BookOfEnoch

The Book of Enoch
Notes
(10) THE BOOK OF METHUSELAH (pages 46-48)
This short section has many interesting features. The story is set some years
later. Methuselah is now head of the family (since Enoch went off to live with the
Angels, (see 81.6), a year after he wrote the book). Methuselah's son Lamech is now
grown up, and his first son is born. At 106.2, we get a description of the child who will
be named Noah.
It seems he had white or blonde hair, a red birthmark, and perhaps blue eyes.
Even more surprising, at 106.5, we learn that this is what the Watchers look like. If
some of the wives of Enoch's family were descended from the runaways, then Lamech
could easily have had an unexpectedly blonde-haired child.
Lamech is disturbed about his baby's unusual appearance, and goes to see
Methuselah. This section seems to have been written by Methuselah, to reassure his son
about the birth, written as though a reply from Enoch himself.
Methuselah claims he went and spoke to Enoch, but I suspect that this is just a
device, in order to give enough authority to the message, so that Lamech can be
reassured.
The naming of Noah at 107.3 is interesting, since it links the name to the word
comfort. Noah still sounds like the Hebrew word for comfort, and a similar story is told
at Genesis 5:29.
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