Genesis 5:24

and he was not For this expression used to denote an unaccountable disappearance, cf. Genesis 42:13; Genesis 42:36; 1 Kings 20:40. In order to make it quite clear that the words did not imply death, LXX renders οὐχ εὑρίσκετο; Vulg. "non apparuit."

The shortness of his life as compared with the other patriarchs might have been regarded as a proof of Divine displeasure, if the next sentence had not been added to explain the circumstance.

for God took him "Took," or "received," him, i.e. into His own abode, without death: cf. "he shall receive me" (Psalms 49:15). Sam. "the Angel took him"; LXX μετέθηκε = "translated"; Lat. tulit; Targ. Onkelos, "for the Lord had made him to die." Our word "translated" has passed into general use from this passage and from the allusion to it in Hebrews 11:5, "By faith Enoch was translated(Lat. translatus est) that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God translated him." For the only other instance in the O.T. of a Saint's "translation," see the story of Elijah (2 Kings 2). In the early Babylonian traditions, Xisuthros, the hero of the Babylonian Deluge story, is "translated" after the Deluge, that he may dwell among the gods.

Late Jewish tradition was very busy with the story of Enoch. Enoch was supposed to have received Divine revelation concerning "all mysteries," and to have recorded them in writing in apocalyptic books. This current belief concerning Enoch, as the repository and the recorder of the mysteries of the universe, gave rise to the writing of the extant apocalyptic work, "The Book of Enoch," composed in the second century b.c.

The devout Israelite was able to believe that they who walkedwith God would somehow be takenby God; cf. Psalms 73:24, "Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward takeme to glory." In an age which had no conception of a general resurrection there was faith in God's power and a trust in fellowship with Him.