Commentary - Genesis 5:12-14

Bird's-eye view

In this brief section of the Genesis 5 genealogy, we encounter what at first glance appears to be a monotonous and repetitive record: a man lived, he fathered a son, he fathered other children, and he died. But we must never read the Scriptures that way. This is not filler material. This is the inspired Word of God, and it is freighted with profound theological significance. This is the line of the promised seed, the genealogy of grace, tracing the covenant faithfulness of God from Adam down to Noah. In the midst of a world spiraling toward the judgment of the Flood, God was preserving a people for Himself. Each name, Kenan and Mahalalel included, is a testament to God's patient, ongoing work of redemption. The staggering lifespans recorded here are not mythological exaggerations but a sober reminder of the world before the deluge, a world still reeling from the Fall but not yet drowned by it. This passage, then, is a declaration that history is not a random series of births and deaths; it is the story of God's unwavering purpose to bring salvation through the seed of the woman.

The structure is simple and solemn, a drumbeat of life and death. "And he lived... and he begat... and he lived... and he died." This rhythm hammers home two central realities of our existence after the Fall. First, God's command to be fruitful and multiply is still in effect; the covenant line is advancing. Second, the curse of death is also relentlessly in effect. Every man in this list, save one, ends his biography with the words, "and he died." This chapter is therefore a record of both common grace and common curse, setting the stage for the special grace that will come through the one who ultimately conquers death.

Outline

Context In Genesis

Genesis 5 provides the "book of the generations of Adam" (Gen 5:1), tracing the godly line of Seth. This stands in stark contrast to the line of Cain described in Genesis 4, which is marked by murder, arrogance, and a self-glorifying culture. While Cain's line builds cities and boasts of vengeance, Seth's line is characterized by the simple phrase, "then men began to call upon the name of the LORD" (Gen 4:26). This genealogy is the spine of the story, connecting the creation and the Fall to the next great event in redemptive history, the Flood. It demonstrates that God did not abandon His creation after Adam's sin. He immediately began the work of preservation and redemption through a chosen line. The immense ages recorded here also serve to bridge the vast expanse of time in the antediluvian world, showing how knowledge of God's original work and word could be passed down through just a few generations. For example, Adam was still alive when Lamech, Noah's father, was born. This chapter is the golden thread of God's promise running through a darkening world.

Key Issues

The Drumbeat of Grace and Judgment

When we moderns read a passage like this, we are tempted to skim. Our eyes glaze over the names and the numbers. But this is a mistake born of our chronological snobbery. To the original audience, and to anyone with ears to hear, this is not a dry list. It is a steady, rhythmic sermon. The rhythm is this: life, life, life, death. And he lived, and he begat, and he lived after he begat, and he died.

This is the story of our world in miniature. God, in His common grace, grants life. He is the one who opens the womb. The central purpose of that life, from a redemptive-historical standpoint, is to beget the next link in the covenant chain. This is covenant succession. Kenan's chief accomplishment, as recorded by the Holy Spirit, was that he became the father of Mahalalel. After this central task was accomplished, he continued to live, having other sons and daughters, filling the earth. But at the end of it all, the final word is death. The wages of sin is death, and the bill always comes due. This chapter is a graveyard, with tombstone after tombstone reminding us of the curse. But it is a graveyard with a signpost pointing out of it, a signpost that traces the lineage of the one who would ultimately trample the graveyard under His feet.

Verse by Verse Commentary

12 And Kenan lived 70 years and became the father of Mahalalel.

The text is straightforward, and we should take it as such. Kenan lived for seventy years. In our day, this is the better part of a man's entire life. For Kenan, it was just the beginning of his maturity, the point at which he took up the central task of his life: fatherhood. He became the father of Mahalalel. This is not just a biological fact; it is a covenantal statement. The baton of the promise, the hope of the seed of the woman who would crush the serpent's head (Gen 3:15), was passed from one hand to the next. The names themselves have meaning. Kenan can mean "possession" or "sorrow," and Mahalalel means "praise of God." We move from a generation marked by the sorrow of our fallen possession to one whose very name is a declaration of God's praise. This is the gospel in miniature. God takes our sorrowful condition and turns it into praise.

13 Then Kenan lived 840 years after he became the father of Mahalalel, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.

After fulfilling his primary role in the covenant line, Kenan's life was far from over. He lived another 840 years. We can scarcely imagine such a span of time. This longevity was a residual blessing from creation. Man was made to live, not die, and though sin had poisoned the well, the poison was still working its way through the system. During these centuries, Kenan was not idle. He "became the father of other sons and daughters." The cultural mandate to be fruitful and multiply was being carried out. The earth was being filled. This is a picture of a faithful, ordinary life lived out over an extraordinary length of time. He was a patriarch, the head of a sprawling clan, a repository of history and wisdom. He would have known his great-great-great-great-great-grandchildren personally. This verse reminds us that covenant succession is not just about the one chosen son, but about building a godly civilization, a people for God's name.

14 So all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.

The final accounting. The sum of his years was 910. This is a staggering number, a life that stretched across nearly a millennium. But the most important phrase in the verse is the last one: and he died. No matter how long he lived, no matter how many children he had, no matter how faithfully he carried the covenantal seed, he could not outrun the curse. Death came for him, as it came for his father Enosh, and his grandfather Seth, and his great-grandfather Adam. This relentless refrain, "and he died," is the dark backdrop against which the light of the gospel will one day shine. It creates in the reader a longing for the one man in this chapter who did not die, Enoch, and ultimately for the one who would die and then conquer death for all of us. Kenan lived a long and fruitful life, but his life, like ours, was under the sentence of death passed in the Garden. His hope, and ours, was not in living long, but in the promise that was being passed through his line.

Application

First, we must learn to see our own lives as part of a much larger story. We are not isolated individuals; we are links in a chain. Like Kenan, our primary calling is to be faithful in our generation and to pass the baton of faith to the next. For those who are parents, your most important work is raising your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Your Mahalalel, your "praise of God," is the legacy you leave in your children and grandchildren. This is covenant succession, and it is at the heart of God's plan for history.

Second, we should not despise the ordinary. Kenan's biography is simple: he lived, he had kids, he died. There are no heroic battles or dramatic speeches recorded. He simply persevered. Much of the Christian life is precisely this kind of plodding faithfulness. It is getting up each day, loving your family, doing your work to the glory of God, and trusting Him with the results. God uses ordinary, faithful people to accomplish His extraordinary purposes.

Finally, the constant refrain of death in this chapter should drive us to Christ. We live in a culture that denies death, hides it, and pretends it won't happen. Genesis 5 will not let us do that. It rubs our noses in the reality of our mortality. And it is only when we face the certainty of death that we can truly appreciate the certainty of the resurrection. Kenan died. Mahalalel died. But Jesus Christ died and rose again, breaking the power of the curse. Because He lives, all who are in Him, though they die, yet shall they live. This ancient genealogy, with its steady drumbeat of death, is ultimately a chapter about hope, because it is the family tree of the one who is the resurrection and the life.