1 Chronicles 1:1

Ver. 1-4. Adam, Seth,.... These first four verses exactly agree with the account of the antediluvian patriarchs in Genesis 5:1, the first letter in Adam is larger than usual, as a memorial, as

Adam, Sheth, Enosh, Adam ... "Begat" must be understood as meaning that the person who "begat" was not in all instances the immediate parent, but an ancestor, near or more remote of the person spoken of.

1 CHAPTER 1 Adam's line to Noah, 1 Chronicles 1:1-4. Noah's posterity, by Japheth, 1 Chronicles 1:5-7; by Ham, 1 Chronicles 1:8-16; by Shem to Abraham, 1 Chronicles 1:17-27. His posterity, by Ishmael, 1 Chronicles 1:28-31; by Keturah, and Isaac, 1 Chronicles 1:32-34. His posterity by Esau: the kings and dukes of Edom, 1 Chronicles 1:35-54. i.e. Adam begat Sheth; and so in the following particulars. For brevity sake he only mentions their names; but the rest is easily understood out of the former books, and from the nature of the thing; and from some following passages where the sense is completed.

1 Chronicles 1:1 Adam, Sheth, Enosh, "" we call these two books, - anciently but one, - which is the same in effect with that of the Hebrews’ Dibr ehaiamim, Words, or Deeds, of Days. Paralipomena, or Remains, the Greeks call them, because they take up many things not recorded in the Books of Kings. Yet are they not those "Books of Chronicles of Israel and Judah" we so often read of in the Books of Kings, for they long since perished, but a divine authentic epitome of them. Yea, Jerome doubteth not to call these two Books of Chronicles Instrumenti Veteris Epitomen, et totius divinae historiae Chronicum. Munster calleth them, A sacred diary, The Church’ s annals. They begin as high as Adam the Protoplast, - of whom nothing is read in human histories, as neither indeed of anything else that is truly ancient till the Theban and Trojan wars, as Diodorus Siculus confesseth, - and show how by him the world was populated, according to that first promise, and the descant of some ancients upon the name of Adam. A, that is, Aνατολη, or the east; D, that is, Dυσμος, the west; A, that is, Aρτος, the north; and M, that is, Mεσημβρια, the south: for all these four quarters of the world were and are populated by Adam’ s posterity, some of whom, as the antediluvian patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and his sons - all except Dan and Zebulon - are registered in these first eight chapters. In the first four verses of this chapter we have the line of Adam to Noah, no other of the posterity of Adam being mentioned, because, saith one, they were all destroyed in the flood: whereunto may be added, that the genealogy of the second Adam is here mainly intended, and his progenitors principally mentioned. Ver. 1. Adam, Sheth, Enosh.] Thus this prompt scribe and perfect genealogist, Ezra, as is generally thought, beginneth his holy history. “ Primaque aborigine mundi, Ad sua perpetuum deducit secla volumen. ” In prolo. Galeat.

(1) Adam (man) is here treated as a proper name; in Genesis 5:1-5 it is an appellative. The Chaldeans also had a tradition of ten antediluvian patriarchs or kings, beginning with Alorus and ending with Xisuthrus (Hasis-Adra), the hero of the Flood. They made the duration of this first period of human history 432,000 years. Remembering that Abraham, the Hebrew, was from “Ur (Uru, the city) of the Chaldees,” we can hardly suppose the two accounts to be independent of each other. The comparative simplicity and, above all, the decided monotheism of the Hebrew relation, give a high probability to the assumption that it represents a more original form of the tradition. Sheth, Enosh.—Those who have imagined the present list to be a mere duplicate of that given in Genesis 4:17 sqq., and who explain the whole by the fatally easy process of resolving all these different names into a capricious repetition of one original solar figure, are obliged to admit a difficulty in connection with the names of Sheth and Enosh, which are acknowledged “not to belong to mythology at all” (Prof. Goldziher). Considering that most Hebrew names have a distinct and intentional significance, it is obviously a mere exercise of ingenuity to invest them with a mythological character. Meanwhile, such speculations cannot possibly be verified.

THE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES Chronological Notes relative to this Book -Year of the World, 1. -Year before Christ, according to Archbishop Usher, 4004. -Year before the Flood, according to the common Hebrew Bible, 1656. -Year of the Julian period, 710. CHAPTER I The genealogy of Adam to Noah, 1-3. Of Noah to Abraham, 4-27. The sons of Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac, 28. The sons of Ishmael, 29-31. The sons of Keturah, 32, 33. The sons of Esau, 34-42. A list of the kings of Edom, 43-50. A list of the dukes of Edom, 51-54. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. Adam, Sheth, Enosh] That is, Adam was the father of Sheth or Seth. Seth was the father of Enosh, Enosh the father of Kenan, and so on. No notice is taken of Cain and Abel, or of any of the other sons of Adam. One line of patriarchs, from Adam to Noah, is what the historian intended to give; and to have mentioned the posterity of Cain or Abel would have been useless, as Noah was not the immediate descendant of either. Besides, all their posterity had perished in the deluge, none remaining of the Adamic family but Noah and his children; and from these all the nations of the earth sprang. How learned must those men be who can take for a text "The first verse of the first chapter of the first book of CHRONICLES." and find a mystery in each name; which, in the aggregate, amounts to a full view of the original perfection, subsequent fall, consequent misery, and final restoration, of MAN! O ye profound illustrators of the names of men and cities! why do ye not give us the key of your wisdom, write comments, and enlighten the world?

Ch. 1. The Genealogies of the Peoples 1–4. A Genealogy from Adam to the Sons of Noah The history proper does not begin till the death of Saul, but the historian acts in accordance with Eastern custom in connecting his history with the remote past by means of genealogies. This first genealogy is taken from Genesis 5:3-32. The extremely concise form in which it is given is instructive as shewing how far the Chronicler could go in abbreviating his authorities.

Compare the margin references and notes.