Several years ago I had read Chuck Missler’s A Hidden Message: The Gospel in Genesis I had thought little of it at the time since to me it had serious expository problems. However recently I have found people who accept Missler’s assertion. To simply Missler’s argument it could be summed up by saying that the first 10 names in the genealogy of Adam when looking at the meaning of each name spells out the gospel, the mission of Christ. Missler’s article sums it up this way:

The Composite List Now let's put it all together:

Hebrew	English
Adam	Man
Seth	Appointed
Enosh	Mortal
Kenan	Sorrow;
Mahalalel	The Blessed God
Jared	Shall come down
Enoch	Teaching
Methuselah	His death shall bring
Lamech	The Despairing
Noah	Rest, or comfort.

That's rather remarkable: Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.

Here's the Gospel hidden within a genealogy in Genesis! (You will never convince me that a group of Jewish rabbis conspired to hide the Christian Gospel right here in a genealogy within their venerated Torah!)

As most people who actually take the time to look up the names will quickly see that Missler’s list is somewhat artificial concerning a few of the names. Later we shall review the meanings of the names from various reference sources. Missler explains how he arrived at this conclusion earlier in his article, how he started on this journey is just as important as his conclusions. In his article Missler says:

The Flood Judgment

Methuselah comes from muth, a root that means "death";¹ and from shalach, which means to bring, or to send forth. The name Methuselah means, "his death shall bring".²

Methuselah's father was given a prophecy of the coming Great Flood, and was apparently told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld; but as soon as he died, the flood would be brought or sent forth.

(Can you imagine raising a kid like that? Every time the boy caught a cold, the entire neighborhood must have panicked!)

And, indeed, the year that Methuselah died, the flood came.³ It is interesting that Methuselah's life, in effect, was a symbol of God's mercy in forestalling the coming judgment of the flood.

Therefore, it is fitting that his lifetime is the oldest in the Bible, speaking of the extensiveness of God's mercy.

The Other Names

If there is such significance in Methuselah's name, let's examine the other names to see what may lie behind them.

Notice the highlighted section above, anyone with a reasonable understanding of the Bible knows that there is nothing in the Bible to support that conception. It appears to come from the assumption that Methuselah’s name is a prophecy. As we will see later it is doubtful that the meaning of the name even is "his death shall bring". Even assuming as Missler does the exact year of the flood and Methuselah’s death, it is not known if Methuselah died before the flood or in the flood. What we do see in this section of Missler’s article is that he likes to read into the texts his preferred meaning rather then to allow the text to say what it says. In hermeneutics what Missler is doing is called Eisegesis, which is the opposite of correct hermeneutics which is Exegesis. From there Missler intends to carry his eisegesis to the next level. Missler is not alone in giving the Methuselah name as prophecy myth credence. It may be that Missler arrived at his conclusion from reading The Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset and David Brown Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) in the section on Genesis Chapter 5 written by Robert Jamieson the commentary says:

21. Enoch . . . begat Methuselah--This name signifies, "He dieth, and the sending forth," so that Enoch gave it as prophetical of the flood. It is computed that Methuselah died in the year of that catastrophe.

At some level Missler must understand how he is inserting specific meanings into the names to arrive at his conclusion. In his article he says:

A Study of Original Roots

The meaning of proper names can be a difficult pursuit since a direct translation is often not readily available. Even a conventional Hebrew lexicon can prove disappointing. A study of the original roots, however, can yield some fascinating insights.

(A caveat: many study aids, such as a conventional lexicon, can prove rather superficial when dealing with proper nouns. Furthermore, views concerning the meanings of original roots are not free of controversy and variant readings.)

We see from the above that he knows his word meanings are not consistent with the lexicons, why? Because to him the lexicons are superficial, yet he acknowledges controversy and variant readings of the language. So apparently the superficiality is only a gratuitous assertion since if they really were superficial there would be no controversy. The fact is that for some names we just don’t know for certain and for others there are multiple possible meanings. Such an acknowledgement by Missler would destroy his thesis however, so instead he insinuates that the lexicons do not dig deep enough to arrive at the truth which he has found.

Here are some of the readily available definitions for the ten names in question. The reference work most in line with the definitions Missler uses is the book Hitchcock's Bible Names

Adam earthy; red

Seth put; who puts; fixed

Enos mortal man; sick; despaired of; forgetful

Kenan buyer; owner

Mahaleleel praising God

Jared a ruling; commanding; coming down

Enoch dedicated; disciplined

Methusaleh he has sent his death

Lamech poor; made low

Noah repose; consolation

Comparison Table of four reference works by color and/or under the number

1. Smith's Bible Dictionary http://bible.crosswalk.com/Dictionaries/SmithsBibleDictionary/smt.cgi
2. Easton's Bible Dictionary http://bible.crosswalk.com/Dictionaries/EastonsBibleDictionary/ebd.cgi
3. Theological Word Book of the Old Testament http://www.studylight.org/lex/heb/view.cgi?number=04968
4. The KJV Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon http://bible.crosswalk.com/Lexicons/Hebrew/
1.	2.	3.	4.
Ad’am (red earth )	red, a Babylonian word, the generic name for man	"red"	"red"
Seth (compensation ),	appointed; a substitute	"compensation"	"compensation"
E’nos (mortal man ),	man the son of Seth	"man"	"man"
Ke’nan (possession )	Cainan possession; smith.	"possession"	"possession"
Mahal’ale-el (praise of God).	praise of God.	"praise of God"	"praise of God"
Ja’red (descent ),	descent.	"descent"	"descent"
E’noch (dedicated).	initiated.	"dedicated "	"dedicated"
Methu’selah (man of the dart )	man of the dart,	"man of the dart"	"man of the dart"
La’mech (powerful ),	the strikerdown; the wild man.	"powerful"	"powerful"
No’ah (rest ),	rest,	"motion"	"rest"

The KJV Old Testament Hebrew Lexicon

Adam = origin word:119 to be red, red 120 man, mankind

Seth = origin word: to put, set 7896

Enos = origin word: man, mortal man, person, mankind 582

Kenan = origin word: nest 7064

Mahalaleel = origin word: praise, boast 4110 and 410 god, god-like one, mighty one

Jered or Jared = origin word: to go down, descend, decline, march down, sink down 3381

Enoch = origin word: to train, dedicate, inaugurate 2596

Methuselah = origin: male, man 4962 and weapon, missile, sprout missile, weapon a. sprout, shoot 7973

Lamech = unused root of uncertain meaning [however has no roots in common with the words used for lamentation or its roots]

Noah = origin word: resting place 5118

After seeing what standard reference works give as the meaning of the 10 names you can see why the supposition regarding Methuselah's name is the point of beginning and ending of this hidden gospel. Missler said:

That's rather remarkable: Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest. Here's the Gospel hidden within a genealogy in Genesis!

And what about the connecting words, even if we grant that he has arrived at the true meanings, even though it is pretty clear he has not. Should we allow in deciphering this gospel the use of extraneous words to shape the sentence. If we used Missler's meanings without his connecting words it would look like this:

Man appointed mortal sorrow; the Blessed God shall come down teaching his death shall bring despairing rest.

In which case it now sounds like man in sorrow is appointed to despairing rest. Does not work as well does it? What if we allowed Missler's version and connecting words but changed "the blessed God" into what it is according to all the references listed above, i.e. "Praise of God"

Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) Praises of God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) despairing rest.

What about the other complete aberration the Missler uses. Lamech to Missler means despairing instead of the majority view that it means powerful, like someone who strikes down something. Again Missler's hidden gospel falls to pieces.

Man (is) appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that) His death shall bring (the) powerful rest.

Now it would certainly be possible to string the words together using whichever particular definition one likes and come up with something that sounds consistent with Bible doctrines. But then we would only be falling into the same failure of reading into the Bible things that are not at all what it is trying to reveal.

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