Enoch's Contribution to Noah's Story

Noah’s Flood is referenced multiple places in the Bible outside of Genesis, retold by Josephus, included in the Dead Sea Scrolls, and believed to be the same Flood account as recorded in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Details regarding Noah’s life and the Flood are also scattered throughout the books of Enoch, and I thought it would be fun to summarize them collectively. I did not include many of the repetitive passages on judgment but only those which may enhance our understanding of the Genesis account. Let’s begin!

1. Enoch recounts from his own handwritten books that the history of mankind is divided into seven ages, which he calls weeks. Enoch says, during the second week (after his days on earth are over) great wickedness shall arise, deceit will grow, and there shall be an end to mankind. In this end, one man shall be saved. After this end, humanity starts over with the one saved man, unrighteousness shall grow, and a law will be made for the sinners. 2. Enoch tells his son, Methuselah, he had a vision that four beings came from heaven, and one of these beings told a white bull (Noah) to build and dwell on a great vessel. Three bulls went with the white bull: one black, one red, and one white (Ham, Shem, & Japheth). Torrents of water flowed from heaven, and underground fountains were opened, which covered the surface of the earth with water. Water, mist, and darkness increased upon earth. All the oxen, elephants, camels, and donkeys upon the earth were unable to escape the waters and perished. Afterwards, a new generation of lions, tigers, wolves, dogs, hyenas, wild boars, foxes, squirrels, swine, falcons, vultures, kites, eagles, and ravens came about. Among these animals was born another white bull (Abraham).

3. When Noah was born, he had very white and very red skin, had very white hair, and his eyes emitted light like the sun, making the whole house exceptionally bright. After being removed from the midwife, Noah began speaking to the Lord. His father, Lamech, feared that he was not his offspring and entreated his own father, Methuselah, to ask Enoch about Noah. Enoch told him that the Lord will do new things on earth because some who came from heaven have transgressed with promiscuous women and will give birth to giants. He said, there will be great corruption, and the Lord will cleanse the earth with a deluge and great destruction for one year. He confirmed that Noah is Lamech’s son and told him to name him Noah. He says Noah and his three sons will be saved when all other men on earth die. He also predicted that there will be greater wickedness after the Flood than before, and generation after generation will do wrong until a generation of righteousness arises and wrongdoing and sin are destroyed.

4. Noah went to the ends of the earth and found only evil people and feared that he would perish along with them. He complains about this matter three times to Enoch, who asked why he is crying bitterly. Enoch then explains that God’s judgment is that mankind’s ruin must be accomplished because they learned the secrets of angels, the violence of satans (plural), sorcery, witchcraft, and idolatry. He says the Lord knows that Noah is pure and guiltless of learning those secrets, will preserve him, make his seed into a kingship, and from his seed will come a fountain of righteousness forever.

5. God has seven angels, whom we might also call archangels, called Watchers. One of these, Uriel, is delegated to watch over the world. God sends Uriel to tell Noah to hide himself and let him know the end is approaching in which the whole earth will be destroyed by a deluge, but Noah’s seed is to be preserved for all the future generations of the world.

6. Noah was told by God that he has much love and righteousness, and the angels are making a wooden building (ark) that will preserve his seed. God said those aboard will be blessed and multiply, but God will spread their descendants abroad. The fallen angels will be imprisoned. After God’s pronouncement, Enoch gave Noah the Book of Parables. This book is a compilation of all the teachings of secrets that had been given to Enoch. The archangel, Michael, then trembles at the severity of judgment of which the fallen angels will face as recorded in the Book of Parables.

7. Punishment will come from the Lord, and he will open all the chambers of waters which are above the heavens, and of the fountains which are beneath the earth. The waters which come from above are masculine and the waters that come from below are feminine. Together, they will destroy all who dwell on the earth and under the ends of heaven. When mankind recognizes the unrighteousness they have wrought, then they will perish by the waters.

8. After the Flood, God repented of killing mankind with a Flood, said that he destroyed all who dwell on earth in vain, pledged not to do it again, and made a sign of this pledge.

Make of these what you will. For me, there are three points of how these details support the likelihood of a regional Flood rather than a global one. First, the extent of the “surface of the earth” and “ends of the earth” are limited to the distance that Noah traveled (see #4). There is no reason to suppose he went to lands not populated with humans since he concluded mankind’s evil was widespread. Since mankind had failed to obey God by staying in the Persian Gulf area instead of filling the earth, it is reasonable that Noah could cover such an area in his lifetime and survey the hearts of the people. Like many references to “the face of the earth” or “the whole earth” in the Bible, the term references populous and not geography. Second, the aquafers in the Mesopotamian Valley and Arabia are ideal for explaining the fountains that opened from beneath the surface (see #2 and #7). Combining these sources of water with forty days and nights of rain would easily flood the region and cover all the peaks from the perspective of those aboard the Ark. Lastly, some of the kinds of animals preserved on the ark that begin new generations are listed, including foxes (see #2). Young Earth proponents specify that foxes “adapted” from one pair of canines that were aboard the ark. Such adaptations, which incidentally are at a much faster rate than any evolutionary model used by secular scientists, are the only explanation they have in which all present-day species of animals could have resided simultaneously on Noah’s Ark for one year and are scientifically unfounded. For more information, see my blog entitled, “Was Noah’s Flood Global?”

8/7/2025