Gen 5:32: Noah and his three sons

Says וַיְהִי־נֹחַ בֶּן־חֲמֵשׁ מֵאוֹת שָׁנָה, "and Noah was a son of five hundred years," is the usual Hebrew idiom for age. Then וַיּוֹלֶד נֹחַ אֶת־שֵׁם אֶת־חָם וְאֶת־יָפֶת, "and Noah fathered Shem, Ham and Japheth." The entry stops there; the years after and the total come at 9:28–29, which close with וַיָּמֹת, "and he died." The three are named again at 6:10, at 10:1 and in 1 Chr 1:4. Swete numbers the sentence 6:1, with 32 in parentheses in the margin, and adds τρεῖς υἱούς, "three sons," as Gen 6:10 has שְׁלֹשָׁה בָנִים. Luke 3:36–38 traces the line from Noah to "the son of Adam, the son of God."

Uncertain Whether all three sons were born when Noah was five hundred, or the first of them, with the names not in order of birth; 11:10 has Shem a hundred years old "Two years after the flood." No lean is taken here.

Uncertain Whether the chapter is read as historical narrative or as history with literary features (the fixed formula, ten generations, Enoch seventh). Both take the persons as real, as Luke 3:36–38, Heb 11:5, Jude 14 and Rom 5:14 do. A reading of the names as figures of tribes or as non-historical stands outside that view. No lean is taken here between the first two.