HENOCH (Hebrew Hânôkh). — I. Antediluvian patriarch, son of Jared. Of him, who according to Gen 5:23 reached the age of 365 years (the number of days in the solar year), it is said that he “walked with God” (the Septuagint translates: “pleased God”; cf. Heb 11:5). At 65 he fathered Methuselah (v.). In the end “he was no more, because God took him” (Gen 5:24); the term “took” (lâqah) is the same as that used for Elijah’s rapture to heaven (2 Kgs 2:10). It may be interpreted: “from one of his communications with God, H. did not return.”
The biblical notices about H. are very concise. Only in later literature, shortly before the Christian era, did H. become the hero of an entire cycle of legends that make him the inventor of writing, the author of the first book, and the creator of astronomy and astrology. This reworked H. is compared to a king from an ancient Babylonian legend (v. Book of).
2. Son of Cain (Gen 4:17). He built a city which he named H. after his son. — See plate XC.