John Calvin Commentary Genesis 4:26

"And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh. Then began men to call upon the name of Jehovah." — Genesis 4:26 (ASV)

Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. In the verb ‘to call upon,’ there is a synecdoche, for it generally embraces the whole worship of God. But religion is here properly designated by that which forms its principal part, for God prefers this service of piety and faith to all sacrifices (Psalms 50:14). Indeed, this is the spiritual worship of God which faith produces.

This is particularly worthy of notice, because Satan contrives nothing with greater care than to adulterate the pure invocation of God with every possible corruption, or to draw us away from the only God to the invocation of creatures. Even from the beginning of the world, he has not ceased to move this stone, so that miserable men might weary themselves in vain in a preposterous worship of God.

But let us know that the entire pomp of adoration is worth nothing unless this chief point of worshipping God rightly is maintained. Although the passage may be more simply explained to mean that then the name of God was again celebrated, I approve the former sense because it is fuller, contains a useful doctrine, and also agrees with the accustomed phraseology of Scripture.

It is a foolish figment that God then began to be called by other names, since Moses does not here censure depraved superstitions but commends the piety of one family which worshipped God in purity and holiness, when religions among other peoples were polluted or extinct.

There is no doubt that Adam and Eve, with a few others of their children, were themselves true worshippers of God. But Moses means that at that time the deluge of impiety in the world was so great that religion was rapidly hastening to destruction, because it remained with only a few men and did not flourish in any one race.

We may readily conclude that Seth was an upright and faithful servant of God. After he begot a son like himself and had a rightly constituted family, the face of the Church began distinctly to appear, and a worship of God was established that could continue to posterity.

Such a restoration of religion has also been effected in our time. It is not that religion had been altogether extinct, but rather that there was no clearly defined people who called upon God; indeed, no sincere profession of faith and no uncorrupted religion could be discovered anywhere.

From this, it appears all too evidently how great is man’s propensity either to gross contempt of God or to superstition, since both evils must have prevailed everywhere at that time, when Moses relates it as a miracle that at that time there was a single family in which the worship of God arose.