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Genesis describes Enoch walking with God until God takes him away. Adapa, the first Apkallu, or sage in Mesopotamian tradition, receives wisdom from Ea but is denied eternal life, and rabbinic traditions later identify Enoch with Adapa.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Adapa and the South Wind 4
Ancient Near East
... destiny ... Let his speech be… like the speech of Anu!” Ea perfected understanding perfect in Adapa, To disclose the cultural order of the earth. To him he gave wisdom, but did not give him eternal life. At that time, in those years, he was a sage, son of Eridu. Ea created him as his follower among humankind.
Date: 1400 B.C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
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.
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Notes and References
"... Similar attributions are known from ancient Mesopotamia, where Enki, the Sumerian god of wisdom, or his Akkadian counterpart Ea, is regarded as author of such works of literature as the astrological omen series enuma Anu Enlil. In another tradition, the same omen corpus is identified with Oannes-Adapa, the first of the seven wise apkallu’s, semi-divine beings from before the Flood who brought culture to Sumer. In Rabbinic tradition, similarly, Enoch is identified with Oannes-Adapa and endowed with special wisdom. ..."
Hallo, William W.
Origins: The Ancient Near Eastern Background of Some Modern Western Institutions
(p. 145) E.J. Brill, 1996
* 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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