The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 172

YNs, 3-u.-At tho l1cad of the Adnmic to indicate that his haring n posterity nt nll ra,·c stands the firbt man, whose career is was conditioned by the ripeness of his faith. summarisc<l in three short verses, which At tho same time the lateness of paternity ~c1Tc as n mo<lcl for the subsequent bio- among these primeval men may lmve been grn]'hirs. And Adam lived an hundred and partly due to a physi0al cause ns well, "since thi,·ty years. Shanah, a repetition, a m exact accordanco with tho increasing n•i um of the sun's circuit, or of similar degeneracy and rankness of humnn lifo ia u:1turnl phenomena; from sharuzh, to fold there, in a literal scnso, tho iucreaso of a together, to repeat; hence a year (GesE'nius, numerous and \\Tetchcd offspring" (Lango), J 'n1,t.). Cf. Latin, annus ,· Greek, lv,avro,; And all the days that Adam-not the whole Gothic, for,_jai·,.ier; German,jalllr; English, tribo (Gattercr, vide Bohlen ; cf. Dalgo.rnic-, 71cc.1"-nll of i.hich "seem to carry the same ' Expositor,' vol. viii.), "as in this case tl10ught, ,;z,, that i.hich comes again" (T. Enoch must havo been taken to heaven L,,"·is). "Shanah ne,er means month" with his whole family" (Ko.lisch) ; but (l,alisch). And begat a son in his owu tho individual bearing that name- lived likeness,-da11111,th (cf. eh. i. 26)-after bis w~re nine hundred and thirty years. Tho image - tselem (c£ eh. i. 26) ; not the remarkable longevity of tho .Macrobii haa DiYinc image in which lie was himself been explained - I. On the supposition created (1-i:alisch, Knobel, Alford), but the of i-ts non-authenticity, (1) As a purely image or likeness of his own fallen nature, mythical conception (Knobel, Bauer, Hart- i. e. the image of God modified and corrupted mann, Bohlen); which, however, may be by sin (Keil, Murphy, Wordsworth). "A safely rejected as nu altogether inadequate supernatural remedy docs not prevent gener- hypothesis. (2) As due to an error iu · the ation from participating in the corruption traditional transmission of the genealogical of sin. Therefore, according to the flesh registers, several names having fallen out, Seth -was born a sinner, though he was leaving their/cars to be reckoned to those afterwards renewed by the Spirit of grace" that remaine (Rosenmliller); but against (Calvin). The doctrine of inherited deprav- this conjecture stands the OJ'derly succession ity or transmitted sin has been commonly of father and son through· ten generations. hel<l to favour the theory -which accounts for (3) As representing not the lifetimes of iµdi- the origin of the human soul per traducem viduals, but dynastic epochs (vide S?tpra); (Tcrtullian, Luther, Delitzsch), in opposition and (4) as signifying lesser spaces of time- to that which holds it to be due to the e. g. three months (Hensler), or one month creative po,rnr of God (Jerome, Augustine, (Raske)-than solar years; but even Knobel Ca!,in, Beza, Turretin). Kalisch thinks admits that " no shorter year have the He- the statement "Adam begat Seth in his brews ever had than the period of a year's own image" decisive in favour of Traducian- time." 2. On the bcu;is of its kistoric ci·edi- ism, while Hodge affirms "it only asserts bility; as attributable to-(1) Th.a original that Seth was like his father, and sheds no immortality with which man was endowed, light on the mysterious process of genera- and which was now being frayed a.way by tion" (' Syst 'l'heoL,' Part L eh. iii § 2). the inroads of sin (Kalischi (2) The supe• The troth is that Scripture seems to recognise rior piety nnd intelligence of these early both sides of this question. Vide Ps. li. 5 fathers of the race (Josephus, '.A.ntiq.,' I. in favour of Traducianism, nnd Ps. cxxxix. iii 9). (3) The influence of tho fruit of the 14-16; Jcr. i 5 in support of Creationism tree of lifo which, while in the garden, (cf. lllartcnsen's 'Dogma ties,' § 74 ), though Adam ate (Whately, 'Ency. Brit.,' eighth there is much force in the words of Augus- ed., Art. Christianity). (4) The originnl tine-" De re obscurissimo. disputntnr, non vigour of their physical constitutions, and adjuvantibus divinarum scripturarum certis the greater excellence of the food on which clarisque docnmentis." And called his they lived (Willet). But if the first and uame-probably concurring in the name second opinions are correct, then the Cainites selected by Eve (eh. iv. 25)-Beth.-Ap- should have died earlier than the Sethites, pointed, placed, eubstituted; hence com- which there is no reason to believe they pensation (eh. iv. 25). And the days of did ; while the third is o. pure conjecture Adam after he had begotten- literally, (vide eh. ii. 9), and the fourth may contain ki.s beqettinq-Beth were eight hundred some degree of truth. Wo Y.refer to ascribe years: and he begat sons and daughter,. the longevity of these antediluvian men too. "In that primitive time the births did not distinct exercise of grace on the part of God, rapidly follow each other-a fact which had who designed it to be (1) a proof of the not a physical, but only an ethical ground" Divine clemency in suspending the penalty (Delitzsch). The comparatively mature age of sin ; (2) a symbol of that immortality at which the parent hegat the son (in most which had been reconrcd for men by the instances prouably the firstborn) through promise of the woman's seed ; and (3) n wlwm t1c pr0misc was iransmitt,,<l seems medium of transmission for the faith, for OB. V, 1-82.] THE BOOK OF GENJ<]SIS.