This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
This is the book of the generations of Adam, a literal record from Adam to Noah that gives the measure of each life and its cessation. Adam was created sinless in the likeness of God as part of creation itself, a state his sons after the fall did not inherit by nature because they shared the fallen nature of their parents. Humanity was created in the likeness of God from above, not in the likeness of any of the highest beasts God created.
There is no missing link between beast and man to be searched for among living things in nature. The only beast-like link is the one man makes himself by indulging liquor and tobacco and all kinds of vice, degrading himself far below brute creation until beasts might refuse to own him. God has shown where the likeness link is to be found, in the Highest Model, which in its fullest sense is the Son of Man in whom God became one with man, so that through Christ humanity is brought into oneness with the Father in fellowship and relationship to God. Fathers and mothers are to cooperate with God by teaching children from infancy to know God, to reject evil and choose good, and to continue in well doing in seeking glory, honor, and immortality.
The chapter records the long lifespans of the nine generations before the Flood, averaging 912 years, in contrast to the shorter and declining lifespans after the Flood and in later times. With one or two exceptions the patriarchs lived between nine hundred and one thousand years, tapering afterward to between one and two hundred years by the time of the Egyptian bondage. The record covers more than sixteen hundred years of vegetarian living on vegetables, fruits, and grains, with remarkably good health and lives of nearly one thousand years until the wearied springs of life stood still.
The record mentions no sickness and death of children, no feebleness in youth or middle age, no fevers, dyspepsia, gout, consumption, or local diseases from the breakdown of some organs while others remain strong, and no long-drawn sufferings or agonizing deaths, but only the length of each life and that he died. The long lives of Adam's descendants are connected to the life-giving power of the tree of life, a power passed down from Adam and Eve that prolonged the lives of the antediluvians. The great ages prove the race was created with ten times more vital force than it now possesses, since its known violations of the laws of health and life would otherwise have extinguished it long ago. The running down of vitality was rapid, so that about halfway from Adam to the present day the average of human life was given as only seventy years, while in Europe and the United States it is now but thirty years and in great cities but twenty, as the result of awful violations of God's laws of health and life.
This is the book of the generations of Adam, a literal record from Adam to Noah that gives the measure of each life and its cessation. Adam was created sinless in the likeness of God as part of creation itself, a state his sons after the fall did not inherit by nature because they shared the fallen nature of their parents. Humanity was created in the likeness of God from above, not in the likeness of any of the highest beasts God created.
There is no missing link between beast and man to be searched for among living things in nature. The only beast-like link is the one man makes himself by indulging liquor and tobacco and all kinds of vice, degrading himself far below brute creation until beasts might refuse to own him. God has shown where the likeness link is to be found, in the Highest Model, which in its fullest sense is the Son of Man in whom God became one with man, so that through Christ humanity is brought into oneness with the Father in fellowship and relationship to God. Fathers and mothers are to cooperate with God by teaching children from infancy to know God, to reject evil and choose good, and to continue in well doing in seeking glory, honor, and immortality.
The chapter records the long lifespans of the nine generations before the Flood, averaging 912 years, in contrast to the shorter and declining lifespans after the Flood and in later times. With one or two exceptions the patriarchs lived between nine hundred and one thousand years, tapering afterward to between one and two hundred years by the time of the Egyptian bondage. The record covers more than sixteen hundred years of vegetarian living on vegetables, fruits, and grains, with remarkably good health and lives of nearly one thousand years until the wearied springs of life stood still.
The record mentions no sickness and death of children, no feebleness in youth or middle age, no fevers, dyspepsia, gout, consumption, or local diseases from the breakdown of some organs while others remain strong, and no long-drawn sufferings or agonizing deaths, but only the length of each life and that he died. The long lives of Adam's descendants are connected to the life-giving power of the tree of life, a power passed down from Adam and Eve that prolonged the lives of the antediluvians. The great ages prove the race was created with ten times more vital force than it now possesses, since its known violations of the laws of health and life would otherwise have extinguished it long ago. The running down of vitality was rapid, so that about halfway from Adam to the present day the average of human life was given as only seventy years, while in Europe and the United States it is now but thirty years and in great cities but twenty, as the result of awful violations of God's laws of health and life.