Pre-flood patriarch who "walked with God"
Pre-Flood · Old Testament
The seventh from Adam who 'walked with God: and he was not; for God took him' (Genesis 5:24) — one of only two people in the Bible who never died.
Enoch was the son of Jared and father of Methuselah (Genesis 5:18-21). He lived 365 years. His brief biblical biography is one of the most remarkable in Scripture. Genesis 5:22-24 — 'Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years... And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.' He did not die — God 'took him,' a unique event paralleled only by Elijah (2 Kings 2:11). Hebrews 11:5 confirms: 'By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.' The phrase 'walked with God' is striking — used elsewhere only of Noah (Genesis 6:9). It implies intimate, continual fellowship. Enoch lived in a corrupt age (the generations before the flood) yet walked with God. Jude 1:14-15 records a prophecy of Enoch: 'Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all.' This appears to be quoted from the apocryphal Book of Enoch — but Jude's quotation authenticates that Enoch did prophesy this. Enoch became a major figure in later Jewish apocalyptic literature (1 Enoch, 2 Enoch, 3 Enoch). The canonical Bible says little, but what it says is decisive: Enoch walked with God, pleased God, and was taken without dying. He is the first person in the Bible 'translated' — a foreshadowing of the believer's hope at Christ's return (1 Thessalonians 4:17 — 'caught up').
Seventh from Adam
Then walked with God 300 years
"The Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints"
"God took him"
"Pleased God"
Enoch's significance: (1) He is the first 'translated' (taken alive) person in Scripture — foreshadowing the rapture/resurrection. (2) He shows that holy living is possible even in corrupt times (he lived among the pre-flood wicked). (3) His description — 'walked with God' — is the highest commendation of intimate fellowship. (4) Hebrews 11:5 names him as the model of faith that pleases God. (5) His prophecy (Jude 1:14-15) is one of the earliest predictions of the Lord's coming in judgment.
“Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all.”— Jude 1:14-15
Enoch was the seventh from Adam (Jude 1:14), son of Jared, father of Methuselah. He lived 365 years and 'walked with God' (Genesis 5:22-24). At the end of his earthly life, God 'took him' — he did not die. Hebrews 11:5 says he was 'translated that he should not see death.' He is one of only two people in the Bible (with Elijah) who never died.
No. Genesis 5:24 — 'Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.' Hebrews 11:5 confirms: 'By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death.' He is one of two biblical figures (with Elijah, 2 Kings 2:11) who left this world without experiencing death.
'Walked with God' (Hebrew hithallek im ha-Elohim) implies intimate, continual fellowship — life lived consciously in God's presence. The phrase is used elsewhere only of Noah (Genesis 6:9). It is the highest Old Testament commendation of holy living. For Enoch, it characterized 300 years.
No — most Christian Bibles do not include the Book of Enoch. It is part of the Apocrypha / Pseudepigrapha and is included only in the Ethiopian Orthodox canon. Jude 1:14-15 quotes from 1 Enoch, authenticating that specific prophecy of Enoch, but the church has not included the full book in the canonical Bible.