Seth: The Son Given Instead of Abel

A Man of Ten Verses

Seth is the son of Adam and Eve, born after the death of Abel at the hands of Cain (Genesis 4:25). He belongs to the world before the Flood. According to Ussher, Annals of the World (1650), he was born 3874 BC and died 2962 BC, a life of 912 years. His name stands in Scripture in only a handful of places: two short passages in Genesis, a single word in a genealogy in 1 Chronicles, one line in Luke, and one occurrence of the name in Numbers. Ten verses in all. And yet the line that Scripture keeps tracing runs straight through him.

A Name Given Over a Grave

The first mention is his birth, and it is spoken in the language of loss. "Adam knew his wife again. She gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, saying, 'for God has given me another child instead of Abel, for Cain killed him.' A son was also born to Seth, and he named him Enosh. At that time men began to call on Yahweh's name" (Genesis 4:25-26).

Notice who names him and why. His mother names this child, and she names him out of a memory of murder. Seth is introduced not by anything he did but by what God did in giving him. He is the replacement for a son who was killed by his own brother. That is the weight the child carries from his first breath.

The passage moves immediately to the next generation, Enosh, and then adds a line that has nothing to do with Seth's achievements and everything to do with his times: "At that time men began to call on Yahweh's name" (Genesis 4:26). Scripture places that beginning in Seth's days, alongside his son's birth, without telling us what part Seth himself had in it.

The Same Birth, Told Again

Genesis 5 tells the birth a second time, from the father's side and in the language of image and likeness: "Adam lived one hundred thirty years, and became the father of a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. The days of Adam after he became the father of Seth were eight hundred years, and he became the father of other sons and daughters" (Genesis 5:3-4). Here it is Adam who names him. The likeness noted is Adam's own, and the chapter does not explain the difference it draws.

Then comes Seth's own entry in the register: "Seth lived one hundred five years, then became the father of Enosh. Seth lived after he became the father of Enosh eight hundred seven years, and became the father of other sons and daughters. All of the days of Seth were nine hundred twelve years, then he died" (Genesis 5:6-8). That is the whole of it. A number, a son, more sons and daughters, a total, and a death. No words of his are preserved. No journey, no altar, no test. The refrain of the chapter closes over him as it closes over the rest: then he died.

A Single Word in the Chronicles

Long afterward the chronicler opens his genealogy by reaching back to the beginning: "Adam, Seth, Enosh," (1 Chronicles 1:1). Seth is one word in a list. But the list is the spine of the book, and he is the second name in it. Being remembered at all, in a record that passes over so many, is itself a kind of testimony.

One further passage carries the name. Numbers 24:17 reads: "I see him, but not now. I see him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob. A scepter will rise out of Israel, and shall strike through the corners of Moab, and crush all the sons of Sheth." The name Sheth stands there in an oracle of a coming star and scepter. What the text does not do is explain the connection, and neither will we.

What Is Not Recorded

The honest summary is a short one. Scripture records no sin of Seth, and it records no righteous act of his either. It tells us nothing of his character, nothing he said, nothing he believed. The mother of Enosh and of his other sons and daughters is not named. We are not told how he related to his parents, or what he made of men beginning to call on Yahweh's name in his lifetime. Anyone who tells you more than this is telling you something the Bible does not.

The Line to Christ

The last time the name appears, it is in a genealogy running backward from Jesus: "the son of Enos, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God" (Luke 3:38). That is where Seth's ten verses arrive. The child given instead of a murdered brother stands in the ancestry of the Christ, one link from the beginning of the human race. He is not remembered for what he accomplished. He is remembered because God gave him, and because through him the line continued to the One Luke is writing about.