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Enoch Walked With God and Vanished, Noah Stayed

The Torah gives Enoch five verses and no death. Ben Sira placed him beside Noah and found two answers to what it means to walk with God.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Verse That Explains Nothing
  2. What Ben Sira Said About Walking With God
  3. The Leader Who Came After Enoch
  4. Two Ways of Walking With God

The Verse That Explains Nothing

The genealogy of Genesis 5 gives each patriarch the same structure: he lived this many years, he fathered this son, he lived this many more years, he fathered other sons and daughters, he died. The pattern repeats nine times. Then Enoch.

Enoch lived sixty-five years and fathered Methuselah. Enoch walked with God after fathering Methuselah three hundred years and fathered other sons and daughters. All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

And he died is what the verse should say. It does not say this. Instead it says: he was not, for God took him. Two things that are not deaths. A man who was there and then was not there. A taking instead of a dying.

The sages could not leave this alone. Where was Enoch taken? For what purpose? What does it mean to walk with God so fully that you disappear from the earth? And why did it happen before the Flood rather than after? Why was the most righteous man removed from the generation that would produce Noah, rather than kept there to help?

What Ben Sira Said About Walking With God

Ben Sira, the Jerusalem sage who composed his book of wisdom around 180 BCE, was one of the earliest writers to take up Enoch and Noah together. In his great gallery of praise, the section known from the Greek as Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, he placed Enoch first among the ancient exemplars. Not Abraham, not Noah, but Enoch.

His phrase: Enoch walked with God and was taken, a sign of knowledge for all generations. A sign of knowledge. Not simply a miraculous translation, not simply an escape from death, but a demonstration, a proof left standing in the record: this quality of life is possible. A person can walk with God so completely that death itself has no jurisdiction over them. The fact of Enoch's taking proves that the quality of walking that caused it is a real thing available to human beings, not a theological abstraction.

Then Noah. Righteous Noah, who was found pure at a time of destruction, was substituted. Not translated, not taken: substituted. The language suggests a replacement, a stand-in. The world was going to be destroyed and Noah was placed in the position of the one who would carry the world through its destruction. He was not the miracle. He was the instrument of the miracle's continuity.

The Leader Who Came After Enoch

When Enoch was taken, his son Methuselah took over. The kings of the earth anointed Methuselah, and he reigned in his father's place, teaching wisdom and the fear of God. He did not stray to the right or the left from what Enoch had established. For most of his nine-hundred-sixty-nine years, the longest life in the genealogy of Genesis, he kept the world on course.

Then, toward the end of his life, the people began to turn away. They corrupted the earth, robbed each other, stopped listening. Methuselah tried. They would not hear. He was still alive when the Flood began. The tradition says the Flood waited seven days after Methuselah died, as a period of mourning for a righteous man. Even the waters of judgment waited for the funeral to end.

Then the Flood came.

Two Ways of Walking With God

Ben Sira saw both men and found in them two answers to the same question: what does it mean to be righteous in the world as it is?

Enoch walked so completely with God that the world could not hold him. He was taken. His righteousness exceeded the capacity of ordinary life to contain it. He became a sign, a proof left in the record, a demonstration that the thing was possible.

Noah was righteous in a different way. He was found pure at a time of destruction, which implies a specific kind of purity: the kind that holds when everything around it is falling apart. His righteousness was tested and it held under the specific conditions it was given to operate in. He was not translated. He was used. He was the vessel through which the world's continuation passed.

Both walked with God. The Torah uses the same phrase for both. But walking with God in a generation that walks away from God is different from walking with God in a generation that has not yet reached its catastrophe. Noah's walk cost him something Enoch did not have to pay. He had to watch.

EnochNoahBen SiraRighteousnessFlood
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From the tradition

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The texts this telling draws on, in full. Open a card to read inline, or expand it for a wider, quieter read.

Ben Sira 44:19Ben Sira

Ben Sira, in his wisdom, offers a clue: "Their wisdom the community will repeat, and their praises the assembly will recount." It's through the act of remembering, of telling and retelling, that their legacies live on.

Who are these figures worthy of such remembrance? Ben Sira gives us a glimpse, starting with Ḥanokh (Enoch).

Ḥanokh, What does it mean to "walk with God"? It suggests a life lived in profound connection, a constant striving for righteousness. And his being "taken" – well, that's a mystery that has fueled countless interpretations. Was it a reward? An escape? A transformation? Whatever it was, it served as "a sign of knowledge," a reminder that such a life is possible.

Then comes Noaḥ (Noah). Righteous Noaḥ, who "was found pure, at a time of destruction he was substituted.": "substituted." He became the vessel, the ark, through which life could continue. The text continues, "for his sake there was a remnant, and in his covenant the Flood ceased."

The weight of the world rested on his shoulders. And what an image: the rainbow, "through an eternal sign the covenant was made with him, and without it all flesh would have been wiped out." A promise. A sign of hope amidst utter devastation. We needed that covenant. We still need that covenant.

Finally, Ben Sira introduces us to Avraham (Abraham), "a father of many [av hamon] nations, given no blemish in his glory." Av hamon – the father of a multitude. This is a crucial point. Abraham wasn't just the father of one nation, but of many. His legacy extends far beyond his immediate descendants. And despite his flaws, his moments of doubt and fear, he was "given no blemish in his glory." Why? Perhaps because his faith, his willingness to follow God's call, outweighed everything else.

What’s fascinating is how these figures are presented. Not as flawless paragons, but as humans who, despite their imperfections, embodied something extraordinary. They walked with God, they saved humanity, they became fathers of nations.

These figures, Ḥanokh, Noaḥ, and Avraham, they weren't just names in a book. They were living examples, reminders that even in the face of immense challenges, we have the capacity for greatness, for righteousness, for making a difference. And it's through remembering their stories, as Ben Sira tells us, that their wisdom continues to guide us. What stories will we tell, and what legacies will we leave behind?

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Jasher 4Book of Jasher

The Book of Jasher, a text referenced in the Bible itself (Joshua 10:13 and (2 Samuel 1:1)8), gives us some intriguing details.

After Enoch ascended into heaven, yes, that Enoch, his son Methuselah took over as a leader. According to the Book of Jasher, the kings of the earth anointed Methuselah, and he reigned in his father's place. For a good long while, Methuselah kept things on the straight and narrow, teaching wisdom, knowledge, and the fear of God. He didn’t stray from the path, "either to the right or to the left."

As often happens, things eventually went south.

Towards the end of Methuselah's life, people started turning away from God. They corrupted the earth, robbed each other, and just generally caused chaos. They wouldn't listen to Methuselah, rebelling against his teachings. Sound familiar? The midrash (rabbinic commentary) often paints a picture of increasing societal breakdown leading up to major divine interventions.

And the land itself reflected this moral decay. The Lord, exceedingly angry, stopped the earth from producing. People would sow seeds, hoping for a harvest, but instead, they'd get thorns and thistles. Imagine the desperation, the frustration! Yet, even this didn’t turn them around. They continued down their destructive path, provoking God, who "repented that he had made man." A pretty strong statement. The Book of Jasher then tells us that Lamech, Methuselah's son, was 160 years old when Seth, Adam's son, died at the ripe old age of 912. Talk about longevity!

Lamech then married Ashmua, the daughter of Elishaa, Enoch's son – so, his cousin. She conceived. Even though a little food started growing again, humanity didn't learn its lesson; they still trespassed and rebelled against God.

Then comes a pivotal moment: Lamech's wife gives birth to a son. This child is named Noah. Methuselah, his grandfather, gives him the name Noah, saying that "the earth was in his days at rest and free from corruption.” Lamech, his father, calls him Menachem, hoping that "this one shall comfort us in our works and miserable toil in the earth, which God had cursed." Two names, two hopes for the future. We see this naming tradition echoed in other parts of Jewish lore.

Noah grows up following the ways of his grandfather, Methuselah – a beacon of righteousness in a darkening world.

But the darkness continues to spread. The Book of Jasher emphasizes the widespread corruption: people taught each other evil practices and continued sinning. They made their own gods, robbed and plundered each other, and the earth became filled with violence.

The text gets even more specific: Judges and rulers took women by force. And here's where it gets really interesting. People started experimenting with mixing different animal species, "in order therewith to provoke the Lord." As we see here, the idea of kilayim, mixtures forbidden in Torah, extended beyond just plant life. This detail gives us a glimpse into the kinds of transgressions that were believed to have led to God's decision to bring the Flood.

God sees all this and declares, "I will blot out man that I created from the face of the earth… for I repent that I made them."

However, the Book of Jasher adds a poignant detail: all those who walked in the ways of the Lord died before the Flood. This was so they wouldn't have to witness the destruction. A mercy, perhaps?

And finally, we arrive at the key point: "Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord." God chose him and his children to rebuild the world.

So, what do we take away from this chapter? It's a stark reminder of the consequences of widespread corruption and the importance of remaining righteous, even when surrounded by darkness. It also highlights the theme of hope, embodied by Noah, even in the face of impending doom. It reminds us that even when things seem utterly bleak, there's always the potential for a new beginning.

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