The Bible is an amazing book. The more we study it, the more we realize its depth. It is God’s eternal and inexhaustible Word (Isaiah 40:8; 1 Peter 1:23). The plain language of prophecy is quite compelling, but there are also additional layers of meaning we discover when we look into the original languages and the specific meanings of words and names.

For example, in Genesis chapter 5, a study of the names given in what would appear to most as merely a boring genealogical record is actually a profound prophetic layout of the core theme of the entire Bible.

THE GOSPEL REVEALED IN NAMES IN GENESIS 5

ADAM man [is]

SETH appointed

ENOSH mortal

KENAN sorrow [but]

MAHALALEL the blessed God

JARED shall come down

ENOCH teaching

METHUSELAH his death shall bring

LAMECH the despairing

NOAH comfort/rest

When the meaning of the Hebrew names from the genealogy are strung together, they form a sentence that essentially says,

“Man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the blessed God will come down teaching and his death will bring the despairing rest.”

Also, the taking up of Enoch to heaven serves as a type of the rapture before judgment (verse 24—“God took him”). And it has been observed that the meaning of Methuselah’s name—“his death shall bring”—served to warn that at his death, judgment would occur. Indeed, after Methuselah died, the flood came.

Categories: Studiu biblic, Teologice