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example have any bearing upon this, or upon the Hebrews, seeing that Enoch apparently
did not die? It is time therefore to search and see. The sources of direct information are
the following. The passage in Gen. 5:, the LXX translation, and the passage in Heb. 11:
These we must give first.
"And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him" (Hebrew of
Gen. 5: 24).
"And Enoch pleased God: and he was not found, for God translated him" (LXX
version of Gen. 5: 24).
"By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found,
because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he
pleased God" (Heb. 11: 5).
It will be noticed that the record grows as we proceed. The Hebrew is the shortest
statement. Paul does not quote the Hebrew original, but quotes the LXX version as more
suitable to his purpose, and more familiar to his readers, who used that version daily.
Did Enoch die?
Let us examine the actual statements used before we come to any conclusion. "He
was not". Identical words are used in Jer. 31: 15, "Rachel weeping for her children
refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not". There is no ambiguity
in Reuben's meaning when he cried, "The child is not" (Gen. 37: 30), or of Jacob's
lament "Joseph is not, and Simeon is not" (Gen. 42: 36), indeed Jacob said, "Me have ye
bereaved".
"For God took him."
The Hebrew word laqach is used both of death and of
translation:
"Behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke" (Ezek. 24: 16).
"Knowest thou that the LORD will take away thy master from thy head to day?"
(II Kings 2: 3).
The case of Elijah is somewhat parallel with that of Enoch. Elijah is taken up to
heaven by a whirlwind, and Elisha "saw him no more" (verse 12). When the sons of the
prophets urged Elisha to send the fifty men to look for Elijah, the result is recorded,
"They sought three days, but found him not" (verse 17). It is the LXX that adds the word
"found" in Gen. 5: 24. While this reference to Elijah strengthens the conception that
Enoch did not die, Psa. 37: 35, 36 shows that the avoidance of death is not
necessarily implied by the word, "I have seen the wicked . . . . . yet he passed away, and,
lo, he was not; yea, I sought him, but he could not be found".
By faith Enoch was translated. It is usual to suppose that the use of the word
"translation" is the end of all controversy, and that such a word could not apply to any
who had died. Yet, notice the first occurrence of the word in the New Testament:
"So Jacob went down into Egypt, and DIED, he, and our fathers, and were carried
over (TRANSLATED) into Sychem, and laid in the sepulchre . . . . ." (Acts 7: 15, 16).