“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.” Here in Genesis 5:24 in the pages of the Holy Bible, are we first introduced to Enoch and here he is also taken from us. No sooner is Enoch mentioned when he disappears. In I Chronicles 1:3 he is recorded in the line of the patriarchs, and in the apocryphal book Wisdom of Sirach 49:14 he is highly spoken of. However, nothing more is said of him in the entire Old Testament. In the New Testament, Enoch is mentioned three times. In Luke 3:37 he is included in the genealogy of Jesus Christ, in Hebrews 11:5 he is included as one of the hero’s of faith, and in Jude verses 14 and 15 he is quoted as prophesying the coming of the Lord to execute judgment upon all. The prophecy of Enoch referenced by Jude comes from a Pseudepigrapha work known as the Book of Enoch.
The Book of Enoch, or I Enoch is a pre-Christian text which has been primarily classified as a Christian book, even though it was written before the coming of Christ. The New Testament and other early Christian writings reveal that the first Christians knew of this book and that it was also widely read by a significant amount of the members of the early Church. Enoch was quoted by the Church Fathers, but has not been commented on by Christian writers since the close of the 8th century. One of the Church Fathers, Turtullian who lived in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, was one of the most avid readers of the Book of Enoch. Tertullian did consider I Enoch to be inspired and even compared Enoch’s bodily assumption with the Church’s belief in the resurrection of the dead. The Book of Enoch has been accepted as inspired scripture for some Christian groups, such as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church for example. I Enoch is also known as Ethiopic Enoch, because the entire text has survived exclusively in the ancient Ethiopian language of Ge’ez. When comparing the Epistle of St. Jude, verses 14 and 15 to Enoch 1:9, a striking similarity is seen. Though this “quotation” in Jude is not taken verbatim, it can be asserted that the inclusion of this quotation in a New Testament book helps give validity to the Book of Enoch as inspired scripture.
The Dead Sea Scrolls have also made it possible for us to establish that Enoch has played a role in the foundations and origins of Christianity. Through their devotion to God and scripture, the ancient scribes of the Qumran community have left the people of the modern world a testimony to the ways of the peoples who lived during the time of Christ. For among the basic scriptures used by the Brotherhood of Qumran was the Book of Enoch. Fragments of Enoch turned up in Qumran Cave 1 and eight fragmentary copies of it in Aramaic were found in Cave 4. It was evidently one of the favorite apocryphal books of the community in Qumran. In Jewish life at the close of the second century BC and during the first century BC, the Book of Enoch was regarded in certain Jewish circles as inspired. Thus, it can be argued that the Pseudepigrapha Book of Enoch has preserved ideas essential for an understanding of early Judaism and early Christianity.
Enoch was the seventh from Adam and was 365 years old when God took him, making him the youngest of the antediluvian patriarchs. As is commonly known, Enoch’s son Methuselah is the oldest man recorded in the Bible dying at 969 years of age. Interestingly enough, Enoch’s father Jared died at 962 years of age, making him the second oldest man in the Bible. So Enoch, the youngest of the patriarchs is book-ended by the two oldest of the antediluvian patriarchs. The Bible goes on to state that Enoch “walked with God.” Out of all the people mentioned in the Bible, only Enoch and Noah shared this special relationship with the Creator. Just as Noah walked with God and was saved from The Flood, so too Enoch walked with God and was taken from the earth that he should not see death. The Bible explains that Enoch was translated, but it does not specify where exactly he was taken. Since no soul could enter heaven before the resurrection of Jesus Christ, so neither could sinful flesh enter. A possible abode for Enoch could be the Garden of Eden. The Church Fathers relate that Eden is in a state between corruptibility and incorruptibility. Thus the Garden of Eden would be more suitable for a man possessed of body and soul to enter before the resurrection. The prophet Elijah was also taken by God while still alive. Going further the Lord said in Malachi 4:5 that He would send Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The two witnesses of Revelation 11:3 who preach against and are killed by the Antichrist are believed to be Enoch and Elijah. Hebrews 9:27 says, “it is appointed unto men once to die…,” and since both Enoch and Elijah are the only two men in history who have not died, their mission during the End Times will come to an end by their death and will fulfill the scriptures which state that human flesh is mortal.
Apart from what is found in the Bible and the information presented in the Book of Enoch, there has come down to us many legends surrounding Enoch the seventh from Adam. Enoch has been described as a sage, the wisest of men, knowing the secrets of the universe and the first among men who learned writing. By his virtue and special closeness to God, Enoch was believed to be able to reveal the deepest of mysteries. But most importantly, Enoch was one of the Bible’s first examples of a man filled with piety who was possessed with a strict devotion towards his creator. He was a man of deep integrity and principle. When a great multitude of the people in his era led a sinful lifestyle and practiced iniquity, Enoch held onto virtue and remained vigilant and served God faithfully. For as it is written in Hebrews 11:5, “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he has this testimony, that he pleased God.”
References:
Brown, R.K. The Book of Enoch. (Nashville, Tennessee: James C. Winston Publishing Company, Inc., 1997).
Cambridge University Press. The Apocrypha, Authorized King James Version. (Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
Kush, I.K. Enoch the Ethiopian. (Buffalo, New York: Eworld Inc., 2000).
Zondervan. The Holy Bible, King James Version. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2009).