the Week of Christ the King / Proper 29 / Ordinary 34
Click here to join the effort!
Read the Bible
New American Standard Bible
Genesis 5:22
Bible Study Resources
Concordances:
- Nave'sDictionaries:
- AmericanEncyclopedias:
- CondensedDevotionals:
- DailyParallel Translations
Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
and Enoch walked with God after he begot Methuselah 300 years, and begot sons and daughters:
After Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God 300 years more and had other sons and daughters.
After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God for 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
Enoch walked with God after he became the father of Methuselah three hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters.
Enoch walked [in habitual fellowship] with God three hundred years after the birth of Methuselah and had other sons and daughters.
And Enoth yede with God; and Enoth lyuede after that he gendride Matusalem thre hundrid yeer, and gendride sones and douytris.
And Enoch walketh habitually with God after his begetting Methuselah three hundred years, and begetteth sons and daughters.
And after he had become the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
and during the next three hundred years he had more children. Enoch truly loved God,
After Metushelach was born, Hanokh walked with God 300 years and had sons and daughters.
and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
And after the birth of Methuselah, Enoch went on in God's ways for three hundred years, and had sons and daughters:
And Henoch walked with God after he begate Methuselah three hundreth yeres, and begate sonnes & daughters.
And Enoch walked with God after he had begotten Methushelah three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
After Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God for 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
And Enoch walked with God after he begot Methuselah three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
And Enoch walked with God, after he begate Methuselah, three hundred yeeres, and begate sonnes and daughters.
And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
Enoch walked with God 300 years after the birth of Methuselah. He had other sons and daughters.
Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methuselah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.
and Enoch walked with God, after he begat Methuselah, three hundred years, - and begat sons and daughters;
And Henoch walked with God, after he begate Methushelah, three hundreth yeeres, and begate sonnes and daughters.
And Enoch found favor in the presence of God three hundred years after he begot Methuselah, and begot sons and daughters;
After that, Enoch lived in fellowship with God for 300 years and had other children.
And Henoch walked with God: and lived after he begot Mathusala, three hundred years, and begot sons and daughters.
Enoch walked with God after the birth of Methu'selah three hundred years, and had other sons and daughters.
And Enoch was well-pleasing to God after his begetting Mathusala, two hundred years, and he begot sons and daughters.
and Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
And after he fathered Methuselah, Enoch walked with God 300 years and fathered other sons and daughters.
Hanokh walked with God after he became the father of Metushelach three hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters.
And Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah three hundred years, and fathered sons and daughters.
And Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he fathered Methuselah. And he fathered sons and daughters.
and led a godly conuersacion thre hundreth yeares therafter, and begat sonnes & doughters.
After he begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters.
After the birth of Methuselah, Enoch lived in close fellowship with God for another 300 years, and he had other sons and daughters.
Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters.
Then Enoch walked with God 300 years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he became the father of other sons and daughters.
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
Genesis 6:9, Genesis 17:1, Genesis 24:40, Genesis 48:15, Exodus 16:4, Leviticus 26:12, Deuteronomy 5:33, Deuteronomy 13:4, Deuteronomy 28:9, 1 Kings 2:4, 2 Kings 20:3, Psalms 16:8, Psalms 26:11, Psalms 56:13, Psalms 86:11, Psalms 116:9, Psalms 128:1, Song of Solomon 1:4, Hosea 14:9, Amos 3:3, Micah 4:5, Micah 6:8, Malachi 2:6, Luke 1:6, Acts 9:31, Romans 8:1, 1 Corinthians 7:17, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Ephesians 5:15, Colossians 1:10, Colossians 4:5, 1 Thessalonians 2:12, 1 Thessalonians 4:1, Hebrews 11:5, Hebrews 11:6, 1 John 1:7
Reciprocal: Genesis 4:17 - Enoch Genesis 5:4 - and he Isaiah 38:3 - I have 1 Corinthians 7:24 - abide
Cross-References
So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
Now Seth lived 105 years, and fathered Enosh.
Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.
Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, "I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless.
"And he said to me, 'The LORD, before whom I have walked, will send His angel with you to make your journey successful, and you will take a wife for my son from my relatives and from my father's house;
And he blessed Joseph, and said, "The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
Then the LORD said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you; and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, so that I may test them, whether or not they will walk in My instruction.
'I will also walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people.
"You shall walk entirely in the way which the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live and that it may be well for you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you will possess.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
And Enoch walked with God, after he begat Methuselah, three hundred years,.... The Greek version is two hundred. He had walked with God undoubtedly before, but perhaps after this time more closely and constantly: and this is observed to denote, that he continued so to do all the days of his life, notwithstanding the apostasy which began in the days of his father, and increased in his. He walked in the name and fear of God, according to his will, in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord then made known; he walked by faith in the promises of God, and in the view of the Messiah, the promised seed; he walked uprightly and sincerely, as in the sight of God; he had familiar converse, and near and intimate communion with him: and even the above Heathen writer, Eupolemus, seems to suggest something like this, when he says, that he knew all things by the angels of God, which seems to denote an intimacy with them; and that he received messages from God by them:
and begat sons and daughters; the marriage state and procreation of children being not inconsistent with the most religious, spiritual, and godly conversation.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
- Section V - The Line to Noah
- The Line of Sheth
1. ספר sepher “writing, a writing, a book.”
9. קינן qēynān, Qenan, “possessor, or spearsman.”
12. <מהללאל mahelal'ēl, Mahalalel, “praise of ‘El.”
15. ירד yerĕd, Jered, “going down.”
21. מתוּשׁלה metûshālach, Methushelach, “man of the missile.”
29. נה noach, Noach, “rest,” נחם nācham “sigh; repent; pity; comfort oneself; be revenged.”
32. שׁם shēm, Shem, “name, fame; related: be high.” חם chām Cham, “hot.” יפת yāpet, Japheth, “spreading; related: spread out.”
We now enter upon the third of the larger documents contained in Genesis. The first is a diary, the second is a history, the third a genealogy. The first employs the name אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym exclusively; the second uses אלהים יהוה yehovâh'ĕlohı̂ym in the second and third chapters, and יהוה yehovâh usually in the fourth; the third has אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym in the first part, and יהוה yehovâh in the second part. The name אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym is employed in the beginning of the chapter with a manifest reference to the first document, which is here quoted and abridged.
This chapter contains the line from Adam to Noah, in which are stated some common particulars concerning all, and certain special details concerning three of them. The genealogy is traced to the tenth in descent from Adam, and terminates with the flood. The scope of the chapter is to mark out the line of faith and hope and holiness from Adam, the first head of the human race, to Noah, who became eventually the second natural head of it.
Genesis 5:1-2
These verses are a recapitulation of the creation of man. The first sentence is the superscription of the new piece of composition now before us. The heading of the second document was more comprehensive. It embraced the generations, evolutions, or outworkings of the skies and the land, as soon as they were called into existence, and was accordingly dated from the third day. The present document confines itself to the generations of man, and commences, therefore, with the sixth day. The generations here are literal for the most part, though a few particulars of the individuals mentioned are recorded. But taken in a large sense this superscription will cover the whole of the history in the Old and New Testaments. It is only in the prophetic parts of these books that we reach again in the end of things to the wider compass of the heavens and the earth Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1. Then only does the sphere of history enlarge itself to the pristine dimensions in the proper and blessed sense, when the second Adam appears on earth, and re-connects heaven and earth in a new, holy, and everlasting covenant.
The present superscription differs from the former one in the introduction of the word ספר sepher, “book”. There is here some ground in the text for supposing the insertion by Moses of an authentic document, handed down from the olden time, in the great work which he was directed to compose. The chapter before us could not have been completed, indeed, until after the birth of Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But if we except the last verse, there is no impossibility or improbability in its being composed before the deluge.
The invention of writing at that early period is favored by some other circumstances connected with these records. We cannot say that it is impossible for oral tradition to preserve the memory of minute transactions - sayings, songs, names, and numbers of years up to a thousand - especially in a period when men’s lives exceeded nine hundred years. But we can easily see that these details could be much more easily handed down if there was any method of notation for the help of the memory. The minute records of this kind, therefore, which we find in these early chapters, though not very numerous, afford a certain presumption in favor of a very early knowledge of the art of writing.
Genesis 5:2
And called their name man. - This name seems to connect man אדם 'ādām with the soil from which he was taken ארמה 'ădāmâh Genesis 2:7. It is evidently a generic or collective term, denoting the species. God, as the maker, names the race, and thereby marks its character and purpose.
Genesis 5:3-5
In the compass of Genesis 5:3-5 the course of Adam’s life is completed. And after the same model the lines of all his lineal descendants in this chapter are drawn up. The certain particulars stated are the years he lived before the birth of a certain son, the number of years he afterward lived during which sons and daughters were born to him, and his death. Two sons, and most probably several daughters, were born to Adam before the birth of Sheth. But these sons have been already noticed, and the line of Noah is here given. It is obvious, therefore, that the following individuals in the genealogy may, or may not, have been first-born sons. The stated formula, “and he died,” at the close of each life except that of Henok, is a standing demonstration of the effect of disobedience.
The writer, according to custom, completes the life of one patriarch before he commences that of the next; and so the first event of the following biography is long antecedent to the last event of the preceding one. This simply and clearly illustrates the law of Hebrew narrative.
The only peculiarity in the life of Adam is the statement that his son was “in his likeness, after his image.” This is no doubt intended to include that depravity which had become the characteristic of fallen man. It is contrasted with the preceding notice that Adam was originally created in the image of God. If it had been intended merely to indicate that the offspring was of the same species with the parent, the phrase, “after his kind” (למינהוּ lemı̂ynâh, would have been employed, as in the first chapter. This is one of the mysteries of the race, when the head of it is a moral being, and has fallen. His moral depravity, affecting the essential difference of his nature, descends to his offspring.
As this document alludes to the first in the words, “in the day of God’s creating man, in the likeness of God made he him,” quotes its very words in the sentence, “male and female created he them, refers to the second in the words, and called their name man” Genesis 2:7, and also needs this second for the explication of the statement that the offspring of man bore his likeness, it presupposes the existence and knowledge of these documents at the time when it was written. If it had been intended for an independent work, it would have been more full and explanatory on these important topics.
Genesis 5:21-24
The history of the Shethite Henok is distinguished in two respects: First, after the birth of Methushelah, “he walked with the God.” Here for the first time we have God אלהים 'ĕlohı̂ym with the definite article, with which it occurs more than four hundred times. By this he is emphatically distinguished as the God, now made known by his acts and manifestations, in opposition to atheism, the sole God in opposition to polytheism, and the true God in opposition to all false gods or notions of God. It is possible that in the time of Henok some had forsaken the true God, and fallen into various misconceptions concerning the Supreme Being. His walking with “the God” is a hint that others were walking without this God.
The phrase “walked with God” is rendered in the Septuagint εὐηρέστησε τῷ Θεῷ euērestēse tō Theō, “pleased God,” and is adduced in the Epistle to the Hebrews Genesis 2:5-6 as an evidence of Henok’s faith. Walking with God implies community with him in thought, word, and deed, and is opposed in Scripture to walking contrary to him. We are not at liberty to infer that Henok was the only one in this line who feared God. But we are sure that he presented an eminent example of that faith which purifies the heart and pleases God.
He made a striking advance upon the attainment of the times of his ancestor Sheth. In those days they began to call upon the name of the Lord. Now the fellowship of the saints with God reaches its highest form, - that of walking with him, doing his will and enjoying his presence in all the business of life. Hence, this remarkable servant of God is accounted a prophet, and foretells the coming of the Lord to judgment Jude 1:14-15. It is further to be observed that this most eminent saint of God did not withdraw from the domestic circle, or the ordinary duties of social life. It is related of him as of the others, that during the three hundred years of his walking with God he begat sons and daughters.
Secondly, the second peculiarity of Henok was his teleportation. This is related in the simple language of the times. “And he was not, for God took him;” or, in the version of the Septuagint, “and he was not found, for God translated him.” Hence, in the New Testament it is said, Hebrews 11:5, “By faith Enoch was translated, that he should not see death.” This passage is important for the interpretation of the phrase ואיננוּ ve'ēynenû καί ουχ εὑρίσκετο kai ouch heurisketo “and he was not (found).” It means, we perceive, not absolutely, he was not, but relatively, he was not extant in the sphere of sense. If this phrase do not denote annihilation, much less does the phrase “and he died.” The one denotes absence from the world of sense, and the other indicates the ordinary way in which the soul departs from this world. Here, then, we have another hint that points plainly to the immortality of the soul (see on Genesis 3:22).
This glimpse into primeval life furnishes a new lesson to the men of early times and of all succeeding generations. An atonement was shadowed forth in the offering of Habel. A voice was given to the devout feelings of the heart in the times of Sheth. And now a walk becoming one reconciled to God, calling upon his name, and animated by the spirit of adoption, is exhibited. Faith has now returned to God, confessed his name, and learned to walk with him. At this point God appears and gives to the antediluvian race a new and conclusive token of the riches and power of mercy in counteracting the effects of sin in the case of the returning penitent. Henok does not die, but lives; and not only lives, but is advanced to a new stage of life, in which all the power and pain of sin are at an end forever. This crowns and signalizes the power of grace, and represents in brief the grand finale of a life of faith. This renewed man is received up into glory without going through the intermediate steps of death and resurrection. If we omit the violent end of Habel, the only death on record that precedes the translation of Henok is that of Adam. It would have been incongruous that he who brought sin and death into the world should not have died. But a little more than half a century after his death, Henok is wafted to heaven without leaving the body. This translation took place in the presence of a sufficient number of witnesses, and furnished a manifest proof of the presence and reality of the invisible powers. Thus, were life and immortality as fully brought to light as was necessary or possible at that early stage of the world’s history. Thus, was it demonstrated that the grace of God was triumphant in accomplishing the final and full salvation of all who returned to God. The process might be slow and gradual, but the end was now shown to be sure and satisfactory.
Genesis 5:25-27
Methushelah is the oldest man on record. He lived to be within 31 years of a millenium, and died in the year of the flood.
Genesis 5:28-31
In the biography of Lamek the name of his son is not only given, but the reason of it is assigned. The parents were cumbered with the toil of cultivating the ground. They looked forward with hope to the aid or relief which their son would give them in bearing the burden of life, and they express this hope in his name. In stating the reason of the name, they employ a word which is connected with it only by a second remove. נוּח nûach and נחם nācham are stems not immediately connected; but they both point back to a common root נח (n-ch) signifying “to sigh, to breathe, to rest, to lie down.”
This is only another recorded instance of the habit of giving names indicative of the thoughts of the parents at the time of the child’s birth. All names were originally significant, and have still to this day an import. Some were given at birth, others at later periods, from some remarkable circumstance in the individual’s life. Hence, many characters of ancient times were distinguished by several names conferred at different times and for different reasons. The reason of the present name is put on record simply on account of the extraordinary destiny which awaited the bearer of it.
Which the Lord hath cursed. - Here is another incidental allusion to the second document, without which it would not be intelligible. If the present document had been intended to stand alone, this remark would have had its explanation in some previous part of the narrative.
Genesis 5:32
And Noah was the son of five hundred years. - A man is the son of a certain year, in and up to the close of that year, but not beyond it. Thus, Noah was in his six hundredth year when he was the son of six hundred years Genesis 7:11, Genesis 7:6, and a child was circumcised on the eighth day, being then the son of eight days Leviticus 12:3; Genesis 17:12.
When the phrase indicates a point of time, as in Leviticus 27:0, it is the terminating point of the period in question. The first part only of the biography of Noah is given in this verse, and the remainder will be furnished in due time and place. Meanwhile, Noah is connected with the general history of the race, which is now to be taken up. His three sons are mentioned, because they are the ancestors of the postdiluvian race. This verse, therefore, prepares for a continuation of the narrative, and therefore implies a continuator or compiler who lived after the flood.
From the numbers in this chapter it appears that the length of human life in the period before the deluge was ten times its present average. This has seemed incredible to some, and hence they have imagined that the years must have consisted of one month, or at least of a smaller number than twelve. But the text will not admit of such amendment or interpretation. In the account of the deluge the tenth month is mentioned, and sixty-one days are afterward indicated before the beginning of the next year, whence we infer that the primeval year consisted of twelve lunar months at least. But the seemingly incredible in this statement concerning the longevity of the people before the flood, will be turned into the credible if we reflect that man was made to be immortal. His constitution was suited for a perpetuity of life, if only supplied with the proper nutriment. This nutriment was provided in the tree of life. But man abused his liberty, and forfeited the source of perpetual life. Nevertheless, the primeval vigor of an unimpaired constitution held out for a comparatively long period. After the deluge, however, through the deterioration of the climate and the soil, and perhaps much more the degeneracy of man’s moral and physical being, arising from the abuse of his natural propensities, the average length of human life gradually dwindled down to its present limits. Human physiology, founded upon the present data of man’s constitution, may pronounce upon the duration of his life so long as the data are the same; but it cannot fairly affirm that the data were never different from what they are at present. Meanwhile, the Bible narrative is in perfect keeping with its own data, and is therefore not to be disturbed by those who still accept these without challenge.
The following table presents the age of each member of this genealogy, when his son and successor was born and when he himself died, as they stand in the Hebrew text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Septuagint, and Josephus:
| Line of Noah | ||||||||||
| | Hebrew | Sam. Pent. | Septuagint | Josephus | Date | |||||
| | Son’s Birth | Own Death | Son’s Birth | Own Death | Son’s Birth | Own Death | Son’s Birth | Own Death | Of Birth | Of Death |
| 1. Adam | 130 | 930 | 130 | 930 | 230 | 930 | 230 | 930 | 0 | 930 |
| 2. Sheth | 105 | 912 | 105 | 912 | 205 | 912 | 205 | 912 | 130 | 1042 |
| 3. Enosh | 90 | 905 | 90 | 905 | 190 | 905 | 190 | 905 | 235 | 1140 |
| 4. Kenan | 70 | 910 | 70 | 910 | 170 | 910 | 170 | 910 | 325 | 1235 |
| 5. Mahalalel | 65 | 895 | 65 | 895 | 165 | 895 | 165 | 895 | 395 | 1290 |
| 6. Jared | 162 | 962 | 62 | 847 | 162 | 962 | 162 | 962 | 460 | 1422 |
| 7. Henok | 65 | 365 | 65 | 365 | 165 | 365 | 165 | 365 | 622 | 987 |
| 8. Methuselah | 187 | 969 | 67 | 720 | 187 | 969 | 187 | 969 | 687 | 1656 |
| 9. Lamek | 182 | 777 | 53 | 653 | 188 | 753 | 182 | 777 | 874 | 1651 |
| 10. Noah | 500 | 950 | 500 | 950 | 500 | 950 | 500 | 950 | 1056 | 2006 |
| | 100 | | 100 | | 100 | | 100 | |||
| Deluge | 1656 | | 1307 | | 2262 | | 2256 | | | |
On comparing the series of numbers in the Hebrew with those in the Samaritan, the Septuagint, and Josephus, it is remarkable that we have the main body of the original figures in all. In the total ages of the first five and the seventh, and in that of Noah at the flood, they all agree. In those of the sixth and eighth, the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Josephus agree. In that of the ninth, the Hebrew and Josephus agree, while the Samaritan and Septuagint differ from them and from each other. On examining the figures of the Samaritan, it appears that the sixth, eighth, and ninth total ages would have reached beyond the flood, if the numbers found in the other authorities had been retained. And they are so shortened as to terminate all in the year of the flood. This alteration betrays design. The totals in the Hebrew, then, have by far the preponderating authority.
Of the numbers before the birth of a successor, which are chiefly important for the chronology, the units agree in all but Lamek, in regard to whom the Hebrew and Josephus agree, while the Samaritan and the Septuagint differ from them and from each other. The tens agree in all but two, Methushelah and Lamek, where the Hebrew, the Septuagint, at least in the Codex Alexandrinus, and Josephus agree, while the Samaritan differs from them all. In the hundreds a systematic and designed variation occurs. Still they agree in Noah. In Jared, Methushelah, and Lamek, the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Josephus agree in a number greater by a hundred than the Samaritan. In the remaining six the Hebrew and Samaritan agree; while the Septuagint and Josephus agree in having a number greater by a hundred. On the whole, then, it is evident that the balance of probability is decidedly in favor of the Hebrew. To this advantage of concurring testimonies are to be added those of being the original, and of having been guarded with great care.
These grounds of textual superiority may be supported by several considerations of less weight. The Samaritan and the Septuagint follow a uniform plan; the Hebrew does not, and therefore has the mark of originality. Josephus gives the sum total to the deluge as two thousand six hundred and fifty-six years, agreeing with the total of the Hebrew in three figures, with that of the Septuagint only in two, and with that of the Samaritan in none. Some MSS. even give one thousand six hundred and fifty-six, which is the exact sum of the Hebrew numbers. Both these readings, moreover, differ from the sum of his own numbers, which itself agrees with the Hebrew in two figures and with the Septuagint in the other two. This looks like a studied conformation of the figures to those of the Septuagint, in which the operator forgot to alter the sum total. We do not at present enter into the external arguments for or against the Hebrew text. Suffice it to observe, that the internal evidence is at present clearly in its favor, so far as the antediluvian figures go.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse Genesis 5:22. And Enoch walked with God - three hundred years — There are several things worthy of our most particular notice in this account:
1. The name of this patriarch; Enoch, from חנך chanack, which signifies to instruct, to initiate, to dedicate. From his subsequent conduct we are authorized to believe he was early instructed in the things of God, initiated into the worship of his Maker, and dedicated to his service. By these means, under the influence of the Divine Spirit, which will ever attend pious parental instructions, his mind got that sacred bias which led him to act a part so distinguished through the course of a long life.
2. His religious conduct. He walked with God; יתהלך yithhallech, he set himself to walk, he was fixedly purposed and determined to live to God. Those who are acquainted with the original will at once see that it has this force. A verb in the conjugation called hithpael signifies a reciprocal act, that which a man does upon himself: here we may consider Enoch receiving a pious education, and the Divine influence through it; in consequence of which he determines to be a worker with God, and therefore takes up the resolution to walk with his Maker, that he might not receive the grace of God in vain.
3. The circumstances in which he was placed. He was a patriarch; the king, the priest, and the prophet of a numerous family, to whom he was to administer justice, among whom he was to perform all the rites and ceremonies of religion, and teach, both by precept and example, the way of truth and righteousness. Add to this, he was a married man, he had a numerous family of his own, independently of the collateral branches over which he was obliged, as patriarch, to preside; he walked three hundred years with God, and begat sons and daughters; therefore marriage is no hinderance even to the perfection of piety; much less inconsistent with it, as some have injudiciously taught.
4. The astonishing height of piety to which he had arrived; being cleansed from all filthiness of the flesh and of the spirit, and having perfected holiness in the fear of God, we find not only his soul but his body purified, so that, without being obliged to visit the empire of death, he was capable of immediate translation to the paradise of God. There are few cases of this kind on record; but probably there might be more, many more, were the followers of God more faithful to the grace they receive.
5. Enoch attained this state of religious and spiritual excellence in a time when, comparatively speaking, there were few helps, and no written revelation. Here then we cannot but see and admire how mighty the grace of God is, and what wonders it works in the behalf of those who are faithful, who set themselves to walk with God. It is not the want of grace nor of the means of grace that is the cause of the decay of this primitive piety, but the want of faithfulness in those who have the light, and yet will not walk as children of the light.
6. If the grace of God could work such a mighty change in those primitive times, when life and immortality were not brought to light by the Gospel, what may we not expect in these times, in which the Son of God tabernacles among men, in which God gives the Holy Spirit to them who ask him, in which all things are possible to him who believes? No man can prove that Enoch had greater spiritual advantages than any of the other patriarchs, though it seems pretty evident that he made a better use of those that were common to all than any of the rest did; and it would be absurd to say that he had greater spiritual helps and advantages than Christians can now expect, for he lived under a dispensation much less perfect than that of the LAW, and yet the law itself was only the shadow of the glorious substance of Gospel blessings and Gospel privileges.
7. It is said that Enoch not only walked with God, setting him always before his eyes, beginning, continuing, and ending every work to his glory, but also that he pleased God, and had the testimony that he did please God, Hebrews 11:5. Hence we learn that it was then possible to live so as not to offend God, consequently so as not to commit sin against him; and to have the continual evidence or testimony that all that a man did and purposed was pleasing in the sight of Him who searches the heart, and by whom devices are weighed: and if it was possible then, it is surely, through the same grace, possible now; for God, and Christ, and faith, are still the same.
