Texts in Conversation
Genesis says Enoch “walked with God” and then mysteriously “God took him.” This description is expanded in 1 Enoch, which says nobody knew what happened to him. The Aramaic translation of Genesis in Targum Neofiti repeats this depiction of ignorance.
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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)
1 Enoch 12:1
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
1 Before these things, Enoch was hidden, and no one among the children of men knew where he was hidden, where he lived, or what had happened to him. 2 His dealings were with the Watchers, and he spent his days among the holy ones. 3 And I, Enoch, was praising the Lord of majesty and the King of the ages, and look! the Watchers called me - Enoch the scribe - and said to me:
Date: 300 BCE – 100 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
Neofiti Genesis 5:24
Targum
22 And Enoch served in truth before the Lord after he fathered Methuselah three hundred years, and during those years he fathered sons and daughters. 23 And all the days of the life of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 And Enoch served in truth before the Lord, and no one knows where he is, because he was drawn away by a word from before the Lord. 25 And Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty years and fathered Lamech.
Date: 300–600 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... 1 Enoch 12:1 ... verse 1 paraphrases Genesis 5:24, “And Enoch walked with God, and he was not because God took him” The Greek (“was taken”) here corresponds to the Hebrew of Genesis 5:24 ([“was translated”] in LXX). A paraphrase similar to 1 Enoch 12:1 occurs in Targum Neofiti Genesis 5:24, where “and he was not” is rendered “and it was not known where he was” ..."
George W. E. Nickelsburg, A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch Chapters 1-36, 81-108 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001), 233.
* 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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