The name Enoch is incredibly interesting to research when going through the Bible. In many of our English translations, there are two Enochs. One was the son of Cain, the other was the son of Jared, seven generations from Adam.
However if we look at the ancient Hebrew, there are actually four separate people whose names are spelled the same. Most English translations have the other two people written out as "Hanoch."
For the purposes of this blog post, I will focus on the first two mentioned, but let's look briefly at all references to every Enoch in the Bible.
References to Enoch
Enoch is mentioned in 18 different verses in the Bible. 15 of these verses take place in the Old Testament, while 3 take place in the New Testament.
The first Enoch mentioned is the son of Cain. He is mentioned in Genesis 4:17 as the first child of Cain and his wife, of whom we do not know her name. Cain named the city he built after his son. Following is a genealogical list of the descendants of Cain, followed by mentions of evils committed by his ancestors.
The next reference to an Enoch is the one that most Bible readers think about when we hear his name. It comes in the next chapter, in Genesis 5, in the list of Seth, the third son of Adam's descendants.
All New Testament references to Enoch refer to the same man, the one mentioned in Genesis 5 who walked with God and did not die.
The first NT reference comes in Luke, in Jesus' genealogy. The second reference comes in Hebrews 11, in the "Hall of Faith." He is the second name mentioned, following Abel.
The final reference to Enoch comes in the book of Jude, in verse 14. Jude is quoting the extrabiblical book of Enoch, which speaks about Christ returning to execute judgement.
The other two references for the same Hebrew name are spelled in most of our translations as "Hanoch," and come in other lists of sons. The first comes in Genesis, listing Hanoch as the son of Midian, who was a son of Abraham by his second wife Keturah after Sarah's death.
The other reference to a Hanoch in the Bible comes in Genesis 46:9, Hanoch the son of Reuben. Both of these Hanochs are listed a few other times throughout the Bible, always being mentioned in reference to being the sons of their fathers, Midian and Reuben.
Hanoch the son of Reuben is mentioned as a leader among the sons of Reuben, being listed in Numbers 26:5 as belonging to the clan of the Hanochites. No more is mentioned of him, however.
Back to the Enochs
There is a great deal of mystery concerned with every Enoch in the Bible. Not much is said about any of them, but the things that are said bring interesting questions. For Cain's son, my biggest question is what did he do? Did he follow in the ways of his father? What did he think of God? All that we know is that he was the son of Cain, and Cain named the city he built after him. After this one detail, we hear that Enoch's son is Irad. And that's it. We have Enoch, son of Cain, father of Irad, grandfather of Mehujahael, and that's what we can know about him.
The other Enoch, from the line of Seth, brings more interesting questions. Enoch lived 365 years, and then he "was not." The author of Genesis goes on to explain that it was because God took him. Beyond that, in this genealogy, very little is mentioned of most of the people listed. We learn what age they were when they had their child, how long they lived after, and how old they were when they died. Enoch is given slightly more detail. We learn that Enoch "walked with God." No other person in the entire genealogical list is described in this way. So this raises a couple of questions. What was the relationship between the Lord and Enoch like, that he would take him up and not anyone else? How was he different than those who came before and after him? Can we learn something from the life of Enoch?
Genesis 5 itself doesn't really answer these questions. It tells us that he was here, that he walked with God, and that God took him. There is one other place in the Bible that we can look for answers on the life of this man, and that place is Hebrews 11.
Hebrews 11 doesn't give a full explanation of every question we have of this mystery man, but it does give slightly more depth to his life:
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him. Now before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. - Hebrews 11:5-6 (ESV)
From Hebrews, we learn the nature of Enoch's "walk" with God. It is not primarily that he pleased God by his deeds, but that he pleased Him by his faith. For in order to please God, you must have faith.
So where does Jesus come into this?
Enoch is a wonderful precursor to the promise of the new covenant of Jesus Christ. While we don't know everything about Enoch, we know that he was human. Certainly Enoch sinned. It was not Enoch's perfection that saved him, but it was God who saved him because of the love he had for Enoch and the faith that Enoch had in Him.
Like Enoch, we too are offered a salvation even from death if only we have faith in the perfect Son of God, who lived a life that not even Enoch could live, completely free from sin. When we place our faith in Him, it is no longer our righteousness that we have, but we are given the righteousness of Christ, so that when we stand before the judgement seat of God, we are justified in His sight. The perfect righteousness of Christ is transferred to us, not because of anything that we have done, but because God loved us and mercifully saved us from His just wrath by sending Jesus to die in our place, and to rise again to conquer both sin and death.
But the comparison with Enoch does not just stop in comparing what happens after our life. Enoch walked with God in this life as well. When we place our faith in Christ, we are given his Holy Spirit, so that in this life, we also may "walk with God" faithfully, becoming more and more like Christ in our lives as we grow in our faith. As the author of Hebrews said, without faith it is impossible to please God, but with faith, we are granted the Holy Spirit so that we may please Him. While we will never reach the perfection that Christ attained, we are promised sanctification, to grow in holiness while we live, as a byproduct of the Spirit living inside of us.
Praise God for the story of Enoch. May it give us even greater confidence of His great love for those who place their faith in Him.
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