Genesis 5:2

From Adam to Noah

Genesis 5:2 (Genesis 5:1)

‘In the day that God created man he made him in the likeness of God, male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them man when they were created.'

The passage reflects a knowledge of the traditions behind Genesis 1. The word ‘created' is used three times to stress that man was a perfectly created being, as in Genesis 1.

“In the likeness of God.” This also parallels Genesis 1. But as Genesis 1 also reminds us (Genesis 1:26) this means that man is made ‘like us' i.e. the heavenly court. Thus the likeness refers to man's ‘otherness'. He shares the ‘nature' of the angelic realm with a moral awareness (Genesis 3:22).

“And he blessed them.” Man is said to have been ‘named' and ‘blessed' by God the Creator (Elohim) (Genesis 1:26; Genesis 1:28). This blessing is to be demonstrated in future fruitfulness. God as Creator is again here in mind as compared with the covenant God i.e. Yahweh, who is mentioned in Genesis 5:29. (Compare Genesis 4:25).

“And named them man.” The ‘naming' shows that man owes submission to God, the ‘blessing' demonstrates that God has purposed that man should be fruitful. Thus he created them male and female to be His appointees and to be fruitful. We can compare how in the Sumerian king lists ‘kingship came down from heaven'. The passage will now go on to demonstrate man's fruitfulness. All these references demonstrate that the writer is familiar with the story of creation, (compare also Genesis 5:29).

Yet even while man's fruitfulness is declared we come again and again across that ominous phrase ‘and he died'. The whole passage is a declaration that, although God's promise of fruitfulness is being fulfilled, the sentence threatened in Eden is also being carried out, for all, even the best of men, die.

At the same time therefore it is both a message of mercy and life, and of ageing and death. Thus life and death are contrasted together. In contrast, in the genealogy after the flood the phrase ‘and he died' is dropped (see Genesis 11). This demonstrates that it is pointedly significant here. After the flood there is a new beginning, but death is then no longer ‘unusual'. It is seen as the norm.