Enoch

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dedicated; disciplined
(same as Henoch)
Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary


ENOCH (Heb. Chănôk) is the ‘seventh from Adam’ (Jud_1:14) in the Sethite genealogy of Gen_5:1-32 (see Gen_5:18-24). In the Cainite genealogy of Gen_4:17 ff. he is the son of Cain, and therefore the third from Adam. The resemblances between the two lists seem to show that they rest on a common tradition, preserved in different forms by J [Note: Jahwist.] (ch. 4) and P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] (ch. 5)., though it is not possible to say which version is the more original.—The notice which invests the figure of Enoch with its peculiar significance is found in Gen_5:24 ‘Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.’ The idea here suggested—that because of his perfect fellowship with God this patriarch was ‘translated’ to heaven without tasting death (cf. Sir_44:16; Sir_49:14, Heb_11:5)—appears to have exerted a certain influence on the OT doctrine of immortality (see Psa_49:15; Psa_73:24).—A much fuller tradition is presupposed by the remarkable development of the Enoch legend in the Apocalyptic literature, where Enoch appears as a preacher of repentance, a prophet of future events, and the recipient of supernatural knowledge of the secrets of heaven and earth, etc. The origin of this tradition has probably been discovered in a striking Babylonian parallel. The seventh name in the list of ten antediluvian kings given by Berosus is Evedoranchus, which (it seems certain) is a corruption of Enmeduranki, a king of Sippar who was received into the fellowship of Shamash (the sun-god) and Ramman, was initiated into the mysteries of heaven and earth, and became the founder of a guild of priestly diviners. When or how this myth became known to the Jews we cannot tell. A trace of an original connexion with the sun-god has been suspected in the 365 years of Enoch’s life (the number of days in the solar year). At all events it is highly probable that the Babylonian legend contains the germ of the later conception of Enoch as embodied in the apocalyptic Book of Enoch (c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 105–64), and the later Book of the Secrets of Enoch, on which see Hastings’ DB [Note: Dictionary of the Bible.] i. 705ff.—A citation from the Book of Enoch occurs in Jud_1:14 f. (= En 1:9, 5:4, 27:2).
J. Skinner.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909

("consecrated".)
1. Cain's oldest son; and the city (probably a village of rude huts) which he built and named after him (Gen_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" (Gen_5:24; Gen_6:9); others "walked before God" (Gen_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 (Rev_21:3; Rev_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 Amo_3:3); his "pleasing God" was the ground of his being "translated that he should not see death" (Heb_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 (1Co_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" (Heb_9:27), and that "death passed upon all men for that all have sinned" (Rom_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. Jud_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 (2Ti_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 (Gen_25:4).
4. Reuben's oldest son, head of the family of Hanochites (Gen_46:9; Num_26:5). See HANOCH for a fourth Enoch, so the KJV has it.
Fausset's Bible Dictionary
By Andrew Robert Fausset, co-Author of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown's 1888.

E'noch. (dedicated).
1. The eldest son of Cain, Gen_4:17, who called after his nam, e the city which he built. Gen_4:18. (B.C. 3870).
2. The son of Jared and father of Methuselah. Gen_5:21 ff.; Luk_3:37. (B.C. 3378-3013). In the Epistle of Jude, Jud_1:14, he is 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, Gen_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, Gen_6:9, compare Gen_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. Rev_11:3.
Smith's Bible Dictionary
By Dr. William Smith.Published in 1863

the son of Cain, Gen_4:17, in honour of whom the first city noticed in Scripture was called Enoch, by his father Cain, who was the builder. It was situated on the east of the province of Eden.
2. ENOCH, the son of Jared, and father of Methuselah. He was born A.M. 622, and being contemporary with Adam, he had every opportunity of learning from him the story of the creation, the circumstance of the fall, the terms of the promise, and other important truths. An ancient author affirms, that he was the father of astronomy; and Eusebius hence infers, that he is the same with the Atlas of the Grecian mythology. Enoch's fame rests upon a better basis than his skill in science. The encomium of Enoch is, that he “walked with God.” While mankind were living in open rebellion against Heaven, and provoking the divine vengeance daily by their ungodly deeds, he obtained the exalted testimony, “that he pleased God.” This he did, not only by the exemplary tenor of his life, and by the attention which he paid to the outward duties of religion, but by the soundness of his faith, and the purity of his heart and life: see Heb_11:5-6. The intent of the Apostle, in the discourse containing this passage, is, to show that there has been but one way of obtaining the divine favour ever since the fall, and that is, by faith, or a firm persuasion and confidence in the atonement to be made for human transgressions by the obedience, sufferings, death, and resurrection of the promised Messiah. The cloud of witnesses which the Apostle has produced of Old Testament worthies, all bore, in their respective generations, their testimony to this great doctrine, in opposition to the atheism or theism, and gross idolatry, which prevailed around them. All the patriarchs are celebrated for their faith in this great truth, and for preserving this principle of religion in the midst of a corrupt generation. Enoch, therefore, is said, by another evangelical writer, to have spoken of the coming of Christ to judgment unto the antediluvian sinners. See Jud_1:14-15. This prophecy is a clear, and it is also an awful, description of the day of judgment, when the Messiah shall sit upon his throne of justice, to determine the final condition of mankind, according to their works; and it indicates that the different offices of Messiah both to save and to judge, or as Prophet, Priest, and King, were known to the holy patriarchs. On what the Apostle founded this prediction has been matter of much speculation and inquiry. Some, indeed, have produced a treatise, called “The Book of Enoch,” which, as they pretend, contains the cited passage; but its authority is not proved, and internal evidence sufficiently marks its spurious origin. It is, therefore, reasonable to suppose that the prophecy cited by St. Jude was either traditionally handed down, or had been specially communicated to that Apostle. In the departure of Enoch from this world of sin and sorrow, the Almighty altered the ordinary course of things, and gave him a dismissal as glorious to himself, as it was instructive to mankind. To convince them how acceptable holiness is to him, and to show that he had prepared for those that love him a heavenly inheritance, he caused Enoch to be taken from the earth without passing through death. See ELIJAH.
Biblical and Theological Dictionary by Richard Watson
PRINTER 1849.

Death is one of the evil consequences of human sin, and the genealogical record of the generations from Adam to Noah is characterized by repetition of the word ‘death’ (Gen_5:5; Gen_5:8; Gen_5:11; Gen_5:14; Gen_5:17; Gen_5:20). The case of Enoch, however, was different. He was a man who lived his life in such close fellowship with God that God took him to be with himself without Enoch’s having to die first (Gen_5:22-24; Heb_11:5). In this way God gave hope to the righteous that death’s apparent conquest is not permanent. God has power over it.
Thousands of years later, when Jews were becoming increasingly interested in heaven and the afterlife, there was much interest in Enoch. During the last centuries of the era before Christ, people wrote books in his name, and the New Testament quotes one of these as containing a prophecy from Enoch (Jud_1:14-15).
The only other person named Enoch in the Bible also belonged to the earliest period of biblical history. He was a son of Cain, but the Bible says little about him (Gen_4:17-18).
Bridgeway Bible Dictionary by Don Fleming
PRINTER 1990.

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.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.

E?noch (initiated). Four persons bearing this name are mentioned in the Old Testament, the most distinguished of whom was the son of Jared and father of Methuselah. According to the Old Testament, he walked with God; and, after 365 years, he was not, for God took him (Gen_5:24). The inspired writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says, 'By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him' (Heb_11:5). Walking with God implies the closest fellowship with Jehovah which it is possible for a human being to enjoy on earth. As a reward, therefore, of his extraordinary sanctity, he was transported into heaven without the experience of death. Elijah was in like manner translated; and thus was the doctrine of immortality palpably taught under the ancient dispensation.
The Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
by John Kitto.

Enoch
(Hebrews Chanok', חֲנוֹךְ, initiated; according to Philo, De poet. Caini, § 11, from חֵן, with the suffix ךָ= חִנֵּךְ[ἑρμηνευεται Ε᾿νὼχ χάρις σου], i.e., thy favor; Sept. and N.T. Ε᾿νώχ, Josephus ῎Ανωχος, Vulg. Henoch), the name of several men.
1. The eldest son of Cain (Gen_4:17), who called the city which he built after his name (Gen_4:18). B.C. post 4041. It is there described as being east of Eden, in the land of Nod, to which Cain retired after the murder of his brother. SEE NOD. Ewald (Gesch. 1:356, note) fancies that there is a reference to the Phrygian Iconium, in which city a legend of "Αννακος was preserved, evidently derived from the biblical ac count of the father of Methuselah (Steph. Byz. s.v. Ι᾿κόνιον; Suid. s.v. Νάννακος). Other places have been identified with the site of Enoch with little probability; e.g. Anuchta (Ptolemy, 6:3, 5) in Susiana, the Heniochi (Ptolemy, 5:9, 25; Strabo, 11:492; Pliny, 6:10, 12) in the Caucasus, etc. (Huetius, De Paradiso, c. 17; Hasse, Entdeckung, 2:35; Gotter, De Henochia urbe, Jen. 1705 [of little value]; Sticht, De urbe Hanochia, Jen. 1727).
2. Another antediluvian patriarch, the son of Jared and father of Methuselah (Gen_5:21 sq.; Luk_3:28 : in 1Ch_1:3, the name is Anglicized "Henoch"). — B.C. 3550-3185. He was born when Jared, was 162 years old, and after the birth of his eldest son in his 65th year he lived 300 years. From the period of 365 years assigned to his life, Ewald (Isrl. desch. 1:356), with very little probability, regards him as "the god of the new year," but the number may have been not without influence on the later traditions which assigned to Enoch the discovery of the science of astronomy (ἀστρολογία, Eupolemus ap. Euseb. Praep. Ev. 9:17, where he is identified with Atlas). After the birth of Methuselah it is said (Gen_5:22-24) that Enoch "walked with God 300 years ... and he was not; for God took him" (לָקִח). The phrase "walked with God" (הַתְהִלֵּךְ אֶתאּה אֵֹלהַים) is elsewhere only used of Noah (Gen_6:9; comp. Gen_17:1, etc.), and is to be explained of a prophetic life spent in immediate converse with the spiritual world (Book of Enoch, 12:2, "All his action was with the holy ones, and with the watchers during his life"). There is no farther mention of Enoch in the O.T., but in Ecclesiasticus (49:14) he is brought forward as one of the peculiar glories (οὐδὲ ε‹ς ἐκτίσθη ο‹ος Ε᾿.) of the Jews, for he was taken up (ἀνελήφθη, Alex. μετετέθη) from the earth. "He pleased the Lord and was translated [Vulg. into Paradise], being a pattern of repentance" (Sir_44:14). In the Epistle to the Hebrews the spring and issue of Enoch's life are clearly marked. "By faith Enoch was translated (μετετέθη), that he should not see death . . for before his translation (μετάθεσις) he had this testimony, that he pleased God." The contrast to this divine judgment is found in: the constrained words of Josephus: " Enoch departed to the Deity (ἀνεχώρησε πρὸς τὸ θεῖον), whence [the sacred writers] have not recorded his death" (Ant. 1:3, 4). In the Epistle of Jude, Jud_1:14; (comp. Enoch 60:8) he is described as " the seventh from Adam;" and the number is probably noticed as conveying the idea of divine completion and rest (comp. August. c. Faust. 12:14), while Enoch was himself a type of perfected humanity, "a man raised to heaven by pleasing God, while angels fell to earth by transgression" (Ireneus, 4:16, 2). Elijah was in like manner translated; and thus was the doctrine of immortalitypalpably taught under the ancient dispensation.
The biblical notices of Enoch were a fruitful source of speculation in later times. Some theologians disputed with subtilty as to the place to which he was removed, whether it was to Paradise or to the iimmedLate presence of God (comp. Feuardentius, ad Iren. 5:5), though others more wisely declined to discuss the question (Thilo, Cod. Apocr. N.T. page 758). On other points there was greater unanimity. Both the Latin and Greek fathers commonly couple Enoch and Elijah as historic witnesses of the possibility of a resurrection of the body and of a true human existence in glory (Iren. 4:5, 1; Tertull. de Resurr. Carn. page 58; Jerome, c. Joan. Hierosol. § 29, 32, pages 437, 440); and the voice of early ecclesiastical tradition is almost unanimous in regarding them as "the two witnesses" (Rev_11:3 sq.) who should fall before "the beast," and afterwards be raised to heaven before the great judgment (Hippol. Fragm. in Daniel 22; de Antichr. 43, Cosmas Indic. page 75, ap. Thilo, κατὰ τὴν ἐκκλησιαστικὴν παράδοσιν; Tertull. de Anima, page 59; Amzbros. in Psa_45:4; Evang. Nicod. c. 25, on which 'Thilo has almost exhausted the question, Cod. Apoc. N.T. page 765 sq.). This belief removed a serious difficulty which was supposed to attach to their translation, for thus it was made clear that they would at last discharge the common debt of a sinful humanity, from which they were not exempted by their glorious removal from the earth (Tertull de Anima, 1.c.; August. Op. imp. c. Jul. 6:30). In later times Enoch was celebrated as the inventor of writing, arithmetic, and astronomy (Euseb. Prcp. Ev. 9:17). He is said to have filled 300 books with the revelations which he received, and is commonly identified with Edris (i.e., the learned), who is commemorated in the Koran (cap. 19) as one "exalted [by God] to a high place" (comp. Sale, ad loc.; Hottinger, Hist. Orient. page 30 sq.). Visions sand prophecies were commonly ascribed to him, which he is said to have arranged in a book. This book was delivered to his son, and preserved by Noah in the ark. After the Flood it was made known to the world, and handed down from one generation to another (see Yuchasin, f. 134; Eusebius, Hist. Ecclesiastes 7:32; Cedren. Hist. page 9; Barhebr. Chron. page 5). But these traditions were probably due to the apocryphal book “which bears his name (comp. Fabric. Cod. Pseudep. V.T. 1:215 sq.). See below. Some (Buttm. Mythol. 1:176 sq.; Ewald, 1.c.) have found a trace of the history of Enoch in the Phrygian legend of Annacus (῎Αννακος, Νάννακος), who was distinguished for his piety, lived 300 years, and predicted the deluge of Deucalion. See Heber, De pietate et fatis Enochi (Bamb. 1789); Bredenkamp, in Paulus, Memor. 2:152; Danz, in Meuschen's N.T. Talm. Page 722; Schmieder, Comment. in Gal_3:19 (Nurnbn, 1826), page 23; Buddei Hist. Ecclesiastes V.T. 1:162; Drusius, De Henoch, in the Crit. Sacri. 1, 2; Pfeiffer, Decas select. exerc. page 12; D'Herbelot, Biblioth. Or. 1:624; Robertson, The Prophet Enoch (Lond. 1860); Pfaff, De raptu Henochi (Tub. 1739); Hall, Works, 11:185; Alexander, Hist. Ecclesiastes 1:142; Calmet, Commentary, 8:10, 27; Hunter, Sacred Biog. page 24 sq.; Robinson, Script. Char. 1; Rudge, Lect. on Genesis 1:72; Evans, Script. Biog. 3:1; Kitto, Bible Illust. 1:123; Bell, Enoch's Walk (Lond. 1658); Heidegger, Hist. Patriarcharum, i; Saurin, Disc. 1:65; Boston, Sermons, 1:230; Doddridge, Works, 3:329; Slade, Sermons, 2:447; Williams, Sermons, 2:367.
3. The third son of Midian, and grandson of Abraham by Keturah (Gen_25:4, A.V. "Hanoch;" 1Ch_1:33, "Henoch"). B.C. post 1988.
4. The eldest son of Reuben (A.V. "Hanoch," Gen_46:9; Exo_6:14; 1Ch_5:3), from whom came "the family of the Hanochites" (Num_26:5). B.C. 1873.
5. In 2Es_6:49; 2Es_6:51, "Enoch" stands in the Lat. (and Eng.) version for one of the two famous amphibious monsters, doubtless correctly Behemoth in the Ethiopic.

CYCLOPEDIA OF BIBLICAL, THEOLOGICAL AND ECCLESIASTICAL
press 1895.

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