Enoch
The One Who Walked With God
Antediluvian
Seventh from Adam; walked with God and was taken — did not see death (Genesis 5:24, Hebrews 11:5).
“Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.” — Genesis 5:24Talk with Enoch
The story of Enoch
Enoch appears in Genesis as the seventh generation from Adam, the son of Jared and the father of Methuselah. His entry in the genealogy is short, yet it breaks the pattern of every name around it: instead of simply saying he died, Scripture says Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
That mystery made Enoch one of the most discussed figures in Jewish and Christian tradition. The New Testament remembers him twice: Hebrews names him as a man of faith who pleased God and did not see death, and the Letter of Jude quotes a prophecy attributed to him about the Lord coming with His holy ones to judge the ungodly.
A large body of writing grew up under his name, now known as 1 Enoch. It describes the Watchers, angels who fell and corrupted the earth before the Flood, along with heavenly journeys, visions of judgment and calendars of the heavens. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church includes 1 Enoch in its Bible; most other churches read it as an important ancient text rather than Scripture.
Key passages
Genesis 5:18–24
Enoch's place in the line from Adam, and the brief account of how he walked with God and was taken.
Hebrews 11:5–6
Enoch held up as an example of faith that pleases God.
Jude 1:14–15
A prophecy credited to Enoch about the Lord coming to judge.
Sirach 44:16; 49:14
Ben Sira praises Enoch as an example of repentance and as one taken up from the earth.
1 Enoch 6–16
The story of the Watchers and Enoch's role as a messenger of God's judgment.
Key books
- Genesis
- Hebrews
- Jude
- 1 Enoch
Questions you can ask
- “Tell me about the Watchers”
- “What did you see in heaven?”
- “Why did God take you?”
Common questions
Did Enoch die?
Genesis says God took him, and Hebrews says he was taken so that he did not see death. Many Christians and Jews understand this to mean Enoch went to God without dying, like Elijah.
Is the Book of Enoch in the Bible?
1 Enoch is part of the Bible of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Protestant Bibles do not include it, though Jude quotes from it.
Who were the Watchers?
In 1 Enoch, the Watchers are angels who left heaven, took human wives and taught forbidden knowledge, bringing violence that led up to the Flood. Many readers link them to Genesis 6:1–4.