Enoch’s Epitaph – P2: Death by slaveofone
ויתהלך חנוך את־האלהים ואיננו כי־לקח אתו אלהים
And Enoch walked around with Elohim and was not there because Elohim took him.
Gen 5:24
In P1: The Controversy, we saw that there were conflicting ancient Jewish viewpoints on the question of what happened to Enoch. Now it will be the Hebrew of the ancient text itself instead of its ancient commentators, which we will examine. Through this analysis, it will be suggested that the better interpretation is the one which says Enoch died. Finally, because the Epistle to the Hebrews is a personal fascination and favorite of mine among the writings of the NT, as well as to assuage the concerns of those who are more inclined to interpret Gen 5:24 based on what Hebrews has to say about it (perhaps in line with the popular Christian proverb, the NT is the OT revealed,
or simply out of devotion to a text considered inspired and authoritative), we will conclude with a look at Hebrews to see how and why it may not contradict the understanding that Enoch died, but rather support it.
One thing is immediately clear when we read Gen 5, there is something different about Enoch. Like Noah (Gen 6:9), he is said to walk around with Elohim.
But the most striking difference is the fact that all around Enoch, in very structured order, the various figureheads of civilization are noted as having died, whereas something entirely different is said about Enoch. While it seems like a trivial and unnecessary detail to note the death of each person, it is not. All other genealogical lists from the ancient near east say nothing about their ancestors dying and the age at which this occurred. That this is present in Genesis’ genealogical lists is, therefore, significant and purposed. When Genesis veers away from such a purposed intent in the case of Enoch, it is all the more significant. Many have explained this significance as Enoch ascending to heaven without dying. While that argument would certainly qualify as significant, I think it is selling both Enoch and scripture short. Instead, I suggest that its significance is not about dying or not dying at all, but about a special position Enoch held which later resulted in his redemption.
And He Was Not There
This English phrase is actually a single word in Hebrew: ואיננו. It is a particle (with a prefix and suffix) used to express absence or negation. While it can carry many different meanings, two normal ways it is used in scripture is to speak of non-existence or death. It occurs, for instance, in Gen 2:5 when it talks about the time before there were shrubs and herbs when YHWH Elohim had not sent rain and man did not exist
to work the ground. In Gen 11:30, it appears when it says that Sarai was barren and there was not to her a child,
meaning no offspring existed. It occurs in Gen 19:31 when the daughters of Lot believe no person exists on the earth
outside of their cave from which they might procreate and enable the human race to continue. Psalm 39 is a lament about the nearness or inevitability of death if YHWH doesn’t deliver, restore, and spare the speaker from coming to that end. The lament concludes with a prayer in which the speaker asks YHWH to stop the affliction before I go [away] and am no more.
There, the particle of negation is both literally and figuratively paralleled with death. In the scroll of Job, it is written:
The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; Thine eyes will be on me, but I will not be.
Job 7:8, NASB
Why then dost Thou not pardon my transgression And take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust; And Thou wilt seek me, but I will not be.
Job 7:21, NASB
In both these instances, it is clear that the particle of negation carries the meaning of death. In Genesis 42, vv. 13 and 32, the male offspring of Jacob use the particle to tell Joseph that he (their brother Joseph) no longer exists, meaning he died. We can be certain this is the intended meaning because they later explain what they said to their father by linking the particle of negation with death:
And we said to my lord, ‘We have an old father and a little child of his old age. Now his brother is dead, so he alone is left of his mother, and his father loves him.’
Genesis 44:20, NASB
Jeremiah 49:10 uses the particle to speak of the destruction and death of the Idumaeans along with their neighbors. Ezekiel 28:19 uses the particle to speak of the annihilation of Tyre and the death of its monarch. More examples could be drawn to show that this word often means death and/or lack of existence.
We are, therefore, on solid interpretational ground to say and he was not there
means Enoch died or ceased to exit (which are essentially the same thing to a pre-Hellenistic, Israelite mind). One would not, however, be on solid ground if they believed and he was not there
is reason to say Enoch didn’t die. If one were to go with an alternate interpretation such as he disappeared
or he departed,
which is certainly possible, in order to avoid ascribing death to Enoch, this would tell us nothing about how his departure or disappearance occurred. So whereas we already have reason to believe he died, we have none yet to think he didn’t.
Walked Around With Elohim
One of the Rabbinic arguments that we saw in Genesis Rabba is that the particle of negation signals a reversal of what was previously described—to say Enoch no longer walked with God. First, it is obvious from the structure of the Hebrew that ואיננו begins a new clause—a verbless one. This distances it from the previous verb. Furthermore, the first clause is a verbal clause and אינ does not appear in verbal clauses. אינ can appear with participles, but there are no participles in this sentence. The particle should therefore be interpreted on its own. The only way to say this particle could signal a reversal of the first part of the sentence is to interpret And Enoch walked around with Elohim
as meaning something like And Enoch existed with God
or And Enoch was there with God.
In that case, the interpretation hinges not on the particle of negation, but on a particular understanding of what it meant for Enoch to walk around with Elohim
–namely that Enoch was in God’s presence. From this perspective, to then say Enoch was not there because Elohim took him would mean Enoch no longer existed in God’s presence—meaning God either killed him or banished him to a place reserved for those who are denied his presence (and thus Enoch was considered one of the wicked). This is, apparently, the way many Rabbis understood it.
The strength of this interpretation is not only that it deals with the particle according to one of those two usual meanings we’ve already discussed (we will also see later how the verb to take
many times carries the meaning of death), but it also deals with the question of Enoch’s significance. Unlike those on every side of him, Enoch actually existed in God’s presence, perhaps like a high priest who served in the Holiest Place or like Moses who entered into the cloud and spoke with YHWH face to face. In Mal 2:6-7, YHWH tells us that the righteous priest הלך אתי or walks with me
and that he is a messenger of YHWH of hosts
in rendering just verdicts and leading people on the path of righteousness. Could walked around with Elohim
mean Enoch was the first messenger and priest of God to the antediluvian people, giving them the word of Elohim and showing them what was pleasing to God? That would explain the rendering in the Greek version. Enoch’s name in the Hebrew looks and sounds similar to the verb to walk,
indicating a play on words. Side by side, they look like this: חנוך (Henok) הלך (halak).
While all this makes sense, the Rabbinic interpretation that ends with Enoch’s fall from grace and death is not entirely satisfying, either textually or narratively, as we will see in the final post. And, of course, walking with God was never something only for Enoch, Noah, or priests. It was for all humanity.
He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8, NASB
If Elohim exists in the heavenly realms and walked around with Elohim
means Enoch was there with Elohim, this opens up the door for us to say Enoch ascended to heaven before his death like we find in the scroll of 1 Enoch. The question is whether one should take it that far. If one does, it allows for the possibility that Enoch ascended alive to heaven when he finally left the earth for good (like it was already mentioned, if Enoch can ascend to heaven without dying once, there is little reason to require it at the end of his terrestrial stay). However, this is probably stretching the concept further than it can go because few would say that when it tells us Noah walked around with Elohim,
this means he ascended to heaven also. So we should probably not say it of Enoch either.
Even though we have good reason to say Enoch died and even though we have revealed what made Enoch special and significant, our argument would be weaker than the one that says Enoch escaped death if it didn’t also explain consistently how Elohim took him
fits into that interpretation and how the Greek rendering, God transferred him,
which we also find in Hebrews, makes sense of that. The Epitah series continues with the dramatic, and hopefully eye-opening post, Redemption.