Enoch Walks (Gen 5:21­–22)

The Genealogy of Adam

²¹ Enoch lived 65 years and fathered Methuselah. ‏ ^‎

‏ וַֽיְחִ֣י חֲנ֔וֹךְ חָמֵ֥שׁ וְשִׁשִּׁ֖ים שָׁנָ֑ה וַיּ֖וֹלֶד אֶת־מְתוּשָֽׁלַח׃

So far so good. Like everyone else in our list so far, Enoch lives for a while and then fathers his (presumably first) son, Methuselah. Perhaps now is the time to mention the fact that some of the ages in this chapter are different in the Greek translation. I have not done the arithmetic myself, but according to Ronald Hendel, the numbers in the LXX leave Methuselah still alive 14 years after the Flood. Oops!

It’s also worth noting that Enoch is a mere stripling of 65 when he has his first son. Still, that is no younger than Mahalalel (Ancestor #5) was, and two others, Cainan and Enosh (Ancestors #4 and #2 respectively), were also on the south side of 100 when their firstborns came along. So this can’t be called extraordinarily unusual.

But now for something that is extraordinarily unusual.