Enos or Enosh ( he, אֱנוֹשׁ ''ʾĔnōš''; "mortal man"; ar, أَنُوش/يَانِش, Yāniš/’Anūš; gr, Ἐνώς ''Enṓs;
Ge'ez: ሄኖስ/Henos) '' is a figure in the
Book of Genesis
The Book of Genesis (from Greek ; Hebrew: בְּרֵאשִׁית ''Bəreʾšīt'', "In hebeginning") is the first book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Old Testament. Its Hebrew name is the same as its first word, ( "In the beginning" ...
in the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;["Tanach"](_blank)
'' Seth
Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. ...
who figures in the
Generations of Adam, and is also referred to within the genealogies of
1 Chronicles.
According to Christianity, he is part of the
genealogy of Jesus
The New Testament provides two accounts of the genealogy of Jesus, one in the Gospel of Matthew and another in the Gospel of Luke. Matthew starts with Abraham, while Luke begins with Adam. The lists are identical between Abraham and David, ...
as mentioned in . Enos is also mentioned in
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God (or '' Allah'') as it was revealed to Muhammad, the ...
in the various collections of
tales of the pre-Islamic prophets, which honor him in an identical manner. Furthermore, early Islamic historians like
Ibn Ishaq
Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Yasār ibn Khiyār (; according to some sources, ibn Khabbār, or Kūmān, or Kūtān, ar, محمد بن إسحاق بن يسار بن خيار, or simply ibn Isḥaq, , meaning "the son of Isaac"; died 767) was an 8 ...
and
Ibn Hisham
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Hishām ibn Ayyūb al-Ḥimyarī al-Muʿāfirī al-Baṣrī ( ar, أبو محمد عبدالملك بن هشام ابن أيوب الحميري المعافري البصري; died 7 May 833), or Ibn Hisham, e ...
always included his name in the genealogy of the
Islamic prophet
Prophets in Islam ( ar, الأنبياء في الإسلام, translit=al-ʾAnbiyāʾ fī al-ʾIslām) are individuals in Islam who are believed to spread God's message on Earth and to serve as models of ideal human behaviour. Some prophets ar ...
Muhammad
Muhammad ( ar, مُحَمَّد; 570 – 8 June 632 CE) was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of Islam. According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet divinely inspired to preach and confirm the mon ...
, (
Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
: ''’Anūsh'' أَنُوش or: ''Yānish'' يَانِش).
In the Hebrew Bible
According to the
Masoretic
The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...
Genesis, Seth was 105 years old when Enos was born (but the
Septuagint
The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint (, ; from the la, septuaginta, lit=seventy; often abbreviated ''70''; in Roman numerals, LXX), is the earliest extant Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible. It includes several books beyond t ...
version gives 205 years), and Seth had further sons and daughters. Enos was the grandson of
Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve, according to the creation myth of the Abrahamic religions, were the first man and woman. They are central to the belief that humanity is in essence a single family, with everyone descended from a single pair of original ancestors. ...
(; ). According to
Seder Olam Rabbah
''Seder Olam Rabbah'' ( he, סדר עולם רבה, "The Great Order of the World") is a 2nd-century CE Hebrew language chronology detailing the dates of biblical events from creation to Alexander the Great's conquest of Persia. It adds no storie ...
, based on Jewish reckoning, he was born in
AM 235. According to the Septuagint, it was in AM 435.
Enos was the father of
Kenan
Kenan (also spelled Qenan, Kaynan or Cainan) (; ar, كِنَاْنْ, Keynān; grc-x-biblical, Καϊνάμ, Kaïnám) is an Antediluvian patriarch first mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible.
In scriptures
According to Gen ...
, who was born when Enos was 90 years old (or 190 years, according to the Septuagint).
According to the Bible, Enos died at the age of 905, when
Noah
Noah ''Nukh''; am, ኖህ, ''Noḥ''; ar, نُوح '; grc, Νῶε ''Nôe'' () is the tenth and last of the pre-Flood patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5� ...
was aged 84 (as per Masoretic chronology).
In Judaism
says: "And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh; then began men to call upon the name of the Lord". The traditional Jewish interpretation of this verse, though, implies that it marked the beginning of idolatry, i.e. that men start dubbing "Lord" things that were mere creatures. This is because the previous generations, notably Adam, had already "begun calling upon the name of the Lord", which forces one to interpret הוחל ''huchal'' not as "began" but as the homonym "profanated". In this light, Enosh suggests the notion of a humanity (Enoshut) thinking of itself as an absolute rather than in relation to God (Enosh vs. Adam).
Maimonides
Musa ibn Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (); la, Moses Maimonides and also referred to by the acronym Rambam ( he, רמב״ם), was a Sephardic Jewish philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah ...
in
Mishneh Torah
The ''Mishneh Torah'' ( he, מִשְׁנֵה תּוֹרָה, , repetition of the Torah), also known as ''Sefer Yad ha-Hazaka'' ( he, ספר יד החזקה, , book of the strong hand, label=none), is a code of Rabbinic Jewish religious law ('' ...
Avodat Kochavim chapter 1:1-2 writes:
:"During the times of Enosh, mankind made a great mistake, and the wise men of that generation gave thoughtless counsel. Enosh himself was one of those who erred. Their mistake was as follows: They said God created stars and spheres with which to control the world. He placed them on high and treated them with honor, making them servants who minister before Him. Accordingly, it is fitting to praise and glorify them and to treat them with honor.
hey perceivedthis to be the will of God, blessed be He, that they magnify and honor those whom He magnified and honored, just as a king desires that the servants who stand before him be honored. Indeed, doing so is an expression of honor to the king."
Most of the commentators agree with this view.
In Christianity
Enos is included in the
genealogy of Jesus
The New Testament provides two accounts of the genealogy of Jesus, one in the Gospel of Matthew and another in the Gospel of Luke. Matthew starts with Abraham, while Luke begins with Adam. The lists are identical between Abraham and David, ...
, according to Luke 3:23–28.
Ethiopian Orthodox Bible
According to the
Book of Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis (Leptogenesis), is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), where it is ...
(4:11-13) in the
Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, Enos was born in
AM 235, and "began to call on the name of the Lord on the earth." He married his sister, No'am, and she bore him
Kenan
Kenan (also spelled Qenan, Kaynan or Cainan) (; ar, كِنَاْنْ, Keynān; grc-x-biblical, Καϊνάμ, Kaïnám) is an Antediluvian patriarch first mentioned in the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible.
In scriptures
According to Gen ...
in the year 325 AM. Ethiopian Orthodox tradition considers him a "faithful and righteous servant of God", and further credits him with the introduction, following a divine revelation, of the
Ge'ez alphabet in its original, consonant-only form, "as an instrument for codifying the laws".
Latter-day Saint scripture
Enos, son of Seth is mentioned both in the Bible, and in distinctive
Latter Day Saint
The Latter Day Saint movement (also called the LDS movement, LDS restorationist movement, or Smith–Rigdon movement) is the collection of independent church groups that trace their origins to a Christian Restorationist movement founded by Jo ...
texts.
The Doctrine and Covenants teaches that Enos was ordained to the
priesthood at age 134. When
Adam
Adam; el, Ἀδάμ, Adám; la, Adam is the name given in Genesis 1-5 to the first human. Beyond its use as the name of the first man, ''adam'' is also used in the Bible as a pronoun, individually as "a human" and in a collective sense as " ...
called his posterity into the land of
Adam-ondi-Ahman to give them a final blessing, Enos was one of the righteous high priests in attendance. The
Joseph Smith Translation
The Joseph Smith Translation (JST), also called the Inspired Version of the Holy Scriptures (IV), is a revision of the Bible by Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, who said that the JST/IV was intended to restore wh ...
, as excerpted in the
Book of Moses, states that Enos led the people of God to a promised land, which he named Cainan, after his son.
Enos, son of Seth is distinct from
Enos, son of Jacob, the
Nephite to whom the
Book of Enos is ascribed, who is the son of
Jacob, son of Lehi.
19th-century Protestantism
According to
Matthew George Easton, 19th-century Scottish Presbyterian preacher and author of
Easton's Bible Dictionary, "In his time 'men began to call upon the name of the Lord' (Gen. 4:26), meaning either (1) then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord (marg.) i.e., to distinguish themselves thereby from idolaters; or (2) then men in some public and earnest way began to call upon the Lord, indicating a time of spiritual revival".
In Mandaeism
According to the
Mandaean scriptures
This article contains a list of Mandaean texts (Mandaean religious texts written in Classical Mandaic). Well-known texts include the ''Ginza Rabba'' (also known as the ''Sidra Rabbā'') and the '' Qolastā''. Texts for Mandaean priests includ ...
, including the
Qolastā, the
Book of John and
Genzā Rabbā, Enosh is cognate with the angelic
soteriological
Soteriology (; el, σωτηρία ' " salvation" from σωτήρ ' "savior, preserver" and λόγος ' "study" or "word") is the study of religious doctrines of salvation. Salvation theory occupies a place of special significance in many reli ...
figure Anush Uthra, ( myz, ࡀࡍࡅࡔ ࡏࡅࡕࡓࡀ, translit=Anuš ʿUtra, sometimes translated as "Excellent Ennosh"), who is spoken of as the son
[ ote: this is book 10 in some other editions./ref> or brother] of Sheetil
In Mandaeism, Shitil or Sheetil (Šītil; myz, ࡔࡉࡕࡉࡋ) is an uthra (angel or guardian) from the World of Light. Shitil is considered to be the Mandaean equivalent of Seth.
Prayers in the Qolasta frequently contain the recurring formula ...
(Seth). Anush is a lightworld
In Mandaeism, the World of Light or Lightworld ( myz, ࡀࡋࡌࡀ ࡖࡍࡄࡅࡓࡀ, translit=alma ḏ-nhūra) is the primeval, transcendental world from which Tibil and the World of Darkness emerged.
Description
*The Great Life (''Hayyi Rab ...
being ( uthra) who taught John the Baptist
John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...
and performed many of the same miracles within Jerusalem typically ascribed to Jesus by Christians.
Family tree
According to the Book of Jubilees
The Book of Jubilees, sometimes called Lesser Genesis (Leptogenesis), is an ancient Jewish religious work of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well as Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews), where it is ...
:
See also
* Alulim
, successor =Alalngar
, native_lang1 = Sumerian
, native_lang1_name1=
}
Alulim; transliterated: ; ; grc-gre, Ἄλωρος, ''Alōros''; ar, الوروس, (; ; ; ) is the first king whose name appears on numerous versions of the Sumeria ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Enos (Biblical Figure)
Creators of writing systems
Bereshit (parashah)
Book of Genesis people
Book of Jubilees
Hebrew Bible people in Mandaeism
Uthras