Enoch

Enoch is a name that appears in several ancient Jewish and Christian traditions. The most prominent referents are the Genesis figure and a later set of apocryphal writings attributed to him.

In the Hebrew Bible, Enoch is the son of Jared and the father of Methuselah, listed among the descendants of Adam. He is described as walking with God, and then, rather than dying, he is said to have been taken by God.

Enoch is also the name of a larger body of literature known as 1 Enoch or the Book of Enoch, an ancient Jewish work preserved in Ge'ez in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. It expands on the story of fallen angels (the Watchers), the revelation of heavenly mysteries, and a judgmental eschatology, and it contains a messianic figure sometimes called the Son of Man. Its contents are not part of the standard Jewish or Christian canons, though they were influential in early Christian thought.

The Book of Enoch was quoted or alluded to in some early Christian writings, notably in Jude 14–15, which presents a prophecy attributed to Enoch. In most Christian traditions and in the Hebrew Bible, 1 Enoch is regarded as pseudepigraphal. The Ethiopic version is the best-preserved form, and other Enochic works circulated in Greek, Latin, and Slavonic versions, including 2 Enoch (Slavic Enoch) and 3 Enoch (the Hebrew Enoch) with different attributions and content.

Enoch derives from Hebrew Chanokh, commonly interpreted as "dedicated" or "initiated." In Islamic tradition, Idris is sometimes identified with Enoch and is regarded as a prophet who was raised to a high station.