James Trimm’s Nazarene Commentary on Bereshit Chapter 5
5:21-24
21 And Chanoch lived sixty and five years, and begot Metushelach.
22 And Chanoch walked with Elohim, after he begot Metushelach, three hundred years and begot sons and daughters.
23 And all the days of Chanoch were three hundred sixty and five years.
24 And Chanoch walked with Elohim and he was not, for Elohim took him.
(Gen. 5:21-24 HRV)
Chanoch (Enoch) was the seventh generation from Adam. His prophesies and teachings can be found in the Book of Enoch.
With the exception of Chanoch (Enoch) the formulation throughout the genealogy of the “book of the generations of Adam” (Gen. 5:2) follows the following pattern:
A. When A and lived X years
B. he begot B
C. after begetting B he lived Y years and had other sons and daughters
D. So all the days of A were Z (X+Y)
E. and he died.
But Chanoch breaks this pattern. Instead of saying simply that Chonoch lived 300 years after he begot Methuselah. we are told that he “walked with Elohim” 300 years after he begot Methuselah. And then instead of saying that Chanoch died, we are told that he “walked with Elohim and he was not, for Elohim took him.”
walked with Elohim – The Hebrew verb is in the Hithpael form. In this conjugation, the phrase indicates that Chanoch led a life pleasing to Elohim. Thus the Greek Septuagint and Aramaic Peshitta translate the passage to mean that Chanoch “pleased God” (שפר in the Aramaic)
and he was not, for Elohim took him.
In the Hebrew of the Wisdom of Ben Sira we read:
Enoch was found perfect and he walked with YHWH and he was taken, a sign of knowledge for generation after generation.
(Ben Sira 44:16)
Kimhi writes in his commentary:
The Jewish masses, and a few of our Sages as well, believe that both Enoch and Elijah were taken body and soul into the garden of Eden, where they still live, and will live until the days of Messiah, eating fruit from the trees and serving God as Adam originally did before he sinned.
Although Kimhi himself disagrees with this interpretation.
In the Zohar, Rabbi Eleazar expounds this passage saying:
R. Eleazar said: ‘God removed Enoch from the earth, and took him up to the highest heavens, and there presented to him wonderful treasures, including forty-five mystical key-combinations of graven letters which are used by the highest ranks of angels, as has been explained elsewhere.’
(Zohar 1:56b)
And Paul writes (as recorded in the Hebrew Munster text of Hebrews):
By a work of trust, Chanoch was translated up by Elohim so he should not see death and was not, for Elohim took him. Before he was taken, he had the testimony that he had pleased (חפץ) Him: like that which was said, And Chanoch walked with Elohim. But through trust, it is possible for a man to be established to be received to the presence of Elohim.
(Heb. 11:5 HRV)
See comments on Jude 1:14-15.