Within the antediluvian geneology lists of Genesis, one figure stands out. In the formulaic "Priestly" geneology, we read: "When Enoch was sixty-five years old he became father to Methuselah. Enoch walked with God. After the birth of Methuselah he lived for three hundred years and he became the father of sons and daughters. In all, Enoch lived for three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God. Then he vanished because God took him" (Genesis 5:21-24). The Kenite "Yahwist" (J) geneology in ch. 4 also mentioned another Enoch: "Cain had intercourse with his wife, and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch. He became builder of a town, and it was given the name of name of Enoch" (Genesis 4:17). The enigmatic figure of Enoch in Genesis was elaborated considerably in later Jewish legend (especially in the first century B.C. apocalypse 1 Enoch), but the traditions contained therein are much older. For many years it has been recognized that the Enochian traditions are dependent on Sumerian and Akkadian legends.
From the Kenite geneology in Genesis 4, we learn that (1) Enoch was either the builder or the namesake of the first city; from the Sethite geneology in Genesis 5, we learn that (2) Enoch was the seventh in a ten-member antediluvian geneology, (3) Enoch "walked with God", (4) Enoch lived for 365 years (the number being a solar motif), and (5) Enoch was taken by God; and from 1 Enoch we learn that (6) Enoch was taken into heaven, journeyed through the extremities of the earth and the darkness of Sheol, and settled into Paradise to receive eternal life, and (7) Enoch was inducted into the astronomical mysteries of heaven, the movements of the sun, moon, and stars and the years and seasons. We also know that (8) Enoch's name means "to instruct, initiate, dedicate" in Hebrew. Each of these motifs have Sumerian antecedents and the figure of Enoch combines features ascribed to Enmeduranki, Ziusudra, and Gilgamesh in Sumerian myth.
The two antediluvian geneologies in Genesis 3-6 are doublets of each other, viz. the Kenite Kayin = Sethite Kenan, Enoch = Enoch, Irad = Jared, Mehujael = Mahalalel, Methushael = Methuselah, Lamech = Lamech. Sumerian and Akkadian etymologies have been posited for some of these names, e.g. Sumerian lamga "priest" < Lamech, Akkadian wardu "servant" < Jared, and Akkadian mutusha-ilu "vassal of God" < Methushael < Methuselah. The first obvious parallel with Babylonian/Sumerian myth is the belief in ten antediluvian kings followed by a Flood and postdiluvian dynasties, with the antediluvian kings having considerably longer life-spans than the postdiluvian ones. Various versions of the antediluvian king list exist; the earlier editions designate 8 kings and the later editions insert an additional fourth king and an additional tenth king (the Flood hero). The first millenium B.C. list of Berossus, representing the traditions of the Neo-Babylonian period, would thus better fit the time-frame of the exilic Priestly narrative. Although the names on Berossos' list have been distorted through their rendering into Greek, each can be identified with their original Sumerian or Akkadian versions. When we compare the Sethite list with the Babylonian list of Berossus, we find a number of striking coincidences.
| Berossos | Sumerian Equivalents | Sethite List |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Aloros | Alulim | Adam |
| 2. Alaparos | Alagar | Seth |
| 3. Amelon | Enmenluanna; Amelu "Man" | Enosh "Man" |
| 4. Ammenon | (?); Ummanu "Workman" | Kenan "Metal-Worker" |
| 5. Amegalaron | Enmengalanna | Mahalalel |
| 6. Daonos | Dumuzi | Jared |
| 7. Evedoranchus | Enmenduranki | Enoch |
| 8. Amepsinos | Ensibzianna | Methuselah |
| 9. Otiartes/Opartes | Uburtutu | Lamech |
| 10. Xisouthros | Ziusudra | Noah |
These ten kings had god-like status but the first seven were paired with apkallu "sages", which according to Berossus were fish-like beings that taught humans the practical matters of civilization. Other Akkadian traditions designated the apkallu as divinely wise but mortal men. Berossus says that the sage of Aloros was Oannes, a name derived from u-anna -- probably an abbreviation of u-anna adapa, who according to an earlier apkallu list was the sage of Alulim, the first king of world who ruled from Eridu. Adapa was priest at the temple of Ea in Eridu. The connection between Adapa, the sage of Alulim, and Adam has widely been noted. Adapa was created as a perfect being by Ea, endowed with divine wisdom but not eternal life. Adapa broke the wing of the south wind in a fishing accident and was summoned to appear before Anu in his heavenly court. Anu offered Adapa the food of life and the water of life, enabling Adapa to be like one of the gods, but Ea told Adapa that it was actually food and drink of death and that he would die if he partook of what Anu offered him. Adapa was thus deceived and lost his opportunity at eternal life. This forms a widely noted parallel with the story of Adam and Eve, which shares with Adapa the motifs of the food (fruit) of life, divine wisdom (via the tree of knowledge), deception about eating, and a lost opportunity at eternal life. "What ill he has brought upon mankind, and the disease that he brought upon the bodies of men" says one text regarding Adapa (cf. ANET, 103). The first items in the Berossus and Sethite lists are thus somewhat in parallel.
The second king, Alaparos, is derived from Alalgar, the second king of the Weld-Blundell Sumerian king list, whose sage was U-an-dugga. The third and fourth kings are Amelon and Ammenon, which superficially derive not from Sumerian but from the Akkadian words amelu "man" and ummanu "workman". There is a direct parallel here with the Sethite list, where the third patriarch is named Enosh "Man" and the fourth is named Kenan "Metal-worker". The underlying amelu of Berossus' Amelon, however, is actually an Akkadian corruption of Ammilu-anna, the third king according to the king list of Schøyen Collection MS 2855, which itself is a corruption of the original Sumerian name En-men-lu-anna who was also the third antediluvian king (ruling from Badtibira) according to the Weld-Blundell, Isin, and other king lists. As mentioned earlier, a fourth king was inserted into the older 8-king list after Enmenluanna, and the name varies considerably between different versions of the list: (?)-alimma, Kichunna, and Berossus' Ummanu. Although formally the Akkadian word for "workman, expert" ummanu is possibly a corrupted doublet of Enmenluanna (cf. Enmenluanna < Emmuanna). In any case, the biblical Sethite geneology and the Berossos list both resemble each other in the third and fourth places. The fifth name, Amegalaron, is clearly derived from En-men-gal-anna, who follows Enmenluanna (or the fourth king in the ten-king lists), and the sixth name Daonos is a distorted form of Dumuzi. Skipping over the seventh king Enmenduranki for a moment, we may also note that the eighth king Amepsinos who ruled from Larak is Ensibzianna, king of Larak in the older king lists, and the ninth king Opartes (mistranscribed as Otiartes by copyists who misread the pi as "ti") is Ubur-tutu , who according to the 8-king list was the last king before the Flood. The Akkadian 10-king list that Berossus is dependent on has inserted the name Ziusudra, the Sumerian Flood-hero, as the last king before the Flood (cf. the Weld-Blundell Prism) which Berossus spells as "Xisouthros" in his list.
As for the seventh king Evedoranchus, he is clearly equivalent to the Sumerian Enmenduranki or Enmenduranna, who appears in seventh place even in the older 8-king lists (which put Ensibzianna in sixth place). Enmenduranki was king of Zimbir, or Sippar, which was city of the sun-god Utu (or Shamash in Akkadian). He was said to have been received into the fellowship of Utu and Ramman (Adad), and was also "beloved of Anu, Enlil, and Enki", and was thus "initiated into the secrets of heaven and earth" (Ritual-tablet, no. 24). Enmenduranki was credited for establishing the art of divination and the line of priests of E-babbar "white house", the temple of Utu in Suppar, and his name means "lord of the bond between heaven and earth". His apkallu was Utu-abzu "heavenly Utu" and several incantation texts say of him: "Utu-abzu, he who ascended to heaven". Since later tradition tended to conflate the apkallu with the kings they advised (as in the case of Adapa being identified with Alulim, or as the first man), there may have been a later tradition about Enmenduranki ascending to heaven and receiving the mysteries of heaven. In any case, the parallels between Enmenduranki and Enoch are quite striking. First, note that Enoch's name means "initiate, instruct" which recalls Enmenduranki's role in founding the art of divination. The Astronomical Book of 1 Enoch (ch. 72-82), thought to be the oldest section of the work, also presents Enoch as dispensing secret knowledge of heavenly laws on the movements of the sun, moon, and stars. Jubilees 4:17-18 also says of him: "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. 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 known to him." As for divination and astrology, the practice of which the work regards as evil, 1 Enoch 7:1; 8:3-4 ascribes their origin to the fallen angels. Second, Enmenduranki's peculiar intimacy with the gods recalls the fact that "Enoch walked with God" (Genesis 5:22, 24). Third, Enmenduranki was especially affiliated with the sun-god Utu which recalls a focus on the solar calendar in both Genesis (cf. the 365 years of Genesis 5:23) and 1 Enoch (cf. 72:1-37, especially v. 32). And fourth, the ascent of Enoch into heaven is anticipated by Enmenduranki's apkallu. When we compare the Berossus list with that in Genesis, we find an overall similarity: (1) the first name on the list is associated with an Adam-like figure, (2) the third name is the word for "man", (3) the fourth name is the word for "workman, specialist", (4) the seventh is a special favorite of the gods, and (5) the tenth is the hero of the Flood.
But Berossus relates another tradition about Ziusudra, the Flood hero, which closely corresponds to Enochian lore. In his account of the Flood, it is narrated that Xisouthros disappeared suddenly after leaving the ship and that those remaining behind looked for him and called after him. Then a voice came out of heaven saying that he had been taken away to live with the gods because of his piety (cf. Alexander Polyhistor, Syncel. Chron. 28). Compare with Genesis 5:24 which says: "Enoch walked with God. Then he vanished because God took him." The earlier Gilgamesh Epic also relates how the Flood hero, referred to as Ut-napishtim "He who found life", was rescued from death and was placed in the mythical paradise of Dilmun at the eastern edge of the world, where the sun-god Utu rises every day. The connection with Utu is a common thread between the stories. But it is the story of Gilgamesh's quest through the infernal regions to paradise that bears the closest similarly with the Enochian traditions -- especially to Enoch's very similar journey through the same regions in 1 Enoch 17-19 and 28-35. Realizing his own mortality through the untimely death of his friend Enkidu, Gilgamesh undertakes a journey to the ends of the earth in search of the one man known to have escaped death, Ut-napishtim. Imitating Utu, Gilgamesh seeks to pass through the twin peaks of Mount Mashu, which guards the rising and setting of the sun. The scorpion guards, though initially incredulous, permit Gilgamesh to travel through the mountains of sunset, on the "path of the sun" (Epic of Gilgamesh, 9). The "path of the sun," a route which runs almost entirely through total darkness suggests the sun's nightly passing through the realm of the dead. This passage extends from the mouth of the waters of the west and journeys northward to the east. Gilgamesh emerges in the east at the place of the rising sun to see a magnificent garden of jeweled trees, bearing precious stones as fruit. He must then cross the waters of death and with the assistance of the ferryman Urshanabi, Gilgamesh crosses the infernal waters to reach Ut-napishtim in Dilmun (Epic of Gilgamesh, 10). Utnapishtim and his wife, sole survivors of the Flood, were removed from the inhabited earth by the gods to dwell forever on an island at the source of the waters (Epic of Gilgamesh, 11). In 1 Enoch, we find two very similar journeys. In 1 Enoch 17:1-2, Enoch is first taken to the western extremity where there was "mountain with its summit reaching into heaven" guarded by fiery beings who "when they so desire appear like men". Then Enoch says:
"And they [the angels] lifted me up unto the waters of life, unto the western fire which receives every setting of the sun. And I came to the river of fire which flows like water and empties itself into the great sea in the direction of the west. And I saw all the great rivers and reached to the great darkness and went into the place where all flesh must walk cautiously. I saw the mountains of the darkness of water and the place to where all the waters of the deep flow." (1 Enoch 17:14-7)
In Enoch's report of his second (reverse) journey, he also describes "three open gates of heaven" at the "extreme ends of the earth," and later we read how Enoch "saw the storerooms of the sun and the moon, from what place they come out and to which place they return, and their glorious passage.... and the sun executes its course in accordance with the commandment of the Lord of the Spirits" (1 Enoch 35:1; 41:5-6). After passing through the "great darkness" and the "foundations of the earth", Enoch came to the "extreme ends of the earth which rests on the heaven. And the gates of heaven were open, and I saw how the stars of heaven come out and I counted the gates out of which they rise" (33:2-3; cf. 18:12-16). And there he saw, in both journeys, mountains with precious stones:
"There were seven mountains of precious stones -- three toward the east and three towards the south. As for those toward the east, they were of colored stones, one of pearl stone and one of healing stone." (1 Enoch 18:6-7)
"And from there I went to another place of the earth, and he showed me a mountain of fire which was flaming day and night. And I went in its direction and saw seven dignified mountains -- all different one from the other, of precious and beautiful stones, and all dignified and glorious....The seven mountains were situated in the midst of these ravines and in respect to their heights all resembled the seat of a throne which is surrounded by fragrant trees. And among them was one tree as I have never at all smelled....[Michael said to me,] 'This tall mountain which you saw whose summit resembles the throne of God is indeed his throne, on which the Holy and Great Lord of Glory, the Eternal King, will sit when he descends to visit the earth with goodness. And as for this fragrant tree, not a single human being has the authority to touch it until the great judgment. This is for the righteous and the pious. And the elect will be presented with its fruit for life." (1 Enoch 24:1-25:5)
The Enochian tradition about a bejeweled mountainous paradise at the ends of the world also is paralleled in Ezekiel 28:13-14 which says: "You were in Eden, in the garden of God. A thousand gems formed your mantle. Sard, topaz, diamond, carbuncle, emerald, the gold of which your flutes and tambourines are made, all were preapred on the day of your creation. I have provided you with a guardian cherub, as you were on the holy mountain of God", and 32:16, 18 twice mentions "all the trees of Eden". There were further mountains and trees that Enoch encountered in the east: "I saw seven mountains full of excellent nard, fragrant trees, cinnamon trees, and pepper. From there I went over the summits of the mountains, far toward the east of the earth" (1 Enoch 32:1-2). Then, like Gilgamesh, Enoch must journey over a mythological sea to reach the Garden of Eden: "I then passed over the Erythraean Sea and went far from it, and passed over the head of angel Zutu'el. And I came to the garden of righteousness and saw beyond those trees many other large ones growing there, their fragrance sweet, large ones, with much elegance....And I said, 'This tree is beautiful and its appearance beautiful and pleasant!' Then the holy angel Raphael who was with me, responded to me and said, 'This very thing is the tree of wisdom from which your old father and aged mother, they who are your precursors, ate and came to know wisdom.' " (1 Enoch 32:2-6). Then Enoch in ch. 33-35 journeys to the gates of the sun in the east, travels north, and returns to the westernmost extremity. Eventually, Enoch was taken by God and placed in the Garden of Eden with eternal life (compare Hebrews 11:5-6):
"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. 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.....And he burnt the incense of the sanctuary, even sweet spices acceptable before the Lord on the Mount. For the Lord has four places on the earth, the Garden of Eden, and the Mount of the East, and this mountain on which you are this day." (Jubilees 4:22-26)
In a story that inversely parallels that with Gilgamesh, 1 Enoch 65:2 relates how a distraught Noah traveled to the ends of the earth to consult with Enoch, his great-grandfather. Likewise, in 1 Enoch 106:6-7, Methuselah seeks out Enoch to ask him about the unusual birth of his gradson Noah. Methuselah must also travel to the ends of the earth where Enoch dwells with the angels in order to make his inquiry. As for the city named Enoch (Heb. chnwk), it is interesting that Gilgamesh was king of Uruk which in Sumerian was Unug or Unuk. Enmenduranki has a connection with the city of Sippar, and Eridu, the first city that was built, resembles the name of Enoch's son Irad (Heb. 'rd) in Genesis 4:18.