Enoch (II)

Gen. v. 18, 19.II. ENOCH, the son of Jared, was born in the year of the World 622, before Jesus Christ 3378, before the Vulgar Æra 3382. He begat Methuselah at the age of sixty five. He lived three hundred years after, and had several sons and daughters. He walked with God ; and after that he had lived in all three hundred and sixty five years, he was not, and God took him. Some¹ construe these last words, as if they intimated, that Enoch died a natural, but untimely death ; because in reality he lived not near so long as the other Patriarchs of those times ; as if God to secure him from corruption, had been pleased to take him early out of this world. But the generality of the Fathers and Commentators assert, that he is not dead, and that God transported him out of the sight of men, in like manner as he long after took up Elijah in a fiery chariot. St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews shews very clearly, that Enoch is not dead. By faith, says he, Enoch Heb. xi. 5.was translated that he should not see death, and was not found, because God had translated him. And Jesus the son of Sirach, according to the Vulgate, says, that he was Ecclus. xliv. 16.translated to Paradise ; which we are to understand of the terrestrial Paradise². The word Paradise is not in the Greek. St. Jerom Hieron. in Amos viii.understands Heaven by it. Enoch & Elias rapti sunt cum corporibus in Cœlum.

The Apostle St. Jude cites a passage from the book of Enoch³, which has very much exercised Interpreters. The question is, whether the Apostle took this passage out of any particular book written by Enoch, which might be extant in the first ages of the Church ; whether he received it by tradition ; or, lastly, by some particular revelation. It is most probable that he read it in the book we have been speaking of, which though apocryphal, might contain several truths, which St. Jude, who was favoured with a supernatural degree of understanding, might make use of to the edification of the faithful. The passage cited by St. Jude is as follows. Enoch the seventh from Adam prophesied of these hereticks and wicked persons, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints, to execute judgment upon all that are ungodly among them ; of all their ungodly deeds, which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against God.

The most ancient Fathers, such as Justin, Athenagoras, Irenæus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Lactantius, and other Fathers of the primitive ages, borrowed an opinion out of this book of Enoch, which is to be met with in their works, viz. That the Angels had a correspondence with the daughters of men, of whom they begat children. Tertullian speaks of this work in several places, and always with esteem. He would persuade us to believe, that during the Deluge, it was preserved by Noah in the ark, or that Enoch himself wrote a new copy of it after the Deluge, and sent it to Noah. He says, that we ought not to conclude any thing to the disadvantage of it, because the Jews did not receive it; the reason whereof might be probably, because it speaks in favour of Jesus Christ. But notwithstanding all this, the Church has inserted this writing among the apocryphal books; and several of the most intelligent fathers, such as Origen, Jerom, and Austin, mention it as a book which of itself is of no authority, though the prophecy cited by St. Jude be of divine authority, because of this Apostle’s being inspired. The author of the Testament of the twelve Patriarchs cites many things out of the book of Enoch, which are not now to be seen in it.

The desire of getting the book of Enoch into his possession, engaged the famous M. Peiresch in much search after it, and in considerable Ludolf. Comment. in Hist. Æthiop. l. 3. not. xxxiv. p. 347.expences. He was told it was in Æthiopia, and procured it to be brought from thence to him. But that which was given him instead of the book of Enoch, was the work of one Bahaïla Michaïl. M. Ludolf having retrieved it, discovered it to be the composition of an impostor. It begins in this manner; In the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. This is the book of the mysteries of heaven and earth; it contains the subject of the first and second tabernacle, and that of all the creatures. It is what Abba Bahaïla Michaïl had learned and received from Tamhana Samaï. The Angel which was sent unto him, said, Hearken … The Father is not before the Son, nor the Son before the Father, nor the Holy Ghost before the Father and the Son, &c. Which is very different from the book of Enoch, that the Ancients were acquainted with and cited, the fragments whereof, which had escaped the length of so many ages, are given us by M. Fabricius.

The Eastern People have preserved several traditions of very little certainty relating to Enoch, whom they call Edris. For example, they believe that in the continual wars which were carried on between the sons of Seth and Cain, that is, the race descended from the sons of God, and those of men, Enoch was the first who began them, and introduced the custom of making D’Herbelot. Bibl. Orient. p. 304. Doudasch.those of the Cainites slaves, who were taken in battle. Seth was the universal Monarch of the world in these early times, and Mahaleel, called Doudasch by the Mahometans, was one of his Generals, and fought naked from his head to his navel, depending solely upon the strength of his arms.

Idem, p. 310. Edris.They believe farther, that Enoch received from God the gift of wisdom and knowledge in an eminent degree, and that God sent him thirty volumes from heaven filled with all the secrets of the most mysterious sciences; for which reason the books of Enoch are still at this day so celebrated, and so respected in the East, though they are not in the possession of the people there, and are known only by their reputation. Besides these books which he received from heaven, he composed moreover a good number, which are as little known to them as the former.

God sent him to the descendants of Cain, in order to bring them back into the good way; but upon their refusing to hear him, he declared war against them, and reduced their wives and children to slavery. They attribute to him the invention of the pen and needle, or of sewing, and writing, of astronomy, and arithmetick, and more particularly still of geomancy. We know what Josephus has said of two pillars, one of Joseph. Antiq. l. 1. c. 3.stone that it might resist water, the other of brick to resist fire, upon which the sons of Seth before the Deluge, wrote their astronomical discoveries.

Gen. iv. 26.Moreover it is said, that Edris, or Enoch, was the innocent cause or occasion of Idolatry; one of his friends afflicted at his remove, having at the instigation of the Devil formed a statue which represented him so naturally, that he conversed whole days with it, and paid particular honours to it, which gradually degenerated into superstition. Others fix the Epoch of Idolatry under Enos, and explain these words of Scripture, He began to call upon the name of the Lord, as if it were, then the name of the Lord was profaned. For the Hebrew is capable likewise of this sense. Lastly, the Eastern Christians maintain, that Enoch is Mercury Trismegistus, or the thrice very great Mercury of the Egyptians, more known by the name of Hermes. Some say, Enoch had a son whose name was Sabi, whom the Sabians of the East would have to be the author of their Sect.

The Heathens seem to have had some knowledge of Enoch, and his prediction of the Deluge. Stephens the Geographer calls him Anacus, and says, that he lived in the city of Iconium in Phrygia. It had been foretold by some oracle, that all the world should perish after the death of Anac. He died at above three hundred years of age, and the Phrygians at his death shewed such sensible marks of sorrow, that they became a proverb, and to lament Anac, is an expression, which signifies a more than common mourning. Deucalion’s Deluge followed very soon the death of Anac. This is what Stephens says. Eusebius from Eupolemus tells us, that the Babylonians acknowledged Enoch to be Eufeb. Præp. l. 9.the first inventor of Astrology; that he is the same as the Atlas of the Greeks; that Methuselah was his son, and that he received all the uncommon knowledge which he had of things by the ministry of an Angel.

The Rabbins maintain, that when Enoch was translated to heaven, he was admitted into the number of Angels, and that he is the person known generally by the name of Metatron or Michael, one of the chief Princes of heaven, who keeps a register of the sins and merits of the Israelites. They add, that God and Adam were his masters, that they taught him the way of serving the Deity rightly, and of offering sacrifices. The invention of some letters, and some books in astrology, is ascribed to Enoch. The Jews make him to be the author of the form used by them in their greater Excommunication. See M. Fabricius de Apocryphis V. T. and the Authors cited by him.

Read this article in its place on the printed pages