Matthew Henry Commentary


Matthew Henry Commentary
"This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; male and female created he them, and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created. And Adam lived a hundred and thirty years, and begat [a son] in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth: and the days of Adam after he begat Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters. And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died." — Genesis 5:1-5 (ASV)
Adam was made in the image of God; but when he fell, he fathered a son in his own image, sinful and defiled, frail, wretched, and mortal, like himself. This son was not only a man like Adam, consisting of body and soul, but also a sinner like him. This was the reverse of the divine likeness in which Adam was made; having lost it, he could not pass it on to his descendants.
Adam lived, in all, 930 years; and then he died according to the sentence passed upon him: To dust thou shalt return. Though he did not die on the day he ate the forbidden fruit, yet on that very day he became mortal. Then he began to die; his whole life afterward was but a reprieve, a forfeited, condemned life; it was a wasting, dying life. Human life is but dying by degrees.