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
4:17; 5:18; 25:4; 46:9). …“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, 2 that
the sons of God saw that the daughters of mankind were beautiful; and they took
wives for themselves, whomever they chose. 3 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.” 4 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. 5 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. 6 So the Lord was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved
in His heart. 7 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.” 8 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
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 … .’1 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
3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness,
according to his image, and named him Seth. 4 Then
the days of Adam after he fathered Seth were eight hundred years, and he
fathered other sons
and daughters. 5 So all the
days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
6 Now Seth lived 105 years, and fathered Enosh. 7 Then Seth lived 807 years after he fathered
Enosh, and he fathered other sons and daughters. 8 So
all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.
9 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 Enoch, in 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
2 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. 3 And I know how such a man—whether in the
body or apart from the body I do not know, God knows— 4 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.