ויתהלך חנוך את־האלהים ואיננו כי־לקח אתו אלהים
Now Enoch walked with God, but ceased to exist. Surely God redeemed him from death.
Gen 5:24
This post concludes the Epitah series, consisting of The Controversy, Death, Redemption, and Out of Sheol, which has sought the best interpretation and understanding of the story of Enoch based on an in-depth analysis of Hebrew and of the text itself.
Narrative Parallelism
Since Enoch and Noah are singularly unique in sharing the particular expression walked around with Elohim,
and since they occupy key numerical positions in the genealogical list (Enoch at 7th and Noah at 10th), if we approach the text of Genesis in a synchronic fashion (looking for patterns of meaning across a text as though the text were assembled so one part was meant be read in union with another), these conspicuous elements may function as a narrative clue prompting us to take notice of a parallel between Enoch and Noah. The following is a short, narratological analysis of the story of Enoch and Noah which adds insight to the interpretation of Gen 5:24 that has been argued.
Because Noah walked around with Elohim
and thus gained God’s favor (6:8), God granted him life above and beyond those around him (along with those on whom he had influence). The particular way God did this was by redeeming Noah from an end that the rest of humanity drank deeply (7:21-22). Noah was translated in an ark (and even brought up to heaven on the waves which covered the earth) so he would not see that death. Although he escaped that death, he nevertheless experienced and was confined by the watery grave for some time until YHWH released him from it by removing the waters (8:1-3), telling him to depart the ark (8:15-16), and perhaps even opening the ark for Noah to disembark since God was the one who shut him in (7:16).
This may serve as a parallel for us to understand what happened to Enoch. Just as Noah walked around with Elohim,
so did Enoch. Just as Noah found favor with God, so Enoch also pleased him (Greek version and perhaps its Vorlage). Because of this, God granted life to Noah beyond that of others by raising him from the earth in a vessel of wood. So also God granted life to Enoch beyond that of others by raising him in the vessel of his flesh from the earth into which he, as dust, had returned (was not there
). Just as Noah died symbolically by passing through the waters of the flood (1 Peter 3:21), so Enoch died literally by passing through the symbolic waters of Sheol. Just as Noah experienced and was confined by a watery grave and yet escaped it by YHWH’s redemption, so Enoch experienced and was confined by an earthen grave and yet escaped it by YHWH’s redemption. Just as Noah was translated from a world of corruption so he would not see that death, so Enoch was translated from corruption and the grave so he would not see death by being raised up out of it and granted life once again.
The Epistle of Hebrews
There is little to no reason from Genesis or even from the use of to take
in the story of Elijah to make us think Enoch didn’t die—and yet even if there were the smallest possibility of the traditional Christian understanding, it makes substantially less sense than its competing interpretations. The reason then that Christians have interpreted Gen 5:24 as speaking of Enoch’s living ascension is due entirely to a particular understanding of Hebrews 11:5, which then becomes the default understanding of Genesis regardless of what Genesis may or may not say. For the purposes of full disclosure, I should say at this point that I am no New Testament scholar and know more Attic than Koine Greek. What I can offer, therefore, on this look at Hebrews, is significantly less than what I have offered on the Hebraic texts.
By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for he obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was pleasing to God.
Hebrews 11:5, NASB
Just to get it out of the way, the word rendered here as to take up
is μετετεθη, which is the same word (though in a slightly different form) used by the Septuagint version of Gen 5:24 and simply means to transfer
or to translate.
As it should be evident, being transferred or translated from a state of death to a state of life, or from inside the grave to outside the grave, makes just as much sense of the word as being transferred or translated from earth to heaven without dying. This is no issue for my argument of Gen 5:24, so I will move on to the part of this verse that is most problematic.
Many people have read so that he should not see death
as meaning to communicate that Enoch didn’t die. If, therefore, this is what Hebrews is telling us, and if it is an inspired and authoritative interpretation of Genesis, we have our Christian understanding. I won’t bother with the question of authority and inspiration here. Rather, I wish to challenge this understanding of Hebrews 11:5. I think we have many reasons from the text itself to believe something else is being said about Enoch.
First, it should be noted that the reference to Enoch takes place within a list containing Abel, Noah, Abraham, and Sara. After speaking of these individuals and their great faith, Hebrews then makes a summary statement concerning them:
All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, . . .
Hebrews 11:13a
It says right here in Hebrews that all five people previously mentioned, which includes Enoch, died. It is difficult to get any more direct, clear, and literal than that. The phrase so that he should not see death,
is not nearly so. As an interpretative principle, it is almost always better to interpret from the clearest and most direct meaning to the less clear and the more uncertain, not the other way around. To reject the most natural meaning of all these died
and turn it into something entirely other in favor of an interpretation of the less certain phrase, so that he should not see death,
is to merely beg the question. If we have real, positive evidence that Enoch died and no real, positive evidence to say otherwise (see P2: Death, P3: Redemption, and P4: Out of Sheol), it is only the presuppositional bias of an interpreter that would cause them to turn all these died
into all these died—except Enoch.
The best way to understanding Hebrews is to accept that Enoch died as verse 13 tells us, but to add that he didn’t see death
because God redeemed him from the grave. By saying this, not seeing death
is employed to serve a different understanding than simply not experiencing death
or not dying.
This alternate understanding not only makes better sense, but is based on the idea of seeing
and not seeing
that plays a vital part in Hebrews 11 from the very beginning.
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. For by it the men of old gained approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible.
Hebrews 11:1-3, NASB
Here we find that Hebrews is setting up a relationship between the word of God (what is not seen) and what is or has occurred (what is seen). The relationship is thus: what is seen, or what is or has occurred, has its origins in what is not seen, meaning the word of God. The first example given is that of creation. Creation is the thing that is seen, or the thing that occurred. But before creation occurred and thus became what is seen, there was something which cannot be seen, the word of God, from which it came into being and had its fulfillment. Hebrews then presents us with a list of five people who did not receive the promises and only saw them from afar (v. 13a). The promises
are those things that are not seen, meaning things God said. Each of these five people put their trust in the word of God that came to them, or what is not seen. Unfortunately, however, they never received during the course of their lifetime the fulfillment of the word of God that came to them—they never saw what is not seen
become what is seen.
Despite never seeing the occurrence of that which the word of God spoke to them, these people continued living in anticipation of it unto their very deaths. That is why they are exemplars of faith. And yet it should not be said that they continued in anticipation of the fruition of what God said to them without evidence or reason for doing so. Their faith was not based on that which had not yet occurred, or what is not seen, but on God himself verifying to them that their trust in him was valid. In other words, what is seen, or what has happened (like creation), is reason and evidence to trust in that which is not seen, or which has not happened. This is the other side of the message of Hebrews 11 that is so often missed. As examples, we may take a brief look at some of those mentioned in the list from Hebrews.
In the case of Abel, God testified to Abel that he had done well, and therefore Abel had reason substantiated by the evidence of God’s acceptance of his sacrifice and non-acceptance of Cain’s that if he continued trusting in the fulfillment of God’s word to him, it would come to pass—even if not until after he was dead. Unfortunately, we do not know from Genesis what the word of God to Abel was. In the case of Noah, we also do not know what the word of God was that Noah never saw come to fruition in his lifetime, but we do know how God validated himself to Noah. God said he would bring a flood to cover the earth, but that he would deliver Noah from it, then did so. In the case of Abraham, the text tells us both what the word of God was to him and how God validated to Abraham in time and space why Abraham had reason to trust in that word. The word of God to Abraham was that a certain line of his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and become a blessing to all nations. The text then gives us many instances of God showing evidences and reasons for Abraham to place trust in that word such as saying he would give Abraham a child in his old age, that this would happen one year later, and it occurred, or saying he would annihilate a region of the earth because of the wickedness of its inhabitants, and Abraham saw it happen with his own eyes.
Turning to Enoch, the principle subject of our discussion, he likewise obtained the witness that he was pleasing to God
(11:5b). What this witness was, we do not know, but it happened long before he was not there
and was taken,
which was reason and evidence to substantiate for him that if he continued trusting in the word of God that had come to him, it would be fulfilled. Like the others in the list, Enoch died without receiving the fulfillment of the word of God that came to him (v. 13a). What was it that God promised him? I suggest that he was promised redemption from death and this was fulfilled when God took
him by raising him from the dead. Thus so that he should not see death
is not meant to communicate to us that Enoch didn’t die, but to verify the faithfulness of the word of God to Enoch (that which is not seen) by saying that when Enoch died, he didn’t stay dead as he should have.
The point of the phrase so that he should not see death
does not tell us something fascinating about Enoch’s life, but something true about the faithfulness of the word of God. Because the word of God to these ancient peoples–what was to them not seen—has now occurred–or is now what is seen—we have reason and evidence to trust that the word of God that has come to us, whatever that might be, will occur. Because Enoch was bestowed with life after he died and because Abraham’s line of descent became as numerous as the stars of the sky and a blessing to all nations, so what God has now spoken to us (what is not seen to us) is trustworthy. The foundation of the faith of those who came before, which looked forward to what hadn’t occurred because of what had, thus becomes a foundation for our own. The acts of God in history to validate his word spread from generation to generation to empower and enliven faith.
In Conclusion
It has been a long journey to arrive at the best understanding of a single verse of scripture, but I believe we have done it—not only in a way that makes the most sense of the text itself, its use of Hebrew, and its surrounding narrative, but which explains the variants of that text and doesn’t conflict with others like the Epistle of Hebrews. Enoch died, but was redeemed from the grave by being reanimated and transferred up out of it to another place. Enoch’s epitaph is thus broken, providing a very early example which serves to substantiate for us and for those who come after us that God is real and his future promises are sure.