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Bible Dictionaries
Enoch
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or ENOCH (Heb. Chăn ôk ) is the ‘seventh from Adam’ ( Judges 1:14 ) in the Sethite genealogy of Genesis 5:1-32 (see Genesis 5:18-24 ). In the Cainite genealogy of Genesis 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 Genesis 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 , Hebrews 11:5 ) appears to have exerted a certain influence on the OT doctrine of immortality (see Psalms 49:15; Psalms 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 Judges 1:14 f. (= Ephesians 1:9 , Ephesians 5:4 , 27:2).
J. Skinner.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Enoch'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/e/enoch.html. 1909.
