The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 174

phrase 'and he died.' The one denotes Dyzantinus, and Suid11S, who corrupts the absence from the world of sense, 11.nd the name into Nannacus, to have lived bofore other indicatos t.ho ordinary way in which the flood of Deuciilion, to hiivo attainod 11n the soul depar~ from this :world" (Murphy). age of moro than 800 yearn, to have foreseen For God (Eloh1m) took him. Cf. 2 Kings the flood, gathered di tho people into 11 ii. 8, 5 9, 10, where the same word MR~ is temple and made supplicRtion to God, and u~e~ or ~lijah's translation; or, µ,r;o,,,m, finally to have been tmnslatcd into heaven, aurn,, o 9,o,;, LXX.). Though the "Titer to ff Classical writers 111s0 mention such trans- tho Hebrews (eh. xi. 5) adopts the paraphrase lations into heaven ; they assign this dis- of the LXX., yet his language must be ac- tinction among others to Hercules, to Gany- cepted as com•eying the exact sense of the mede, and to Romulus (liv. i. 16: "nee deinde "·ords of Moses. Analysed, it teaches (1) in terris fuit "). But it was 11warded to them that the patriarch Enocn did not see death either for their v11lour or their physical as diJ all tho other worthies in the catalogue; beauty, 11nd not, as the transl11tion of Enoch and (2) that in some mysterious way "he for ff II pious and religious life." Nor i; was taken up from this temporal life and ff the idea of a trnnslation to heaven limited tr~nsfi~rc? in to life eternal, as those of the to the old world ; it was familiar to tho faithful will be who shall be alive at the tribes of Central America ; tho chronicles of coming of Christ to judgment" (Keil). The Guatemala record four progenitors of mankind case of Elijah, who was also taken up, and who were suddenly raised to heaven ; and tho who afterwards appeared in glory on the documents add that those first men came to mount of transfiguration (l\[att. xvii.; Mark Guate.me.le. from the other side of the sea, ix. ; Luke ix.), appears to determine the local- from the East" (cf. Rosenmiiller e.nd Kalisch, ity into which Enoch was translated (which in loco). h:alisch willingly leaves to antiquaries to Vers. 25-32.-The shortest life was fol- decide) to be neither the terrestrial Eden lowed by the longest, Methuselah begetting, (certain Popish writers) nor the heavenly e.t the advanced age of 187, Lamech,-strong paradise where the pious dead are now as- or young man (Geseniua) ; overthrower, wild sembled-sheol (Delitzsch and Lange), but man (Furst); man of prayer (Murphy),-con- the realm of celestial glory (Keil). That the tinuing after his son's birth 782 years, nnd at departure of the good man was witnessed by last succumbing to tho stroke of death in the his contemporaries we may infer from what 969th year of his age, the year of the Flood. occurred in the case of Elijah ; and, indeed, Lamech, by whom the line was canied for- unless it had been so it is d.iilicult to see how ward, was similarly far advanced when he it could have served the end for which begat a son, at the age of 182, and called apparently it was designed, which was not his name Noah,-" rest," from nuach, to solely to reward Enoch's piety, but to de- rest (cf. eh. viii 4),-not ff The Sailor," monstrate the certainty and to stimulate from tho Latin no, and the Greek vaii, tl1e hope of immortality. That the memory (Bohlen), but e.t the same time explaining of an event so remarkable should have sur- it by saying, This same shall comfort-na- vived not merely in Jewish (Ecclus. :tliv. 16) cham, to pant, groan, Piel to comfort. and Christian tradition (Jude 15), but also "Nuach and ruzcliam are stems not imme- in heathen fable, is nothing ru.'lrvellous. diately connected, but they both point back The Book of Enoch, compiled probably by a to a common root, nch, signifying to sigh, J cw in the days of Herod the Great, describes breathe, rest, lie down" (Murphy)-ns COD.• the patriarch as exhorting his son Methuselah cerning our work and toil of our h11nds. and all his contemporaries to reform their To say that Lamech anticipated nothing evil ways ; as penetrating with his prophetic more than that the youthful Noah would eye into the remote future, and exploring all assist him in the cultivation of the soil mysteries in earth and heaven; as passing a (Murphy) is to put too little into, and to retired life after the birth of his eldest son allege that " this prophecy his father uttered in intercourse with the angels and in medi- of him, e.s ho that should bo a figure of tation on Divine matters; and as at length Christ in his building of the ark, and offer- being translated to heaven in order to re- ing of sacrifice, whereby God smelled e. sweet appear in the time of the Messiah, leaving savour of rest, and said he would not curse behind him 11 number of writings on religion the ground anv more for man's sake, eh, viii. and morality. "The Book of Jubilees relates 21 " (Ainsworth), is to extract too much from that he was carried into paradise, where he his language. Possibly he had nothin~ but writes down the judgment of all men, their e. dim, vague expectation of some good thrng- wickedness nnd eternal punishment" (Ka- the destruction of sinners in the Flood (Chry• lisch). Arabic legend declares hinl to havo sostom), the use of the plough (R. Solomon), ken the inventor of writin_g and arithmetic, the grant of animal food (Kalisch), the inven- 'J'he Phrygian aage Annacus {"Ava ~or: "nomen tion of the arts and implements <>f husbe.mlry detortuw ab CLanoch ") is said by Stephamis (Sherlock, Rush)-that God was a.bout to 011. v. 1-32.] THE BOOK OF GENESIS. 97