Retelling and expansion
Enoch as a heavenly scribe
Genesis gives Enoch a brief place in a genealogy and says that God took him. Jubilees develops him as a writer, witness and observer of heavenly order, giving his life a role in preserving knowledge and testimony.
Read these as distinct passages with their own references. The columns compare a relationship between works; they do not align equivalent verses or highlight translation differences.
Ethiopian collection
R. H. Charles
Jubilees 4:17–24
17 And he was the first among men that are born on earth who learnt writing and knowledge and wisdom and who wrote down the signs of heaven according to the order of their months in a book, that men might know the seasons of the years according to the order of their separate months.
18 And he was the first to write a testimony and he testified to the sons of men among the generations of the earth, and recounted the weeks of the jubilees, and made known to them the days of the years, and set in order the months and recounted the Sabbaths of the years as we made (them), known to him.
19 And what was and what will be he saw in a vision of his sleep, as it will happen to the children of men throughout their generations until the day of judgment; he saw and understood everything, and wrote his testimony, and placed the testimony on earth for all the children of men and for their generations.
20 And in the twelfth jubilee, [582-88] in the seventh week thereof, he took to himself a wife, and her name was Edna, the daughter of Danel, the daughter of his father's brother, and in the sixth year in this week [587 A.M.] she bare him a son and he called his name Methuselah.
21 And he was moreover with the angels of God these six jubilees of years, and they showed him everything which is on earth and in the heavens, the rule of the sun, and he wrote down everything.
22 And he testified to the Watchers, who had sinned with the daughters of men; for these had begun to unite themselves, so as to be defiled, with the daughters of men, and Enoch testified against (them) all.
23 And he was taken from amongst the children of men, and we conducted him into the Garden of Eden in majesty and honour, and behold there he writes down the condemnation and judgment of the world, and all the wickedness of the children of men.
24 And on account of it (God) brought the waters of the flood upon all the land of Eden; for there he was set as a sign and that he should testify against all the children of men, that he should recount all the deeds of the generations until the day of condemnation.
Biblical passage
World English Bible
Genesis 5:21–24
21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah.
22 Enoch walked with God after he became the father of Methuselah three hundred years, and became the father of sons and daughters.
23 all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years.
24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
Editorial reading aids
Context for the comparison
Jubilees' Enoch narrative can be read alongside 1 Enoch without assuming that every detail comes from the particular edition of 1 Enoch now before us. Hebrews 11:5–6 offers another interpretation of the Genesis figure.
Questions for close reading
- What does each text actually say about Enoch's departure?
- What responsibilities does Jubilees assign to Enoch before and after it?
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Text sources and editorial treatment
R. H. Charles's English translation as published in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament (1913), transcribed by the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Public-domain translation. Source chapter and verse numbering, including chronological annotations, is retained; editorial chapter summaries are omitted. This is a historic scholarly edition, not an official English translation of the Ethiopian Church.
Charles's Jubilees: full source · About World English Bible and the other Bible editions
Each panel displays the stored source text without rewriting it to resemble the other passage. Verse labels belong to that edition. The observations above describe these selected passages; they are not ancient text or a claim that all scholarly interpretations agree.