or daughters as with the others before him. But given the fact that he was 500 before the other three were born, I can’t imagine he lived 500 years and did not have other sons and daughters before this time. So that leaves us with two possibilities; one, Noah had no children before his 500th year, or two, none of his other children were worthy of following in his footsteps, i.e., they did not follow the ways of Seth, and so only those born after Noah began to build the Ark were allowed to go in.

One last point of interest before we leave this topic. In the Line of Seth, there are two names that are often confusing. The first is the name of Kenan or Cainan. Different Bible translations spell this name differently and as hard as I have tried to find out why, I have not come up with a good answer to this. Therefore we simply must conclude that it is just a matter of preference, but either way, Kenan and Cainan are one in the same person. Cainan; however, cannot in anyway be confused with Cain as he was obviously born several generations. Since Kenan’s death is recorded in at the age of 910 in verse 5:14, he also cannot be confused with Canaan as some have tried to suggest. The other confusing name is of course the name of Lemech. There is a Lemech mentioned in both the line of Cain and the line of Seth, but once again we have two different spellings in various translations that are often used to distinguish between the two. The descendant of Cain is almost always spelled Lemech, but the descendant of Seth is spelt as either Lemech or Lamech. I always use the Lamech version for Noah’s father to ensure they are kept straight, however the below chart can help to clarify this by generation as well.

Similarities in Names between the Sons of Cain and the Sons of Seth

The one thing that often confuses people when reading this part of the Bible is the fact that so many of the names in Cain’s and Seth’s genealogies seem to be the same. Below is a chart by generation to help clarify the two genealogies. It is clear that the due to the difference in generations, the two lines are quite distinct from one another.

Generations of Cain and Seth

Generation	Line of Seth	Line of Cain
1st	Adam	Adam
2nd	Seth	Cain
3rd	Enosh	Enoch
4th	Kenan	Irad
5th	Ma-hal’alel	Mehujael
6th	Jared	Methushael
7th	Enoch	Lemech
8th	Methu’selah	Jabal, Jubal, Tubal-Cain, Naamah
9th	Lamech
10th	Noah
11th	Shem, Japheth, Ham

 

To read more of my essays on Genesis or to learn more about my fiction series, The Witness Chronicles, based on the stories in Genesis, visit my website at http://thewitnesschronicles.com.