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Genesis

About this book

Adam's Descendants

Chapter 5

1 This is the record of the family line of Adam.⁠ When God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God. 2 He created them male and female; when they were created, he blessed them and named them “humankind.” 3 When Adam had lived 130 years he fathered a son in his own likeness, according to his image,⁠ and he named him Seth. 4 The length of time Adam lived after he became the father of Seth was 800 years; during this time he had other sons and daughters. 5 The entire lifetime of Adam was 930 years, and then he died.⁠ 6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he became the father of Enosh.⁠ 7 Seth lived 807 years after he became the father of Enosh, and he had other sons and daughters. 8 The entire lifetime of Seth was 912 years, and then he died. 9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he became the father of Kenan. 10 Enosh lived 815 years after he became the father of Kenan, and he had other sons and daughters. 11 The entire lifetime of Enosh was 905 years, and then he died. 12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he became the father of Mahalalel. 13 Kenan lived 840 years after he became the father of Mahalalel, and he had other sons and daughters. 14 The entire lifetime of Kenan was 910 years, and then he died. 15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he became the father of Jared. 16 Mahalalel lived 830 years after he became the father of Jared, and he had other sons and daughters. 17 The entire lifetime of Mahalalel was 895 years, and then he died. 18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch. 19 Jared lived 800 years after he became the father of Enoch, and he had other sons and daughters. 20 The entire lifetime of Jared was 962 years, and then he died. 21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah.⁠ 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.⁠ 27 The entire lifetime of Methuselah was 969 years, and then he died.⁠ 28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son.⁠ 29 He named him Noah, saying, “This one will bring us comfort from our labor and from the painful toil of our hands because of the ground that the Lord has cursed.” 30 Lamech lived 595 years after he became the father of Noah, and he had other sons and daughters. 31 The entire lifetime of Lamech was 777 years, and then he died. 32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Texts in conversation

Compare Genesis 5:24 and 3 Enoch 4:2

Hebrew Bible · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Genesis, God takes Enoch without explaining why or where he goes. In 3 Enoch, Enoch says God took him to testify against the many sins of the generation of the flood.

Passages

Genesis 5:24

Hebrew Bible
21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. 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. 27 The entire lifetime of Methuselah was 969 years, and then he died. 28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Genesis

3 Enoch 4:2

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Hebrew Book of Enoch
2 He answered and said to me: "Because I am Enoch, the son of Jared. 3 For when the generation of the flood sinned and were confounded in their deeds, saying to God: 'Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of your ways' (Job xxi. 14), then the Holy One, blessed be He, removed me from their midst to be a witness against them in the high heavens to all the inhabitants of the world, that they may not say: 'The Merciful One is cruel'. 4 What sinned all those multitudes, their wives, their sons and their daughters, their horses, their mules and their cattle and their property, and all the birds of the world, all of which the Holy One, blessed be He, destroyed from the world together with them in the waters of the flood?
400–600 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 3 Enoch

References

“... It comes as something of a shock to learn that this exalted be- ing, second only to God in the cosmic hierarchy, is none other than the patriarch Enoch, the son of Jared, who, having been taken up to heaven as a witness to God’s justice in bringing the flood,”® was transformed into an angel. Like 2 Enoch, 3 Enoch clearly envisages bodily ascent and so postulates the physical metamorphosis of Enoch: “When the Holy One, blessed be He, took me to serve the throne of glory, the wheels of the chariot and all the needs of the Shekhinah, at once my flesh turned to flame, my sinews to blazing fire, my bones to juniper coals, my eyelashes to lightning flashes, my eyeballs to fiery torches, the hairs of my head to hot flames, all my limbs to wings of burning fire, and the substance of my body to blazing fire.””? So Enoch becomes, like the other angels, physically composed of fire. Another part of his transformation involved the enlargement of his body until it equaled the dimensions of the world: “I was enlarged and in- creased in size until I matched the world in its length and breadth. He made to grow on me seventy-two wings, thirty-six on one side and thirty-six on the other, and each single wing covered an en- tire world. He fixed in me 365,000 eyes and each eye was like the Great Light. There was no sort of splendor, brilliance, bright- ness, or beauty in the luminaries of the world that he failed to fix in me.”*° We shall return later to the possible significance of this bizarre tradition. Metatron and Enoch, like Enoch and the heavenly Son of Man, were originally distinct figures. The similarities of their roles led to convergence and finally to identification. The result of the iden- tification of Metatron and Enoch is clear: Enoch, a man with an earthly existence and genealogy, has been deified. Moreover there is a hint in 3 Enoch that this process of deification will be repli- cated in the case of other men. 3 Enoch presents a significant ...”
Philip S. Alexander, “From Son of Adam to Second God: Transformations of the Biblical Enoch,” in Biblical Figures Outside the Bible, ed. Michael E. Stone and Theodore A. Bergren (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1998), 106.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Genesis 5:24 and 3 Enoch 4:2

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