Enoch

Enoch, 'the seventh from Adam' (Jude, xiv.), 'walked with God' (Gen. v. 21-24), and, after a life of 365 years, 'was not, for God took him'—i.e. (according to Heb. xi. 5) 'was translated that he should not see death.' This early tradition recorded in Genesis is a significant expression of the faith that man when he has attained to true unity with God is capable of an eternal divine life. It is probable that the number of the years of Enoch was in some way connected with the number of days in the solar year. Partly from this, and partly from the interpretation of his name (Heb. Hanōkh) as 'initiated,' arose the later Jewish legend that Enoch had invented writing, arithmetic, astrology, and astronomy. He was held to have predicted the flood, and to be the possessor, through revelation, of the knowledge of all mysteries in heaven and earth. By the Arabs he is called Idris ('the experienced' or 'learned').—Enoch is the name of three other persons in the Bible, one of them being the eldest son of Cain (Gen. iv. 17).—For the Glasgow 'St Enoch,' a corruption of 'St Thenaw,' the name given by St Serf to St Kentigern's mother, see the article KENTIGERN.