And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. (Genesis 5: 22-24)
The Book of Genesis tells us nothing about Enos, Cannan, Mahaleel, and Jared, the four patriarchs who followed Seth, other than to list their names of Adam's pedigree chart. Then we come to Enoch, son of Jared. Although he was seven generations from Adam, due to the longevity of the ancient patriarchs, Adam was still alive for most of Enoch's life and he clearly interacted with him. In the 107th Section of the Doctrine and Covenants, we learn that Enoch was ordained to his priesthood by Adam when he was 25 years old. At age 65, he received a blessing from his 5th great-grandfather. This was the reality of the blessings of the fathers handed down from generation to generation. It was this that Abram knew and desired to have.
Enoch was one of the great and noble ones, but the Book of Genesis tells us very little about him other than he walked with God and then was no more. We learn more from the Apostle Paul who wrote to the Hebrew Saints about the greatness of Enoch: By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. (Hebrews 11: 5)
Just as the word translate can mean to change a word from one language into another, the process of translation in God's kingdom is to change a mortal man into a perfected mortal man who is not being subject to death. The translated being is not resurrected and must ultimately be changed again from a person in whom death is temporarily suspended into a person in whom death is permanently conquered.
The best description of translation is found in the Book of Mormon, 3rd Nephi 28: 7-9 -Therefore, more blessed are ye, for ye shall never taste of death; . . . And ye shall never endure the pains of death; but when I shall come in my glory ye shall be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortality to immortality; and then shall ye be blessed in the kingdom of my Father. And again, ye shall not have pain while ye shall dwell in the flesh, neither sorrow save it be for the sins of the world; and all this will I do because of the thing which ye have desired of me, for ye have desired that ye might bring the souls of men unto me, while the world shall stand.
The Apostle Jude gives us more clues as to the importance of Enoch as the patriarch of his own dispensation: And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him. (verses 14, 15)
The contributions, therefore, of modern-day revelation and of the Pearl of Great Price are incalculable. I will save further discussion of Enoch for the time when I study the Book of Moses. I would like to close today's post with a quote from the modern-day revelation of the Doctrine and Covenants. As Jesus Christ introduced Himself to the Prophet Joseph, He said: I am the same which have taken the Zion of Enoch into mine own bosom; and verily, I say, even as many as have believed in my name
©Gebara Education 2016
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