Enosh and His Generation: Scriptural Translation and Interpretation in Late Antiquity

This study examines how several classical traditions treat the biblical figure Enosh (Adam's grandson) and the time in which he is said to have lived. The Hebrew Bible announces the birth of Enosh with the words (Genesis 4:26): "To Seth was, likewise, born a son, whom he named Enosh. It was then that men began to invoke the Lord by name." Most classical exegetes interpret this verse as a praise of Enosh, crediting him with being the originator of divine worship. As such, Enosh is venerated as one of the earliest righteous humans. We trace the development of this motif in the writings of Jews, Christians, Samaritans, and Mandaeans, where we see Enosh regarded as a model of piety, an ideal or godlike man, an angelic figure, and as a prefiguration of subsequent savior figures, such as Moses and Jesus. In each case we try to understand how a tradition is related to Scripture, how it develops, and what concerns of its proponents it expresses. It is against this background that we turn to the interpretation of Enosh and Genesis 4:26 found in the teachings of the early Jewish rabbis, found in collections dating from the early third century C.E. through the middle ages. In these sources we find consistently stated the tradition that in Enosh's time idolatry, that is, the worship of false gods, began, Genesis 4:26 being supplied as the proof text: "Then men began to call upon (false gods) with the name of the Lord." Men turned to non-gods to save them, calling them by God's name. Since such activity was understood by the rabbis as an act of rebellion against God, the rabbinic sources describe God's punishing response: He caused the Ocean to overflow its boundaries, flooding a third of the world, a preview of the greater flood in Noah's time. Fundamental changes in man's appearance and character ensued, resulting in additional hardships. This interpretation is striking both because it is radically different from those found in all non-rabbinic traditions of interpretation, and because it seems to express a converse understanding of the meaning of Genesis 4:26. Not divine worship, but idolatrous (alien) worship began. Our study asks two basic questions: How did the rabbis derive their interpretation from the words of Scripture? Why were they motivated to do so? Our first conclusion after examining all of the pertinent passages is that the rabbis were not motivated by any difficulty with the actual words of Genesis 4:26. Nor did they develop their interpretation through the explication of those words. For an explanation we must look elsewhere. We find that the key to understanding the rabbinic difficulty lies in an examination of the rabbinic treatment of the wider biblical context. To the rabbis, earliest universal history as described in Genesis 1-11 is the story of steady human decline. Sin and suffering, according to this view, did not enter the divinely created world as a consequence of one man's misdeeds, or God's capricious response to one generation's misconduct. Rather, the biblical flood in Noah's time follows a consistent pattern of human rebellion and degeneration. God's choosing to establish a covenant with Abraham and to give His Torah to Abraham's descendants only comes after a gradual but long human decline. Within this understanding of the wider scriptural-historical context, it is inconceivable to the rabbis that Genesis 4:26 would announce the origins of divine worship, especially if that verse is understood to refer not only to Enosh but to mankind in general. The rabbis seek an understanding of Enosh and his generation which accords with what they perceive to be Scripture's underlying meaning and message. In so doing they say something significant about their understanding of earliest universal history and the origins of evil as preludes to Israelite-Jewish sacred history.