Enoch

Life and work

Enoch appears in the genealogy of Genesis 5, the line of Seth leading toward Noah. Where every other name in that chapter closes with the same somber refrain — the patriarch lived a stated number of years, 'and he died' — Enoch's entry breaks the pattern entirely: 'Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him' (Genesis 5:21-24). At 365 years he had the shortest lifespan of any patriarch listed, yet Genesis frames his end not as an early death but as the opposite: he simply did not experience death at all.

Hebrews cites Enoch as a model of faith on exactly this point: 'By faith, Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn't see death... For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God' (Hebrews 11:5) — reading Genesis's 'walked with God' as a life of faith that pleased God, for which his unique removal from death was the reward.

Jude's short letter quotes a prophecy attributed to Enoch, calling him 'the seventh from Adam' (matching his position in the Genesis 5 genealogy) and citing his words about the Lord coming with 'ten thousands of his holy ones' to judge the ungodly (Jude 1:14-15). This quotation comes from 1 Enoch, a Jewish text from the centuries before Christ that expands enormously on the few verses Genesis gives him — but 1 Enoch itself is not part of the biblical canon Protestants recognize as Scripture; Jude's inspired letter quoting one line from it no more canonizes the whole book than Paul quoting pagan Greek poets in Acts 17:28 canonizes their writings. What Genesis, Hebrews, and Jude together affirm about Enoch is limited to: he walked with God, was taken rather than dying, and prophesied coming judgment.

Dating

Born when Jared was 162 (Genesis 5:18, 21). Rather than dying, 'he walked with God, and he was not, for God took him' (Genesis 5:24) at about 365 years old — affirmed as a bodily translation, not a death, in Hebrews 11:5. The year given here marks his translation, not a death, which is why diedYear is left blank.

Questions and debates

Genesis names a second, unrelated Enoch just one chapter earlier — Cain's son, after whom Cain named a city (Genesis 4:17-18). The two are distinct individuals from different family lines; only the patriarch of Genesis 5, Seth's line, is the 'Enoch' referred to in Hebrews and Jude.

Extra-biblical evidence

No contemporary extra-biblical record of Enoch survives (unsurprising for a pre-flood figure by the Bible's own chronology). The much later pseudepigraphal book of 1 Enoch (roughly 3rd century BC onward) is an extensive Jewish text attributed to him, quoted once in Jude, but it is not canonical Scripture and its content goes well beyond anything Genesis itself records.

Scripture references

• Genesis 5:21-24 — Walks with God and is taken without dying
• Hebrews 11:5 — Commended for faith; taken so he would not see death
• Jude 1:14-15 — His prophecy of coming judgment quoted

Further reading

• Encyclopaedia Britannica: Enoch