Working with the information in Genesis 5, I created a table that shows how long each person from Adam to Noah lived. I used my “After Adam” (AA) dating scheme to generate the table. Examining this table provides interesting information that simply reading through the text does not:
Everyone in the list from Seth to Lamech at least theoretically had the opportunity to know Adam personally. This fact has intriguing implications especially for what Enoch likely knew and how that information probably affected him (see my post, “In the Year after Adam“). Think also how many people may have attended the “funeral” of Adam (930 AA) and what it must have been like!
Everyone listed from Adam to Lamech had the opportunity to know Enoch for at least one century during the period that he walked with God. Yet, Scripture does not say that any of these people walked with God.
Jude 14-15 does not tell us when Enoch prophesied of the Lord’s future coming in judgment. If Enoch performed that ministry prior to Adam’s death, everyone listed before Noah could have had opportunity to hear Enoch’s prophesying personally. If he began to preach that message immediately after Adam’s death, all the rest listed from Seth to Lamech could still have had more than half a century to hear his preaching because Enoch was translated 57 years after Adam’s death.
Seth was still alive when Enoch was translated (987 AA), and so were Enosh, Cainan, Mahalel, Jared, Methuselah, and Lamech. What effect must Enoch’s not being found (Heb. 11:5) have had on all those who learned of it?
In fact, Seth lived 55 years after Enoch’s translation, and the rest lived from 153 (Enosh) to 669 (Methuselah) years after Enoch’s translation. Every one of these, therefore, could have had the opportunity to perpetuate Enoch’s message for at least more than half a century.
Enosh, Cainan, Mahalel, Jared, Methuselah, and Noah’s father, Lamech, were alive when Noah was born in 1056 AA. These all were still alive until Noah was 84 (when Enosh died). Noah, therefore, had abundant time to get first hand information from and about his ancestors, especially about Enoch and his prophesying and not being found.
The flood occurred in the year 1656 AA, which means that all human beings other than Noah and those who were with him in the Ark died before man had existed for even two millennia. Noah died in 2006 AA.
I hope that this fascinating study somehow stimulates your studying the Scripture more thoroughly and profiting more from the parts of it that are often glossed over.
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