Enoch Walked with God
Enoch’s short ribbon among the long ones, the end of Adam’s, and Cain’s family set beside Seth’s in the same centuries.
The numbered pins of this stretch, walked in order, are in the book (pp. 28–29). Here you can zoom and explore it freely.
The Ribbon That Ends Without Death
Every ribbon on pp. 28–29 ends with a square edge and a pair of dates, and at first glance they all look alike. Look closer at two of them. At the bottom, Adam’s ribbon stops at 930 A.M., and Adams has printed two words beside the end: “Death of Adam.” Higher up, the brown ribbon marked ENOCH 365 yrs. stops at “3017 B.C. 987 A.M.,” and there is no such word. In its place Adams quotes Genesis: “and he was not, for God took him.”
Enoch’s is the shortest life on the spread. He lived 365 years among men who lived nine hundred, and Genesis says twice that he “walked with God,” for three hundred years after Methuselah was born, as a father raising sons and daughters. Beside his label Adams notes the godliness and translation of Enoch and adds that Jude calls him a prophet. Close by he mentions a book that goes under Enoch’s name, and he is careful to call it “generally considered apocryphal.”
Now find the column where Adam’s ribbon ends and run your finger up it. It crosses Enoch, still walking with God, and his son Methuselah, born at 687 A.M., who “talked with Adam 243 years.” It crosses Lamech too, who branched from Methuselah at 874 A.M.; when the first man dies, Lamech is already fifty-six. Methuselah, you will notice, has two ribbons. The upper one says “see below,” and the lower one, marked “son of Enoch,” carries his whole life of 969 years, the longest in the Bible.
This stretch is also where two families stand side by side. Genesis 4 records what Cain’s family made: a city, tents and herds, harps, tools of brass and iron. Genesis 5 records Seth’s family by its years. Set them in rows, one generation to a row, as the tree on p. 30 does, and both families turn out to have an Enoch and a Lamech. In the seventh row Seth’s Enoch walks with God, while Cain’s Lamech takes two wives and boasts that he will be avenged “seventy and sevenfold.”
Across this stretch Adams also prints things that are not Scripture, and he labels every one. A tradition says Enos forbade marriage with the Cainites. Josephus says Seth’s family was virtuous for seven generations and studied the heavenly bodies. Another tradition gives Adam 33 sons and 23 daughters, where Genesis says only that he begat sons and daughters. Learn to read those labels, because they show you exactly where the Bible’s own record stops.
Enoch did not leave his world in order to walk with God. He lived through the same centuries as Cain’s family, with the same cities going up and the same music playing, and he went another way through them. Hebrews says he did it by faith, and that he was taken “that he should not see death.” At the right edge of pp. 28–29, Seth’s ribbon is close to its end, and the next ribbon to rise from Lamech’s will belong to the son he names for comfort.
“And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.”Genesis 5:24 · KJV
Think it through
Keep your Bible open. There are no wrong answers here; the worksheet in the free Companion gives you room to write.
- Enoch’s ribbon ends with no word of death. What does Hebrews 11:5 add to the few words of Genesis 5:24?
- Two Lamechs, one in each family: one boasts of revenge, the other names a son for comfort. What does each speech show about his heart? (Genesis 4:23–24; 5:29)
- Cain’s family gave the world tents, music and tools. Were those good gifts? What went wrong in that family, and what did not? (Genesis 4:16–22)
- Jude remembers Enoch as a prophet who warned of judgment. How do walking with God and warning others fit together in one life? (Jude 14–15)
- Adam dies while Enoch is still walking with God. Put your finger on that column: what did the generation after Adam have to hold on to?
- Jude quotes Enoch, yet Adams calls the “Book of Enoch” “generally considered apocryphal.” How do you tell Scripture from tradition when you read his notes?
Find “2962 B.C. 1042 A.M.” at the right edge of pp. 28–29. Which key reads it, and whose life ends there?
Show the answer
Key 1 · Dates ride the stream of time. It is the end of Seth’s ribbon: born at 130 A.M., he lived 912 years, and 130 + 912 = 1042 (Genesis 5:3, 8).
Scripture, Tradition and an Honest Chart
No stretch of the chart carries more notes from outside the Bible than this one. Adams prints a tradition that Enos forbade marriage with the Cainites, two remarks of Josephus about Seth’s family, a tradition that gives Adam 33 sons and 23 daughters, and a word about a book that circulated under Enoch’s name. A careless chart would have mixed them into the record. Adams labels every one, and the habit is worth borrowing for your own Bible study.
Take the book of Enoch first. Jude does quote a prophecy of Enoch: “Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints” (Jude 14). Adams knew that a whole book went under Enoch’s name, and he calls it “generally considered apocryphal,” perhaps the work of a devout Christian of the first century. He draws the line in the right place. Jude’s words are Scripture because Jude wrote them in Scripture; the rest of that book was never part of Adams’ Bible.
The same care runs through the smaller notes. Genesis says only that Adam “begat sons and daughters” (5:4); the numbers 33 and 23 come from tradition, and Adams says so. Josephus is quoted as Josephus. On the spread before, the Arabian tale about Cainan sits as a tradition beside a man to whom Genesis gives nothing but his years. Each time, you can see where the Bible’s own record ends and the world’s memory begins.
Why does that matter for faith? Because Enoch himself is the lesson. Genesis gives him a handful of words, and Hebrews tells us what they mean: “By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death” (11:5). None of the traditions adds anything to that, and nothing needs adding. When you read a study note, a commentary or a chart, ask the question Adams keeps asking: is this the text, or something said about the text? Then read Hebrews 11:5–6 again and let the text have the last word.
Read and reflect
“And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:”
What does it tell you that Enoch’s walk with God is measured alongside the years he spent raising a family?
“And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,”
Why can a Bible reader trust these words of Enoch and still set aside the book that carries his name?
“By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him…”
What does Hebrews add to the few words of Genesis 5:24?
Quiz: ten questions
Pick an answer to see whether it is right and why. Each explanation names the page of the book.
Read the whole chart, stretch by stretch
This site lets you wander; the book walks you through. All seventeen stretches on full spreads at 75% of the real chart, numbered pins explained in order, Adams' Six Keys on every page and a study page for every stretch. Large format, full color.