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{{Short description|Immediate generations after Adam}}
{{refimprove|date=December 2022}}
{{religious text primary|date=December 2022}}
"'''Generations of Adam'''"{{cn|date=December 2022}} is a genealogical concept recorded in {{bibleverse||Genesis|5:1}} in the [[Hebrew Bible]].{{non-primary source needed|date=December 2022}} It is typically taken as the name of [[Adam (Bible)|Adam]]'s line of descent going through [[Seth]].{{cn|date=December 2022}} Another view equates the generations of Adam with material about a second line of descent starting with [[Cain]] in Genesis 4, while Genesis 5 is taken as the "generations of Noah".{{cn|date=December 2022}}  

==Seth and Cain==
The Sethite line begins with Adam. <ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|5:3}}</ref> The Sethite line in Genesis 5 extends to Noah and his three sons.<ref>{{bibleverse|Genesis|5}}</ref> The Cainite line in Genesis 4 runs to Naamah.{{cn|date=December 2022}} The seventh generation [[Lamech (descendant of Cain)|Lamech]] descended from Cain is described as the father of [[Jabal (Bible)|Jabal]] and [[Jubal (Bible)|Jubal]] (from his first wife Adah) and [[Tubal-cain]] and [[Naamah (Genesis)|Naamah]] (from his second wife, Zillah).({{Bibleverse|Genesis|4:17-22}}; {{Bibleverse|Genesis|5}}; {{Bibleverse|Genesis|4:17-22}}; {{Bibleverse|Genesis|5:1-32}}).
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Sethite!! Cainite
|-
| [[Seth]] || [[Cain]]
|-
| [[Enos (Bible)|Enosh]]|| [[Enoch (son of Cain)|Enoch]]
|-
| [[Kenan|Cainan]] ||
|-
| [[Mahalalel|Mahalaleel]] ||
|-
| [[Jared (ancestor of Noah)|Jared]] || [[Irad]]
|-
| [[Enoch (ancestor of Noah)|Enoch]] || [[Mehujael]]
|-
| [[Methuselah]] || [[Methusael]]
|-
| [[Lamech (father of Noah)|Lamech]] || [[Lamech (descendant of Cain)|Lamech]]
|-
| [[Noah]]||[[Naamah (Genesis)|Naamah]]
|}

The Sethite line also gives ages at fatherhood and at death.{{cn|date=December 2022}} In the [[Masoretic]] text, ages at death range from 777 (Lamech) to 969 (Methuselah) (with [[Enoch (ancestor of Noah)|Enoch]] being "taken by God" at age 365 {{bibleverse||Genesis|5:23-24}}), placing the text in the category of [[longevity narratives]].{{cn|date=December 2022}} The [[Septuagint]] and [[Samaritan Pentateuch]] differ somewhat in the ages given; in the [[Septuagint]], the age at fatherhood is often 100 years later than that in the Masoretic text, extending the genealogy by several centuries.{{cn|date=December 2022}}

The 2nd-century BC [[Book of Jubilees]], regarded as non-canonical except by the [[Ethiopian Orthodox Church]] and the [[Beta Israel]],{{cn|date=December 2022}} gives the wives' names for the Sethite line:{{cn|date=December 2022}}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Husband !! Wife
|-
| Seth || Azura
|-
| Enos || Noam
|-
| Cainan || Mualaleth
|-
| Mahalaleel || Dinah
|-
| Jared || Baraka
|-
| Enoch || Edna
|-
| Methuselah || Edna
|-
| Lamech || Betenos
|-
| Noah || Emzara
|}

==Comparisons==

<onlyinclude><!-- this section is transcluded to the article 'timeline of the bible' -->
[[Form critic]]s consider the two lines as corruptions of one tradition. Both the similarities and the differences between lines are significant and do not admit simple explanation.  Still, there is a general consensus that the Cainite list was from the [[Jahwist]] source, while the Sethite was added in from the [[Priestly source]].<ref name="CBC">{{cite book | last=Viviano | first=Pauline A. | title=Genesis | publisher=Liturgical Press | publication-place=Collegeville, Minnesota | series=Collegeville Bible Commentary Series | year=1985 | isbn=978-0-8146-1370-2 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GB5BAAAACAAJ}} Republished in {{cite book | last=Viviano | first=Pauline A. | chapter=Genesis | editor-last1=Bergant | editor-first1=Dianne | editor-last2=Karris | editor-first2=Robert J. | title=The Collegeville Bible Commentary: Old Testament | publisher=Liturgical Press | series=The Collegeville Bible Commentary Series | year=1992 | orig-year=1989 | isbn=978-0-8146-2210-0 | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nj-AkOJ9wRQC&pg=PA46 | page=46-47}}</ref><ref name="SH">{{cite book | editor-last=Herzog | editor-first=Johann Jakob | editor-last2=Schaff | editor-first2=Philip | title=The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge | publisher=Funk and Wagnalls Company | volume=10 | year=1911 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YKTNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA375 | page=375-377}}</ref><ref name="EB">{{cite book | last=Cheyne | first=Thomas Kelly | year=1903 | chapter=Sethites | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EPVYAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA4411 | editor-last=Cheyne | editor-first=Thomas Kelly | editor-last2=Black | editor-first2=John Sutherland | title=Encyclopædia Biblica: A Critical Dictionary of the Literary, Political and Religious History, the Archeology, Geography, and Natural History of the Bible | publisher=[[A & C Black]] | volume=4 | pages=4411–4414}}</ref><ref name="Gene">{{cite book | last=Johnson | first=Marshall D. | date=12 July 2002 | title=The Purpose of the Biblical Genealogies: With Special Reference to the Setting of the Genealogies of Jesus | publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers | isbn=978-1-57910-274-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B3tKAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA7 | pages=7–14}}</ref>

The Sethite genealogy may also be connected to the [[Sumerian King List]].<ref name="CBC" /><ref name="SH" /><ref name="EB" /><ref name="MS">{{cite book | last=Gnuse | first=Robert K. | date=20 March 2014 | title=Misunderstood Stories: Theological Commentary on Genesis 1-11 | publication-place=Eugene, Oregon | publisher=Cascade Books | isbn=978-1-62564-007-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jMlNAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA172 | page=172-176}}</ref> Evidence for this include the solar symbolism of the seventh figure on each list (the Sumerian king [[En-men-dur-ana|Enmeduranna]] sharing his name with the city where worship of the sun god was focused, Enoch living 365 years).<ref name="CBC" />  Like Enoch, Enmeduranna's advisor Utuabzu ascended to heaven.<ref name="MS" />  [[Fritz Hommel]] further argued that [[En-men-lu-ana|Amelon]] was Enosh (both third in the list with names meaning "mankind"), that [[En-men-gal-ana|Ammenon]] was Cainan/Cain (both fourth and connected to craftsmanship), and so on; noting that the tenth in each line was a hero who survived a world flood.  Still, this position is argued against due to linguistic incompatibilities in half the names.<ref name="SH" />  Similarities between Irad and [[Eridu]] have also been pointed out.<ref>{{cite book | last=Hallo | first=William W. | title=The World's Oldest Literature: Studies in Sumerian Belles-Lettres | publisher=Brill | series=Culture and History of the Ancient Near East | year=2010 | isbn=978-90-04-17381-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WjNqb1G88b0C&pg=PA669 | access-date=5 December 2023 | pages=669ff}}</ref> [[Thomas Kelly Cheyne]] argued that the two genealogies may also be connected to a North Arabian genealogy, one reproducing the other.  Cheyne claimed that Mahalalel was a corruption of Jerahmeel, and Methuselah was a corruption of Ishmael.<ref name="EB" />  Cheyne's theories are now rejected, however.<ref>{{Cite Jewish Encyclopedia | last1=Hirsch | first1=Emil G. | last2=Barton | first2=George A. | title=Jerahmeel | volume=7 | pages=95f. | url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8585-jerahmeel}}</ref>

The following table displays the most common line of comparison between the Sethite and Cainite lines (which reverses much of the Cainite list),<ref name="CBC" /><ref name="EB" /><ref name="Gene" /><ref name="Best">{{cite book | last=Best | first=Robert MacAndrew | title=Noah's Ark and the Ziusudra Epic: Sumerian Origins of the Flood Myth | publisher=Enlil Press | year=1999 | isbn=978-0-9667840-1-5 | page=154}}<!-- This ref is a bit vestigial, only covering Kenan/Cain to Lamech in an older revision, which is covered by the other sources.  Still, better to have it and not need it than want it but not have it. --></ref> as well as North Arabian genealogy (per Cheyne),<ref name="EB" /> and the Sumerian king list.<ref name="MS" />

{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! Sethite line{{cn|date=December 2022}} !! Cainite line{{cn|date=December 2022}} !! North Arabian (Chayne)<ref name="EB" /> || Sumerian kings<ref name="MS" />
|-
| data-sort-value="1" | 1. Adam || data-sort-value="1" | 1. Adam || data-sort-value="1" | 1. [[Jerahmeel]] || data-sort-value="1" | 1. [[Alulim]] of Eridu
|-
| data-sort-value="2" | 2. Seth || data-sort-value="8" | 8. [Seth] || data-sort-value="2" | 2. Eshtaol || data-sort-value="2" | 2. [[Alalngar|Alalgar]] of Eridu
|-
| data-sort-value="3" | 3. Enosh || data-sort-value="9" | 9. [Enoch] || data-sort-value="3" | 3. [[Ishmael]] || data-sort-value="3" | 3. [[En-men-lu-ana|Enmenluanna]] of [[Bad-tibira]]
|-
| data-sort-value="4" | 4. Kenan || data-sort-value="2" | 2. Cain || data-sort-value="4" | 4. Kain || data-sort-value="4" | 4. [[En-men-gal-ana|Enmengalanna]] of Bad-tibira
|-
| data-sort-value="5" | 5. Mahalalel || data-sort-value="5" | 5. Mehujael || data-sort-value="5" | 5. Hanoch || data-sort-value="5" | 5. [[Dumuzid the Shepherd]] of Bad-tibira
|-
| data-sort-value="6" | 6. Jared || data-sort-value="4" | 4. Irad || data-sort-value="6" | 6. [[Arvad]] || data-sort-value="6" | 6. [[En-sipad-zid-ana|Ensipazianna]] of [[Larsa|Larak]]
|-
| data-sort-value="7" | 7. Enoch || data-sort-value="3" | 3. Enoch || data-sort-value="7" | 7. Jerahmeel || data-sort-value="7" | 7. [[En-men-dur-ana|Enmeduranna]] of [[Sippar]]
|-
| data-sort-value="8" | 8. Methuselah || data-sort-value="6" | 6. Methusael || data-sort-value="8" | 8. Ishmael || data-sort-value="8" | 8. [[Ubara-Tutu|Urbatutu]] of [[Shuruppak]]
|-
| data-sort-value="9" | 9. Lamech || data-sort-value="7" | 7. Lamech || data-sort-value="9" | 9. Jerahmeel || data-sort-value="9" | 9. [Illegible]
|-
| data-sort-value="10" | 10. Noah || data-sort-value="10" | 10. Naamah || data-sort-value="10" | 10. Nahman || data-sort-value="10" | 10. [[Ziusudra]]
|}
</onlyinclude>

==Additional chronology==
Post-biblical Jewish chronicles, surviving primarily in Syriac and Geez, elaborate on the genealogies in Genesis.{{cn|date=December 2022}}
* ''The [[Book of Enoch]]''
* ''The [[Book of Jubilees]]''

==See also==
*[[Generations of Noah]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Adam to David}}
{{Adam and Eve}}
{{Cain and Abel}}

[[Category:Adam and Eve]]
[[Category:Bible genealogy]]
[[Category:Book of Genesis people| ]]
[[Category:Bereshit (parashah)]]