God’s Word for You

Genesis 5:3-5 Adam’s 930 years

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, October 16, 2026

3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, after his own image, and he named him Seth. 4 After Seth was born, Adam lived 800 years. He had other sons and daughters. 5 Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and he then died.

In this official written genealogy, there is no mention of Abel, for he died childless. And there is no mention of Cain at all. In the history of the salvation of mankind (as one commentator said), “Cain is an irrelevance.” We are told that Adam had other sons and daughters, and certainly the sons and daughters married one another; one girl became the wife of Cain, another became the wife of Seth, and the other girls married their brothers, as we have already explained in chapter 4. The command against marriages among such close relations was not given at this time, nor even as the family of Noah left the ark, nor in the days from Abraham to Joseph. Not until Moses brought Israel to Mount Sinai did God say, “Do not marry your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere” (Leviticus 18:9). And to this were added many other forbidden marriages: mother, granddaughter, aunt, in-laws, married women, multiple women, or someone of the same gender (Leviticus 18:10-22).

In this passage we hear both law and gospel. The law is proclaimed in verse 3 and then in verse 5. First, Seth inherited the sinful nature of his parents. This is what all of his children and descendants inherited from him. There is no turning back from our sinful nature in this world. Parent to child to grandchild, we are all sinners (Romans 3:23).

Second, in verse 5 we see that Adam died. This was the fulfillment of the curse when the law was first given: “You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day that you eat from it, you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). There was and is no escaping death. But what in man, in this case Adam, died? The material in man that is subject to death is his body, his flesh, his physical existence. The body is not destroyed by death, but decays or is burned or is otherwise reduced to dust. God said, “You will return to the ground, for from it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3:19). But the soul lives on.

Now Adam did not die until he had reached the incredible age, to our thinking, of nine hundred thirty years. His age cannot be disputed; it is set firmly in the inspired text and in such a way that it is placed alongside the written record of many other men of a similar age. Among the heathen, there are claims of men living even longer lives, with Sumerian kings that are claimed to have lived from ten thousand to forty thousand years, Egyptian kings and certain Hindus who are said to have lived at least thousands of years. None of those is provable, but in my opinion those are claims by people who, jealous of the text of the Scripture, simply multiplied the years of their ancestors in order to say, “Yes, this happened here, but for an even longer time.” It is a trait of the sinful nature to want to outdo people, out of envy or jealousy, “much surpassing the common praise they bear.”

I believe that it should be clear to us that Adam’s life in part reflects his perfect health before the fall. His body and limbs had a natural vigor and strength that surpasses us all. And then again, after the fall and the curse, and despite their grief over losing one child in death and two more to banishment, they were also renewed and invigorated by the gospel promise of the Savior, and born again through faith in the promised Seed of Eve. For “the LORD is my strength. My heart trusts in him, and I am helped” (Psalm 28:7).

Adam lived to see the ninth generation of his line, living more than fifty years after the birth of Lamech. This was not the Lamech who sang his song of violent revenge in chapter 4, but the Lamech who was the father of Noah.

Many ancient Christians thought that Adam would have been taken out of the world eventually by God, since it is God’s desire that all believers will live with him in heaven, “great is your reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:12). But how long would Adam’s life have gone along for before he was to be translated into Paradise? Perhaps after a full thousand years or so, when he was truly “old and full of years” (Job 42:17). This is supported in the minds of those who notice that Adam died just seventy years (about one standard lifetime today) short of a thousand. Whether that is the correct understanding of Adam’s 930 years, we know at least that the number 930 is not an exaggeration, but a true count of Adam’s years (“Your Word is truth” John 17:17). Eve probably lived about the same number of years, and the two of them were reunited with Abel their dear son in heaven, but more importantly, they were united with God in person in heaven (no longer hiding from him under the trees!). On account of their repentance and their faith in the coming Savior, they were spared from the punishment of the devil, and brought into heaven, so that one day we will meet them there along with the rest of all believers.

In ancient and medieval depictions of the crucifixion, one often sees Golgotha drawn or painted with a crack, or a little opening in the side. There in the hill under the cross, the blood of Jesus is shown dripping down upon a skull under the ground in that little crack or cave. It is a way of depicting the buried skull of Adam, and the blood of Christ covering even Adam’s sins, and therefore the original sin of us all.

Adam was forgiven, but died. He will rise to everlasting life. You and I are forgiven, and whatever happens to our bodies in this world, we put our trust in our Savior, the same Savior Adam looked forward to. We, too, will rise to everlasting life. The blood of Jesus covers us all.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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