Genesis 5:2-5
‘Male and female, He created them; and blessed them — and called their name “Adam”…when they were created.. And Adam lived 130 years, and begat a son…called…Seth. And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth, were 800 years…. All the days that Adam lived, were 930 years. And he died.’ Genesis 5:2-5.
Calvin commented: “‘ Male and female, He created them .’ This clause commends the sacred bond of marriage, and the inseparable union of the husband and the wife…. Moses has mentioned only one …. He assigns a common name (‘Adam’) indiscriminately to both….
“Posterity might learn more sacredly to cherish this connection between each other, when they saw that their first parents were denominated as one person…. He (Moses) records the blessing pronounced upon them — so that we may observe in it the wonderful kindness of God in continuing to grant it….
“Moses traces the offspring of Adam only through the line of Seth, to propose for our consideration the succession of the Church…. He refers in part to the first origin of our nature. At the same time, its corruption and pollution is to be noticed which — having been contracted by Adam through the fall — has flowed down to all his posterity.
“If he (Adam) has remained upright, he would have transmitted to all his children what he had received…. Now, we read that Seth…was born a sinner; he was renewed by the grace of the Spirit….
“Through six successive ages, when the family of Seth had grown into a great people — the voice of Adam might daily resound in order to renew the memory of the creation, the fall, and the punishment of man. To testify of the hope of salvation!…
“After his death, his sons might indeed deliver as from hand to hand what they had learned — to their descendants. But far more efficacious would be the instruction from the mouth of him (Adam) who had himself been the eye-witness of all these things….
“‘And he (Adam) died ‘…. Death was not in vain denounced against men …. We are now exposed to the curse to which man was doomed — unless we obtain deliverance elsewhere!
“In the meantime, we must reflect upon our lamentable condition…. The image of God being destroyed, or at least obliterated in us — we scarcely retain the faint shadow of a life, from which we are hastening to death….
“It is useful, in a picture of so many ages, to behold at one glance the continual course and tenor of divine vengeance…. To nothing are we more prone, than to dream of immortality on Earth — unless death is frequently brought before our eyes. ” Thus Adam’s generations, before he died.
