Enoch

Enoch (חנוך, חנך, Ḥănōkh, Teaching or Dedication). (1) In Gen. iv. 17, 18 (J), the eldest son of Cain, born while Cain was building a city, which he named after Enoch; nothing is known of the city. (2) In Gen. v. 24, &c. (P), seventh in descent from Adam in the line of Seth; he “walked with God,” and after 365 years “was not for God took him.” [(1) and (2) are often regarded as both corruptions of the seventh primitive king Evedorachos (Enmeduranki in cuneiform inscriptions), the two genealogies, Gen. iv. 16-24, v. 12-17, being variant forms of the Babylonian list of primitive kings. Enmeduranki is the favourite of the sun-god, cf. Enoch’s 365 years.1] Heb. xi. 5 says Enoch “was not found, because God translated him.” Later Jewish legends represented him as receiving revelations on astronomy, &c., and as the first author; apparently following the Babylonian account which makes Enmeduranki receive instruction in all wisdom from the sun-god.1 Two apocryphal works written in the name of Enoch are extant, the Book of Enoch, compiled from documents written 200-50 B.C., quoted as the work of Enoch, Jude 14 and 15; and the Book of the Secrets of Enoch, A.D. 1-50. Cf. 1 Chron. i. 3; Luke iii. 37; Wisdom iv. 7-14; Ecclus. xliv. 16, xlix. 14. (3) Son, i.e. clan, of Midian, in Gen. xxv. 4; 1 Chron. i. 33. (4) Son, i.e. clan, of Reuben, E.V. Hanoch, Henoch, in Gen. xlvi. 9; Exod. vi. 14; Num. xxvi. 5; 1 Chron. v. 3. There may have been some historical connexion between these two clans with identical names.

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1 Eberhard Schrader, Die Keilinschriften und das A.T., 3rd ed., pp. 540 f.

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