translation_id: net-engnet

book_id: GEN

label: NET study note

text: The genealogy traces the line from Adam to Noah and forms a bridge between the earlier accounts and the flood story. Its constant theme of the reign of death in the human race is broken once with the account of Enoch, but the genealogy ends with hope for the future through Noah. See further G. F. Hasel, “The Genealogies of Gen. 5 and 11 and their Alleged Babylonian Background,” AUSS 16 (1978): 361-74; idem, “ Genesis 5 and 11 ,” Origins 7 (1980): 23-37.


text: With the seventh panel there is a digression from the pattern. Instead of simply saying that Enoch lived, the text observes that he “walked with God.” The rare expression “walked with” (the Hitpael form of the verb הָלָךְ , halakh , “to walk” collocated with the preposition אֶת , ’ et , “with”) is used in 1 Sam 25:15 to describe how David’s men maintained a cordial and cooperative relationship with Nabal’s men as they worked and lived side by side in the fields. In Gen 5:22 the phrase suggests that Enoch and God “got along.” This may imply that Enoch lived in close fellowship with God, leading a life of devotion and piety. An early Jewish tradition, preserved in 1 En. 1:9 and alluded to in Jude 14 , says that Enoch preached about the coming judgment. See F. S. Parnham, “Walking with God,” EvQ 46 (1974): 117-18.


text: The text simply states that God took Enoch. Similar language is used of Elijah’s departure from this world (see 2 Kgs 2:10 ). The text implies that God overruled death for this man who walked with him.


text: The name Noah appears to be related to the Hebrew word נוּחַ ( nuakh , “to rest”). There are several wordplays on the name “Noah” in the story of the flood.