Have you read genealogies in the Bible and found them uninteresting and wondered why they are there? It turns out that in Hebrew, the names have meaning but the meanings have not been translated, only transliterated to English. The meanings of the names in the genealogy in Genesis 5:1-32 are as follows, in the order given in the Bible:
| Hebrew Name | English Meaning | ||
| Adam | Man | ||
| Seth | Appointed | ||
| Enosh | Mortal | ||
| Kenan | Sorrow | ||
| Mahalalel | The Blessed God | ||
| Jared | Shall come down | ||
| Enoch | Teaching | ||
| Methuselah | His death shall bring | ||
| Lamech | The despairing | ||
| Noah | Rest, or comfort |
If we add a few simple connectives, here is what we get:
Man is appointed to mortal sorrow, but the Blessed God shall come down teaching that his death shall bring to the despairing rest.
So, here is a summary of God’s plan of redemption, hidden in a genealogy in Genesis!
What is the probability of this happening by random chance?
For each name there would have been hundreds of choices, but let’s assume there were only 100 for each, giving 10^20 possible combinations. Then having chosen 10 names, the total number of ways to order them is 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2 = 3.6×10^6. So, the probability of picking by chance that set of names in that sequence would be 1 in 3.6×10^26.
That would be about as likely as covering the earth with quarters 50 miles deep, with one marked and located at random, and then with no idea were the marked one was, picking it by chance on the first try.
Who but God could have done this?
For more details see: “The Gospel in Genesis“