LatineEnglish
And Henoch walked with God. And all the days of Henoch were three hundred sixty-five years. And he walked with God, and was seen no more, because God took him.1
Et ambulavit Henoch cum Deo. Et facti sunt omnes dies Henoch trecenti sexaginta quinque anni. Ambulavitque cum Deo, et non apparuit, quia tulit eum Deus.
In hac historia videtur sanctus Hieronymus memoria lapsus (id quod magnis viris vel nimia memoriae fiducia vel alias in res studio curaque vehementer intentis non raro contingit): siquidem quod hoc loco Scriptura tradit de Henoch, qui septimus fuit ab Adamo, ipse attribuit Enos filio Seth Adamique nepoti. Sic enim scribit libro primo adversus Iovinianum: Non reor idcirco translatum Henoch, quod uxorem habuerit, sed quod primus invocaverit Deum et crediderit in Salvatorem. At primum omnium qui nomen Domini coepit invocare non Henoch sed Enos fuisse, capite quarto Geneseos tradit Moses.
In this history Saint Jerome seems to have slipped in memory (a thing which happens not rarely to great men, whether from too much confidence in memory or when they are vehemently intent with zeal and care upon other matters): for what Scripture here relates of Henoch, who was seventh from Adam, he attributes to Enos, the son of Seth and grandson of Adam. For he writes thus in the first book against Jovinian: 'I do not think Henoch was translated for the reason that he had a wife, but because he first invoked God and believed in the Savior.' Yet that the first of all who began to invoke the name of the Lord was not Henoch but Enos, Moses relates in the fourth chapter of Genesis.2
Verum expendamus supradicta verba Mosis de Henoch. Illud, Ambulavit cum Deo (vel coram Deo) -- sicut etiam, Ambulare in via Domini, in praeceptis eius -- Hebraismus est significans hominem recte et inculpate viventem, Deique voluntati ac iussis obtemperantem, Deo carum et acceptum esse. Recte igitur LXX Interpretes pro eo posuerunt, Placuit Deo. Illud, Et non apparuit, significat eum sublatum esse ex societate et consuetudine hominum; pro quo Septuaginta habent, Et non est inventus. Hebraice praecise est [ואיננו] veennenu, Et non ipse, quod ad mortem eius referunt nonnulli Hebraei, reclamante paraphrasi Chaldaica, quae sic Latine sonat, Et non ipse, quia non mori fecit eum Dominus. Clarius apparet hic modus loquendi ex psalmo 36: Vidi, inquit, impium superexaltatum et elevatum sicut cedros Libani; et transivi, et ecce non erat, et quaesivi eum, et non est inventus locus eius. Pro illo, Quia tulit eum Deus, quod Hebraei de morte eius interpretantur, Septuaginta habent, Et transtulit eum Deus. Verbum autem transferendi non significat mor[tem]...
But let us weigh the aforesaid words of Moses about Henoch. That phrase, 'He walked with God' (or 'before God') -- as also 'to walk in the way of the Lord,' 'in his commandments' -- is a Hebraism signifying that a man lives rightly and blamelessly, obeys the will and commands of God, and is dear and acceptable to God. Rightly, therefore, did the Seventy translators put for it, 'He pleased God.' That phrase, 'And he was not seen,' signifies that he was taken away from the society and company of men; for which the Septuagint has, 'And he was not found.' In Hebrew it is precisely [ואיננו] veennenu, 'And [he is] not himself,' which some Jews refer to his death -- though the Chaldee (Targum) paraphrase cries out against it, which runs thus in Latin, 'And he was not, because the Lord did not make him die.' This manner of speaking appears more clearly from Psalm 36: 'I have seen,' he says, 'the wicked highly exalted and lifted up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and lo, he was not; and I sought him, and his place was not found.' For that phrase, 'Because God took him,' which the Jews interpret of his death, the Septuagint has, 'And God translated him.' But the verb 'to translate' does not signify dea[th]...3
...mortem, sed subductionem ex societate et conversatione hominum, et in meliorem quandam vitae rationem et status commutationem. Ad hunc locum Geneseos spectavit auctor libri Ecclesiastici in capite 44 scribens Henoch placuisse Deo et translatum esse in paradisum. Denique locus hic de Henoch sic fere expressus est in Thargo Hierosolymitano: Et servivit Henoch in veritate coram Domino, et non ipse, quia subtractus est per verbum a conspectu Domini. Quoniam autem non ante generationem prolis sed post dicitur Henoch ambulasse cum Deo, ex eo putat significari Procopius Gazaeus Henoch ante fuisse improbum et flagitiosum, sed postea per dignam et perfectam suorum scelerum poenitentiam non tantùm emendasse vitam, sed adeò placuisse Deo ut mereretur mortis expers in felicem vitae statum transferri. Quod mihi sane non fit verisimile, cùm nihil tale uspiam significet Scriptura, nec de tali et de tanto viro id sentire consentaneum est. Quinimo Caietanus, ex eo quòd bis dicitur hoc loco Henoch ambulasse cum Deo, indicari existimat eum per totam vitam et à pueritia usque fuisse sanctum et charum Deo.
...death, but a withdrawal from the society and company of men, and a change into a certain better manner of life and state. To this passage of Genesis the author of Ecclesiasticus looked when he wrote, in chapter 44, that Enoch pleased God and was translated into paradise. Finally this passage about Enoch is rendered roughly thus in the Jerusalem Targum: 'And Enoch served in truth before the Lord, and he was not, because he was taken away by [God's] word from the Lord's sight.' But because Enoch is said to have walked with God not before but after the begetting of offspring, Procopius of Gaza thinks it is thereby signified that Enoch was formerly wicked and shameful, but afterward, through a worthy and perfect penitence for his crimes, not only amended his life but so pleased God that he deserved, exempt from death, to be transferred into a happy state of life. This to me is truly not likely, since Scripture nowhere signifies any such thing, nor is it fitting to think it of so great a man. Rather Cajetan, from the fact that here Enoch is twice said to have walked with God, judges it to be signified that he was, throughout his whole life and from boyhood on, holy and dear to God.4
Translator’s notes
- Lemma: Genesis 5:22-24 (marked in the margin 'VERS. 22, 23, & 24'). ↩
- Marginal gloss: 'A slip of Jerome.' References: Jerome, Adversus Iovinianum I; Genesis 4:26. Jerome mistakenly ascribes to Enoch (seventh from Adam) what Genesis says of Enos (grandson of Adam) -- that he first invoked the name of the Lord. ↩
- Marginal gloss: '"He walked with God" is a Hebraism, and what it signifies.' Hebrew glyph: ואיננו (ve'ennennu, 'and he [is] not / and he was not'), transliterated by Pererius 'veennenu' -- Genesis 5:24. Some Jews read it of Enoch's death; the Chaldee/Targum paraphrase denies this ('because the Lord did not make him die'). Cf. Psalm 36[37]:35-36 (Vulgate numbering). Where the Hebrew has 'God took him' (read of death by the Jews), the LXX has 'God translated (transtulit) him.' The sentence breaks off at the page foot with the catchword 'mor-' (mortem). ↩
- Completes the exposition of Gen 5:22-24 begun on the previous page. References: Ecclesiasticus 44:16; the Jerusalem Targum. Procopius of Gaza inferred from Enoch's walking with God only after begetting that he had been wicked and was reformed by penitence -- which Pererius rejects as unwarranted by Scripture; Cajetan takes the doubled 'walked with God' to mean Enoch was holy his whole life. ↩