Chapter I.

From the creation of the world to the Great Flood.

Years of the world.

Classification of persons.

After Adam, the first man, had fallen away from God and His will through disobedience, his descendants divided into two groups original: hauffen; literally "heaps" or "crowds". The one group sought to be reunited with God through faith. The other drifted further and further away from Him through sin.

Pious Patriarchs.

§. 2. Among the former were Abel, the second son of Adam, and the patriarchs patriarchs: the male heads of families or tribes in the biblical era before the Great Flood, namely Seth, Enos, Kenan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, and Noah.

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Seth.

§. 3. Seth, the third son of Adam, was born in the 130th year of his father, Genesis 5:3 original: 1 b. Mos. 5, 3; shorthand for the First Book of Moses. He lived 912 years, and Adam lived 930. He is said to have erected two pillars for the benefit of his descendants—one of stone and the other of clay original: leimen; referring to brick or loam—and to have engraved into them his teachings and discovered sciences, so that they might be preserved and passed on, remaining unextinguished by either fire or water. Josephus, Cedrenus, etc. The author cites Flavius Josephus, a 1st-century Jewish historian, and George Cedrenus, an 11th-century Byzantine historian

His two pillars.

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Enos.

§. 4. Enos, Seth’s son, lived 905 years, Genesis 5:11, in whose time the name of the Lord was proclaimed, chapter 4:26, although the beginning of idolatry is also placed at this time. Seldenus. John Selden was a prominent 17th-century English scholar of ancient history and law

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Kenan.

Mahalaleel.

§. 5. Cainan, or Kenan, the son of Enos, reached the age of 910 years, Genesis 5:14, and fathered Mahalaleel,