Genealogy from Adam to Noah

You will find from the Scriptures that it was common for people to name children with a meaning. Usually it would describe an attribute, an act in their lives, or something to come. A great example of this is Jesus, Whose name means salvation.

Hebrew names come from a root word, for example Adam comes from the root word ‘adomah’ which means ‘man’. This is a fitting name as he was the first man.

As we carry on throughout this genealogy, we can dig up the meanings of the names from their Hebrew roots. For time’s sake I will only give a few examples of root words, but remember what God said to us in Proverbs 25:2, "It is God's privilege to conceal things and the king's privilege to discover them."

Continuing through Genesis 5, we find Seth is next in line after Adam. Seth’s name means ‘appointed’, you will find a reference to this in Gen 4:25, where Eve says God has appointed her another son in place of Abel who had been killed by Cain.

After this we find Enosh which means ‘mortal’. The root is ‘anash’ which mean incurable, wound, grief… You can see how his name means mortal with words like that associated with it!

Next we have Kenan which means ’sorrow’. Some of these name meanings are a bit sombre, I don’t think I would like to be named sorrow! I wonder why parents would name their child that?

Next we have Mahalalel. Things get a bit brighter with the meaning of his name. The first portion ‘mahalal’ means ‘blessed’ or ‘praise’, and ‘El’ is the name for God. (When you see ‘El’ in any name it has God’s name built into it, like Daniel.) So Mahalalel means ‘the blessed God’.

Next we have Jared which means ’shall come down’. A rather odd meaning for a name? But read on and you shall see…

After this we have Enoch, which means ‘teaching’ or ‘commencement’. We know from the book of Hebrews that Enoch did not die – he was taken up by the Lord. His story is one of salvation. At 65 years old, he turned to God and walked with Him for the remainder of his 300 years of life, as a prophet proclaiming God’s judgment on a corrupt Earth.

The judgment would later come by the Great Flood in Noah’s time. There is a lot to talk about when it comes to Enoch, but I will save it for another day. I’d also love to address the reason for the long life spans in the Bible.

Next we have Methuselah. His name means ‘his death shall bring’. Methuselah’s name is actually a prophecy for the day of his death, for the Great Flood ‘his death shall bring.’

You will find a great show of Gods grace in this for Methuselah has the longest life span recorded in Scripture. God gave the world 969 years to turn from sin. But they did not.

Next we have Lamech, the root of his name means ‘despairing’. You will see the meaning of his name still evident in the English word ‘lament’.

Now last but not least, we have Noah. His name comes from the word ‘nacham’ which means ‘to bring relief’. Noah’s name means ‘comfort’ and ‘rest’.

And we’re done, from Adam all the way to Noah! Now this is where it gets good. I’m sure you will find it worthwhile.

Is the above just a genealogy filled with interesting names? Or is it something more? Now that we’ve found the root meanings of each name, let’s put them all in order:

Adam - Man
Seth - Appointed
Enosh – Mortal
Kenan – Sorrow
Mahalalel – The blessed God
Jared – Shall come down
Enoch – Teaching
Methuselah – His death shall bring
Lamech – Despairing
Noah – Comfort and rest

Put those meanings into a complete sentence and you get: Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow, (but) the blessed God shall come down teaching. His death shall bring (the) despairing comfort and rest.

And there you have it, in the names of Adam to Noah, a summary of the New Testament message – the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

For Jesus is Himself God, who came to down to Earth to teach. His sacrificial death on the cross washed away the sins of despairing man, and gave them comfort and rest.

Wow that’s great eh! I would say there is no way it could be by chance. A seemingly boring genealogy holds inside itself a short summary of the New Testament, and also holds the statement that Jesus is God.

Jesus was right when He said the whole of Scripture speaks of Him! The Bible has the fingerprint of God all over it. It has a depth that we could spend all of eternity searching. And if we search with the power of the Spirit, He will show us the wonders to be found in the Scriptures.

Thank you for spending the time to read this, and I hope it put a smile in your heart! God bless.

Michael Parson