Antediluvian
The antediluvian (alternatively pre-diluvian or pre-flood) period is the time period chronicled in the Bible between the fall of man and the Genesis flood narrative in biblical cosmology. The term was coined by Thomas Browne (1605–1682). The n ...
patriarch
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and ...
named in the
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach" . '' Sethite genealogy as the grandfather of
Enoch
Enoch ( ; ''Henṓkh'') is a biblical figure and Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch prior to Noah's flood, and the son of Jared (biblical figure), Jared and father of Methuselah. He was of the Antediluvian period in the Hebrew Bible.
The text of t ...
and subsequently the ancestor of
Noah
Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...
.
Etymology
The meaning of the name could be translated as "the shining one of El." The
King James Version
The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version (AV), is an Early Modern English Bible translations, Early Modern English translation of the Christianity, Christian Bible for the Church of England, wh ...
spells his name Mahalaleel in the Old Testament and Maleleel in the New Testament.
Adam
Adam is the name given in Genesis 1–5 to the first human. Adam is the first human-being aware of God, and features as such in various belief systems (including Judaism, Christianity, Gnosticism and Islam).
According to Christianity, Adam ...
's great-grandson through
Seth
Seth, in the Abrahamic religions, was the third son of Adam and Eve. The Hebrew Bible names two of his siblings (although it also states that he had others): his brothers Cain and Abel. According to , Seth was born after Abel's murder by Cain, ...
) was 70 years old. He was one of many children of Kenan. Genesis 5:12-131 Chronicles 1:2Luke 3:37 .
When he was aged 54-60, Mahalalel married Dinah, the daughter of his paternal uncle Barakiel. At the age of 65, he fathered
Jared
Jared is a given name of Bible, Biblical derivation.
Origin
In the Book of Genesis, the Jared (biblical figure), biblical patriarch Jared () was the sixth in the ten pre-Noah's Ark, flood generations between Adam and Noah; he was the son of Maha ...
(when the Watchers "descended on the earth" as pe Jubilees 4:15 . He fathered many other children after that point Genesis 5:15-16 .
At the age of 227, he became a grandfather to Jared's son
Enoch
Enoch ( ; ''Henṓkh'') is a biblical figure and Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch prior to Noah's flood, and the son of Jared (biblical figure), Jared and father of Methuselah. He was of the Antediluvian period in the Hebrew Bible.
The text of t ...
Genesis 5:18 , who was born through Baraka, the daughter of Mahalalel's brother Râsûjâl .
Sometime before he turned 292, Mahalalel explained to Enoch the first of the two dream visions the latter had, as recounted through the perspective of Enoch:
Roughly 300 years after this incident, Enoch was "taken up" by God Genesis 5:23-24 . At this point, Mahalalel was 592 years old.
When Mahalalel was 840, his 910-year-old father Kenan died Genesis 5:14 .
After Kenan's death, Mahalalel lived 55 more years and died at 895 Genesis 5:17 , placing him eighth in the records for the unusually long lifespans for the
antediluvian
The antediluvian (alternatively pre-diluvian or pre-flood) period is the time period chronicled in the Bible between the fall of man and the Genesis flood narrative in biblical cosmology. The term was coined by Thomas Browne (1605–1682). The n ...
patriarchs. At the time of Mahalalel's death, Noah was 234 as per the Masoretic chronology.
Genealogy
In Islam
Mahalalel is mentioned in the various collections of tales of the prophets, which mentions him in an identical manner. Islamic scholar Tabari tells that his story was also found in Persian literature and likens him with the Pishdadian king Hushang.
Allusions
Latter Day Saint usage
In the original 1835 edition of the ''
Doctrine and Covenants
The Doctrine and Covenants (sometimes abbreviated and cited as D&C or D. and C.) is a part of the open scriptural canon of several denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Originally published in 1835 as Doctrine and Covenants of the Chur ...
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...
, in his novel, '' The Return of the Native'' (1878), references Mahalaleel as one who betokened an advanced lifetime: "The number of their years may have adequately summed up Jared, Mahalaleel, and the rest of the antediluvians, but the age of a modern man is to be measured by the intensity of his history."
The pet cat that comes to the manor in the storm in
Joyce Carol Oates
Joyce Carol Oates (born June 16, 1938) is an American writer. Oates published her first book in 1963, and has since published 58 novels, a number of plays and novellas, and many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction. Her novels ''Black ...
's novel '' Bellefleur'' (1980) is named Mahalaleel.
Films
Mahalalel is named as part of the
Generations of Adam
"Generations of Adam" is a genealogical concept recorded in in the Hebrew Bible. It is typically taken as the name of Adam's line of descent going through Seth. Another view equates the generations of Adam with material about a second line of d ...
Noah
Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...
'' (2014), Lamech (played by Marton Csokas) remembers Mahalalel and other ancestors before conferring the Sethite birthright to the young
Noah
Noah (; , also Noach) appears as the last of the Antediluvian Patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs in the traditions of Abrahamic religions. His story appears in the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, chapters 5–9), the Quran and Baháʼí literature, ...