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The Earliest Patriarchs

14 Few on earth have been created like Enoch;[a]
    he also was taken up bodily.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 49:14–16 The patriarchs here mentioned were glorious because of their spirit of religion, i.e., their profound reverence for God and obedience to him. The splendor of Adam: suggests his direct origin from God (Gn 1:26–27; 2:7).

18 When Jared was one hundred and sixty-two years old, he begot Enoch. 19 Jared lived eight hundred years after he begot Enoch, and he had other sons and daughters. 20 The whole lifetime of Jared was nine hundred and sixty-two years; then he died.

21 When Enoch was sixty-five years old, he begot Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after he begot Methuselah for three hundred years, and he had other sons and daughters. 23 The whole lifetime of Enoch was three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 Enoch walked with God,[a] and he was no longer here, for God took him.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 5:24 Enoch is in the important seventh position in the ten-member genealogy. In place of the usual formula “then he died,” the change to “Enoch walked with God” implies that he did not die, but like Elijah (2 Kgs 2:11–12) was taken alive to God’s abode. This mysterious narrative spurred much speculation and writing (beginning as early as the third century B.C.) about Enoch the sage who knew the secrets of heaven and who could communicate them to human beings (see Sir 44:16; 49:14; Hb 11:5; Jude 14–15 and the apocryphal work 1 Enoch).

By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and “he was found no more because God had taken him.” Before he was taken up, he was attested to have pleased God.(A)

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