Category: Genesis

[Note: I am finding the King James Version to not be doing what is needed here and I am switching to my own presentational pastiche. Time will tell if I will return to the KJV or stick with this mishmash.]

9¹ God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them,”Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. ² All the animals on earth shall dread and fear you—beasts of the field, foul of the heavens, crawling creatures, and fish of the sea. They are in your hand. ³ Every living thing that moves shall be your food, just as you were to eat green plant life. Everything is yours. ⁴ But, you shall not eat meat with its blood, its life, still in it. ⁵ I will require your blood for human blood you shed, animals blood for human blood, and your blood for your brother’s blood. I will demand satisfaction for the taking of human life.

⁶ The one who sheds human blood
will have their blood shed by humans,
for in the image of God
were humans made.

⁷ And you, be fruitful and multiply,
swarm through the earth and hold sway.”

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In early creation stories ’adam is a vegetarian namer of animals. This next creation story has a second ’adam (Noah) authorized to be omnivore predator of animals who, at base, are fearful of humans (notwithstanding the domestication of some species for pets, food animals, and work animals.

Along with this shift in diet and violent dominion-ship, there is the introduction of retributive justice different than a protective mark for Cain. It suggests that murder is a too-easy choice for humans. Though Noah follows in the line of Seth, at the least there is a recessive Cain gene that is carried along upon which a propensity for murder is lodged within each person. If you want an “original sin,” murder, the first act in this world East of Eden, is as good a source as any. Thus a need for an external control mechanism on murders—the antithesis of “be fruitful and multiply.”

This controller of retributive justice is lined out by a poetic form that mirrors the content: spilled; blood; of a human; by a human; this human’s blood; shall be spilt.

Noting that humans are in the image of G*D, does not strengthen this rule of retribution. This rationale has never stopped a war. In war, those we are murdering are designated as the opposite of G*D’s image and therefore we are exempt from a rule to keep our inner-Cain contained.

Different versions of the Masoretic text conclude this poem differently. Some say, “holds sway over the earth” and some repeat the end of the previous phrase and say, “multiply.” The near relationship of these to concepts is very colonial in nature—to multiply is to hold sway or have dominion over. Pre-flood, indiscriminate multiplying (sons of god and daughters of humans) led to behavior worthy of destruction. Post-flood, the language of “be fruitful and multiply” feels more like a curse than those same words at the end of Day Six (Genesis 1:28), where it is a blessing.

8¹⁵ And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.

¹⁸ And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, and every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark.

²⁰ And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

²¹ And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.

²² While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

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Even though the waters receded and the ground was dry, yet Noah waited until there was direction given to exit the ark. What G*D saw in Noah as “blameless in his time” does not seem to include a direct relationship. There is revelation given and response made, but no conversation. The new creation does not have a “cool of the evening” aspect to it.

What is now said to Noah is an announcement of a time of re-seeding the earth (land and water) with what had been stored on the ark, including all that is not mentioned—seeds and aquariums (freshwater and saltwater).

There is no mention of what may be Noah’s first independent action—building an altar and presenting burnt offerings. The last mention of an offering to G*D did not include an altar, nor was burning mentioned—just an “offering” by Cain and Abel.

As one who does appreciate the burnt edges of casseroles and ribs, I can understand a resultant sense of beneficence from just the odor of burnt food—flavor is on its way. Even so, it is a significant jump from regret and flood to an aromatic offering and a pledge of allegiance.

A connection between these responses is marked by the same formula of “the Lord” and “heart.” In the first instance, G*D’s heart was grieved. That grief is now assuaged by the odor of a burnt offering? Overeaters Anonymous may be a helpful interpretive tool. Using food as a response to grief or loss is both very much of the earth (human) and suspect as motivation for change.

One learning is to recognize that a ritual offering is not a place for thoughtful decision-making. Its opposite impulse of relief cannot offset the impulse of grief.

A jaded thought raised: if G*D’s not going to be responsible for the equivalent of a next flood, G()D will also not keep such from occurring at the hand of Noah’s descendants. Seedtime and harvest may yet cease, and G*D’s heart again be grieved at the personal and environmental pollution of a profit-driven economic system such as capitalism.

8¹ And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.

⁴ And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.

⁵ And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen.

⁶ And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made:

⁷ And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth.

⁸ Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark.

¹⁰ And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.

¹² And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more.

¹³ And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried .

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It is recorded that G*D “remembered” Noah. An unasked question is whether Noah “remembered” G*D while the waters rose, at some indeterminate amount of time above the peaks, or during their long ebbing.

Through all of the flood, as before it was announced, there is no indication that Noah returns praise to G*D. Noah simply does what he understands as necessary. In the first place, Noah simply follows a command. Subsequently, Noah builds, gathers, boards, cares for, and comes to rest on a mountain top.

With Moses (yet another ’adam?), rituals will be instituted, but Noah appears to be a Jerzy Kosiński character from Being There, Chance the gardener. For now, the last offering we know about is that of Cain and Abel, and that didn’t turn out all that well.

The earth East of Eden has now been thoroughly washed and dried. Though the waters above and below abide, the surface of the earth is dry and ready for Creation 3.0.

In this prose telling there are two words used for “dry” in verses 13 and 14. In other poetic settings, they are used in parallel to suggest a drying up and then a complete dryness. This takes us back to Creation 2.0 in terms of structure. However, we are not at a complete remake. The genealogy that leads to Noah’s story still holds. We are still working with the same genetic material.

One implication of this restart is that G*D is also continuing outside of Eden and is as subject to evolution and learnings as is the rest of creation.

For now, G*D and Noah continue along parallel paths but are not interacting.

G*D has remembered. Will Noah remember and, if so, how will that be expressed?

7⁶ And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.

⁸ Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

¹⁰ And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³ In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.

¹⁷ And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

²¹ And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

²⁴ And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

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That which was brought into existence in six Days is reversed in forty. There are many echoes, here, of the 1st creation story. It is probably worth skimming the first chapter again.

One of the key phrases in the creation story is “be fruitful and multiply.” With the multiplication of the waters, flooding everything back to where it had once not been, this phrase is effectively reversed—”multiply and wipe out.” (Later this will be the mantra of entering an already occupied land.)

Readers are reminded to hearken back to what they have previously heard (connecting their eye for reading to their ear for listening to what was written). In so doing, they will know good and not-good available for application in their context. Additionally, such contrasts provide an openness beyond the present to what yet might arrive. In this case, we are hearing a forty-day prelude to the context for a new creation.

Including this prelude and subsequent removal of the water for a second time, opening space, creating an arc of space for an ark of life, we will have slightly more than a year’s time. Though the time frame is significantly longer and there is not a need to repeat the creation of species being carried along, we are in the midst of a next creation story. With the potential of a nuclear winter or hothouse climate disaster, the time frame of yet a next creation will be much longer than a year. Storing food for a year will seem like child’s play.

In the context of such mythical realities as creation, deconstruction, next creation, next deconstruction, we don’t need to speculate about species that don’t live as long as it took the waters to come and go (how did mosquitoes make it through the flood?), what an aquarium of cosmic proportions was made of before there was glass, or other flood questions. What we might have is a moment of thankfulness for what has been and spend more than a moment in thought regarding a next better iteration than our current limits.

7¹ And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

² Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

⁴ For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

⁵ And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.

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The instructions for ark building have been pretty straight-forward. Vacation Bible Schools can still impress children with outlining the dimensions. G*D’s longest speech so far in Genesis has been carried out, Noah did what he heard he was to do.

G*D’s details continue. From “on your mark” to “get set,” Noah hears, “Go!” The requisite animals and birds are boarded (and possibly insects and heritage seeds and and two aquariums—the extra water may make the sea not salty enough for sea creatures and leave it still too salty for freshwater fish). This task takes a symbolic seven days (a new creation’s worth of time). Even if looked at literally, absent the institution of a Sabbath ritual, we don’t know if this is simply a random 7-day period or a significant Sabbath-to-Sabbath time.

What is told is a mathematic story problem. Given the volume of space from sea level to the highest peak of the time, minus the volume of land in this time period, how much water will it take to fill this amount of space? For extra credit, with what speed must the water flow to fill this space in 40 days and nights (give your answer in liters per hour)? For extra extra-credit, given the different volumes from sea-level to one-third the height of the tallest mountain, then from one-third the height to two-thirds the height of that same mountain, and then from two-thirds to peak, how far up the mountain would the water be at the end of day 20?

This story problem is for an inquiring reader as Noah asks no questions, not even about the order of boarding or which deck-mates will ease the feeding schedule or manure clean-up process. A similar question about placing predator and prey on separate decks does not occupy Noah. All we hear about the projected destruction is that Noah followed orders.

G*D is not ready for bargaining, as Abraham would later do. Noah is not prepared for Nuremberg-type questions regarding responsibility beyond the following of orders. These realities indicate how mythologically readers must engage this episode.

6¹¹ The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

¹³ And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it.

¹⁷ And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die.But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

¹⁹ And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them.

²² Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.

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Having been introduced to G*D’s regret and had this marked with a brief genealogy, we now emphasize the import of G*D’s response with a more detailed telling of the source of the regret and a second pronouncement not allowing regret to have the last word.

Earth is another way of talking about ’adam (a generic human)—they are the foreground and background of one another.

The corruption of one is the outrage of the other. ’Adam is outraged, pained, at the corruption of the ground East of Eden. Tilling is now work, not vocation. Earth is outraged, pained, at the corruption of humans only seeing its beauty and enslaving it as only utilitarian.

This mutual outrage and pain cannot be hidden. Likewise, it seems incapable of being overcome by either or both parties. They have lost touch with one another, become competitors, and even enemies.

Since Earth and Human are so intimately intertwined, there is no choosing one over the other. They either run each other into lifeless ground or benefit one another. Lacking what seems to be a process to listen to one another for their respective experience of good and not-good, G*D’s decision is to be rid of both.

The way out chosen does privilege Noah (a second ’adam) over Earth. Collecting the animals, two-by-two, is a recapitulation of the dominion and naming functions of ’adam. The vault of Heavens is shrunk to mere cubits. While not completely destroyed, creation is diminished. There is no steering of this teensy ark, and so no destination can be anticipated. It may be East or West of a first Eden. It may be in the center of Eden as the flood takes out the fearsome cherubim and puts out a flaming sword.

Even if Noah does not eat of a Tree of Life, G*D seems intent on finding ways to keep this strange ’adam creature close.

Regret, corruption, and outrage sit on one side of an equation with a second-chance and safe-passage on another. This equation is dynamic and never seems to balance. Creation, creation reversed, next creation, next reversal, and so on. There is more than one way to skin a cherubim.

6⁵ And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

⁸ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

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The heroes of yore (heroes are necessarily good?) turn out to be powerful, but not good.

“Evil” seems to be more than has been described. It is said to be “great”. Note can be taken that a simple vocal shift can turn this from an adjective to a verb meaning “multiply.” Like heroes, multiplication is presumed as good for it is what was commanded.

Multiplication of vain imagining, of going it alone, of building cities, and mixing up what is G*D’s and what is ’adam’s seem to have no end. They become addictions, capturing an individual’s life force—captured at least through nurture, if not actual genetic change, and passed as a trait through the generations.

A heart set on itself has no room for another or an empathetic response to and interaction with them. A heart devising aggrandizement for itself is directly connected with the description of G*D’s pained heart—grieving a loss of partnership.

This grief is a response to a broken heart over the enlarged and weakened heart of humanity (both the powerful and the powerless) that brings us to a regret so large it will ultimately have to be regretted. [For extra credit: Compare and contrast “regretted” and “repented”.]

Made in the throes of regret, a decision to wipe out all of creation cannot be sustained. Even though it is in a direct line of the threat of death for tasting of good and not-good, it is now going to be enforced in a way similar to subsequent decisions made by kings who can’t take back a pronouncement for fear of losing face—a second plan attempts to mitigate the effect of a first rash decision. [For extra credit: Why is this situation regretted or repented, and changed, but not the prior one of banning ’adam and Eve* from Eden?]

An innocent yes-man was noted by G*D—Noah. Noah is as nondescript as was ’adam. This is fitting as Noah would be the first of ’adam’s line who would have been born after ’adam died. And we are back to a sense-less, pinball playing, Tommy character.

This section concludes with a mini-genealogy that Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth some 500 years later. G*D’s pained heart fed on regret for at least these 500+ years after ’adam’s death, before acting on it. (Note to the wise: beware accumulated regret, it becomes explosive.)

[Note: That was an embarrassing prior post. There was not only “intermission” in the title, but in the typing and initial jotting. It has been edited a bit.]

6¹ And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

³ And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

⁴ There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

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We have been dealing with a limited family tree. As we begin a new section, the family tree is becoming confused. Just try to follow the combinations and permutations of the sons and daughters of the main lines of the patriarchs. This is a good place to remember that the image of a family tree does not rest easily in a mythologic setting.

The setting for new difficulties begins with the injunction to be fruitful and multiply. Population growth has been exponential. Who belongs with which lineage comes too much to keep up with. Population growth continues to be problematic.

Much has been speculated about the odd phrase regarding the “sons of God” and the “daughters of man.” The connection between G*D and ’adam is one of partnership, friendship, family. Too split G*D and ’adam brings division, a separation, a suggestion of mixing and pollution of unequals.

An easy thought is to split the “sons of God” and the “daughters of man” into those descendant from Cain and Seth. Ultimately there will be no certainty as to which is which. The little information we have can support both cases. If we bring in Greek mythology with children from mixed species, parenting, this picture becomes even more confusing.

The one piece of information we have is that the age and ages of ’adam’s line is much reduced—to a maximum of 125 years. Such a reduction is one way to handle population growth. Much later, Malthus will turn this population reduction into an official theory identifying war, disease, and famine as regulators of population. The cherubim might be thought to become mobile and offensive, not just stationed in defense of a tree of life.

The Nephilim will be later described as giants in the book of Numbers. The Hebrew means “fallen ones”—fallen from the sky? fallen from the image of G*D? A shortened lifespan makes them larger than life as the ill-consequence of mixed (unclean) living will also grow with the numbers of people. These “heroes of yore” are not guardians of a galaxy, but those who see the “daughters” as desired by them and as tempting as Cain found murder as a resolution of his relationship with Abel, as tempting as Eve found the Serpent and a tree of good and not-good. Another exile can be felt to be arising.

In one short chapter and one long genealogy, we hear a post-Edenic story—’Adam set to tilling and Eve* due to labor in childbirth. These mark the pain of separation.

’Adam, to this point, has gone along and gotten along. There has been no exertion with his naming, his anesthetized sourcing of Eve*, or his taking a second-bite with no remembrance or correction of the conversation between Eve* and Serpent. There was the making of fig leaf loincloths, but that might well be attributed to Eve*’s skill at making, still visible in her later naming of Cain. Lazy ol’ ’adam is bound for the pain of blisters and muscles as he wrestles with the soil (both literal ground and his own being formed from soil). ’Adam is caught between a first dust and a second. There is pain for a loss of ease and for this current reality to continue past the present, into the future.

Eve*, to this point, has walked the Garden in the cool of the evening, been a non-lonely artifact (’ish’s ’ishah), and enjoyed the seeming besting of a sneaky serpent. There may have been a pricked finger in trying to figure out a fashionable and practical wardrobe to deal with nakedness in an environmentally comfortable context, not needing clothes. Bored and clever, Eve* now finds pleasure at being able to carry these along into the pain of transition and separation of birthing—and to do it multiple times. The pain of no children and the pain of birth finds Eve* in the midst of pain.

A firstborn is born to continue the pain of tilling; a second born is born to wander amidst a flock of animals; a third born is born to replace the dead second-born with no assigned task, but the easy piety of ’adam. Additional sons and daughters were born to be swept away.

Eve* named the firstborn, the second has no naming story, the third was named by ’adam (based on 5:3). The line named by Eve* will come to an end (unless you speculate that Noah’s unnamed wife was a descendant of Cain). The line named by ’adam will continue as our story—Mr. Milquetoast will become Mr. Patriarch. At this point, try a thought experiment: What would it have meant to be part of the line of naive Abel? Would that be different than Seth’s line, primarily pious?

Whether of Abel or Seth, what would it mean to be, like Noah, a consoler of pains of separation? Is there comfort available for the grief of a loss of innocence and a living in chaotic times with no guarantee of a safe vault to live within? Even further, not only no guarantee but doomed to death?

4²⁵ And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew. And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.

5¹ This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth: And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters: And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

⁶ And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos: And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.

⁹ And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan: And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.

¹² And Cainan lived seventy years and begat Mahalaleel: And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.

¹⁵ And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared: And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.

¹⁸ And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch: And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.

²¹ And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

²⁵ And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech. And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

²⁸ And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son: And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed. And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.

³² And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

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With he prowess of Lamech established, we return to ’adam and Eve* and the birth of Seth—a granted gift different from Eve*’s construction of Cain and his subsequent lineage that includes an Enoch… and Methusael and Lamech. Seth is seen as a replacement for Abel and through whom the storyline will continue.

A question lingers on as to whether YHWH is introduced in the third generation of Seth’s line with Enosh or much later with Moses. Both claims are made.

With a formal genealogy of ’adam we now follow Seth (Note: begotten by ’adam, not made by Eve*). The report of the generations is formulaic in reporting deaths until we get to Enoch. This is a different Enoch than Cain’s son and the namesake of the first city. The difference is in a claim of independence from G*D and a friendship with G*D.

Seth’s descendent, Enoch, begot Methuselah who begot another Lamech. These name links between the stories of Cain and Seth remind us how connected we still are from that first ’adam in G*D’s image, male and female, and another whose rib revealed ’ishah and ’ish.

Cain’s Enoch is city oriented, separated from G*D. Seth’s Enoch is not recorded as having died, but continuing to “walk” with G*D. This walking is the same descriptor used of what G*D did in Eden’s evenings. Seth’s Enoch is intimate with G*D and lives 365 years, a full solar year of years. There are echoes here of the seventh generation after ’adam with the seventh Mesopotamian king before the flood also being taken up with his gods. This Enoch begets Methuselah who lives 995 years, as close to an ideal millennium as anyone gets.

Cain’s Lamech is the end of a line of selfish independence. Seth’s Lamech lived a numerically significant 777 years and begot Noah. When looked at as a name, we see how Noah rounds out this post-Eden genealogy. Noah’s name means he will console or comfort us in, literally, “our work and the pain of our hands.” This word about pain only appears three times—with Eve*, ’adam, and, now, Noah. We will need all the consolation we can get as, after this genealogy, we hear the death consequences of tilling and laboring. Noah will be a new ’adam, and as frailly innocent as the first ’adam. With Noah, both Eden and East of Eden will be lost track of in the reprise of watery chaos with a small protected space in its midst. Mountain tops and rainbows will lead us onward. We will have to put down any expectation of return to a fantasized innocence.