1 Chronicles 1:1 — Word Study
WLCאָדָ֥ם שֵׁ֖ת אֱנֽוֹשׁ׃
BSAAdamʼÂdâm [the first man, red] SethShêth [appointed one, replacement] EnoshʼĔnôwsh [mortal, frail]
| Greek | English | Parsing |
|---|---|---|
| אָדָ֥ם | Adam | Noun proper masculine |
| שֵׁ֖ת | Seth | Noun proper masculine |
| אֱנֽוֹשׁ׃ | Enosh | Noun proper masculine |
Every word in the verse. Click a row to open it in the panel on the left.
| BSB | Adam, Seth, Enosh, |
| KJV | Adam, Sheth, Enosh, |
| ASV | Adam, Seth, Enosh, |
| YLT | Adam, Sheth, Enosh, |
| WEB | Adam, Seth, Enosh, |
| BBE | Adam, Seth, Enosh; |
The translations agree on the names presented in this verse.
The verse is a simple list of names with no additional clauses, emphasizing the genealogical nature of the content.
8 commentators on this verse
Gill, Jamieson, Poole, Trapp & more — read them ›
clause
The sentence as the grammar sees it Open the tree ›
Every word here is used elsewhere in the Old Testament.
Bars are logarithmic — אֵת, the commonest word in the Hebrew Bible, stands about 11,000 times, so a linear scale would leave everything else invisible. Click a row to open that word.
Deep Study — 1 Chronicles 1:1
Sections marked generated are written from the data on this page rather than by a named author. Everything else — the lexicon entries, the cross references, the manuscript readings, the counts — is quoted from its source unchanged.
Context — The Genealogy of Adamgenerated
1 Chronicles 1:1 introduces the genealogy of humanity, beginning with Adam, the first man created by God. This lineage is significant as it traces the origins of the human race and establishes a foundation for the narrative of the people of Israel. The following verses continue this genealogy, linking Adam to subsequent generations, which is crucial for understanding biblical history and God's covenant with humanity.
Cross References
| Reference | Text (BSB) | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Genesis 4:25–26 | And Adam again had relations with his wife, and she gave birth to a son and named him Seth, saying, “God has granted me another seed in place of Abel, since Cain killed him.” |
| 2 | Genesis 5:3–8 | When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son in his own likeness, after his own image; and he named him Seth. |
| 3 | Luke 3:38 | the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. |
| 4 | Genesis 5:9–11 | When Enosh was 90 years old, he became the father of Kenan. |
| 5 | Luke 3:38 | the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. |
The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — 5 references, hung on the phrase they belong to
The Key Word — אָדָם, 'a.Damgenerated
The name אָדָם ('adam) is a noun proper masculine, meaning 'man' or 'mankind.' It refers specifically to Adam, the first man created by God, and is also associated with the color red, linking to the earth from which he was formed.
In this verse, Adam is presented as the starting point of human history, emphasizing his role as the progenitor of mankind. The parsing indicates that this is a proper noun, highlighting its significance in the biblical narrative.
How Translations Differ — measured against the Berean Standard Biblegenerated
All translations agree on the names presented in this verse: Adam, Seth, and Enosh.
Sentence Structuregenerated
The structure of this verse is straightforward, consisting of a noun phrase that lists the names of the first three generations of humanity: אָדָם, שֵׁת, and אֱנוֹשׁ. The simplicity of the structure reflects the genealogical nature of the content.
The names are presented in a linear fashion, emphasizing their sequential relationship as ancestors.
Septuagint Backgroundgenerated
The Septuagint translates אָדָם as αδαμ, שֵׁת as σηθ, and אֱנוֹשׁ as ενως. This word choice maintains the same names but does not elaborate on their meanings, focusing instead on the lineage.
The consistency between the Hebrew and Greek texts highlights the importance of these names in both traditions.
In plain words — the whole versegenerated
1 Chronicles 1:1 lists the first three generations of humanity: Adam, the first man; Seth, his appointed replacement; and Enosh, whose name means 'man.' This genealogy is important for understanding the origins of humanity in the biblical narrative.
Frequently Asked Questionsgenerated
Adam is the first man created by God, according to the Bible, and is significant as the progenitor of all humanity.
Seth means 'appointed one' or 'replacement,' as he was born after Abel's death.
Enosh, the son of Seth, represents a key figure in the genealogy leading to Noah and is noted for his humanity.
This genealogy establishes the lineage of humanity and sets the stage for the biblical narrative of God's relationship with His creation.
Reflection Questionsgenerated
- What can I learn from the lives of Adam, Seth, and Enosh about my own family history?
- How does understanding these genealogies help me appreciate the biblical narrative?
- In what ways can I reflect on my role in the larger story of humanity?
- How does the concept of being created in God's image, as seen in Adam, influence my identity?
The early church on this verse — how the Fathers read it
Early Church Fathers have commented on these names, discussing their meanings and significance in the biblical narrative.
If the version of the Seventy translators is pure and has remained as it was rendered by them into Greek, you have urged me on superfluously, my Cromatius, most holy and most learned of bishops,Early Church Fathers on 1 Chronicles 1 →
These Books are called by the Greek interpreters, Paralipomenon, that is, of things left out, or omitted; because they are a kind of a supplement of such things as were passed over in the books of the Kings.Early Church Fathers on 1 Chronicles 1 →
Enos, means “man,” or “despairing,” or “violent.” Seth, means “placing,” “settling,” “he has placed.” Adam, who means “man,” or “of the earth,” or “needy.” Which is “man,” or “of the earth,” or “needy.”Early Church Fathers on 1 Chronicles 1 →
Commentators on this verse — 8 expositors, verse by verse
Each of these wrote on 1 Chronicles 1:1 itself, not merely on the chapter around it.
John Gill1697–1771Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleVer. 1-4. Adam, Seth,.... These first four verses exactly agree with the account of the antediluvian patriarchs in Genesis 5:1, the first letter in Adam is larger than usual, as a memorial, as
Read John Gill on 1 Chronicles 1 →Robert Jamieson1802–1880Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's CommentaryAdam, Sheth, Enosh, Adam ... "Begat" must be understood as meaning that the person who "begat" was not in all instances the immediate parent, but an ancestor, near or more remote of the person spoken of.
Read Robert Jamieson on 1 Chronicles 1 →Matthew Poole1624–1679Matthew Poole's Commentary on the Holy Bible1 CHAPTER 1 Adam's line to Noah, 1 Chronicles 1:1-4. Noah's posterity, by Japheth, 1 Chronicles 1:5-7; by Ham, 1 Chronicles 1:8-16; by Shem to Abraham, 1 Chronicles 1:17-27. His posterity, by Ishmael, 1 Chronicles 1:28-31; by Keturah, and Isaac, 1 Chronicles 1:32-34. His posterity by Esau: the kings and dukes of Edom, 1 Chronicles 1:35-54. i.e. Adam begat Sheth; and so in the following particulars. For brevity sake he only mentions their names; but the rest is easily understood out of the former books, and from the nature of the thing; and from some following passages where the sense is completed.
Read Matthew Poole on 1 Chronicles 1 →John Trapp1601–1669Trapp's Complete Commentary on the Old and New Testaments1 Chronicles 1:1 Adam, Sheth, Enosh, "" we call these two books, - anciently but one, - which is the same in effect with that of the Hebrews’ Dibr ehaiamim, Words, or Deeds, of Days. Paralipomena, or Remains, the Greeks call them, because they take up many things not recorded in the Books of Kings. Yet are they not those "Books of Chronicles of Israel and Judah" we so often read of in the Books of Kings, for they long since perished, but a divine authentic epitome of them. Yea, Jerome doubteth not to call these two Books of Chronicles Instrumenti Veteris Epitomen, et totius divinae historiae Chronicum. Munster calleth them, A sacred diary, The Church’ s annals. They begin as high as Adam…
Read John Trapp on 1 Chronicles 1 →Charles John Ellicott1819–1905Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(1) Adam (man) is here treated as a proper name; in Genesis 5:1-5 it is an appellative. The Chaldeans also had a tradition of ten antediluvian patriarchs or kings, beginning with Alorus and ending with Xisuthrus (Hasis-Adra), the hero of the Flood. They made the duration of this first period of human history 432,000 years. Remembering that Abraham, the Hebrew, was from “Ur (Uru, the city) of the Chaldees,” we can hardly suppose the two accounts to be independent of each other. The comparative simplicity and, above all, the decided monotheism of the Hebrew relation, give a high probability to the assumption that it represents a more original form of the tradition. Sheth, Enosh.—Those who…
Read Charles John Ellicott on 1 Chronicles 1 →AdamClarkeAdam Clarke's Commentary on the BibleTHE FIRST BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES Chronological Notes relative to this Book -Year of the World, 1. -Year before Christ, according to Archbishop Usher, 4004. -Year before the Flood, according to the common Hebrew Bible, 1656. -Year of the Julian period, 710. CHAPTER I The genealogy of Adam to Noah, 1-3. Of Noah to Abraham, 4-27. The sons of Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac, 28. The sons of Ishmael, 29-31. The sons of Keturah, 32, 33. The sons of Esau, 34-42. A list of the kings of Edom, 43-50. A list of the dukes of Edom, 51-54. NOTES ON CHAP. I Verse 1. Adam, Sheth, Enosh] That is, Adam was the father of Sheth or Seth. Seth was the father of Enosh, Enosh the father of Kenan, and so on. No notice…
Read AdamClarke on 1 Chronicles 1 →CambridgeThe Cambridge Bible for Schools and CollegesCh. 1. The Genealogies of the Peoples 1–4. A Genealogy from Adam to the Sons of Noah The history proper does not begin till the death of Saul, but the historian acts in accordance with Eastern custom in connecting his history with the remote past by means of genealogies. This first genealogy is taken from Genesis 5:3-32. The extremely concise form in which it is given is instructive as shewing how far the Chronicler could go in abbreviating his authorities.
Read Cambridge on 1 Chronicles 1 →Albert Barnes1798–1870Barnes' Notes on the BibleCompare the margin references and notes.
Read Albert Barnes on 1 Chronicles 1 →The verse in English, compared — 17 translations, and where they part company
Every translation on this page is a decision someone had to make and commit to. Read down a column and you see one translator's judgement; read across a row and you see the range the Greek actually allows. The BSB is the wording the rest of this page is measured against, so it is listed first.
Modern formal
Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Tyndale line
Adam, Sheth, Enosh,
Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Adam, Seth, Enosh;
Adam, Sheth, Enosh,
Adam, Sheth, Enosh,
Strictly literal
Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Adam, Sheth, Enosh,
Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Adam, Sheth, Enosh,
Adam, Seth, Enosh,
From the Latin
Adam, Seth, Enos,
Simplified
Adam, Seth, Enosh,
Adam, Seth, Enosh;
Counted from the translations carried on this site, not from a survey of every English Bible. A rendering shared by many versions is usually inherited rather than independently arrived at — the Tyndale line in particular runs through most of them.
The sentence as the grammar sees it — from the MACULA Hebrew treebank
This is not our own analysis: it is the scholarly syntax tree for the verse, showing how the clause actually holds together.
Boxes are the grammarian's groupings — clause, noun phrase, prepositional phrase.
The four witnesses to this verse — Masoretic, Septuagint, Samaritan, Qumran
The Masoretic Text and the Septuagint agree on the names listed in this verse: אָדָם, שֵׁת, and אֱנוֹשׁ. There are no variations between these witnesses.
אָדָ֥ם שֵׁ֖ת אֱנֽוֹשׁ׃
3 of the 3 words are matched. This is the word-by-word correspondence, not the Septuagint's own sentence — its word order and its articles are its own.
Four traditions, not one. “On the leather” means the letters physically survive on the scroll, as against letters an editor has supplied to fill a hole in it — a restoration is a scholar’s reading, not a reading of the manuscript. Words in [square brackets] are supplied; the notes count them apart from what survives.
The map of this verse — what each word keeps company with
This is a map of two things, both counted rather than judged. Company kept: which words stand within three words of each of these, anywhere in the Hebrew Bible — the thicker the line, the more often the pair meet compared with chance. Built from: the words a word is made out of, taken from its own Strong’s entry. It is not a map of meaning: nothing here claims two words mean the same thing. Click any circle to see the numbers behind it.
Lexicons — every word in 1 Chronicles 1:1
One dossier per word, with every reference work grouped by kind — Hebrew lexicons, morphology, Bible dictionaries, topical chains and the English of the translators themselves. The verse sits at the head of each block with the word under study lit, so you never lose your place. The panel above gives the short answer; this is the long one, and it is the part of the page worth indexing.
Every entry below is the lexicographer's own text. On the Hebrew: Brown-Driver-Briggs entire and its gloss set, Strong's Hebrew Dictionary, and Tyndale House's Translators Brief lexicon. Where a cell says a work has no entry, that work genuinely has none for this word.
אָדָם (adam) primarily means 'man' or 'mankind' and refers to Adam, the first man in the Bible. It also denotes a city in the Jordan valley. The name is linked to the meaning 'red.' The entries consistently identify Adam as both a person and a place.
אָדָם 560 n.m. Gn 1:27 man, mankind
a man = human being
coll. man, mankind
n.pr.m. Adam, first man (without art.)
n.pr.loc. city in Jordan valley (as built?)
base
H121 אָדָם man, mankind . n. pr. m. Adam, first man
. n. pr. loc. city in the Jordan valley (as built?)
121 'Adam aw-dawm'
the same as 120; Adam the name of the first man, also of a
place in Palestine:--Adam.
see HEBREW for 0120
אָדָם (a.dam) — Adam.
A man living at the time before the Flood, first mentioned at Gen.2.19;
married to Eve (H2332);
father of: Cain (H7014B), Abel (H1893) and Seth (H8352); also translated "man" at Gen.2.19,21,23; 3.8,9,20; 5.2; "mankind" at Deu.32.8; "others" at Job.31.33;
§ Adam = "red"
1) first man
2) city in Jordan valley
אָדָם (a.dam) — Adam.
Adam = "red"
city in Jordan valley
N-proper — Noun proper masculineHNpm
Adam
Red, a Babylonian word, the generic name for man, having the same meaning in the Hebrew and the Assyrian languages. It was the name given to the first man, whose creation, fall, and subsequent history and that of his descendants are detailed in the first book of Moses (Gen. 1:27-ch. 5). “God created man [Heb., Adam] in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
Adam was absolutely the first man whom God created. He was formed out of the dust of the earth (and hence his name), and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and gave him dominion over all the lower creatures (Gen. 1:26; 2:7). He was placed after his creation in the Garden of Eden, to cultivate it, and to enjoy its fruits under this one prohibition: “Of the tree…
a city on the Jordan, "beside Zaretan," in the time of Joshua. (Joshua 3:16)
1. The progenitor and representative head of our race; formed of the dust of the ground, and made a living soul by the Creator’s breath. He was the last work of the creation, and received dominion over all that the earth contained. That he might not be alone, God provided Eve as a helpmeet for him, and she became his wife. Marriage is thus a divine institution, first in order of time, as well as of importance and blessedness to mankind. Adam was made a perfect man-complete in every physical, mental, and spiritual endowment; and placed in the Garden of Eden on probation, holy and happy, but liable to sin. From this estate he fell by breaking the express command of God, through the temptations of Satan and the compliance of Eve; and thus brought the curse upon himself and all his posterity. Sovereign grace interposed; a Savior was revealed, and the full execution of the curse stayed; but…
earthy; red
שֵׁת (Sheth) refers to the third son of Adam and Eve, mentioned in Genesis 4:25. The name is derived from a root meaning 'put' or 'substituted.' It is also noted that שֵׁת can be spelled as 'Sheth' in some contexts, and the name is associated with the meaning 'compensation.'
שֵׁת n.pr.m. third son of Adam
base
H8352 שֵׁת third son of Adam
8352 Sheth shayth
from 7896; put, i.e. substituted; Sheth, third son of
Adam:--Seth, Sheth.
see HEBREW for 07896
שֵׁת (shet) — Seth.
A man living at the time before the Flood, first mentioned at Gen.4.25;
son of: Adam (H0121) and Eve (H2332);
brother of: Cain (H7014B) and Abel (H1893);
father of: Enosh (H0583); also called Sheth (Ketiv: buttock) at Num.24.17;
§ Seth = "compensation"
1) the 3rd son of Adam by Eve
1a) also 'Sheth'
N-proper — Noun proper masculineHNpm
Seth
Appointed; a substitute, the third son of Adam and Eve (Gen. 4:25; 5:3). His mother gave him this name, “for God,” said she, “hath appointed me [i.e., compensated me with] another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.”
(compensation), (Genesis 4:25; 6:3; 1 Chronicles 1:1) the third son of Adam, and father of Enos. (B.C. 3870.) Adam handed down to Seth and his descendants the promise of mercy, faith in which became the distinction of God’s children. (Genesis 4:26)
The first son of Adam after the death of Abel, Ge 4:25,26; 5:3,6,8, and ancestor of the line of godly patriarchs.
put; who puts; fixed
The Hebrew word אֱנוֹשׁ (*'Enowsh*) refers to Enosh, the son of Seth, and is noted in Genesis 4:26. It is linked to the meaning 'man' and is also called Enos in the New Testament. The entries consistently identify Enosh as a significant figure in the genealogy from Seth.
אֱנוֹשׁ n.pr.m. son of Seth
base
H583 אֱנוֹשׁ son of Seth
583 'Enowsh en-ohsh'
the same as 582; Enosh, a son of Seth; --Enos.
see HEBREW for 0582
אֱנוֹשׁ (e.nosh) — Enosh.
A man living at the time before the Flood, first mentioned at Gen.4.26;
son of: Seth (H8352);
father of: Kenan (H7018); also called Enos at Luk.3.38;
Also named: Enōs (Ἐνώς "Enos" G1800)
§ Enos = "man"
son of Seth
N-proper — Noun proper masculineHNpm
Same as ENOS. (1 Chronicles 1:1)