Ver. 1. This is the book of the generations.] Sepher, a ciphering of their names, acts, and accidents; that we might know, first, who were Christ’s progenitors; secondly, by whom the Church was continued; thirdly, how long the old world lasted, viz., one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years. Whence some have grounded a conjecture, that the year of Christ one thousand six hundred and fifty-six will bring forth some strange alteration in the world. Others think the world will be then at an end, and they base this on this chronogram, MunDi ConfLagratIo. In the likeness of God made he him.] This is much inculcated, that it may be much observed, and we much humbled, that have parted with so fair a patrimony; striving as much as may be to recover it in Christ, who being “the express image of his Father’s person,” is both apt and able to renew that lost image of God in us, by his merit and Spirit, by his value and virtue. דפס Alsted, Chron., p. 494. απαυγασμα και χαρακτηρ. (Hebrews 1:3)
Ver. 2. Male and female created he them.] The Jews at this day have base conceits of women: as that they have not so divine a soul as men; that they are of a lower creation, made only for the propagation and pleasure of man, &c. And therefore they suffer them not to enter the synagogue, but appoint them a gallery without. Thus “they err, not knowing the Scriptures.” (Matthew 22:29) [See Trapp on “Ge 2:22”] Blunt’s Voyage, p. 122.
Ver. 3. Adam lived one hundred and thirty years, and begat.] This was a great trial to his faith, to wait so long for a better issue, when the Cainites spread abroad, erected cities, and perhaps meditated monarchies. After his own image.] Corruptus corruptum. For “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?” says Job. (Job 14:4) “That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” (John 3:6) saith our Saviour, and we can say no better of it. This is hard to persuade men to; for each one is apt to think his own penny as good silver: and a dead woman will have four to carry her forth, as the proverb has it. The Pharisee, bad enough though he be, yet is very braggardly of his good estate to Godward: And Novatus cries out, Non habeo, Domine, quod mihi ignoscas. How much better St Augustine, Ego admisi, Domine, unde tu damnare potes me; sed non amisisti, unde tu salvare potes me. One has destroyed me, but from you is my help—my safety here, and salvation hereafter. Lord I am hell, but you are heaven, as that martyr once said, &c. “One depth called upon another”; (Psalms 42:7) the depth of my misery, the depth of thy mercy. Heaven denies me; earth groans under me; hell gapes for me: help, Lord, or your servant perishes. “Wash me throughly from my iniquity, and purge me from my sin”; (Psalms 51:2) whether that imputed to me, inherent in me, or issuing from me. Bp. Hooper.
Ver. 4. He begat sons and daughters.] Philo and Epiphanius give him twelve sons; Beda thirty sons, and as many daughters.
Ver. 5. Nine hundred and thirty years.] Till the fifty-sixth year of the patriarch Lamech. In all which time he doubtless instructed his good nephews in all those great things which himself had learned from God’s mouth, and “proved” in his own experience “what that good, and holy, and acceptable will of God was”. (Romans 12:2) Moreover, out of his mouth, as out of a fountain, flowed whatsoever profitable doctrine, discipline, skill, and wisdom is in the world. And he died.] This is not in vain so often iterated in this chapter; for there is in us by nature a secret conceit of immortality, and we can harldy be beaten out of it. That all must die, every man will yield; but that he may live yet, a day longer at least, there is none but hopes. We can see death in other men’s brows, but not in our own bosoms. It must make forcible entry, and break in violently. God must “cut” men “in twain,” [διχοτομησει, Matthew 24:51] and tear their souls from their bodies, ere they will yield to die. The best are too backward, and would not “be unclothed, but clothed upon,” (2 Corinthians 5:4) if they might have their will. Moses himself prays, “Lord, teach us so to number our days, that we may apply,” or, as the Hebrew hath it, that we may cause “our hearts” to come “to wisdom.” (Psalms 90:12) Cause them to come, whether they will or not; for naturally they hang off, and would not come to any such bargain. How needful is it therefore to be told us, that Adam died, that Seth, Enos, and Cainan died, &c.; that this may be as a handwriting on the wall, to tell us that we must also die, and come to judgment.
Ver. 6. And begat Enos,] that is, Sorry-man, which was appellatio a dolore. Nomen cure re convenit. Homo enim est animal aerumnis plenum, imo ipsa aerumna, et calamitas, ut est apud Herodotum [See Trapp on “Ge 5:9”].
Ver. 7. Eight hundred and seven years.] [See Trapp on “Ge 5:20”]
Ver. 8. And he died.] [See Trapp on “Ge 5:5”] Omnes una manet nox: Et calcanda semel via lethi Death is the way of all flesh, saith David: of all the world, says Joshua. (Joshua 23:14) On this condition came I into the world, said Socrates, that I might go out again, when called for. Horat. Sen., Ep. xxv.
Ver. 9. Enos begat Cainan.] Enos, that is, Sorry-man, begat Cainan, that is, A man of sorrows. Thus the fathers, though long-lived, were not unmindful of their mortality and misery.
Ver. 10. And begat sons and daughters.] Epiphanius in his Leptogenesis, as he calls it, will tell you how many: but you are not bound to believe him.
Ver. 11. And he died.] This final account is given in of them all, though never so dear to God. And it puts me in mind of a speech of Theodosius the good emperor; -It is no news that a man dies: but that a man, dead in trespasses and sins, rises again by repentance to a life well pleasing to God, this is a marvellous matter, a just wonder. [See Trapp on “Ge 5:5”] [See Trapp on “Ge 5:8”] Niceph. Callist.
Ver. 12. And begat Mahalaleel,] i.e., Praised be God; a good name; imminding him of a good duty. God is to be incessantly praised for his excellency, thanked for his benefits. “Thou art good, and doest good.”
Ver. 13. And begat sons and daughters.] Everything is generative of itself, says the philosopher. And, that man is unworthy to be born, of whom another is not born, says the orator. Propriissimum opus viventis est, generare sibi simile.— Arist.
Ver. 14. Nine hundred and ten years.] A long while to live: sed nemo propter canos et annos, diu vixit.
Ver. 15. And begat Jared,] i.e., One that is going down, sc., to the dust of death: for, to live, is but to lie a-dying: every day we yield somewhat to death, and a man’s cradle stands in his grave.
Ver. 16. And begat.] [See Trapp on “Ge 5:13]
Ver. 17. And he died.] Mors, omnibus finis, multis remedium, quibusdam votum. It was so doubtless to these holy patriarchs, more willing to die, than ever they had been to dine.
Ver. 18. And he begat Enoch,] i.e., Dedicated, and catechised. Consecrated he was to God, and accordingly brought up “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” (Ephesians 6:8) What wonder then that he became eminent and outstanding in holiness!
Ver. 19. And Jared lived after he begat Enoch.] He lived the longer, likely, for the great content he took in so good a son. Towardly and hopeful children do help to lengthen their parents’ days. God therefore lengtheneth theirs, according to that “first commandment with promise.” (Ephesians 6:2) Or, if he take from them this long lease, he gives them, as he did Enoch, a freehold of a better value.
Ver. 20. Nine hundred sixty and two years.] Rabbi Livi citing Genebrardus, the longevity of the patriachs was the work of providence, not the result of nature. Rabbi Levi, citante Genebrardo, longevitatem patriarcharum opus providentiae, non natarae appellat Their children also, that they waited so long for, were not more the issue of their bodies, than of their faith. Genebr., Chron.
Ver. 21. And begat Methuselah,] that is, Death’s dart, or piercing death (death is a skilful archer, that never misseth the mark it shoots at); or, He once dead, in comes the dart, i.e., the deluge: and so it did, even in the very year of his death: though the Septuagint miscounts, and make him to live fourteen years after the flood.
Ver. 22. And Enoch walked with God,] i.e., he walked in the fear of the Lord, as the Chaldee here paraphraseth: and this he did without intermission, not for a time or two, but continually, constantly: he walked with God by a humble familiarity, and a holy conformity; as a man doth with his friend. To walk with God, before God, and after God, are much at one. [See Trapp on “Ge 5:24”]
Ver. 23. All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years.] So many years only lived Enoch as there be days in the year. But what he wanted in the shortening of his time, was made up in his son Methuselah, the longest living man. Besides that, God took him to a better place, transplanted (Song of Solomon 6:2) him, as it were out of the kitchen garden into his heavenly paradise; which was not more to his own benefit, than to the comfort of the other patriarchs that survived him, before the fear of death, and the crosses of life. Seth in Enoch (whatever discouragement they had in Abel’s death) they had a hidden demonstration that “there is a reward for the righteous,” and that it is not altogether in vain to walk with God. “To gather lilies,” i.e., to transplant his people into heaven.
Ver. 24. And Enoch walked with God.] And so “condemned the world”: (Hebrews 11:7) first, by his life; secondly, at his death. By his life, in that he kept a constant counter-motion to the corrupt courses of the times; not only not swimming down the stream with the wicked, but pronouncing God’s severe judgment against them, even to the extreme curse of Anathema Maranatha, as St Jude tells us (Jude 1:14) Secondly, by his death he condemned them: in that so strange a testimony of God’s grace and glory, in his wonderful translation, did not affect and move them to amend their evil manners. The heathens had heard somewhat afar off, concerning this candidate of immortality, as the ancients call him, and thence grounded their apotheoses. Eupolemon saith that their Atlas was Enoch, as their Janus was Noah. And how fitly are the Papists called heathens by St John. (Revelation 11:2) Since, besides their Atlas of Rome, on whose shoulders the whole Church, that new heaven, must rest, there was at Ruremund, in Gilderland, a play acted by the Jesuits, anno 1622, under the title of the “Apotheosis of St Ignatius.” Alsted, Chron., p. 85. Gentes sunt Antichristus cum suis asseclis.— Paraeus. Jac. Revil., Hist. Pontif. Rom., p. 309. Sil. Ital.
Ver. 25. And begat Lamech,] i.e., Poverty: but yet he was endued with the gift of prophecy. (Genesis 5:29) He might be “ Nudus opum, sed cui coelum terraeque paterent.” We used to call them poor souls, whom we pity: but a man may have a rich soul, in a poor condition. (Revelation 2:9)
Ver. 26. And Methuselah lived.] But had the less joy of his longest life, because he lived in the very rust of that iron age; and so felt ultima senescentis mundi deliria, the utmost dotages of that decrepit old world.
Ver. 27. And all the days of Methuselah.] He lived longest of any, yet wanted thirty-one years of a thousand. Oecolampadius thinks there was a mystery in this, that they all died short of a thousand, which is a type of perfection; to teach us, says he, that live we never so long here, and grow we never so fast in grace, we cannot possibly be perfect, till we get to heaven. Enoch lived long in a little time; and foreseeing the flood, named his son Methuselah; that is to say, he dies, and the dart (or flood) comes. And so it happened; for no sooner was his head laid, but in came the flood. “The righteous are taken away from the evil to come.” (Isaiah 57:1) And their death is a sad presage of an imminent calamity. Hippo could not be taken while Augustine lived, nor Heidelberg while Paraeus. Semen sanctum statumen terrae (Isaiah 6:13) The holy seed upholdeth the state. Absque stationibus non staret mundus “The innocent shall deliver the island, and it is delivered by the pureness of thy hands,” (Job 22:30) whereas, “one sinner destroyeth much good.” (Ecclesiastes 9:18) Ambrose is said to have been “the walls of Italy.” Stilico the earl said, that his death did threaten destruction to that country. “ Hic patria est, murique urbis stant pectore in uno.” Nemo patriarcharum mille annos complevit, quia numerus iste typum habeat perfectionis. Hic nulla perfectio pietatu.— Oecolampad. Junius. Tertul. Paulin. Nolan., in Vita Ambros. De Fablo Cunctatore, Sil.
Ver. 28. And Lamech.] [See Trapp on “Ge 5:25”]
Ver. 29. This same shall comfort us.] Herein a figure of Christ. And Peter Martyr thinks that Lamech was in hope that this son of his would have been the Christ. A pardonable error, proceeding from an earnest desire of seeing his day, whom their souls loved, and longed for: “Greeting the promise afar off,” (Hebrews 11:13) and “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” (Luke 2:25) ασπασαμενοι
Ver. 30. Five hundred, &c.] And yet if one had asked old Lamech, as he in Gerson did an old Frenchman, Quot annos habes? How many years old are you? he might have answered as there, Annos non habeo, I reckon not upon any years: but death has avoided me these five hundred and odd years.
Ver. 31. And he died.] Death is that mistress of the world that will not be courted, nor yet cast off, by any. Hesiod may tell of Nectar and Ambrosia, the sweet wines of the gods, that will make men immortal. Pliny may prattle of the herb Moly, which hath virtue to make an old man young. Historians may write of certain fortunate islands where men live to an incredible age. But where lives that man that sees not death at length? [See Trapp on “Ge 5:5”] [See Trapp on “Ge 5:8”] [See Trapp on “Ge 5:17”]
Ver. 32. And Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.] Twenty years had he heard from God, that the world should be destroyed, before he had any child. Here was “the faith and patience of this saint.” (Revelation 13:10) At length he hath Japheth first; though Shem be first named, because he was in dignity preferred before his brother, to be grandfather to the Messiah. Now any relation to Christ ennobleth either place or person. If it were an honour to Mark to have been Barnabas’s sister’s son, what is it then to be related to the Son of God? Bethlehem, where he was born, though it were least, says Micah; yet it was not the least, says Matthew, among all the cities of Judah, because out of it should come Christ the Governor. (Micah 5:2 Matthew 2:6)