Enoch

From Bible Exegesis

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; Luk_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” (Jud_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 (Heb_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 Jud_1:14.

ē´nok (חנוך, ḥănōkh, “initiated”; Ἑνώχ, Henō̇ch):

(1) The eldest son of Cain (Gen_4:17, Gen_4:18).

(2) The son of Jared and father of Methuselah, seventh in descent from Adam in the line of Seth (Jud_1:14). He is said (Gen_5:23) to have lived 365 years, but the brief record of his life is comprised in the words, “Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him” (Gen_5:24). The expression “walked with God” denotes a devout life, lived in close communion with God, while the reference to his end has always been understood, as by the writer of He, to mean, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and he was not found, because God translated him” (Heb_11:5). See further, Apocalyptic Literature, II, i, 1.