Genesis 5

From Adam to Noah

Ten generations from Adam to Noah, each man living, begetting, and dying, until Enoch walks with God and is taken, and Lamech names his son Noah in the hope of rest from the cursed ground.

Genesis chaptersChapter 5 of 50

From the Creation to the birth of Noah’s sons. The Church’s Bible Chronology gives no years before Abraham, because the ancient texts disagree on these numbers, so no date is given. Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

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Background

Genesis is built on family records, each section beginning with “generations.”

Genesis is built on family records, each section beginning with “generations.” The first was the account of the heavens and the earth (Gen. 2:4); this chapter is the second, “the book of the generations of Adam.” Cain’s line has been told and set aside in chapter 4 (Gen. 4:17–24). From here the history follows Seth, “whose descendants are traced in genealogical succession as far as Noah”: ten generations, after which the story of the Flood picks up.

Latter-day revelation gives this list twice more. The Book of Moses, part of the Joseph Smith Translation, repeats it (Moses 6:8–25; Moses 8:1–12) and opens the three verses on Enoch into two chapters of his preaching, his city, and his visions (Moses 6:26–68; Moses 7). The Doctrine and Covenants gives the same names as the line of the priesthood, with the age at which each man was ordained (D&C 107:41–52). In the Bible, Chronicles opens Israel’s history with these names (1 Chr. 1:1–4), and Luke ends the Savior’s genealogy with them (Luke 3:36–38).

The thread through the chapter

Genesis 5 is a list with a refrain. Eight times a man lives, begets a son, lives on, “and he died” (verses 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 31).

Genesis 5 is a list with a refrain. Eight times a man lives, begets a son, lives on, “and he died” (verses 5, 8, 11, 14, 17, 20, 27, 31). The death that came with the Fall (Gen. 2:17) reaches each generation in turn.

Two things break the pattern, and they carry the chapter. Of Enoch, the seventh, the record does not say “and he died.” It says twice that he “walked with God,” and then that “he was not; for God took him” (verses 22–24). Then Lamech, the last father in the list, names his son Noah in the hope that he “shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed” (verse 29). His word for “toil” is the word of the curse on the ground in Gen. 3:17. The list that began with God’s likeness in man (verses 1–3) ends looking for rest from the curse.

It is Seth’s line, not Cain’s. Cain’s descendants in chapter 4 are named without ages, and that line ends with Lamech’s boast of revenge (Gen. 4:23–24). This one keeps count of every year, and its own Lamech hopes for comfort.

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–2

The record of Adam’s family

In plain words

This is the written record of Adam’s descendants. When God created mankind, He made them in His own likeness. He created them male and female, blessed them, and named them “Adam” (mankind) on the day they were created.

1 This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

Context #

A written family record

The chapter presents itself as a written record. The Hebrew is sefer toledot adam: a sefer is a “document, writing, book,” and toledot, “generations,” is an “account of a man and…

The chapter presents itself as a written record. The Hebrew is sefer toledot adam: a sefer is a “document, writing, book,” and toledot, “generations,” is an “account of a man and his descendants.” The same word toledot heads the account of the heavens and the earth (Gen. 2:4) and will head the account of Noah (Gen. 6:9).

The Book of Moses says what this book was. In the days of Seth and Enos, “a book of remembrance was kept,” written “in the language of Adam” by those who called upon God (Moses 6:5), and “a genealogy was kept of the children of God. And this was the book of the generations of Adam” (Moses 6:8). The list that follows is that genealogy. Enoch later appeals to it when he preaches: “death hath come upon our fathers; nevertheless we know them, and cannot deny, and even the first of all we know, even Adam. For a book of remembrance we have written among us” (Moses 6:45–46).

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

Verses 3–5

Adam

In plain words

When Adam was 130 years old he had a son in his own likeness, after his own image, and named him Seth. Adam lived 800 years after Seth was born and had other sons and daughters. Adam lived 930 years in all, and then he died.

3 And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

Related Scriptures #

In his father’s likeness

The words that described God making Adam now describe Adam fathering Seth.

The words that described God making Adam now describe Adam fathering Seth. God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” (betsalmenu kidmutenu, Gen. 1:26); verse 1 repeats it; and Adam begets a son “in his own likeness, after his image” (bidmuto ketsalmo), the same two nouns in reverse order. The Book of Moses makes the likeness bodily: “In the image of his own body, male and female, created he them” (Moses 6:9).

Latter-day revelation adds that Seth was the son chosen to carry the line. Adam ordained him at sixty-nine, and Seth “received the promise of God by his father, that his posterity should be the chosen of the Lord… Because he (Seth) was a perfect man, and his likeness was the express likeness of his father, insomuch that he seemed to be like unto his father in all things, and could be distinguished from him only by his age” (D&C 107:42–43). The Book of Moses calls the men of this line “preachers of righteousness” (Moses 6:23).

They were alive together. Three years before Adam died, he called “Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah, who were all high priests,” with the rest of his righteous posterity, into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman to give them his last blessing, “and the Lord appeared unto them” (D&C 107:53–54).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

4 And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:

5 And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died.

Context #

Did they really live so long?

The scriptures give the ages but not the reason. “The Bible records that Adam and some of his descendants lived extremely long lives.

The scriptures give the ages but not the reason. “The Bible records that Adam and some of his descendants lived extremely long lives. The scriptures do not clearly explain the reason for these long lifespans.” After the Flood the ages fall over several generations (Gen. 11:10–32) “until they approach the lifespans we recognize today.” Two explanations have been suggested. Some read Lehi’s words as a reason: “the days of the children of men were prolonged, according to the will of God, that they might repent while in the flesh” (2 Ne. 2:21). And in the ancient Near East “some recordkeepers would attribute long lifespans to important figures, apparently as a way of expressing how important they were.”

The numbers were not handed down in a single form. The Greek Septuagint makes Adam 230 years old when Seth is born, not 130, and gives him 700 years afterward instead of 800, so that he still dies at 930. In these ages the Septuagint “differs from the current Hebrew Bible in seventeen places,” and the Samaritan Pentateuch differs again. The variants show “that different lists of the ages were in circulation in biblical times.”

Joseph Smith changed the numbers as well. Some time after the first dictation he dictated fourteen corrections to the ages from Adam to Methuselah, every one an addition; Adam’s total became 1,000 years. They were written only on the first manuscript, never on the copy he kept working from, and when the translation was first printed in 1867 all but one were dropped. The Book of Moses was taken from that printing, so the one that remains is Enoch’s: “four hundred and thirty years” (Moses 8:1). None of his numbers appears in the ancient texts and versions of Genesis. He “changed some ages of the patriarchs but preserved their unusually long lifespans.”

Sources: Genesis 5; Moses 6, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. Kent P. Jackson and Charles Swift, “The Ages of the Patriarchs in the Joseph Smith Translation”, In A Witness for the Restoration: Essays in Honor of Robert J. Matthews, ed. Kent P. Jackson and Andrew C. Skinner (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2007), 1–11.

Related Scriptures #

“In the day that thou eatest”

Adam is the first man in the list to die, and his death raises a question.

Adam is the first man in the list to die, and his death raises a question. God had warned him, “in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Gen. 2:17), yet he lived 930 years. Abraham’s account of the same warning answers it: “in the time that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now I, Abraham, saw that it was after the Lord’s time, which was after the time of Kolob” (Abr. 5:13). Adam and Eve “did not die physically within a twenty-four hour period, as we now measure a day,” but Adam “did, however, die within the period of one Kolob day (one thousand earth years, as measured after the Fall…).” Peter gives the measure: “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years” (2 Pet. 3:8).

Joseph Smith may have taught the same thing. Edward Stevenson, later a member of the First Council of the Seventy, wrote in his autobiography, in the context of a sermon by Joseph Smith, that Adam “was within 6 month of 1000 years old, which is one day with the Lord’s time thus fulfilling the Lords decree.” That is a recollection, not scripture, and it is close to the thousand years Joseph Smith wrote into his manuscript (see the note above), not the 930 of the printed text. Either way Adam died within the Lord’s day.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Facsimiles 2–3; Abraham 4–5, Pearl of Great Price Student Manual (Church Educational System, 2017). Kent P. Jackson and Charles Swift, “The Ages of the Patriarchs in the Joseph Smith Translation”, In A Witness for the Restoration: Essays in Honor of Robert J. Matthews, ed. Kent P. Jackson and Andrew C. Skinner (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2007), 1–11.

Verses 6–20

Seth to Jared

In plain words

Seth was 105 when Enos was born; he lived 807 more years and had other sons and daughters, and died at 912. Enos was 90 when Cainan was born; he lived 815 more years and died at 905. Cainan was 70 when Mahalaleel was born; he lived 840 more years and died at 910. Mahalaleel was 65 when Jared was born; he lived 830 more years and died at 895. Jared was 162 when Enoch was born; he lived 800 more years and died at 962. Each had other sons and daughters.

6 And Seth lived an hundred and five years, and begat Enos:

7 And Seth lived after he begat Enos eight hundred and seven years, and begat sons and daughters:

8 And all the days of Seth were nine hundred and twelve years: and he died.

9 And Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:

10 And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:

11 And all the days of Enos were nine hundred and five years: and he died.

12 And Cainan lived seventy years, and begat Mahalaleel:

13 And Cainan lived after he begat Mahalaleel eight hundred and forty years, and begat sons and daughters:

14 And all the days of Cainan were nine hundred and ten years: and he died.

15 And Mahalaleel lived sixty and five years, and begat Jared:

16 And Mahalaleel lived after he begat Jared eight hundred and thirty years, and begat sons and daughters:

17 And all the days of Mahalaleel were eight hundred ninety and five years: and he died.

18 And Jared lived an hundred sixty and two years, and he begat Enoch:

19 And Jared lived after he begat Enoch eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

20 And all the days of Jared were nine hundred sixty and two years: and he died.

Verses 21–24

Enoch walks with God

In plain words

Enoch was 65 when Methuselah was born. After that, Enoch walked with God for 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Enoch’s days were 365 years in all. Enoch walked with God, and then he was no longer there, because God took him.

21 And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:

22 And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:

Language #

Walking with God

To walk with God is to live in His company. The verb is halak, “walk,” in its Hitpael stem (vayyithallek et-ha’elohim), and used “of Enoch and Noah” it denotes “intimacy, fellowship.”

To walk with God is to live in His company. The verb is halak, “walk,” in its Hitpael stem (vayyithallek et-ha’elohim), and used “of Enoch and Noah” it denotes “intimacy, fellowship.” Noah too “walked with God” (Gen. 6:9). The same stem is used of “the LORD God walking in the garden” (Gen. 3:8). Walking with God “seems to denote not only obedience but also a close relationship with God that may have included walking (literally) in God’s presence, such as what Adam and Eve did.” The Septuagint gives the sense rather than the picture, “Enoch was well-pleasing to God,” and Hebrews follows the Greek: “before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God” (Heb. 11:5).

Latter-day revelation shows how literal it was for Enoch. The Lord’s call to him ends, “thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me” (Moses 6:34); when he preached, no one laid hands on him, “for he walked with God” (Moses 6:39); and “he saw the Lord, and he walked with him, and was before his face continually” (D&C 107:49). In the end the phrase describes a whole people: “Enoch and all his people walked with God” (Moses 7:69).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Jared W. Ludlow, “Enoch in the Old Testament and Beyond”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 73–114. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:

Related Scriptures #

365 years, or 430?

Latter-day revelation counts Enoch’s 365 years differently. In Genesis they are his whole life: sixty-five years before Methuselah was born, three hundred after (verses 21–23).

Latter-day revelation counts Enoch’s 365 years differently. In Genesis they are his whole life: sixty-five years before Methuselah was born, three hundred after (verses 21–23). In the Book of Moses they belong to his city: “all the days of Zion, in the days of Enoch, were three hundred and sixty-five years” (Moses 7:68), and Enoch’s own days “were four hundred and thirty years” (Moses 8:1). The Doctrine and Covenants agrees: “he walked with God three hundred and sixty-five years, making him four hundred and thirty years old when he was translated” (D&C 107:49). There the 365 years are how long he walked with the Lord, counted from the age of sixty-five, when Adam blessed him (D&C 107:48), which is also his age when Methuselah was born (verse 21).

Enoch’s age at Moses 8:1 is the one correction to the patriarchs’ ages that made it into the printed Book of Moses (see the note on verse 5).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Jared W. Ludlow, “Enoch in the Old Testament and Beyond”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 73–114. Kent P. Jackson and Charles Swift, “The Ages of the Patriarchs in the Joseph Smith Translation”, In A Witness for the Restoration: Essays in Honor of Robert J. Matthews, ed. Kent P. Jackson and Andrew C. Skinner (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2007), 1–11.

24 And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

Related Scriptures #

Taken without death

Genesis does not say what happened to Enoch, only that “he was not” (’enennu, “he was no more”) because God “took” (laqach) him.

Genesis does not say what happened to Enoch, only that “he was not” (’enennu, “he was no more”) because God “took” (laqach) him. The verb is an everyday one, but it is the verb used when the sons of the prophets asked Elisha, “Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day?” on the day Elijah “went up by a whirlwind into heaven” (2 Kgs. 2:3, 11). Read that way, Genesis describes “a living body being taken up to heaven (translated) by God.”

The Septuagint reads “God translated him,” and Hebrews uses the same Greek verb and says what Genesis leaves unsaid: “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him” (Heb. 11:5). The words “that he should not see death” are not in the Septuagint; Hebrews makes the meaning explicit.

The Book of Moses uses Genesis’s own phrase for the whole city: “Zion was not, for God received it up into his own bosom; and from thence went forth the saying, Zion is Fled” (Moses 7:69). Not only Enoch “but also his entire city was translated.”

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Jared W. Ludlow, “Enoch in the Old Testament and Beyond”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 73–114. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. “Enoch”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 25–32

Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah

In plain words

Methuselah was 187 when Lamech was born; he lived 782 more years, had other sons and daughters, and died at 969. Lamech was 182 when he had a son. He named him Noah, saying, “This one will bring us comfort from our work and the hard toil of our hands on the ground the Lord has cursed.” Lamech lived 595 more years, had other sons and daughters, and died at 777. Noah was 500 years old, and he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

25 And Methuselah lived an hundred eighty and seven years, and begat Lamech:

Context #

Not the Lamech of chapter 4

Genesis 4 and 5 each have an Enoch and a Lamech, and they are different men in different families.

Genesis 4 and 5 each have an Enoch and a Lamech, and they are different men in different families. Cain’s line runs Cain, Enoch, Irad, Mehujael, Methusael, Lamech (Gen. 4:17–18); Seth’s runs through Jared to Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech. Cain’s descendants are named without ages. His Lamech boasts that he has killed a man and will be avenged “seventy and sevenfold” (Gen. 4:23–24), and the Book of Moses says he had “entered into a covenant with Satan, after the manner of Cain” (Moses 5:49). Seth’s Lamech was ordained under the hand of Seth (D&C 107:51) and named his son for comfort (verse 29).

Counting Adam, Cain’s Lamech is the seventh from Adam, and so is Enoch in Seth’s line; Jude calls Enoch “the seventh from Adam” (Jude 1:14). In one reading the contrast is deliberate: in Enoch, “the seventh from Adam through Seth, godliness attained its highest point; whilst ungodliness culminated in Lamech, the seventh from Adam through Cain.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

26 And Methuselah lived after he begat Lamech seven hundred eighty and two years, and begat sons and daughters:

27 And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.

Context #

Methuselah and the Flood

Methuselah, “the longest lived of the patriarchs,” died in the year of the Flood by the chapter’s own numbers.

Methuselah, “the longest lived of the patriarchs,” died in the year of the Flood by the chapter’s own numbers. He was 187 when Lamech was born (verse 25), Lamech was 182 when Noah was born (verse 28), and Noah was 600 when the Flood came (Gen. 7:6): 969 years. Readers have wondered why he was not in the ark, and some have “concluded that he may have been wicked.”

The Book of Moses shows otherwise. Methuselah “was not taken” with Enoch’s city “that the covenants of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he made to Enoch; for he truly covenanted with Enoch that Noah should be of the fruit of his loins” (Moses 8:2), and he “prophesied that from his loins should spring all the kingdoms of the earth (through Noah)” (Moses 8:3). He was “a righteous man, a prophet,” left on the earth “to provide a posterity through which Noah would come.” How he died is not recorded; that “once his work was done he may have been translated too” is a possibility, not a teaching.

The ancient copies handle the arithmetic differently. The Samaritan text shortens the years Jared, Methuselah, and Lamech lived after their sons were born, in one reading “to bring their deaths within the time before the flood.” The Septuagint makes Methuselah 167 at Lamech’s birth and Lamech 188 at Noah’s, so that by the numbers of its Vatican manuscript “Methuselah must have lived 14 years after the flood”; its Alexandrian manuscript gives Methuselah a different age, which in the same reading is explained on the same ground.

Sources: “Methuselah”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Genesis 4–11: The Patriarchs, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003). Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.

28 And Lamech lived an hundred eighty and two years, and begat a son:

29 And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.

Language #

Noah: rest and comfort

Lamech’s words play on his son’s name. Noach sounds like nuach, “rest,” and Lamech explains it with a neighboring verb, nacham, “be sorry, console,” and in another form “comfort”:…

Lamech’s words play on his son’s name. Noach sounds like nuach, “rest,” and Lamech explains it with a neighboring verb, nacham, “be sorry, console,” and in another form “comfort”: zeh yenachamenu, “this one shall comfort us.” The Septuagint reads, “This one will cause us to cease from our works, and from the toils of our hands.” Lamech’s “toil” (‘itstsabon) is the word God spoke to Adam: “cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it” (Gen. 3:17). Lamech hoped his son would bring relief from that curse.

Genesis keeps playing on the name through the Flood. “It repented the LORD” (nacham) that He had made man (Gen. 6:6); the ark “rested” (Gen. 8:4); and after Noah’s sacrifice, whose “sweet savour” (reach hannichoach) appeased the LORD, He said, “I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake” (Gen. 8:21).

The Book of Moses carries the wordplay into Enoch’s vision. The earth itself cries, “When shall I rest?” and Enoch pleads, “Wilt thou not bless the children of Noah?” (Moses 7:48–49). The Lord answers with an oath: He will come in the last days “to fulfil the oath which I have made unto you concerning the children of Noah; And the day shall come that the earth shall rest” (Moses 7:60–61). The comfort Lamech hoped for comes, in the end, through Noah’s seed, “but not for a very long time.”

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. Matthew L. Bowen, ““This Son Shall Comfort Us”: An Onomastic Tale of Two Noahs”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 23 (2017): 263–298. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

30 And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:

31 And all the days of Lamech were seven hundred seventy and seven years: and he died.

32 And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Seeing Christ in Genesis 5

Luke ends the Savior’s genealogy with this chapter’s names, read backward: “Which was the son of Mathusala, which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Jared, which was the son of Maleleel, which was the son of Cainan, Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God” (Luke 3:37–38). The Book of Moses calls the list “the genealogy of the sons of Adam, who was the son of God, with whom God, himself, conversed” (Moses 6:22).

The men in this list knew of Christ. God commanded Adam to be baptized “in the name of mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth, which is Jesus Christ” (Moses 6:52). Enoch “saw the day of the coming of the Son of Man, even in the flesh,” and said, “the Lamb is slain from the foundation of the world” (Moses 7:47). And the rest promised in Noah’s name points to Him: “Blessed is he through whose seed Messiah shall come” (Moses 7:53). The rest the earth asked for “will come through Noah’s seed, and in particular through Messiah, his suffering descendant.” The Savior offers rest in His own words: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28).

Worth exploring next

Enoch’s full story. Moses 6:26–68 and Moses 7: his call, his preaching, Zion, and his visions of the Son of Man and of Noah. The New Testament remembers him in Heb. 11:5–6 and Jude 1:14–15.
Enoch in ancient texts and in the Restoration. The Religious Studies Center chapter “Enoch in the Old Testament and Beyond” (in From Creation to Sinai) sets Genesis 5:21–24 beside the later Enoch books and the Book of Moses.
The story continues. Noah’s life is finished, in the same formula, at Gen. 9:28–29.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

Moses 6:8–25 — The same list from Adam to Enoch’s birth of Methuselah, with additions about Seth, Enos, and their preaching.
Moses 8:1–12 — The list continued from Enoch to Noah’s sons, with Methuselah’s prophecy and the order in which Noah’s sons were born.
D&C 107:41–53 — The same names as the line of the priesthood, with the age at which each was ordained.

Sources & further reading

The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“Genesis”, Bible Dictionary.
“Chronology”, Bible Dictionary.
“Enoch”, Bible Dictionary.
“Methuselah”, Bible Dictionary.
Genesis 5; Moses 6, Scripture Helps: Old Testament (2025).
Genesis 4–11: The Patriarchs, Old Testament Student Manual: Genesis–2 Samuel (Church Educational System, 2003).
Facsimiles 2–3; Abraham 4–5, Pearl of Great Price Student Manual (Church Educational System, 2017).
Kent P. Jackson and Charles Swift, “The Ages of the Patriarchs in the Joseph Smith Translation”, In A Witness for the Restoration: Essays in Honor of Robert J. Matthews, ed. Kent P. Jackson and Andrew C. Skinner (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 2007), 1–11.
Jared W. Ludlow, “Enoch in the Old Testament and Beyond”, In From Creation to Sinai: The Old Testament through the Lens of the Restoration, ed. Daniel L. Belnap and Aaron P. Schade (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University; Salt Lake City: Deseret Book), 73–114.
Matthew L. Bowen, ““This Son Shall Comfort Us”: An Onomastic Tale of Two Noahs”, Interpreter: A Journal of Mormon Scripture 23 (2017): 263–298.
Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Genesis, In Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.

I’ve studied Genesis 5