Names, Genealogies, and Noah

A Rose

To start off,  a couple observations about the names of the first people.  Originally, they had no names.  While it is true that by the New Testament the first man is called Adam, and it seems that by Moses' day that is also the case, but from reading Genesis, you can see how Moses struggles between staying with just the bare facts and including his own commentary (or perhaps this is the interpreters' problem).  Adam simply means man, and in the first two chapters, that is what he is called, "the man."  God never calls "the man" Adam, and each reference to Adam can be read as simply referring to the generic "man."  Eve also doesn't have a name at first.  In chapter 2, when Adam first meets her, he says, "She will be called Woman because she came from Man."  In the Hebrew, and even in the English, we can see the connection between the two.  Only at the end of chapter 3 does Adam give her a nickname, as Mark Driscoll recommends all husbands do for their wives, and calls her Eve.  What also caught my attention is that Adam is also naming the woman, just like he named all of the animals.  The name is obviously important in the Hebrew mind because it defines one's essence, and therefore, I would think, that it is significant that Adam calls her first woman, and then Eve.  Both names correspond to her essential qualities.

New Beginnings

Moving on from chapter 3, we see Moses does not delay in showing the effects of the fall.  Reading chapters 2 and 4 back to back illustrates the point rather vividly.  Just in case you didn't believe God that people would die, and not just spiritually, we have the first murder, and that of a brother, in chapter 4 as well as the first bloodthirsty slaughter of humans.  It doesn't take long for God's assessment to go from, "And it was very good," to "I am sorry that I have created them."  Also, to make it a point that sin ends in death, Moses takes pains to reiterate in chapter 5's genealogy that each one of those listed died: "And he died."  This is not a careless detail; this is the point.  No matter how long people live, even Methuselah, they die.  To see that this is not accidental, compare this genealogy with those in chapters 10 and 11.  While the format is the same, nothing is said of their death.  Moses is deliberate is driving home the reality and severity of what the devil trivialized and minimized.  Eating fruit, to be sure, is not a big deal.  Obedience to God, however, is.

In chapter 4, we have the first case of polygamy (4:19), we see the first shepherd and nomad (4:20), we have the invention of music (4:21), and the invention of technology or art (4:22).  And all of this from the line of Cain.

Chapter 5 begins the story once again, for the third time, with the structural marker, "This is the book of the generations."  A few comments about the genealogy:

• The image of God is not destroyed by the fall.  Adam has a son "in his own likeness, according to his image."  Two things here, people after Adam are like Adam, in that they're sinful, probably.  But also, since Adam is not the original, he himself is a copy, the image of God is transmitted through him to all people.
• The rhythm, "and he died," give the record a sense of finality and solemnity.
• Notice the odd reference, "walked with God."  This ruins the repetitive rhythm.  Only Enoch is said to have "walked with God" instead of "lived" and he's the only one who does not die, in this genealogy.  A few others, like Noah, are also said to have "walked with God."  An interesting thread to follow.
• Lamech became the father "of a son."  All others include the name there, but here there is an emphasis on "a son", and then some commentary is offered as to why Noah was given his name.  Reminds me of Hebrews 1:2.  Probably no connection, but interesting.

Life of Noah

Noah is said to be blameless and righteous.  I was wondering how he was blameless and righteous.  And the only indication I can find from the text is the deliberate, repetitive mention of his obedience.  "Thus Noah did, according to all that God had commanded him, so he did" (6:22).  Why say is so many times if not intentional?  Chapter 7 repeats this a few more times (7:9; 7:16).

I love the headings to the different sections in Noah's life, those topic sentences as we call them:

• "But God remembered Noah."  Just grand.
• "And God blessed Noah."  Read from the angle I established earlier.  Blessing does something, blessing changes things.  And now Noah, in a sense, becomes the new First Man.  The entire world, in a sense, has come from him.  Cain's line does not exist; it drowned in the flood.

And Noah's life also ends with the finality of "and he died."  A great way to close that chapter.

Troubling Words

On a personal note, the phrase that kept bothering me, and while I knew I wanted to comment on it, there isn't much to say other than the personal connection.  God destroyed the world with water because he saw how wicked people can be so quickly.  "Every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (6:5).  He finds a blameless man to start the project over again.  But even after the flood, there is this sad realization, "The intent of man's heart is evil from his youth" (8:21).  We don't change.  The problem is not with those evildoers out there, with Cain and Lamech.  But within.  The recreation of the world, as it were, with Noah did not get rid of the problem because the problem was carried into the new world, with the insidious offspring of the serpent, the Matrix's Cpyher, the Judas, Ham.  He seems to be the clearest link of evil between the old and recreated world.  But ultimately, we all have this evil bent, even from our early days.  Troubling.