Genesis 5 tells us the descendants of Adam through Seth.
1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made He him;
2 Male and female created He them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
Now we will sum up human history up to the point of the writer of this passage (Seth? Enoch? Noah?)
The New Living Translation words this clearer:
"This is the written account of the descendants of Adam. When God created human beings, He made them to be like Himself. He created them male and female, and He blessed them and called them “human.”"
God created humankind. He called them Adam which means “man” as opposed to “horse” or “cow.” He made one male and one female, not two males, two females and a “not sure.” The sex roles were clearly defined from the start.
In fact, sex is still clearly defined. Oh, we can mutilate the human body to look like the opposite sex they were born, but the DNA still has either XX or XY. We can’t change that.
3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth;
Seth means “substituted.” He was born, probably, 130AH (In the Year of Man. What year it was in relation to Creation depends on how long it took Adam and Eve to fall. My observation of human nature gives them about 20 minutes from Creation to the Fall.) or about 3916BC. (It is not really natural to count backwards as we do with the BC (Before Christ) system, so I include AH (Anno Human- The Year of Man, or the year Adam was created) dates as well to help give a sense of time both directions.)
Adam and Eve would have contained all the DNA necessary for every normal variation in the human race. They were probably a medium brown color.
Evidently Seth looked like his daddy, implying that Cain didn’t. It is also possible that Seth was “in the image” of his father in his heart.
I have seen pictures of twins born to a "white" mother and a "black" father. Two babies born from the same mom on the same day. One looked like mamma, the other like daddy.
There is less genetic difference between the darkest human and the lightest than between a yellow Labrador and a black Labrador...and they can be born in the same litter.
There is really only one race; the human race. We are all brown, just different shades of brown.
4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:
Since this is plural, we can say Adam had at least four sons (counting Cain, and Seth) and two daughters. As mentioned earlier, Jewish legend says he and Eve had sixty children total and there is sufficient time for that to have happened.
5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.
6 And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:
Enos means “mortal.” He was born 235AH (3811BC).
The Hebrew word translated here as “begat” means “he himself fathered.” The word in Matthew and Luke translated “begat” is a Greek word meaning “was the ancestor of.” This explains the difference in these name lists;
Genesis means to tell us an exact chronology while Matthew and Luke are giving a quick rough history. There would be no way to insert additional generations here without calling this scripture a liar.
7 And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters.
8 And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.
Year 1042AH (3004BC).
9 And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:
Cainan means “fixed.” He was born 325AH (3721BC).
10 And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:
11 And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.
Year 1140AH (2906BC).
12 And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel:
Mahalaleel means “praise of God.” Year 395AH (3651BC).
You know, these people lived almost a thousand years each. I am sure they accomplished many things in their lives and did many exciting things. Yet what are most of them remembered for?
The children they had.
We no longer know anything else about them, but the name of an eternal soul they brought into the world.
Of all the things we do in life, next to our relationship with Jesus, the children we have and raise for Him may be the most important.
13 And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:
14 And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.
He died in 1235AH (2811 BC).
15 And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared:
Jared means “Thigh.” I have no idea why they would name their child Thigh. He was born in 460AH (3586BC).
16 And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters:
17 And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.
Year 1290AH (2756BC).
18 And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:
Enoch means “Initiated.” 622AH (3424BC).
19 And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years and begat sons and daughters:
20 And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.
1422AH (2624BC).
21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
Methuselah means “Man of a Dart.” 687AH (3559BC)
22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
He left in 987AH (3059BC)
24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Hebrews 11:5 tells us “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him; for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him; for he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”
Enoch had so much faith, he trusted God so completely, that God decided to spare him the experience of death. He took him straight to heaven.
25 And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech:
We don’t know what Lamech means. He was born year 874AH (3172BC). At this point Adam is still alive since he died in 930AH (3116BC), when Lamech was 56 years old. Can you imagine keeping track of all the birthdays at this point?
26 And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:
27 and all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.
Methuselah was the oldest man recorded in the Bible, living to age 969. We don’t know that he was the oldest human, however, since only the lineage to Christ is listed here. It is possible others lived longer that we just don’t have a record of.
By this time, if every family only had six children, there are around a million people on planet earth. If they had an average of sixty, the population would have been around 10,000,000.
Methuselah was the oldest recorded man in history, yet he died before his father (since his father never died). He died in 1656AH (2390BC) the year of the Flood. Legend says he died one week before the command to load up, giving Noah a short time to mourn.
28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:
29 And he called his name Noah, saying, “This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed”.
Noah means “Rest.” Year 1056AH (2990BC).
30 And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:
31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.
Lamech seems to have died much younger than his ancestors (1651AH or 2395BC; five years before the Flood). Maybe God simply took him early to spare him either the boat experience or the flood.
32 And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
We don’t know if they were triplets or if, for some reason, the author just decided to record them as if they were. It is possible that Noah had other children and just these three chose to follow God. Again, the Bible just doesn’t tell us.
Shem means “honor, authority, character.”
Ham means “hot, from a tropical habitat.”
Japheth means “expansion.”
These names may have had their meaning before Noah gave them to his sons, or they may have acquired these meanings afterwards in connection to his sons.