Genesis 5

Where are Cain and Abel

First thing to notice is that there is no mention of Cain nor Abel here as sons of Adam. This is because this chapter is devoted to the lineage from Adam to Noah. The only mention here is that Adam had other sons and daughters. This lineage is also called the royal line because they were faithful to God.

Room for evolution?

In the first verse it clearly states that God created man(humans) in His likeness. Male and female. This collides with the evolution theory of Darwin. Because this makes it impossible for humans to have come somewhere down the line from the same species as primates, birds or fish.

The gap theory

There is a theory that since this list contains exactly 10 names, as does the genealogy in chapter 11 this list might not be literal and serve a literary purpose. That the lifespan might have been shorter but was altered to the currently known genealogy. The Sumerian King List, for example, also lists 10 names and seemingly unrealistic life spans and reigns. The difference between this genealogy and the Sumerian King List (which, spoiler alert, also mentions a giant flood that covered the land and shorter lifespan after that) is that it was used to serve the legitimacy of later kings.

But does it all add up?

Like you can see on the image below, the ages and genealogy does add up. Placing the death of Noah's grandfather shorty (or maybe by) the flood. While this does not disprove the gap theory, it also doesn't prove that the genealogy is impossible. Since we get the birth and death years we can calculate how much time would have been between the creation of Adam and the flood: 1656 years. A lot of things can change in that time. The same amount of time ago the roman empire still existed.

9 out of 10 people die

While this statistic is obviously wrong, it could be the conclusion if the research was only based upon this genealogy. Everyone, except Enoch died. Of Enoch it is mentioned that he walked with God. And then was no more. In the entire Bible it is only said of Enoch and Noah that they walked with God (Abram walked before God).