Enoch

by Sandy Simpson, 10/2021

I was thinking about Enoch the other day and what it must have meant to the Lord to have someone in the Ancient World actually spend time with Him.  So many had walked away after Adam and Eve stopped walking with the Lord, and Cain departed for the land of Nod.  Apparently, Cain, who fathered the first Enoch, established a city named after his son but he and his descendants did not follow the Lord but instead followed human pursuits and became one of the sources of violence and sexual dalliance with demons that caused God to send the flood. 

Who was Enoch?

There are at least four different men in the Bible named Enoch (Genesis 4:175:1825:446:9). …“It is only the Enoch mentioned in Genesis 5:18 that the Bible gives any significant information about. This Enoch was the great-great-great-great-grandson of Adam. Genesis 5:22–24 says, “After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more because God took him away.” (https://www.gotquestions.org/Enoch-in-the-Bible.html)

There was a son of Cain named Enoch but that is not the one who prophesied and was raptured by God.

Gen. 4:16-24

16 Then Cain left the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. 17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch; and Cain built a city, and named the city Enoch, after the name of his son. 18 Now to Enoch was born Irad, and Irad fathered Mehujael, and Mehujael fathered Methushael, and Methushael fathered Lamech. 19 Lamech took two wives for himself: the name of the one was Adah, and the name of the other, Zillah. 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who live in tents and have livestock. 21 His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and flute. 22 As for Zillah, she also gave birth to Tubal-cain, the forger of all implements of bronze and iron; and the sister of Tubal-cain was Naamah. 23 Lamech said to his wives,

“Adah and Zillah,
Listen to my voice,
You wives of Lamech,
Pay attention to my words,
For I have killed a man for wounding me;
And a boy for striking me!
24 If Cain is avenged seven times,
Then Lamech seventy-seven times!”

 

Through the line of Cain and other unrepentant sinners in the Ancient World, the Nephalim were created by the sexual union of demons and the daughters of men.

 

Genesis 6:1-8

Now it came about, when mankind began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose. Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not remain with man forever, [c]because he is also flesh; nevertheless his days shall be 120 years.” The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of mankind, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. So the Lord was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe out mankind whom I have created from the face of the land; mankind, and animals as well, and crawling things, and the birds of the sky. For I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

So the earth was corrupted through Cain and his demonic children, which became the major influence on the Ancient World.  But a few continued to worship God in the line of Seth.

Gen. 4:25-26

25 Adam had relations with his wife again; and she gave birth to a son, and named him Seth, for, she said, “God has appointed me another child in place of Abel, because Cain killed him.” 26 To Seth also a son was born; and he named him Enosh (Enoch). Then people began to call upon the name of the Lord.

They began calling on the name of God which is YHWH!  His name then was known all the way back to the Ancient World, the world before the Flood.  But only those in the line of Seth through Enoch down to Noah worshipped God and obeyed Him.

“The first mention in Scripture of people calling on the name of the Lord is Genesis 4:26: “Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the LORD.” Here, to call on the name of the Lord means that people began to gather for corporate worship and seeking the help of the Creator. Cain’s family line is contrasted with Seth’s: descendants of Cain began to practice herding (verse 20), music production (verse 21), and metallurgy (verse 22). At the same time, the world was becoming more and more wicked (verses 19 and 23). Seth’s descendants stood out from their corrupt society in that they began to call on the name of the Lord.” (https://www.gotquestions.org/call-upon-the-name-of-the-Lord.html)

This is a parable for today.  The Church today is a remnant church among the apostate churches and godless societies that do not worship God by obeying Him. 

Romans 11:5

In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.

Matthew 7:13-14

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is narrow and the way is constricted that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

The Lord is looking for the few who will walk with Him today.

Micah 6:8

He has told you, mortal one, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?

Galatians 5:16

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh.

Colossians 2:6

Therefore, as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,

Who wrote the Accounts?

Looking at the accounts of Adam, Shem, and their descendants, we can see that those accounts were likely in written form from the beginning.  This is evident in the fact that the accounts are in different literary styles, not the style of one man’s writing.

Another issue is that of Moses.  Many theologians believe Moses used oral histories to compile the first five books of the Old Testament.  Some disagree and believe that written accounts were handed down to Noah, then Shem, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. 

The proof of written accounts, likely in Hebrew, is corroborated by Genesis 5:1.

This is the written account of Adam’s family line. When God created mankind, he made them in the likeness of God (NIV)

This is the document containing the family[a] records of Adam.[b] On the day that God created man,[c] he made him in the likeness of God; (CSB)

This is the written account of Adam and his descendants. (NOG)

Those oracles may also have been handed down in written form.  Dr. Henry Morris, among others, makes a clear argument that the book of Genesis, compiled by Moses, was likely handed down in written form from the beginning through the lineage of Adam/Noah/Abraham. There is no reason to doubt this assumption as Adam had 900+ years to develop a form of writing to accompany the language he was created already speaking. However, the probability exists that the Biblical account had been preserved either as an oral tradition, or in written form handed down from Noah, through the patriarchs, and eventually to Moses, thereby making it actually older than the Sumerian accounts which were restatements (with alterations) to the original. (THE FLOOD OF NOAH AND THE FLOOD OF GILGAMESH - IMPACT No. 285 March 1997 by Frank Lorey, M.A. http://www.icr.org/pubs/imp/imp-285.htm)

The Lord Jesus Himself and the gospel writers said that the Law was given by Moses (Mark 10:3; Luke 24:27; John 1:17), and the uniform tradition of the Jewish scribes and early Christian fathers, and the conclusion of conservative scholars to the present day, is that Genesis was written by Moses. This does not preclude the possibility that Moses had access to patriarchal records, preserved by being written on clay tablets and handed down from father to son via the line of Adam–Seth–Noah–Shem–Abraham–Isaac–Jacob, etc., as there are 11 verses in Genesis which read, ‘These are the generations [Hebrew: toledoth = ‘origins’ or by extension ‘record of the origins’] of … .’As these statements all come after the events they describe, and the events recorded in each division all took place before rather than after the death of the individuals so named, they may very well be subscripts or closing signatures, i.e. colophons, rather than superscripts or headings. If this is so, the most likely explanation of them is that Adam, Noah, Shem, and the others each wrote down an account of the events which occurred in his lifetime, and Moses, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, selected and compiled these, along with his own comments, into the book we now know as Genesis (see also Did Moses really write Genesis?). (Should Genesis be taken literally? by Russell Grigg, http://www.answersingenesis.org/creation/v16/i1/genesis.asp)

 

"After all, the events of Genesis took place long before Moses was born, whereas he was a direct participant in the events recorded in the other four books of the Pentateuch. It is reasonable that Adam and his descendants all knew how to write, and therefore kept records of their own times (note the mention of 'the book of the generations of Adam in Genesis 5:1). These records (probably kept on stone or clay tablets) were possibly handed down from father to son in the line of the God-fearing patriarchs until they finally were acquired by Moses when he led the children of Israel out of Egypt. During the wilderness wanderings, Moses compiled them into the book of Genesis, adding his own explanatory editorial comments where needed. Genesis is still properly considered as one of the books of Moses, since its present form is due to him, but it really records the eye-witness records of these primeval histories, as written originally by Adam, Noah, Shem, Isaac, Jacob, and other ancient patriarchs. The respective divisions of Genesis can be recognized by the recurring phrase: 'These are the generations of...' The archaeologist P.J. Wiseman has shown that these statements probably represent the 'signatures,' so to speak, of the respective writers as they concluded their accounts of the events during their lifetimes. (Dr. Henry M. Morris, The Defender's Study Bible (Iowa Falls, Iowa: World Bible Publishers, 1995), p. 1-2.)

We can see the progression of Enoch in the following passages.

Gen. 5:3-24

 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image, and named him Seth. Then the days of Adam after he fathered Seth were eight hundred years, and he fathered other sons and daughters. So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.

Now Seth lived 105 years, and fathered Enosh. Then Seth lived 807 years after he fathered Enosh, and he fathered other sons and daughters. So all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.

Now Enosh lived ninety years, and fathered Kenan. 10 Then Enosh lived 815 years after he fathered Kenan, and he fathered other sons and daughters. 11 So all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died.

12 Now Kenan lived seventy years, and fathered Mahalalel. 13 Then Kenan lived 840 years after he fathered Mahalalel, and he fathered other sons and daughters. 14 So all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.

15 Now Mahalalel lived sixty-five years, and fathered Jared. 16 Then Mahalalel lived 830 years after he fathered Jared, and he fathered other sons and daughters. 17 So all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died.

18 Now Jared lived 162 years, and fathered Enoch. 19 Then Jared lived eight hundred years after he fathered Enoch, and he fathered other sons and daughters. 20 So all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.

21 Now Enoch lived sixty-five years, and fathered Methuselah. 22 Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he fathered Methuselah, and he fathered other sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God; and he was [a]not, for God took him.

1 Chronicles 1:3

Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech,

Luke 3:37

the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan,

Hebrews 11:5

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for before he was taken up, he was attested to have been pleasing to God.

Jude 1:14

It was also about these people that Enochin the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord has come with many thousands of His holy ones,

Enoch Prophesies

There is also a significant prophecy attributed to Enoch.  The prophecy states that the world would last 7000 years; 6000 years and then 1000 years of peace under the Messiah, the Millenium.  The universe would end at the start of the year 8000.

 “On the eighth day I likewise appointed, so that the 8th day might be the 1st, the first-created of my week, and that it should revolve in the revolution of 7000; |so that the 8000| might be in the beginning of a time not reckoned and unending, neither years, nor months, nor weeks, nor days, nor hours like the first day of the week, so also that the eighth day of the week might return continually. (2 Enoch, 33, https://www.marquette.edu/maqom/slavonicenoch.html)

Jude 1:14. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam. The seventh in the direct line of descent from Adam. The line of descent is Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahaleel, Jared, Enoch, see #Ge 5:3, seq. (Barnes New Testament Notes)

Jude1:14. And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, &c.] This was Enoch the son of Jared; his name signifies one "instructed", or "trained up"; as he doubtless was by his father, in the true religion, in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; and was one that had much communion with God; he walked with him, and was translated by him, body and soul, to heaven, and did not see death; # Ge 5:18,22,24; he is said to be "the seventh from Adam"; not the seventh man from him that was born into the world, for there were no doubt thousands born before him; but he was, as the Jews express it {f}, yeybv rwd, "the seventh generation" from him; and they have an observation {g}, that all sevenths are always beloved by God; the seventh in lands, and the seventh in generations; Adam, Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, as it is written, # Ge 5:24; and this is said partly to distinguish him from others of the same name, and particularly from Enoch the son of Cain, the third: from Adam in his line, as this was the seventh from Adam in the line of Seth; (John Gill Expositer)

The third mention is in the Epistle of Jude (1:14–15) where the author attributes to "Enoch, the Seventh from Adam" a passage not found in Catholic and Protestant canons of the Old Testament. The quotation is believed by most modern scholars to be taken from 1 Enoch 1:9 which exists in Greek, in Ge'ez (as part of the Ethiopian Orthodox canon), and also in Aramaic among the Dead Sea Scrolls. Though the same scholars recognize that 1 Enoch 1:9 itself is a midrash of Deuteronomy 33:2. (Enoch, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch)

There is a “Book of Enoch” in the Pseudepigrapha which is not by Enoch.

Lndolf, the great Ethiopic scholar of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, however, soon proved it to be a miserable production of a certain Abba Bahaila Michael.” (BOOK OF ENOCH TRANSLATED FROM THE ETHIOPIC, wn-n 'INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. BY REV. GEORGE H. SOI-IODDE, PH.D)

According to the book of Enoch, he was taken up to Paradise where he was given a view of the end times, among other things.  The Bible states that Paradise is the Third Heaven, the dwelling place of God.

2 Corinthians 12:2-4

 I know a man in Christ, who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a man was caught up to the third heaven. And I know how such a man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows— was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which a man is not permitted to speak.

There seems to have been a lot of information in the original book of Enoch about the end times.

Prophecy of the end times: “When all their sons shall have slain one another, and they shall have seen the destruction of their beloved ones, bind them under the hills of the earth for seventy generations, till the day of their judgment and of their end, till the last judgment has been passed for all eternity. (BOOK OF ENOCH TRANSLATED FROM THE ETHIOPIC, wn-n ' INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. BY REV. GEORGE H. SOI-IODDE, PH.D)

But one of the reasons the book of Enoch, as it is currently available, was not made part of the Bible but rather what is called the Psuedopygrapha, were obvious inaccurate information such as the following:

One ell is understood to be a cubit or the length of a forearm.  Enoch describes the giants born as a result of the evil angels and the daughters of men.  Astoundingly (And they became pregnant and brought forth great giants whose stature was three thousand ells. (BOOK OF ENOCH TRANSLATED FROM THE ETHIOPIC, wn-n ' INTRODUCTION AND NOTES. BY REV. GEORGE H. SOI-IODDE, PH.D)

3 thousand ells or cubits would be 4500 feet.  That would be absurd.  3000 inches would be 270 ft. which would also be inconsistent with the rest of Scripture.  The tallest Nephalim as seen in Caanan were up to 26 feet tall.

Amos 2:9 (ESV)

“Yet it was I who destroyed the Amorite before them, whose height was like the height of the cedars and who was as strong as the oaks..."

Cedars can grow up to 120 feet tall, though more typically 26 feet or so.  It is more reasonable to assume that, because bones have been found documenting that there were human beings 9-12 feet tall, that is what the height would have been.  Josephus noted that the Jews during one of the festivals, used to bring out the bones of a giant who, by measurement, was nine feet tall.

"For which reason they removed their camp to Hebron; and when they had taken it, they slew all the inhabitants. There were till then left the race of giants, who had bodies so large, and countenances so entirely different from other men, that they were surprising to the sight, and terrible to the hearing. The bones of these men are still shown to this very day, unlike to any credible relations of other men. Now they gave this city to the Levites as an extraordinary reward. . " (The Works of Flavius Josephus, https://www.ccel.org/j/josephus/works/JOSEPHUS.HTM)

If there had been beings 26+ tall, we would have found bones laid down by the Flood all over the world.  We do not.

It seems like this account was possibly not copied correctly by the Ethiopians from Greek.  There are fragments of the book of Enoch in the dead sea scrolls.  It is my opinion that the original language of Enoch would likely have been Hebrew as the names of the descendants of Adam are in Hebrew.

In Conclusion

We are today called to walk with Jesus Christ amidst a world that is very much like that before the Flood, in violence and perversion, and which is destined for judgment and destruction.  Those who are followers of the Lord will ultimately see a new heaven and new earth prepared by God for those who love Him.

 

Revelation 21:1

 

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea.