Enoch

(Revision as of 08:53, 15 Jul 2005)

In the Book of Genesis, Enoch or Hanoch (חֲנוֹךְ "Initiated; dedicated; disciplined", Standard Hebrew Ḥanoḫ, Tiberian Hebrew Ḥănôḵ) is a name shared by two individuals named in the Genealogies of Genesis and subsequent Jewish, Christian, and Islamic writers.

The first was the son of Cain and father of Irad. Cain later founded a city which he named Enoch (Genesis 4:17-18).
The second was the son of Jared, father of Methuselah, grandfather of Lamech and the great-grandfather of Noah.

Life of Enoch, son of Jared

According to Genesis 5:23-24, Enoch was a just man, walked with God, lived 365 years, and then was taken by God without dying. In the Book of Enoch he was called The Scribe of Righteousness by God

Bar-Hebraeus wrote:

"Enoch was the first who invented books and different sorts of writing. The ancient Greeks declare that Enoch is the same as Mercury Trismegistus, and that he taught the sons of men the art of building cities, and enacted some admirable laws ... He discovered the knowledge of the Zodiac, and the course of the Planets; and he pointed out to the sons of men, that they should worship God, that they should fast, that they should pray, that they should give alms, votive offerings, and tenths. He reprobated abominable foods and drunkenness, and appointed festivals for sacrifices to the Sun, at each of the Zodiacal Signs."

In the New Testament, Jude quotes Enoch as prophesying a day of judgement.

In the Quran, the prophet Enoch is known as Idris, and described as follows:

"Verily! He was a man of truth (and) a prophet. We raised him to a high station." (Qur'an 19:56-57).

In Islam, Idris (Enoch) is also revered as the first man to be taught literature and writing by God.

According to the LDS Church's Pearl of Great Price, this Enoch founded the righteous city of Zion in a very wicked world. He and the entire city's inhabitants were "translated" (meaning he would not taste of death - changed from a Telestial state to a Celestia] state) by God and vanished from the presence of the earth before the Great Flood. Methuselah and his family (including Noah) were left behind so that righteous people could still populate the earth.

According to the Hebrew pseudepigraphical apocryphal Book of Enoch, God took Enoch and transformed him into the angel Metatron.

According to some traditions Enoch, being the Scribe of God, is still alive and has been recording the history of the World for God since he was born.

External link

Dictionary of the History of Ideas: (http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-65) Cosmic Voyages

Catholic Encyclopedia Entry: (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07218a.htm)

Jewish Encyclopedia Entry: (http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=383&letter=E)

References

Wikipedia. (2005). Enoch (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch). Retrieved on July 15. 2005.

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