Genesis — Chapter 5

THIS IS THE BOOK OF THE GENERATION OF ADAM. — \"Book\" = catalogue, enumeration (Hebrew sepher, from saphar = to number, recount). This is the first generation from Adam to Noah; it provides the chronology of the world's first age. The purpose of this genealogy (Synopsis): (1) to trace the chronology from Adam to Noah; (2) to show that God in every age preserved His Church and piety in some persons (here in Seth's line); (3) to establish the genealogy of Christ from Noah to Adam (Luke 3:35). \"Ad similitudinem Dei\" = to God's image; abstract for concrete (Hebrews often put the antecedent for the relative).

MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM, AND CALLED THEIR NAME ADAM. — Eve too is called Adam (= human from earth). God gave both the same name to signify that spouses must be as one person in two bodies — joined not only in name but in soul and will. Second, the name Adam reminds them of their earthly origin, frailty, and mortality: \"Remember, O Adam, that thou art earth (adama) and dust, and unto dust thou shalt return.\"

AND ADAM LIVED A HUNDRED AND THIRTY YEARS AND BEGOT A SON TO HIS OWN IMAGE AND LIKENESS. — Not in original sin as Calvin explains, but in nature — in a human body and rational soul in which Seth equally with Adam bore the image of God. See commentary on Gen. 1:27.

AND ALL THE TIME THAT ADAM LIVED CAME TO NINE HUNDRED AND THIRTY YEARS, AND HE DIED. — Note: (1) From Adam to the Flood through Seth there are ten generations — this is the first age of the world. (2) These years were full solar years (twelve months each), not months — proved by Gen. 8:5; those who say they were months would require some patriarchs to have fathered children at age seven or eight. (3) From Hebrew and our Vulgate: from Adam to the Flood = 1,656 years. (4) Adam died in the 57th year of Lamech (father of Noah), 726 years before the Flood. \"AND HE DIED\" is repeated for each patriarch — reminding us all that God's sentence of death is in force: even after 930 years, he died. \"Easily does he despise all things who always thinks himself about to die\" (Jerome, Ep. 103).

AND CAINAN LIVED SEVENTY YEARS AND BEGOT MALALEEL. — Malaleel = \"praising God\" (Hebrew Mahalal-el = praise + God). Either because the son praised God continually, or because the father so named him to kindle praise of God whenever he called his son's name: \"Mahalal-el! = Praise the strong God!\"

AND HENOCH WALKED WITH GOD. — As said of Henoch twice: he lived in the continual presence and reverence of God, conforming himself to God's will in all things, as a man who walks with a beloved companion follows him everywhere. The LXX render \"pleased God.\" Targum Jerusalem: \"served Henoch before the Lord in truth.\" Note: to \"walk with God\" may also mean to exercise the priestly ministry, since priests are called those who \"walk before\" or \"minister before\" the Lord (cf. 1 Kings 2:30, 35). Henoch was a prophet: he wrote divine things cited by St. Jude in his epistle; his book perished. The book seen by Jerome, Augustine, Origen, and Tertullian was spurious.

AND HE WALKED WITH GOD, AND WAS SEEN NO MORE: BECAUSE GOD TOOK HIM. — Against Calvin (following Aben Ezra): Henoch died a sweet death and his soul was translated — this is false. The Fathers universally teach that Henoch was taken alive. Scripture says \"taken\" not \"died\"; Ecclus. 44:16 says \"he was translated into paradise\"; Paul in Heb. 11:5 says \"he was translated that he should not see death.\" Henoch was first translated to the terrestrial Paradise (still existing before the Flood); after the Flood, when Paradise was submerged, he dwells in a pleasant place prepared by God, together with Elias. Both are still alive, still mortal (not yet glorified; they will come to preach against Antichrist and be martyred). Reasons for his translation: (1) he was beloved of God and snatched from the wicked (Wisd. 4:10-14); (2) he was worthy of Paradise and continual contemplation; (3) that he might return at the end to give the Gentiles penance (Ecclus. 44:16); (4) to show what Adam lost for all by sinning.

AND HE CALLED HIS NAME NOE, SAYING: THIS SAME SHALL COMFORT US FROM THE WORKS AND LABOURS OF OUR HANDS ON THE EARTH WHICH THE LORD HATH CURSED. — \"Noe\" (Hebrew: Noah) = rest, consolation, comfort. His father Lamech named him thus prophetically: Noah would be both the comfort of the survivors of the Flood and the inaugurator of a new world. Note: From Adam to the Flood was approximately 1,656 years (from the Hebrew text and our Vulgate).