End of the Genealogy (Gen 5:32)

The Genealogy of Adam

³² and Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Yéfet. וַיּ֣וֹלֶד נֹ֔חַ אֶת־שֵׁ֖ם אֶת־חָ֥ם וְאֶת־יָֽפֶת׃

Now we indeed have the sense of an ending, undoubtedly the reason this verse was numbered as the last of Genesis 6. The Jewish Bible continues this section for another eight verses, but for once I’m siding with the Christians. This is the end of The Genealogy of Adam. It’s got that finishing rhythm, the klezmer cadence, “of the people … by the people … for the people.” We have reached our (literary) goal: Shem, Ham, and Yéfet.

We’ll talk about these kids themselves next time; first (as promised) I want to do some thinking out loud about how we are supposed to understand what we’ve just read.

In Genesis 4, Lemekh is Ancestor #7. The list of ancestors was aimed at him. He had three sons (and a daughter) — that’s the point at which we are shown the family tree starting to spread out. In Genesis 5, Ancestor #7 is the world-famous Enoch, perhaps deliberately moved to that position from his #3 spot in the other list — but List 2 is longer. In this version of events, the priestly version, we move through history in decimal increments, ten generations at a time. Ancestor #10 is Noah, whose three sons will repopulate the world after the Flood.

Let’s compare what we’ve seen so far.