1. Eldest son of Cain (Gen. 4:17-18).
2. City built by Cain, and named after his son: it is the first city that we read of (Gen. 17).
3. Son of Jared, and father of Methuselah. Of him it is said he “walked with God: and he was not; for God took him”; and also that by faith he was translated, and that before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. A bright example in those early days of how by grace a man can have communion with God, and so please God, and be made sensible of it, thus enjoying the light of His countenance in walking with Him in a sinful world. Enoch was taken to heaven without dying, as the living saints will be at the coming of the Lord Jesus (Gen. 5:18-24; Luke 3:37; Heb. 11:5; Jude 14). Called HENOCH in 1 Chronicles 1:3.
In Jude a prophesy of Enoch is quoted which is not found in the Old Testament As Jude wrote under the inspiration of God this could have been revealed to him, as many other things in scripture have been, and which could have been known in no other way; or he may have been inspired to record what had been handed down orally. There is an apocryphal book called THE BOOK OF ENOCH, from which some believe that Jude quoted, though it is not inspired. But there is no evidence that the book was then in existence. It refers to the Messiah as “Son of God,” which has been judged to prove conclusively that it was written in the Christian era. The passage in the book of Enoch, speaking of Christ executing judgment, is worded thus: “Behold he cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, and destroy the wicked, and reprove all the carnal, for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done and committed against him.” The traveler Bruce, on his return from Egypt in A.D. 1773 brought three MSS of the entire book in Æthiopic. In 1821 it was translated into English. The book purports to be a series of revelations made to Enoch and Noah.