I. The Book of the First Generations of Man, and the Glory of The
Cainites
A. The Book of the First Generations of Man
1. The reasons why Moses records the generations of Adam 1.
2. Why he so particularly gives the years, and in the case of each patriarch adds “and he died” 1-2.
3. Why Enoch is placed in the records of the dead 3-4.
- Was Enoch a sinner, and do sinners have hope of eternal life
- Of death.
a. How we are to comfort ourselves against death 5.
b. How reason views death, and how the best heathen philosophers viewed it 6.
c. The knowledge the Scriptures give us of death 6.
4. How we may be greatly profited by the book of the generations of the ancient world 7.
5. Why the book of the generations of Cain is larger than that of Seth’s 7.
- How terrible that both lines were totally destroyed, except
eight persons 8.
6. The aim of Moses in writing this book of the generations of Adam 9.
- The glory of the first world 10.
a. What was this glory 9-10.
b. Why this glory was revealed 10.
c. Profitable and interesting to meditate upon it 11.
d. The patriarchs of the first world the most holy of all martyrs 12.
B. The Glory of the Cainites
1. The Cainites greatly tormented God’s Church, especially after Adam’s death 12.
2. To what end their hatred and persecution served the holy patriarchs 13.
- Why Moses did not record the zeal of the holy fathers against
the Cainites 14.
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Why Moses gives such a short description of the deluge 15.
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The character of the first world 16.
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Luther’s lamentation over the character of the last world;
its approaching destruction, and an earnest prayer to God 16-18.
I. The Records of the Generations of Man and the Glory of The
Cainites
A. The Records of the Generations of Man.
V. 1. This is the book of the generations of Adam. 1. This chronicle has been arranged by Moses for two reasons. First, on account of the promise of the seed made to Adam; and second, on account of Enoch. Moses writes still another genealogy in the tenth chapter, after the flood, from a far different motive than the present. In the present chapter, he gives the number of the years of the righteous and adds with a special purpose in the case of each one, the words, “and he died.”
2. This little phrase may at first thought appear superfluous. After the historian has said, “All the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years,” what seems to be the use of his adding the few words, “and he died”? The statement as to the number of his years connotes also the time of his death; for had he lived longer, the additional years would have been contained in the enumeration.
Moses, however, does this with the definite purpose of pointing out the unspeakable wrath of God against sin, and the inevitable punishment of it, inflicted by him on the whole human race, on the righteous as well as on the wicked. So does the Apostle Paul pursue his argument, drawn from this very portion of the Holy Scripture: “As through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all sinned,” Rom 5, 12. This is a consequence perpetuated through all generations. Adam died, therefore Adam was a sinner. Seth died, therefore Seth was a sinner. Infants die, therefore infants partake of sin and so are sinners. This is what Moses intends to set forth when he says, concerning the whole line of patriarchs, that, though they were all sanctified and renewed by faith, yet, “they died!”