1. How Well Did Enoch Know Adam? NOTE: The Birth Right Son (BRS) is referred to in the tables below. The BRS was traditionally the 1st son born, but throughout time, (beginning with Adam's 1st son Cain) events took place that shifted that Birth Right Blessing (BRB) to a younger son. Cain lost his BRB (by committing the first murder), and it was given to the Deserving Son (Seth), the son chosen by his father to pass along, or to continue the teachings of God to the future generations. It was the responsibility of the BRS to share the stories and the history of creation to the future generations, including the sin of Adam and Eve, the laws of God that men should live by, and the promise of the coming Savior. It was also tradition that the BRS inherited most of his fathers possessions. The following tables, along with most Biblical references, always prominently list the BRS as the primary heir. The colored bars in the graph depict the DOB and length of the individuals life. The number on the left of the bars is Adam's age when that person was born. (Adam was 130 years old when his son Seth was born, and 622 when Enoch was born, etc.) Adam to Shem. The second table backs up to Noah and continues from there. (YL =Years Lived) NAME / YL 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1K 1.1 1.2k 1.3k 1.4k 1.5k 1.6k 1.7k 1.8k 1.9 2K 2.1k 2.2k Adam / 930 0 930 Seth / 912 130 1042 Enosh / 905 235 1140 Cainan / 910 325 1235 Mahalalel / 895 395 1290 Jared / 962 460 1422 Enoch Still Alive 622 987 Methuselah / 969 687 1656 Lamech / 777 874 1651 Noah / 950 1056 Shem / 600 1558 2158 Creation The Flood - 1656 years after Creation. Some very interesting notations can be made with regard to the findings on the tables above and below. The table above shows that Adam watched 8 of his generations arrive before he died, and that he was still alive when Lamech, Noah's father was born. It's quite possible that Noah's daddy sat at the feet of Adam, and heard all the stories about creation, (and the fateful sin that Adam committed) right from Adams own mouth. Another interesting factor is the age of the men when they fathered their BRS, and the length of their lives. With the exception of Cainan, the younger a man was at the birth of his BRS, the shorter his lifespan. Is that just a coincidence, or does raising children shorten our lifespan? Is it simply a reflection of the decline of man, from the perfectly created first man Adam, to a lessening degree of perfection in each generation? We could take that to be true if we didn't have Jared, Enoch, Methuselah and Noah to compare with in this case study.

2. The table below shows that the above mentioned four men all outlived Adam's age, and all but Enoch were over 150 years of age when their BRS was born. Name Age at the birth of his BRS Years After Creation Length of life Adam 130 - 930 Seth 105 130 912 Enos 90 235 905 Cainan 70 325 910 Mahalaleel 65 395 895 Jared 162 460 962 Enoch 65 622 *365 Methuselah 187 687 969 Lamech 182 874 777 Noah 500 **1,056 950 Shem 100 **1,556 600 *Enoch is the only man on record who lived before the flood and never died. His close relationship with God is described as He walked with God, and God chose to make an example of the end results of having that kind of relationship with him, and so God took him away from this sinful planet because Enoch hated sin, but loved God. **Adam was alive when Lamech was born, but died before Noah was born. He would have been 1,056 if he had lived to see Noah's birth. Jared, 162 years old when Enoch was born, is the first exception in the downward trend in longevity. He managed to live 32 years longer than the man that God had created with His own hands (Adam). But why did he live so much longer? Was it because he waited so long before fathering his BRS? Perhaps, but here is another theory. I believe, but have no proof, that Jared spent a lot of time with his Grandpa Adam. I believe that he followed him around like a puppy dog and soaked up everything that Adam did and said. After all, Adam was only 460 years old when Jared was born, and he lived for another 470 years afterward. If viewed by today's standards, we would say that Adam was in the prime of his life, or perhaps ready for a mid-life crisis. It certainly stands to reason that Jared would then take that time spent, and the lessons learned to heart, and be determined to walk and talk with God in the same way that Adam the Grandfather of us all did. It's just my theory, but I believe that this is the reason he waited to start a family, as he was too busy building the relationship with God that he wanted to pass along to his children. He did a good job of that with his son Enoch as the story shows. Did God reward Jared with a longer life because of that? 3. Is that the reason why these men lived longer lives? What about Enoch? He fathered Lamech at 65 years of age, but that didn't get in the way of HIS walk with God! His reward was eternal life, without ever having to experience the horrible feeling of life leaving his body! Enoch's son Methuselah further solidifies the theory in my mind. God blessed him with the longest life, because he also passed along the teachings to his son Lamech, who passed them along to his son Noah. My theory is that every single BRS born before Adam died took a trip with their father to meet Adam, and to receive his blessing. The Bible teaches that Noah was the only man left on earth (besides his father and grandfather) who was still putting forth the effort to maintain a continuing relationship with God! Did Noah wait until he was 500 years of age before fathering his BRS, because he didn't want a family to interfere with that relationship with God? Think about that for a minute. Noah's great grandfather was Enoch, and Enoch never died. Don't you think that Enoch's son Methusalah did his best to walk with God, and to teach his son Lamech, and grandson Noah all about what his father did? You can see from the first graph that God took Enoch 69 years before Noah was born. Noah's father Lamech died 5 years before the flood came. I believe that our merciful God spared the old man from the devastating results of what the flood was about to do to the face of the planet. Noah's grandfather Methuselah lived to the very year when the flood came, and was the oldest living man on record. It's just my opinion, but I believe that those two men were a continual influence in Noah's life right up until the time that they died, and then the flood came. Noah to Israel (God changed Jacob's name to Israel) (AC=Years after creation) NAME / YL 900 1000 1100 1200 1300 1400 1500 1600 1700 1800 1900 2000 2100 2200 2300 2400 2500 2600 Adam / 930 Noah / 950 1056 2006 AC Shem / 600 1558 AC 2158 AC Arphaxad / 438 1658 AC 2096 AC Salah / 433 1693 AC 2126 AC Eber / 464 1723 AC 2187 AC Peleg / 239 Tower of Babel just 100 yrs after the flood 1757 AC 1996 AC Reu / 239 1787 AC 2026 AC Serug / 230 1819 AC 2049 AC Nahor / 148 1849 AC 1997 AC Terah / 205 1878 AC 2083 AC Abraham / 175 2008 AC 2183 AC Issac / 180 2108 AC 2288 AC Israel / 147 2168 AC 2315 AC Judah / Perez / The Flood 1656 years after Creation. 4. An interesting comparison between Adam and Noah can be made here. Adam was the father of all mankind, but his Great (10th generation) Grandson Noah and his three sons are the fathers of all men after the flood. Another comparison is that Noah also saw 8 of his generations born after the flood before he died, and he actually outlived his 5th generation grandson Peleg! Shem saw 10 generations born before he died, and out lived all but 3 of them! How devastating that must have been for him. Shem lived 152 years after Noah died, and & after that Shem saw only two more of his generations born. They were Abraham and Issac, and like Noah and Shem they were selected by God to be the fathers of a great multitude of people A people who were supposed to be an example to the world. They were supposed to demonstrate to the world the many benefits of what a blessing it is to serve their creator. They were the selected family that the son of God would be born into, and if only they had been faithful, He would have been born into a very different environment. Even with Noah and Shem still living, it only took their offspring 100 years following the flood to come to the point where they stopped believing Gods promise that he would never again destroy the world with a flood (Ge 9:11-17). The Tower of Babel was a testament to how quickly they discarded the stories and teachings of Noah, while he yet lived! (Ge 11:1-9) The Noah to Israel table above shows some astonishing things about the decreasing longevity of man. The most notable is Shem. The drop from his father Noah's 950 years to 600 years is a substantial difference. I believe that the single greatest (initial) reason for it was the change in mans diet. This is the first record where eating meat was permitted by God. (Ge 9:1-6) The devastating changes that took place on the planet from the flood most certainly changed the face of the planet, but not only that, it had to effect a change in the climate and in the efforts needed to be put forth in order for man to survive. These increased difficulties had to take their toll, but they werent the primary reason for man's decline in age. God did that when he determined that the lives of man should not exceed 120 years (Ge 6:3), but before we get into that, let's take a look at some of the changes. First, there had never been rain before the flood. The earth was still perfect in the ecological sense that the plant life was all watered from the waters of the deep (Ge 2:4-6) which happened every night in the form of dew. The imperfections on the planet before the flood were all do to the curse that God placed upon the ground. Because of Adam's sin, God cursed the ground (Ge 3:17-19) causing weeds, thorns and thistles to spring forth creating a much more difficult situation for Adam when trying to farm the land. No longer did the plant life spring forth in a perfectly organized manor. Still, the ground watered everything equally. 5. Apparently, prior to the flood there was a top layer of the Earth's crust that floated over the waters below. (Ge 7:11 says, In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.) Then after it rained non stop for 40 days and nights, the water remained for a hundred and fifty days (Ge 7:24), covering the highest mountains by about 22 feet. And then God caused the waters of the deep to stop, and the rain to subside. (Ge 8:2) Think about the sheer terror experienced by every living creature on the planet! Earthquakes breaking cracks in the earth with huge geysers of water shooting up all over, and to top it all off, a torrential downpour of epic proportions, the first and last of it's kind ever. It was the most devastating thing that ever happen on the planet. I can imagine people actually dieing of fright! Think of all these people who expected to live for a 1,000 years suddenly seeing the end to all things. Noah had been warning them for a hundred years that it would happen! Now we can see what affect this change in the planet had on the longevity of man, and how the decrease in life spans affected the ages of the fathers at the birth of their BRS. The table below is a continuation from the second table in this study, and picks up after Noah. You recall that Noah lived 950 years, and was 500 years old when Seth was born. Seth's life span was 350 years less (600), and his son Arphaxad lived 162 years less than that! The next two generations stayed at just over 400 years in longevity, and then another major drop to just over 200 years of age took place. Notice that the seven generations directly after Shem all fathered their BRS at around the age of thirty. That just wasn't done before the flood. Let's have some fun with the calculator for a minute. When you take a man who lived 900 years, vs a man who lives 100 years, that's a ratio of 9 to 1. A 20 year old today could then be compared to a 180 year old in Adam's time! Why not wait to get married until then? But right after the flood the ratio dropped, and our 20 year old would compare to a 90 year old in Eber's time, and then a 40 year old in Terah's time. Taking it the other way, Eber, fathering a child at 34 was only an 8 year old by today's standards. Abraham's father Terah was the last BRS on record to live beyond 200 years. Terah waited until late in life to father, and so Abraham was born just two years after Noah died. Abraham's wife Sarah was baron until well past her child baring age. This was a test of faith given to him by God, and is the reason Abraham didn't father Issac until very late in life. It was a miraculous birth, since Sarah was well beyond her change in life. Their son Issac didn't marry his wife Rebecca until 5 years before his father died, and his wife gave him twin sons. This is where records of the age of fathers at the birth of the BRS ends, however some records of certain individuals length of life were kept. 6. Name Age at birth of his BRS Year After Creation at birth Length of life Shem 100 1558 600 Arphaxad 35 1658 438 Salah 30 1693 433 Eber 34 1723 464 Peleg 30 1757 239 Reu 32 1787 239 Serug 30 1819 230 Nahor 29 1849 148 Terah 130 1878 205 Abraham 100 2008 175 Issac 60 2108 180 Israel ?Age? (12 sons, from 2 wives & 2 servants!) 2168 147 I always wondered what the purpose was for providing the record of the ages these men were when they fathered their BRS. It couldn't have been to show us the results of sin on the longevity of man, because just showing the lifespans would have sufficed for that. It certainly showed how much faster the children had to grow up, and how man had to adapt to the changes that a life shortened by sin brought to the planet. The Bible teaches that in the last days, right when The Son Of God returns to this planet to put an end to sin forever, the state of the planet will be as it was in the days of Noah. Since we were given that CLUE about the return of the Son of God, we would be wise to find out just how it was in the days of Noah! You can read that article by following this link. You can discover other amazing facts about the Bible by visiting Amazing Facts.org. 7. Name Age at birth of his BRS Year After Creation at birth Length of life Shem 100 1558 600 Arphaxad 35 1658 438 Salah 30 1693 433 Eber 34 1723 464 Peleg 30 1757 239 Reu 32 1787 239 Serug 30 1819 230 Nahor 29 1849 148 Terah 130 1878 205 Abraham 100 2008 175 Issac 60 2108 180 Israel ?Age? (12 sons, from 2 wives & 2 servants!) 2168 147 I always wondered what the purpose was for providing the record of the ages these men were when they fathered their BRS. It couldn't have been to show us the results of sin on the longevity of man, because just showing the lifespans would have sufficed for that. It certainly showed how much faster the children had to grow up, and how man had to adapt to the changes that a life shortened by sin brought to the planet. The Bible teaches that in the last days, right when The Son Of God returns to this planet to put an end to sin forever, the state of the planet will be as it was in the days of Noah. Since we were given that CLUE about the return of the Son of God, we would be wise to find out just how it was in the days of Noah! You can read that article by following this link. You can discover other amazing facts about the Bible by visiting Amazing Facts.org.