BIBLICAL CHRONOLOGY
Generation 09: Hebrew years 960 to 1080 (2800-2680 BCE)
Introduction
Mankind became increasingly corrupted with practices that were abominations in the eyes of God.
Cult of the Dead
In Egypt, Hanoch eventually got himself into trouble with the rulers whose seat was in Abydos or Thinis, near the Nile River. Although the city of Thinis has been mentioned in various antique texts, its ruins have never been found; it is assumed that it was located near Abydos.
The ancient Egyptian religion was first established, and Egyptian cosmology invented. In their beliefs, they asserted that their land was where the Garden of Eden had been located. Hanoch was unwilling to believe in their new idol gods and in their way of rewriting the Creation to better fit their purpose of god-made rulers. Consequently, he could no longer live among the Egyptian people with his rebellious attitude. What happened to him was unique:
All the days of Hanoch were five and sixty years and three hundred years. Hanoch walked in the path of God, and he was not. Because God took him. (Genesis 5:23-24)
The text doesn’t state that Hanoch died. It is God who took him away. According to the Biblical chronology, it happened in Hebrew year 987 (2773 BCE). But what is meant by “he was not” and “took him”? The expression “he was not” means that his existence ended, meaning that his soul departed. So, the combined expressions mean that God removed Hanoch’s soul (his "Neshama") from his body and left his body behind. His body in fact probably remained intact, although inert. It was as if Hanoch did not actually (physically) die. Such weird occurrence must have had a strong influence on the Egyptian people who, unlike other ancient civilizations, became obsessed with death and the idea of an afterlife. Some historians even go as far as claiming that the entire Ancient Egyptian civilization was based upon a "death cult". One of them stated:
No nation of the ancient world has cared for their dead to the same degree as the Egyptians; their care for the dead, indeed, far exceeded their care for the living. (Tirard, H.M., The Book of the Dead, with an introduction by Edouard Naville, London, 1910, chapter 1, page 13:)
It was not by chance that this practice of embalming and of preparing the dead for the afterlife became much more sophisticated in Egypt compared to other ancient civilizations. The Egyptian Book of the Dead is a compilation of these funeral rites and traditions that date back from the Old Kingdom, which started with the Third Dynasty, about 2700 BCE. Not surprisingly, this dynasty was founded by Pharaoh Djoser who was first to build a pyramid in Egypt (he reigned from about 2690 BCE).
This is because they had witnessed the body of a departed man, Hanoch, staying intact and not being destroyed for hundreds of years after the event of his departure. So, the Egyptians thought that what was true for Hanoch could be achieved for other very important men. The rulers’ next ambition was to maintain their body intact to carry on living in an afterlife. In their moment of death, they would thus reach eternity. Since the extraordinary fate of Hanoch, the Egyptians believed that death was just a transition, not an end:
Lift yourself up, N[ut], you shall not die. (Pyramid Texts, part of the Book of the Dead, Utterance 373, verse 657e; to read it online click here)
Eternity needed to at least have the appearance of eternity, so they developed and improved over time the techniques of embalming.
There may be a second reason why the Egyptians saw Hanoch as an example of life beyond death: he died at the age of 365 years, according to the Bible. This lifetime echoes the 365 days of the calendar year in a solar system (which is the counting of time that the Ancient Egyptians followed). In other words, death was just the end of one cycle of life, an idea from which they built the belief in the afterlife with further cycles.
In later apocalyptic writings, from the 1st century CE onwards, it is said that God took Hanoch near Him and made him the angel Metatron to bear witness of the wickedness of these generations when the time of judgment would come. In his own words, Hanoch explained the point:
He answered and said to me: "Because I am Hanoch, the son of Jared.
For when the generations of the Flood sinned and were confounded in their deeds, saying unto God: 'Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of Your ways (Job 21:14), then the Holy One, blessed be He, removed me from their midst to be a witness against them in the high heavens to all the inhabitants of the world, that they may not say: 'The Merciful One is cruel'.
What sinned all those multitudes, their wives, their sons and their daughters, their horses, their mules and their cattle and their property, and all the birds of the world, all of which the Holy One, blessed be He, destroyed from the world together with them in the waters of the Flood?
Hence the Holy One, blessed be He, lifted me up in their lifetime before their eyes to be a witness against them to the future world. (Third Book of Enoch, chapter 4)
Metatron has a superior status among all the angels: he is also called the Angel of the Universe.
Wary of what was going to wait for them in the afterworld, the Egyptians thus developed the cult of the Dead to prepare their rulers to the eventual struggle they would have to win. This text also shows that the departure of Hanoch (Enoch) is connected to the sins and corruption of mankind. And, with mankind, the animals and the earth were also corrupted.
Corruption of mankind
In Canaan, Seth lived until Hebrew year 1042 (2718 BCE) and was of great influence over Methuselah, keeping him in the path of God. Because of his father Hanoch's short life, God made Methuselah live to the longest old age, for a total of 969 years. Just after Methuselah died, God exacted the Flood, a punishment over the corrupted mankind. The reasons for God’s decision are given in Genesis 6 where the reader can find an account of the perversion of morals in mankind:
The Nephilim were on earth in those days, and also afterwards when the sons of the gods would consort with the daughters of man, who would bear to them. They were the mighty who were forever men of fame. (Genesis 6:4)
At the turn of the first millennium, mankind fell to its lowest level, as expressed by the word Nephilim (נְּפִלִים) which means the “fallen ones”. This term refers to the decadence of human morale and is identical to Cain’s countenance which also “fell” (נָפְלוּ) after his murder of Abel (Genesis 4:6). The parallel of the two texts is particularly striking because of the similarity of the numbers of these two verses, as if one echoes the other: Genesis 4:6 for Cain who fell and Genesis 6:4 for the Nephilim. And, as the text mentions that these mighty people were forever men of fame, it is generally assumed that they, or some of them, survived the eradication that God was aiming to do: the Flood. But the animals were destroyed too, as they had also been corrupted by mankind through practices of abomination:
And God said: "I will wipe out the mankind I have created from the surface of the earth, from man to beast, to the creeping creature, to the bird in the sky, so that I would get consolation from what I have done."
But Noah found grace in God’s eyes. (Genesis 6:7-8)
Because of the righteous characters of Methuselah and of Noah, God postponed the time of punishment and also decided to spare His Creation. However, He decided to reduce the lifetime of man on earth:
And God said: "My spirit shall not contend evermore concerning Man since he is but flesh. His days shall be a hundred and twenty years." (Genesis 6:3)
Birth of Noah
Noah was born to Lemech in Hebrew year 1056 (2704 BCE). He was a righteous man and so was his wife Naamah, who was Lamech's daughter and had left the land of her Sumerian parents to escape the fate of many of the women of these times, being the prey of men and of Nephilim.
The name Noah (נֹחַ) is derived from the word "comfort": his father named him so because he hoped that this newborn son would bring them comfort from all the hardship of working the earth, as God had condemned humanity since Adam’s original sin.
But, when Adam died in Hebrew year 930 (2830 BCE), 800 years after having begot Seth, those who followed his path may have believed that the world would end soon after his death. They were fast approaching the first millennium since Creation. God was not showing His presence anywhere on earth and to anyone. Mankind had badly turned away from His path: the few righteous people surely expected some divine punishment, much worse than the one that Adam had brought to himself with the original sin. Thus, the spirits were low after Adam’s death.
But, at the time of Noah's birth, just after the new millennium, the earth had not been destroyed, as people had expected after Adam’s death. Their fears were gone and gave way to new hope: this may explain the name of Noah, derived from "comfort".
And there was another reason for hope with Noah’s birth because, while Adam died when Lemech was 56-year-old, Noah was born to Lemech 56 years after the start of the new millennium. Lemech may have felt that the birth of Noah, which occurred at a coincidental time, may be a sign that God will eventually provide mankind with redemption from Adam’s curse. In another word, Noah’s birth would indeed be seen as a sign of comfort from the hardship they endured since Adam’s sin.
This 9th generation provided the bridge between the era of the first millennium, which symbolically ended with the death of Adam, and a new era of hope with the birth of Noah, a character who found grace in God’s eyes. The hope that characterized this 9th generation is also symbolized with the two events that marked its beginning and its end: it started with the “departure” of Hanoch, who walked in the path of God, and it ended with the “arrival” of Noah, who found grace in God’s eyes.
To return to the list of Seder Olam Revisited articles, per "generation", click here.
Albert Benhamou
Private Tour Guide in Israel
Adar 5785 - March 2025