And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
Adam lived eight hundred years after begetting Seth, and during that time he begat sons and daughters. This belongs to the Genesis 5 record of longevity before the Flood, when Adam and the patriarchs from Adam to Noah lived nearly a thousand years, literally between nine hundred and a thousand years with one or two exceptions. That record shows an average age of 912 years across nine generations, far greater than the ages given for later generations.
Lifespans afterward decreased and tapered gradually down to between one and two hundred years by the time of the Egyptian bondage. About halfway from Adam to the present David gave the average of human life as only seventy years, and the average in Europe and the United States is now but thirty years, and in great cities but twenty years. That long life came from first vigor near creation, for the tree of life had power to perpetuate life so that as long as Adam and Eve ate of it they could not die, and its life-giving power was transmitted from them to their descendants. Only a few generations had passed since Adam had access to the tree that prolongs life, so the race still kept much of its first vigor, having been created with ten times more vital force than it now possesses.
Violation of God's laws of health and life cut down the years of man to contemptible brevity and filled them with pain and disease from birth, and without that original tenfold vital force the race would long ago have been extinguished by such violation. The Genesis record gives the long lifespans of the people before the Flood and simply says their lives ended, without reporting the illnesses or prolonged suffering familiar in later times. While it lists sons it, with an exception or two, never tells how old the women were when they died.
Those eight hundred years of bearing sons and daughters belonged to a long-lived people with rare powers to plan and carry out great works, given life so they would serve God, make His name a praise in the earth, and answer the purpose for which life was given. Instead they failed to do this, and among them were many giants, men of great stature and strength, renowned for wisdom and skill in devising cunning and wonderful works, whose guilt in giving loose rein to iniquity was as great as their skill and mental ability. The long overlapping lives in Genesis 5:3-32 let what God taught Adam pass directly from person to person to Jacob, father of the tribes of Israel. Adam lived till Methuselah was 243 years old so Adam imparted it to Methuselah, Methuselah lived till Shem son of Noah was 98 years old so Methuselah imparted it to Shem, Shem lived 150 years after the birth of Abraham and 50 years after the birth of Isaac so Shem imparted it to Abraham and Isaac, and Abraham lived till Jacob and Esau were 15 years old and Isaac till they were 120 so these patriarchs imparted it to Jacob.
Adam lived on for hundreds of years after begetting Seth, witnessing the events of nine centuries and remaining among his descendants as a living teacher. Formed in God's image and pronounced good by the Creator, and instructed by God in all wisdom pertaining to the material world and in the history of creation from the Creator himself, he imparted his knowledge directly to his descendants. Without books or written records, men of that time with great physical and mental vigor had strong memories able to grasp and retain what was communicated and to transmit it unimpaired to posterity, giving them far greater advantages in merely human knowledge than modern men have through writings. For hundreds of years seven generations lived upon the earth contemporaneously, having opportunity to consult together so each profited by the knowledge and experience of all.
The verse belongs to the account of Adam's family and the generations through whom religious truth was passed on and taught from one generation to another. During those long lives righteous men including Seth, Enoch, Noah, Methuselah and others presented the truth, kept the knowledge of God continually before the world, and preserved that truth. The people despised that truth, the imaginations of their hearts were evil and only evil continually, and secret societies were formed to work in darkness to do violence. Because of this God destroyed that long-lived race by a flood.
Adam lived eight hundred years after begetting Seth, and during that time he begat sons and daughters. This belongs to the Genesis 5 record of longevity before the Flood, when Adam and the patriarchs from Adam to Noah lived nearly a thousand years, literally between nine hundred and a thousand years with one or two exceptions. That record shows an average age of 912 years across nine generations, far greater than the ages given for later generations.
Lifespans afterward decreased and tapered gradually down to between one and two hundred years by the time of the Egyptian bondage. About halfway from Adam to the present David gave the average of human life as only seventy years, and the average in Europe and the United States is now but thirty years, and in great cities but twenty years. That long life came from first vigor near creation, for the tree of life had power to perpetuate life so that as long as Adam and Eve ate of it they could not die, and its life-giving power was transmitted from them to their descendants. Only a few generations had passed since Adam had access to the tree that prolongs life, so the race still kept much of its first vigor, having been created with ten times more vital force than it now possesses.
Violation of God's laws of health and life cut down the years of man to contemptible brevity and filled them with pain and disease from birth, and without that original tenfold vital force the race would long ago have been extinguished by such violation. The Genesis record gives the long lifespans of the people before the Flood and simply says their lives ended, without reporting the illnesses or prolonged suffering familiar in later times. While it lists sons it, with an exception or two, never tells how old the women were when they died.
Those eight hundred years of bearing sons and daughters belonged to a long-lived people with rare powers to plan and carry out great works, given life so they would serve God, make His name a praise in the earth, and answer the purpose for which life was given. Instead they failed to do this, and among them were many giants, men of great stature and strength, renowned for wisdom and skill in devising cunning and wonderful works, whose guilt in giving loose rein to iniquity was as great as their skill and mental ability. The long overlapping lives in Genesis 5:3-32 let what God taught Adam pass directly from person to person to Jacob, father of the tribes of Israel. Adam lived till Methuselah was 243 years old so Adam imparted it to Methuselah, Methuselah lived till Shem son of Noah was 98 years old so Methuselah imparted it to Shem, Shem lived 150 years after the birth of Abraham and 50 years after the birth of Isaac so Shem imparted it to Abraham and Isaac, and Abraham lived till Jacob and Esau were 15 years old and Isaac till they were 120 so these patriarchs imparted it to Jacob.
Adam lived on for hundreds of years after begetting Seth, witnessing the events of nine centuries and remaining among his descendants as a living teacher. Formed in God's image and pronounced good by the Creator, and instructed by God in all wisdom pertaining to the material world and in the history of creation from the Creator himself, he imparted his knowledge directly to his descendants. Without books or written records, men of that time with great physical and mental vigor had strong memories able to grasp and retain what was communicated and to transmit it unimpaired to posterity, giving them far greater advantages in merely human knowledge than modern men have through writings. For hundreds of years seven generations lived upon the earth contemporaneously, having opportunity to consult together so each profited by the knowledge and experience of all.
The verse belongs to the account of Adam's family and the generations through whom religious truth was passed on and taught from one generation to another. During those long lives righteous men including Seth, Enoch, Noah, Methuselah and others presented the truth, kept the knowledge of God continually before the world, and preserved that truth. The people despised that truth, the imaginations of their hearts were evil and only evil continually, and secret societies were formed to work in darkness to do violence. Because of this God destroyed that long-lived race by a flood.