Early on in Genesis, God established days, seasons, and years. He finished His creation in a six-day timeframe, and then rested on the seventh day. Days, seasons, and years all have significant meaning in Scripture. While God doesn’t need to divide time to keep track of it, we need markers of time to understand the past, present, and future.
“Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.” —Gen. 1:14
Creation – undated
1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
4004 BC- 3004 BC Adam
Name means “red” or “man.” He is the first man, created by God, whose wife was Eve. Adam was given authority over the earth. Sin came through Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, their home that was lost, but to be restored.
The first member of the human family, created by God from the dust of the earth (Gen 2:7). His wife, Eve, was formed out of a rib from his side (vs 21, 22). Adam was given authority over the earth and all living creatures (ch 1:26) and was commanded to populate the world (v 28). He and his wife were placed in a “garden eastward in Eden,” and were given the task of caring for it (ch 2:8, 15). The product of plant and tree was to be their food (ch 1:29).
Adam and Eve were created perfect (Gen 1:31), and thus sinless. But they were also created with the power of choice, and thus had the freedom to disobey God. They were tested by means of “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” the fruit of which God forbade them to taste or even to touch (chs 2:17 3:3). Eve was beguiled by the serpent to eat of the tree, and then persuaded Adam to eat also (ch 3:1—7). By this act of disobedience they brought the curse of sin upon themselves and their children, and were expelled from the garden (vs 8—24).
After the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve became the parents of Cain, Abel, Seth, and “sons and daughters” (chs 4:1, 2, 25 5:4). Adam was 930 years of age at his death (ch 5:5). It is not known how long he lived in Eden, although it was only a comparatively short period, for he was only 130 years old when Seth was born (v 3), which was evidently some time after the expulsion (cf. ch 4:1—25). Through the sin of Adam death came upon the entire human family (Rom 5:12—14 Eph 2:12). However, Christ, the second Adam (1 Cor 15:45—47), overcame where the first Adam failed (cf. Mt 4:1—10), and by His sacrifice made our redemption from the results of Adam’s sin possible (Heb 5:9 9:28).
After the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve became the parents of Cain, Abel, Seth, and “sons and daughters” (chs 4:1, 2, 25 5:4). Adam was 930 years of age at his death (ch 5:5). It is not known how long he lived in Eden, although it was only a comparatively short period, for he was only 130 years old when Seth was born (v 3), which was evidently some time after the expulsion (cf. ch 4:1—25). Through the sin of Adam death came upon the entire human family (Rom 5:12—14 Eph 2:12). However, Christ, the second Adam (1 Cor 15:45—47), overcame where the first Adam failed (cf. Mt 4:1—10), and by His sacrifice made our redemption from the results of Adam’s sin possible (Heb 5:9 9:28).
3900–3200 BC Cain
Meaning of name: “worker in iron” or “spear.” He was the oldest son of Adam and Eve and the brother and murderer of Abel. He was a worker of the soil and offered his produce as an offering to God. The Lord rejected his offering but accepted Abel’s.
The eldest son of Adam and Eve, brother and murderer of Abel. A farmer by occupation, he offered as a sacrifice the produce of his fields. When God rejected his offering and accepted that of his brother, Cain became jealous and murdered his brother (Gen 4:1—16). The New Testament indicates an ethical cause for the rejection of Cain. Abel was righteous (Mt 23:35), while the way of Cain (Jude 11) was evil.
John says that Cain was of that wicked one and that he slew his brother because his “works were evil, and his brother’s righteous” (1 Jn 3:12). The author of Heb 11:4 implies that lack of faith was the reason for the rejection of Cain’s offering. As punishment for his crime Cain was forced to live the life of an exile. He was given a mark, the exact nature of which is not known, as a protection or sign of protection against blood revenge (Gen 4:15, 16).
As a punishment for murdering his brother Abel, Cain is forced to live in exile and is given a mark as a protection against blood revenge. The exact nature of the mark is unknown.
3897–3825 BC Abel
Meaning of name: “breath.” He was the second son of Adam and Eve. Abel was put to death by his brother Cain when his sacrifice was accepted by God and his brother’s was not. Abel was a shepherd.
The second son of Adam and Eve (Gen 4:2 etc.). The one incident of his life that Scripture records is his offering of a more acceptable sacrifice than that of his brother Cain (vs 3—5). Abel’s offering was noteworthy in that, being of the flock, it bespoke his faith in the promised Deliverer, the true Lamb of God, who was to bruise the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15 Jn 1:29).
The shedding of its blood was an acknowledgment on the part of Abel that he was a sinner in need of divine mercy and forgiveness (see Lev 17:11 Heb 9:22). Furthermore, Abel’s offering was of the choicest of the flock—a “firstling,” and “of the fat thereof”—and as such, an evidence of his readiness to give the Lord the best he had. Abel’s faithfulness won for his name a place of honor among the worthies of Heb 11.
3824–2912 BC Seth
Meaning of name: “appointed” or “substitute.” Seth was the third son of Adam, born after Abel. He is the father of Enosh and a godly line whose genealogy ends with Noah’s three sons. He died at the age of 912 years.
The third son of Adam, born after Abel (whose substitute he became) was murdered (Gen 4:25 5:3). Seth became the father of Enosh (KJV “Enos”), and the progenitor of the godly line of men (see ch 6:2). He died at the age of 912 years (ch 5:8).
3719–2814 BC Enos
Meaning of name: “mortal” or “frail.” A son of Seth and a grandson of Adam. Also spelled “Enosh.” He lived 905 years. Men began to call on the name of the Lord at this time (Genesis 4:26).
3559–2664 BC Mahalaleel
Name means “praise of God.” The son of Cainan, from the line of Seth, also called Maleleel or Mahalaleel (Luke 3:37). He lived 895 years.
3332–2967 BC Enoch
Name means “initiated” or “dedicated one.” He is the son of Jared and the father of the Methuselah. After Methuselah was born he “walked with God” for 300 years and was then translated without tasting death. He was the seventh from Adam.
The son of Jared, and father of Methuselah (Gen 5:21; Luk 3:37). His father was one hundred and sixty—two years old when he was born. After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch “walked with God three hundred years” (Gen 5:22—24), when he was translated without tasting death. His whole life on earth was three hundred and sixty—five years. He was the “seventh from Adam” (Jud 1:14), as distinguished from the son of Cain, the third from Adam. He is spoken of in the catalogue of Old Testament worthies in the Epistle to the Hebrews (Heb 11:5). When he was translated, only Adam, so far as recorded, had as yet died a natural death, and Noah was not yet born. Mention is made of Enoch’s prophesying only in Jud 1:14.
3080–2303 BC Lamech
Name means “the striker down” or “the wild man.” He was the seventh in descent from Seth, the only named son of Methuselah, and the one who begot Noah. Lamech lived 777 years and died a few years before the flood.
A descendant of Seth and son of Methuselah. When he was 182 years old his son Noah was born. He named the child Noah, meaning “rest,” or “comfort,” perhaps expecting this son to bring rest for him and his contemporaries from the curse under which the human race lived. He died at the age of 777 years (Gen 5:25, 28—31).