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The Enochs of Genesis 4 and 5 and the Emergence of the Apocalyptic Enoch Tradition

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The Enochs of Genesis 4 and 5 and the Emergence of the Apocalyptic Enoch Tradition The Enochs of Genesis 4 and 5 and the Emergence of the Apocalyptic Enoch Tradition John Day 1 The Enochs of Genesis 4 and 5 1.2 Enoch in Genesis 4 (J) A figure called Enoch occurs in both Gen 4:17–18 and 5:18–24, the former as a son of Cain in J and the latter as a descendant of Seth in P. As is well known, though appearing as different characters in the biblical text as we now have it, they are generally regarded as being parts of variant versions of what was origi- nally the same list, a viewpoint going back—something not so well known—to Philipp Buttmann in 1828.1 In J, Enoch is the third name out of seven, and in P the seventh name out of ten. We shall discuss the precise relationship of these two lists to each other later. What can we say about the Enoch of Gen 4:17–18? The text itself informs us that he was the son of Cain, that Cain built a city named after Enoch, and that Enoch was the father of Irad. There is good evidence that the story of Cain was originally an aetiology of the Kenites, a semi-nomadic people to the south of Israel, even though in the biblical text as we now have it Cain is simply a pri- meval individual.2 This is supported both by Cain’s name and by his lifestyle. ,which appears to mean “smith” (cf. Arabic qayn ,(קין The name Cain (Hebrew “smith” and Tubal-Cain, the first worker in bronze and iron in Gen 4:22), is spe- cifically used to denote the Kenites in both Num 24:22 and Judg 4:11. Moreover, 1 Philipp Buttmann, Mythologus, oder gesammelte Abhandlungen über die Sagen des Alterthums (2 vols.; Berlin: Mylius, 1828–29 [1828]), 1:170–72. 2 This view was first put forward by scholars such as Heinrich Ewald, “Erklärung der Biblischen urgeschichte. I, 4. Die geschlechter des ersten Weltalters,” Jahrbücher der Biblischen wissen­ schaft [sic] 6 (1853–54): 1–19, esp. 5–6; Bernhard Stade, “Das Kainszeichen,” ZAW 14 (1894): 250–318; and Julius Wellhausen, Die Composition des Hexateuchs (3d ed.; Berlin: G. Reimer, 1899), 9, but it has sometimes been ignored or even rejected in recent commentaries on Genesis. I have reargued the case in John Day, “Cain and the Kenites,” in Homeland and Exile (ed. G. Galil, M. Geller and A. Millard; VTSup 130; Leiden: Brill, 2009), 335–46, repr. in John Day (ed.), From Creation to Babel: Studies in Genesis 1–11 (LHBOTS 592; London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark, 2013), 51–60. However, I would now argue that Cain is simply a primeval individ- ual in the text as we now have it; all his descendants were destroyed in the flood, so he is no longer the ancestor of the later Kenites. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���7 | doi ��.��63/97890043�4749_0�9 294 Day likewise has a tribal meaning in (שת the name of Cain’s brother Seth (Hebrew Num 24:17,3 only five verses before the mention of tribal Cain. Furthermore, the life to which Cain is destined in Gen 4, one of wandering, also fits the Kenites (cf. Judg 5:24, where Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, is described as a tent-dweller). The genealogy in Gen 4:17–24 is therefore often referred to as the Kenite genealogy. One might thus expect the figure of Enoch to have some Kenite connection. That this is the case is supported by the fact that according was the name of a Midianite (חנוך to Gen 25:4 and 1 Chr 1:33 Enoch (Hebrew clan, since his name appears as a son of Midian. This has been obscured in our English Bibles because they use the Hebrew spelling Hanoch here rather than Enoch. Conceivably the name Hanoch represents the tribal group of the Ḥanikites attested in north Arabia,4 just as the name of his brother Ephah, mentioned in the same verse, is attested as a north Arabian tribal name Ḫa­a­ a­ap­pa­a­a or Ḫa­ia­pa­a in Assyrian inscriptions. When we recall the close connection of the Kenites and the Midianites (Moses’s father-in-law being described as a Midianite in Exod 3:1; 18:1; Num 10:29 and as a Kenite in Judg 1:16; 4:11), it is difficult not to connect the Enoch of Gen 4 with the Midianite clan name in Gen 25:4 and 1 Chr 1:33. It is not a valid objection to Cain’s having been equated with the Kenites or Midianites that his son Enoch is said to have had a city named after him (Gen 4:17), for we know from 1 Sam 30:29 that there were “cities of the Kenites” in the Negeb (cf. too a Judaean town called Kain in Josh 15:57). The MT states that “Cain knew his wife and she conceived and bore Enoch; and he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.” This clearly implies that the city was named after Enoch. However, some scholars wish to emend the text to say that Enoch either named the city after himself 5 3 Compare Shutu, a nomadic people in Transjordan mentioned in the Egyptian execration texts and elsewhere. For references in the Egyptian execration texts see Kurt Sethe, Die Ächtung feindlicher Fürsten, Völker und Dinge auf altägyptischen Tongefässscherben der mittleren Reiches (Berlin: Akademie der Wissenschaften in Kommission bei W. de Gruyter, 1926), 46–47, 56 (texts e4–6, f5); Georges Posener, Princes et pays d’Asie et de Nubie (Brussels: Fondation égyptologique reine Elisabeth, 1940), 89–90 (texts E52–53); Yvan Koenig, “Les texts d’envoûtement de Mirgissa,” REg 41 (1990): 101–25 at 111 (texts F4, G5). This tribal group is also attested in Akkadian under the name Suti in texts such as those from Mari; cf. Jean R. Kupper, “Sutéens et Ḫapiru,” RA 55 (1961): 197–205. 4 See Ernst A. Knauf, Midian: Untersuchungen zur Geschichte Palästinas und Nordarabiens am Ende des 2. Jahrtausends v. Chr. (Abhandlungen der deutschen Palästinavereins; Wiesbaden: O. Harrassowitz, 1988), 81–84. 5 Karl Budde, Die biblische Urgeschichte, Gen. 1–12,5 untersucht (Giessen: J. Ricker, 1883), 120–23, ;while Claus Westermann, Genesis 1–11 (BKAT 1.1 ,כשם בנו חנוך instead of כשמו חנוך reads 527 .
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