Enosh

Enos or Enosh (Hebrew: אֱנוֹשׁ, Standard Enoš, Tiberian ʼĔnôš; "mortal man"; Ge'ez: ሄኖስ Henos), in the Book of Genesis of the Hebrew Bible, is the first son of Seth who figures in the Generations of Adam, and consequently referred to within the genealogies of Chronicles, and of Genealogy of Jesus according to Luke 3:38.

In the Hebrew Bible

According to Genesis, Seth was 105 years old when Enos was born (but the Septuagint version gives 205 years), and Seth had further sons and daughters. He was the grandson of Adam and Eve (Genesis 5:6-11; Luke 3:38). According to Seder Olam Rabbah, based on Jewish reckoning, he was born in 235 AM. According to the Septuagint, it was in 435 AM.

Enos was the father of Kenan, who was born when Enos was 90 years old (or 190 years, according to the Septuagint). According to the Bible he lived 905 years.

"Call upon the name of the Lord"

Genesis 4:26 says that "at that time men began to call upon the name of the Lord". In giving a meaning to the statement, commentators have proposed that it means 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.

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 us 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).

In Christianity

According to the Book of Jubilees (4:11-13) in the Ethiopian Orthodox Bible, Enos was born in 235 AM, and "he began to call on the name of the Lord on the earth." He married his sister, No'am, and she bore him Kenan 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".

Enos is commemorated as one of the Holy Forefathers in the Calendar of Saints of the Armenian Apostolic Church, with a feast day on July 30. He is also included in the Genealogy of Jesus, according to Luke 3:23–28.

References

This entry incorporates text from the public domain Easton's Bible Dictionary, originally published in 1897.