a warning that deception and misdirection are the methods adopted by the Enemy to

divert the testimony of the Scriptures away from the true Seed, to the false.

Cain's first child is called Enoch, and so, when Jude would refer to Enoch "who

walked with God", he is careful to speak of him as `the seventh from Adam' (Jude 14).

The succeeding names in the line of Cain, namely, Irad, Methusael and Lamech, which

last-named boasted of his prowess and used the phrase `sevenfold' and `seventy and

sevenfold', are not unlike the names that occur in Gen. 5:, namely Jared, which differs

from Irad by one letter, and Methuselah which could easily be confused with Methusael,

while Lamech who made no boast like his evil name sake, nevertheless has this in

common, namely a reference to the seventy and seven, in that he live seven hundred and

seventy and seven years. This Lamech had a son, Noah, but the other Lamech, even

though he was the first to have two wives, was childless, the evil line of Cain ending in

this boastful descendant.

When the genealogy was written as a preface to the books of Chronicles the

succession reads `Adam, Sheth; Enosh' (I Chron. 1: 1) and the name of Cain is blotted out

of the record, never occurring after Gen. 4:, in the remainder of the O.T. A son was

born to Seth, whom he called Enos, and the Scripture adds as a comment "Then began

men to call upon the name of the Lord" (Gen. 4: 26). As the passage stands in the A.V.

it would give cause for rejoicing to think that consequent upon the extinction of the line

of Cain, and the continuance of the line through Seth, godliness was now established in

the earth. It is however evident from the early pages of Genesis, that men called upon the

name of the Lord before the days of Enos, and that extreme ungodliness had so developed

by the time that Enoch lived, as to call for the pronouncement of judgment by the Lord

(Jude 15) and a prophecy of the coming flood, for Enoch's son Methuselah means `at his

death it shall be'.

That there was something hidden beneath the surface in Gen. 4: 26 the following

notes will make evident. The LXX insert the verb elpizo `to hope' and reads as follows

". . . . . Enos: he hoped to call on the name of the Lord". The translators of the A.V. also

were not quite satisfied, for they insert in the margin the words "Or to call themselves by

the name of the LORD". Now one may call himself by the name of the Lord for good, or

for evil reasons, and there is a persistent tradition from early days, to show that the

Rabbinical interpretation of these words indicated that they were evil in intent.

The Targum of Onkelos reads: "Then in his days the sons of men desisted from

praying in the name of the Lord." The Targum of Jonathan says: "That was the

generation in whose days they began to err, and to make themselves idols, and surnamed

their idols by the name of the Word of the Lord."  Rashi reads "Then was there

profanation in calling on the name of the Lord", and Maimonedes in a treatise on

idolatry, traces the probable origin to the days of Enos. With this interpretation the

"Companion Bible" is in entire agreement. To the English reader there does not appear

in the words `began to call' anything that suggests profanity, yet, if masters of the

language have consistently represented the passage as so doing, the English reader will

naturally desire to become more closely acquainted with the original.