enoch Summary and Overview

initiated. (1.) The eldest son of Cain (Gen. 4:17), who built a city east of Eden in the land of Nod, and called it "after the name of his son Enoch." This is the first "city" mentioned in Scripture. (2.) The son of Jared, and father of Methuselah (Gen. 5:21; Luke 3:37). His father was one hundred and sixty-two years old when he was born. After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch "walked with God three hundred years" (Gen. 5:22-24), when he was translated without tasting death. His whole life on earth was three hundred and sixty-five years. He was the "seventh from Adam" (Jude 1:14), as distinguished from the son of Cain, the third from Adam. He is spoken of in the catalogue of Old Testament worthies in the Epistle to the Hebrews (11:5). When he was translated, only Adam, so far as recorded, had as yet died a natural death, and Noah was not yet born. Mention is made of Enoch's prophesying only in Jude 1:14.

(dedicated). 1. The eldest son of Cain, #Ge 4:17| who called after his name the city which he built. #Ge 4:18| (B.C. 3870.) 2. The son of Jared and father of Methuselah. #Ge 5:21| ff.; Luke 3:37 (B.C. 3378-3013.) In the Epistle of Jude #Jude 1:14| he described as "the seventh from Adam;" and the number is probably noticed as conveying the idea of divine completion and rest, while Enoch was himself a type of perfected humanity. After the birth of Methuselah it is said, #Ge 5:22-24| that Enoch "walked with God three hundred years... and he was not; for God took him." The phrase "walked with God" is elsewhere only used of Noah, #Ge 6:9| cf. Gene 17:1 etc., and is to be explained of a prophetic life spent in immediate converse with the spiritual world. Like Elijah, he was translated without seeing death. In the Epistle to the Hebrews the spring and issue of Enoch's life are clearly marked. Both the Latin and Greek fathers commonly coupled Enoch and Elijah as historic witnesses of the possibility of a resurrection of the body and of a true human existence in glory. #Re 11:3|

E'NOCH (initiating). 1. A son of Cain, after whom he named a "city," the first-mentioned city in the Bible. Gen 4:17; Heb 11:5. 1. The son of Jared, and father of Methusaleh. Gen 5:18, Gen 5:21-24. He is called "the seventh from Adam," Jude 14, to distinguish him from the son of Cain, third from Adam. We are told that he "walked with God" -- an expressive figure to denote the closest communion with the divine Being and entire conformity to his will. And concerning his departure from the world, we are told that "he was not, for God took him " -- a phrase which imports a mere change of residence, without suffering the ordinary dissolution of the body. In this case, as well as in Elijah's, the body was clothed with immortality, or endued with the immortal principle by the immediate power of God. 1 Cor 15:50. Enoch, Book of. There is only one reference in the Bible, Jude 14, to Enoch as a prophet, but an Apocryphal book called after him was well known to the early fathers. It was then lost to the knowledge of Europe, except in fragments, until Bruce, in 1773, brought from Abyssinia three manuscript copies containing the complete AEthiopic translation. Archbishop Lawrence made an English translation of the book, which was the basis of various subsequent editions, which were rendered comparatively worthless when, in 1851, Dr. Dillmann published a new edition of the AEthiopio text, and in 1853 a German translation. "The book consists of a series of revelations supposed to have been given to Enoch and Noah, which extend to the most varied aspects of nature and life, and are designed to offer a complete vindication of the action of Providence." It was never received by the Jews nor by the fathers as inspired. The authorship and date are unknown.

("consecrated".) 1. Cain's oldest son; and the city (probably a village of rude huts) which he built and named after him (Genesis 4:17-18). The similarity of names in Cain's line and Seth's line is no proof of the persons being identical, for many of the seemingly like names are from distract roots. Moreover, the fewness of names at that early time, and the relationship and occasional intercourse between the families, account for the similarity or identity of the other names. Details are given especially as to Lamech and Enoch, marking the utter distinctness of those so named in the two lines. 2. Son of Jared; father of Methuselah. Seventh from Adam (seven indicating divine completeness, Enoch typifying perfected humanity). As angels fell to the earth by transgression, so this man was raised to heaven by pleasing God (Irenaeus, 4:15, sec. 2). Of Noah and Enoch alone it is written that they "walked with God" (Genesis 5:24; Genesis 6:9); others "walked before God" (Genesis 17:1). But walking with God is a relic of the first paradise when man talked and walked with God in holy familiarity, and an anticipation of the second (Revelation 21:3; Revelation 22:3-4). The secret spring of his walk with God was "faith"; faith was the ground of his" pleasing God" (which answers to "walking with God" in Genesis 5, compare Amos 3:3); his "pleasing God" was the ground of his being "translated that he should not see death" (Hebrews 11:5-6). "Translation" implies a sudden removal from mortality to immortality without death, such as shall pass over the living saints at Christ's coming (1 Corinthians 15:51-52), of whom Enoch is a type. After the monotonous repetition of the same record of patriarchs, "lived" so many years, "begat sons and daughters, ... and he died," the account of Enoch's walk with God and translation without death stands forth in brighter relief. His years, 365 (the number of days in one year), were fewer, than his predecessors'; but in his fewer years there was that to record which was not in their immensely lengthened years, he moreover begat sons and daughters, and yet found family ties no hindrance to his walking with God as a family man. Nay, it was not until "after he begat Methuselah" that it is written "Enoch walked with God." God's gift of children awakened in him a new love to God and a deeper sense of responsibility. Enoch in the antediluvian generation, and Elijah in the postdiluvian, witnessed before Christ in their own persons to the truth of the resurrection of the body and its existence in heaven. The fathers mostly made them the two witnesses slain by the beast, but afterward raised to heaven (Revelation 11). This view, if true, would be one answer to the objection against their translation, that "it is appointed unto men once to die" (Hebrews 9:27), and that "death passed upon all men for that all have sinned" (Romans 5:12). Enoch's translation was an appropriate testimony to the truth he announced, "Behold the Lord cometh ... to execute judgment" in the face of a mocking, infidel world. Judges 1:14 stamps with inspired sanction the current TRADITION of the Jews as to Enoch's prophecies. The language "Enoch prophesied, saying," favors tradition rather than the Book of Enoch being the source from whence Jude drew. So Paul mentions Jannes and Jambres the Egyptian magicians, names drawn from tradition, not from Scripture (2 Timothy 3:8). Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and others allude to the Book of Enoch Bruce the Abyssinian traveler brought home three Ethiopic copies from Alexandria, which Lawrence translated in 1821. The Ethiopic was translated from the Greek, the Greek from the Hebrew. The Apostolic Constitutions, Origen (contra Celsus), Jerome, and Augustine deny its canonicity. It vindicates God's government of the world, spiritual and natural, recognizes the Trinity, also Messiah "the Son of man" (the name "Jesus" never occurs), "the Elect One" from eternity, before whom "all kings shall fall down, and on whom they shall fix their hopes," the supreme Judge, who shall punish eternally the wicked and reward the just. If the book belong to the period just before our Lord's coming, it gives an interesting view of believing Jews' opinions concerning Messiah at that time. No sure proof establishes its existence before the Christian era. 3. Third son of Midian, Abraham's son by Keturah (Genesis 25:4). 4. Reuben's oldest son, head of the family of Hanochites (Genesis 46:9; Numbers 26:5). See HANOCH for a fourth Enoch, so the KJV has it.