The Birth of Shet (Seth)
130 years after the creation Shet is born to Adam—"for God has granted me other offspring in place of Abel". All humanity descends from him.
After Abel's murder and Cain's exile, the human line hangs by a thread: one son dead, the other a banished killer. The Torah dates it exactly: "Adam lived 130 years and fathered a son in his likeness, after his image, and called him Shet". Chava explains the name: "God has granted me other offspring in place of Abel, whom Cain killed"—the first name in the Torah given as a statement of hope.
Shet anchors the entire genealogy: Genesis 5 runs Adam—Shet—Enosh and on to Noach, and from Noach to all post-flood humanity. Cain's line, listed in chapter 4 with its smiths, herdsmen and musicians, ends at the Flood. By the Torah's reckoning every living person descends from Shet. The year 130 is also the hinge of the chronology: every later date, down to the Flood in 1656, is built on the chain of "he lived so many years and fathered" in chapter 5.
How we know
Sources
Tanakh
- Bereishit 4:25 — the birth of Shet and Chavah’s explanation of the name
- Bereishit 5:3–8 — Adam’s age — 130 years — and the years of Shet
Chazal: Mishnah, Talmud, midrash, Zohar
- Bereishit Rabbah 23:5 — the name Shet as “foundation”: from him the world was established
- Eruvin 18b — Adam’s 130 years apart from Chavah after Hevel’s death
- Seder Olam Rabbah 1 — where this date falls in the overall count of years
Basis: stated in the Tanakh.