TOM · The Owner's Manual · Old Testament

Genesis 5

Chapter 5 in 30 seconds

The first family tree, and almost every branch ends with the same words: and then he died. Methuselah lives 969 years, the longest life in the Bible, and he still dies. The one exception is Enoch, who walked with God, and then he was gone, because God took him. Enoch went on a walk and never came back, in the best way possible.

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In this chapterField Notes · ArchaeologyThe Book of Enoch in the Dead Sea Scrolls · after verse 18

The Descendants of Adam// 1 Chronicles 1:1–3

¹This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, He made him in His own likeness. ²Male and female He created them, and He blessed them. And in the day they were created, He called them “man.”

³When Adam was 130 years old, he had a son in his own likeness, after his own image; and he named him Seth. ⁴And after he had become the father of Seth, Adam lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. ⁵So Adam lived a total of 930 years, and then he died.

⁶When Seth was 105 years old, he became the father of Enosh. ⁷And after he had become the father of Enosh, Seth lived 807 years and had other sons and daughters. ⁸So Seth lived a total of 912 years, and then he died.

⁹When Enosh was 90 years old, he became the father of Kenan. ¹⁰And after he had become the father of Kenan, Enosh lived 815 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹¹So Enosh lived a total of 905 years, and then he died.

¹²When Kenan was 70 years old, he became the father of Mahalalel. ¹³And after he had become the father of Mahalalel, Kenan lived 840 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁴So Kenan lived a total of 910 years, and then he died.

¹⁵When Mahalalel was 65 years old, he became the father of Jared. ¹⁶And after he had become the father of Jared, Mahalalel lived 830 years and had other sons and daughters. ¹⁷So Mahalalel lived a total of 895 years, and then he died.

God Takes Up Enoch// Hebrews 11:5

¹⁸When Jared was 162 years old, he became the father of Enoch. ¹⁹And after he had become the father of Enoch, Jared lived 800 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁰So Jared lived a total of 962 years, and then he died.

GEN 5:18[ARCHAEOLOGY]Pieces of the Book of Enoch were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls

Field Notes · Archaeology

The Book of Enoch in the Dead Sea Scrolls

Genesis 5:18 to 24 · Jude 14 to 15 · 1 Enoch 1:9

A tracing of an Aramaic Enoch fragment from the Dead Sea Scrolls. Black is ink, gray is damage.

WHAT IT IS: A book called 1 Enoch that claims to tell what Enoch saw and said: visions of heaven, angels who sinned before the flood and the judgment to come. Genesis gives Enoch six verses. This book gives him 108 chapters.
HOW OLD IT IS: The scroll copies were made between about 200 BC and the time of Jesus, dated by their handwriting. When the book itself was first written is debated, see below.
WHERE AND WHEN FOUND: Between 1947 and 1956, pieces of more than ten copies were found in the caves at Qumran near the Dead Sea, written in Aramaic. The oldest are from about 200 BC. Before that, the only complete copies were in Ge'ez, the old church language of Ethiopia.
WHERE IT IS TODAY: The scroll pieces are kept in Jerusalem. The Ethiopian Orthodox Church still has 1 Enoch in its Bible today.
DID ENOCH WRITE IT: Nobody knows for sure. If Enoch wrote it, Noah would have had to carry a copy onto the ark, and it would have had to be copied again and again for thousands of years until the time of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Most scholars think Jewish writers wrote it much later, between about 300 BC and the time of Jesus, using Enoch's name. Jewish Bibles and most Christian Bibles left it out.
THE BIGGEST ARGUMENT FOR IT: Jude, the brother of Jesus, quotes it almost word for word in Jude 14 to 15: Behold, the Lord is coming with myriads of His holy ones to execute judgment on everyone. That is 1 Enoch 1:9, and Jude says Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied it. Many Christians believe Jude was quoting a true prophecy, even if the whole book is not Scripture.
WHAT ABOUT 2 AND 3 ENOCH: These are different books. 2 Enoch survives in Slavonic copies, the oldest from the 1300s AD, and was probably written around the time of Jesus or later. 3 Enoch is a Hebrew book written by rabbis around AD 400 to 600. Neither one could have been written by Enoch.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH FOR THE SCROLLS, DEBATED FOR ENOCH AS AUTHOR

²¹When Enoch was 65 years old, he became the father of Methuselah. ²²And after he had become the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. ²³So Enoch lived a total of 365 years.

²⁴Enoch walked with God, and then he was no more, because God had taken him away.

GEN 5:24[FORESHADOW]Enoch's bodily translation prefigures Christ's bodily ascension → HEB 11:5; MK 16:19MEDIUM
GEN 5:24[MIRACLE]Enoch walked with God, then was not — God took him
GEN 5:24[QUOTED]Quoted in the New Testament → HEB 11:5

From Methuselah to Noah

²⁵When Methuselah was 187 years old, he became the father of Lamech. ²⁶And after he had become the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years and had other sons and daughters. ²⁷So Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died.

²⁸When Lamech was 182 years old, he had a son. ²⁹And he named him Noah, saying, “May this one comfort us in the labor and toil of our hands caused by the ground that Yahweh has cursed.” ³⁰And after he had become the father of Noah, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. ³¹So Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died.

³²After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 5

The Descendants of Adam// 1 Chronicles 1:1–3

God Takes Up Enoch// Hebrews 11:5

From Methuselah to Noah

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