Enosh

Topic in Antediluvian Patriarchs. By Charles Kamins.


► Antediluvian Patriarchs‎ (11 P)

This article is about Enosh (also known as Enos), son of Seth, grandson of Adam. Enosh was the third generation from Adam.

In later providential history, three generations work together to create a Foundation of Faith: Abraham, known as the "father of faith," Isaac, his son and Jacob whose life course becomes a pattern for human restoration. Together these three generations restored some of the failures of Adam family's three generations and were able to come into a closer relationship to God the Creator.

Genesis

Genesis 4:26^[1] Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on[a] the name of the Lord.

All that is said in Genesis of Enosh is that he was born of Seth and gave birth to a son, Kenan.

This expression "At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord." is the subject of much speculation and commentary. One line of thought is that as social bonds developed, families gathered together to worship or pray and so the phrase "people began to call on the name of the Lord." On the other hand, some Jewish commentators take a much more pessimistic view interpreting the verse to mean that men began to fashion idols through which they made offerings to the invisible God. Thus, the beginning of idolatry. Seeing that there is such diversity of ideas on this and so little evidence to go on, for now I will leave this until I can take the time to pray about it and discover for myself the meaning.

Call upon the name of the Lord

With so little to go on, commentators made much of the phrase "At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord," citing two possible options as to its meaning 1) then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord to distinguish themselves thereby from idolaters; or 2) men earnestly began to call upon the Lord, indicating a time of spiritual revival.

Traditional Jewish interpretation takes a more negative view and implies it marked the beginning of idolatry, i.e., that men began to take God for granted, and stopped distinguishing right from wrong.

The Book of Jubilees

The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters, considered one of the pseudepigrapha by Protestant, Roman Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Jubilees is considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Churchas well as Bete Israel (Ethiopian Jews), where it is known as the Book of Division (Ge'ez: Mets'hafe Kufale).

It was well known to Early Christians. The text was also utilised by the community that originally collected the Dead Sea Scrolls. It was suppressed in the 4th century and excluded from western canons.

The Book of Jubilees claims to present "the history of the division of the days of the Law, of the events of the years, the year-weeks, and the jubilees of the world" as revealed to Moses (in addition to the Torah or "Instruction") by Angels while he was on Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights.

The chronology given in Jubilees is based on multiples of seven; the jubilees are periods of 49 years, seven 'year-weeks', into which all of time has been divided. According to the author of Jubilees, all proper customs that mankind should follow are determined by God's decree.

According to the Book of Jubilees 4:11-13^[2] in the Ethopian Orthodox Bible

    And in the fifth week of the fifth jubilee [225-31 A.M.] Seth took Azura his sister to be  
    his wife, and in the fourth (year of the sixth 12,13 week) [235 A.M.] she bare him Enos.  
    He began to call on the name of the Lord on the earth. And in the seventh jubilee in the  
    third week [309-15 A.M.] Enos took Noam his sister to be his wife, and she bare him a son  
    14 in the third year of the fifth week, and he called his name Kenan.

1 Chronicles 1:1

What is presented in the beginning of this book are the generations from Adam to Noah and follows with slight differences the text of Genesis 5. These differences are mainly observable between the Hebrew, Samaritan, and Septuagint versions. The Hebrew text exhibits the total aggregate of years from Adam to the birth of Noah, as amounting to one thousand and fifty-six; the Samaritan version to seven hundred and seven only; and the Septuagint^[3] to as many as sixteen hundred and sixty-two years. In this regard, the Divine Principle adopts the version of the Septuagint for its "Parallels of History" chapters.

References

↑ Genesis 4:26
↑ Jubilees 4:11-13
↑ The Septuagint from the Latin word septuaginta (meaning seventy), is a translation of the Hebrew Bible and some related texts into Koine Greek. The title and its Roman numeral acronym "LXX" refer to the legendary seventy Jewish scholars who completed the translation as early as the late 2nd century BCE. As the primary Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is also called the "Greek Old Testament.”

External Links

[1] Genesis 4:26

[2] Jubilees 4:11-13

[3] The Septuagint from the Latin word septuaginta (meaning seventy), is a translation of the Hebrew Bible and some related texts into Koine Greek. The title and its Roman numeral acronym "LXX" refer to the legendary seventy Jewish scholars who completed the translation as early as the late 2nd century BCE. As the primary Greek translation of the Old Testament, it is also called the "Greek Old Testament.”

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