Read Genesis 4:18-26; 5:1-32

After the fracture of Cain and Abel his brother, Scripture does not rush to the judgment flood. But we're definitely heading there. And what follows for the remaining verses of chapter 4 and all of chapter 5 is the building of a timeline and the setting of a narrative. All of this establishes the moral and spiritual shape of the world that the flood will later address. This isn't just filler; this is the narrative setting in which judgment becomes intelligible.

Cain’s line is traced first (4:17–24), and a city is built. People of various important vocations are mentioned. Most notably to me is Tubal-cain the child of Zillah who was one of Lamech's two wives. Lamech's great grandfather five generations removed was Cain.

Tubal-cain is said to have been a forger of all instruments of bronze and iron. And it's this notation that intrigues me. I don't know why but we generally assume these biblical era characters were somewhat backwards in their technological development. But I'm of the mind lately that this wasn't at all the case.

In Cain’s parental line the narrative notes the building of a city, pastoral life, music, and then, specifically, Tubal-cain as "the forger of all instruments of bronze and iron" (4:22). That single clause undercuts the whole reflex that treats the pre-flood world as technologically crude and barbaric by default. These people were obviously more advanced than those generations post flood. A lot was lost to the descendants of Noah.

We're talking advanced metalworking inside the same short genealogical span that begins with Cain’s city. The text presents these as concurrent realities in the generations descending from Cain, not as distant achievements requiring long ages of slow discovery. For me, this information has consequences for how the flood is read and understood. When the waters of judgment come, they do not fall on a scattered, monkey-man barely tool-using population of inbred fools. These are highly developed nations. So the destruction therefore includes the loss of these accumulated skill, and infrastructure, and the practical knowledge that had been carried down the line from Cain.

To me this says these first generations were a different sort of human beings.

Yes, the passages in Genesis present continuity, not a change of human kind. But a revelation into what they were capable of. The same likeness that God conferred at creation is still transmitted. And it seems that many aspects of that created potential was lost after the flood. Maybe intentionally. Not only were these first generations highly intelligent and advanced in their technological development, they also lived much longer than we do today. Shared wisdom and accumulated knowledge would have grown at a rapid pace.

Take for instance Adam who fathers Seth in his own likeness, after his image; and yet the conditions under which that likeness is lived out change sharply after the flood. Men live for centuries. Adam reaches 930 years, Seth 912, Enosh 905, and the pattern continues through Methuselah’s 969 years. These are not isolated figures; the overlapping lifespans mean that multiple generations stand on the earth at the same time. A man can know his great-grandchildren, and the great-grandchildren can still hear the living voice of the ancestor who walked with Adam or who remembered the early years east of Eden. Very little fragmentation of intelligence and information. Information is refined across very long lives, and carried forward while the original witnesses are still present.

And so, the flood interrupts that particular arrangement. The ages that follow in the generations of Shem decline steadily. The world that emerges post-flood is still fully human, still bearing the image, still capable of dominion and skill, yet no longer possesses the same combination of longevity and unbroken proximity to the earliest witnesses.

Accumulated practical knowledge, specialized craft, and the infrastructure that had grown up quickly in the pre-flood centuries does not cross the waters intact.

Was this part of the judgment?

Maybe what motivated the divine intervention was in large part due to the higher technological development. Maybe mankind is corrupted by his own advanced knowledge.

See, there is that same old sticking point. Knowledge. The knowledge of good AND evil seems to always lead to destruction. At least in our case. Not in the case however of the divine Trinity. Mankind, in God's own words, is now like Them, knowing good and evil. This means the Godhead knows good and evil. But for some reason holiness generally escapes the man. And it seems that his innovations plays a role in that ungodliness.

The Genesis 6 text states the reason directly. The wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually; the earth was corrupt and filled with his violence.

So how does tech play a role?

Mankind's opinions about God, about the world, and about morality seem to be directly related or at least somewhat influenced by his tech. Because his tech reflects his ideas about himself and his ability to sustain himself. And with greater tech comes less need for God's provision.

The narrative has already shown how these godless capacities were being carried along. In the same line that produces Tubal-cain stands Lamech’s poem of disproportionate killing and the total absence of any reference to the Lord. So for me, knowledge and craft do not appear as neutral achievements floating free of the heart.

In the line that forges bronze and iron there is no recorded calling on the name of the Lord. That's crucial to me. The same hands that can shape metal can also withhold any reference to God while celebrating violence. Knowledge and craft therefore function as extensions of the heart’s already chosen direction. This touches on the question of provision and dependence. Opinions about God, about what is necessary, and about what is permitted shift to match their new capacities. When the tools are sufficient for the task at hand, the God who gave both the tools and the task grows easier to forget. We see this time and time again.

And some have said that this technological revolution was the device and workings of the fallen angelic powers. Genesis 6:1–4 speaks of the sons of God taking wives from the daughters of men, of the Nephilim, and of the mighty men of old. In certain readings, particularly those that identify the sons of God as fallen angelic beings, these figures are understood to have introduced or accelerated forbidden knowledge, including technical and cultural advances, as part of the corruption that filled the earth. The claim is that the technological developments noted in Cain’s line were not solely human achievements but were entangled with the ongoing angelic rebellion.

So, there appears to be a larger conflict at work, in which created capacity is co-opted by powers opposed to God. But at the same time the text clearly lays all the blame for humanity's failure to appreciate God's power at the feet of mankind itself.

Human hearts are already fully capable of turning the gifts of the image-bearers into instruments of autonomy and bloodshed. Yet, at the same time, man's tech contributes even more to his preexisting violent tendencies. Contributing more to that human condition than it saves him from himself. Enabling his preexisting selfishness and corrupt nature to reach new and greater levels of deprivation.

The knowledge of good and evil, possessed without the holiness that belongs to God, turns that gift towards depravity. It enables the corrupt nature to reach levels of deprivation that fills the earth. Like technological pollution. What was meant for good under the Lord’s guidance becomes, in the absence of that guidance, an instrument of sin. Every time!

Amen 🙏🏼