Enoch

The name Enoch (ḥănôkh, meaning initiated or dedicated) is shared by two notable figures in Genesis. The first was the son of Cain, after whom Cain named the first city he built. The second, far more significant, was the seventh-generation descendant of Adam through the line of Seth: the son of Jared and father of Methuselah. This Enoch stands unique in the antediluvian genealogy of Genesis 5 for a lifespan of only 365 years—brief compared to contemporaries—and for the remarkable note that he walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.

This translation without death made Enoch a figure of intense interest in Second Temple Judaism, which developed extensive literature in his name (the books of Enoch) attributing to him heavenly visions, angelic revelations, and calendrical wisdom. The New Testament references him in the genealogy of Jesus in Luke 3 and in Hebrews 11 as a hero of faith who pleased God and was taken without tasting death. Jude quotes the Book of Enoch's prophecy attributed to him concerning divine judgment. Enoch's translation foreshadows the bodily ascension and serves in Christian theology as a type of the resurrection.