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Genesis says Enoch was taken by God, and later writings expand this into traditions of him gaining divine wisdom or becoming divine. Targum Onkelos instead says God caused him to die, which may reflect a rejection of those later Enochic traditions.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Genesis 5:24
Hebrew Bible
22 After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God for 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters. 23 The entire lifetime of Enoch was 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and then he disappeared because God took him away. 25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech. 26 Methuselah lived 782 years after he became the father of Lamech, and he had other sons and daughters.
Date: 750–400 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
Onkelos Genesis 5:24
Targum
22 And Enoch lived in reverence for the Lord, after he had fathered Methuselah, three hundred years, and fathered sons and daughters. 23 And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And Enoch lived in reverence for the Lord; and he was no longer there; for the Lord took him and put him to death. 25 And Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty-seven years, and fathered Lamech. 26 And Methuselah lived after he had fathered Lamech seven hundred and eighty-two years, and fathered sons and daughters.
Date: 50–500 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... The material that now appears in the Book of the Watchers is the earliest preserved instance in which Genesis 5:21-24 and 6:1-13 are combined or closely related to one another. And, though the LXX of Genesis 5:21-24 (and of 6:1-13) is much more closely tied to the biblical text, it, too, engages in some reinterpretation ... Of course, the process of reinterpretation continued into the targumim; Targum Onkelos says that God killed Enoch ..."
James C. VanderKam, From Revelation to Canon: Studies in the Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism (Leiden: Brill, 2002), 307.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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