The biblical Book of Genesis contains a number of genealogies, which provide a framework around which the book is structured. Beginning with Adam, genealogies in Genesis 4, 5, 10, 11, 22, 25, 29–30, 35–36, and 46 move the narrative forward from the creation to the beginnings of the Israelites' existence as a people.
Adam's lineage in Genesis contains two branches:
- Genesis 4:17-26 identifies the descendants of Cain, and
- Genesis 5 identifies the descendants of Seth. Seth's genealogy is then continued in later chapters.
Chapter 10 sets out the Generations of Noah (also called the Table of Nations), accounting for the populating of the Earth by Noah's descendants. This section is not strictly a genealogy but an ethnography.
Treatment of ages
Genesis 5 and Genesis 11 include the ages at which each of the patriarchs had the progeny named as well as the number of years he lived thereafter. Many of the ages given in the text are long, but could have been considered modest in comparison to the ages given in other works (for instance, the Sumerian King List).
The ages include patterns surrounding the numbers five and seven, for instance the 365 year life of Enoch (the same as the number of full calendar days in a solar year) and the 777 year life of Lamech (repetitional emphasis of the number seven). Overall, the ages display clear mathematical patterns, leading some people to conclude that number symbolism was used to construct them. Nevertheless, since Genesis 5 and 11 provide the age of each patriarch at the birth of his named descendant, it also appears to present a gapless chronology from Adam to Abraham, even if the named descendant is not always a first-generation son.
Generations of Adam and Eve
Genesis names three children of Adam and Eve, Cain, Abel and Seth. Genesis 4:1–18 recounts how Cain killed his brother Abel: there is no record of Abel having any descendants, and Eve refers to Seth in Genesis 4:25 as "another child in place of Abel". A genealogy tracing the descendants of Cain is given in , while the line from Seth down to Noah appears in . Scholars have noted similarities between these descents: most of the names in each are variants of those in the other, though their order differs, with the names of Enoch and Mahalalel/Mehujael switching places in the two pedigrees. It is "as if they were different versions of the same underlying tradition". This has led to speculation that a single original genealogical descent had diverged during independent transmission, only to be brought back together and put to different uses when the Book of Genesis was compiled from its Jahwist and Priestly sources.
The ages at which each of these characters fathered their children are all high by later standards, ranging from 65 (when Enoch and Mahalalel fathered their sons) to 500 years (Noah). Theologian John Gill speculated that "no doubt" earlier children were born before the ones listed, who are named because they are the ones who take forward the lineage "directly from Adam to Noah".