Did he go straight to Heaven? Or simply pass away? (7 March 2017, 9 Adar, 5777)
Shalom
Yair, does Josephus or Talmud, Midrash? etcetera every mention Enoch? The Great Grandfather of Noah who walked with Hashem?
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Brit-Am Reply:
Enoch in Hebrew is pronounced as Chenock (pronounced close to "Henokh").
Enoch was the son of Yered (Jared).
Genesis 5:
21 Enoch lived sixty-five years, and became the father of Methuselah.22 Then Enoch walked with God three hundred years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had other sons and daughters. 23 So all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24 Enoch walked with God; and he was not, for God took him.
Enoch was a pious man, taken to Heaven, and received the title of Metatron Safra Rabba (Great Scribe).(Midrash Agada Breishit 5:18, Targum Yehonatan).
Josephus, Antiquities Book 1, ch.3
This Malaleel having lived eight hundred ninety five years, died; leaving his son Jared; whom he begat when he was at his hundred and sixty fifth year. He lived nine hundred and sixty two years: and then his son Enoch succeeded him: who was born when his father was one hundred and sixty two years old. Now he, when he had lived three hundred and sixty five years, departed and went to God. Whence it is that they have not written down his death.
The Radak inclines to the view that Enoch simply died early, well before the time allotted to others in his generation.
Yehudah Kiel (Commentary "Daat Mikra") points out that the expression "for God took him" could mean that he simply died.
We find a parallel in:
Ezekiel 24:
16 Son of man, behold, I am about to take from you the desire of your eyes with a blow; but you shall not mourn and you shall not weep, and your tears shall not come.17 Groan silently; make no mourning for the dead. Bind on your turban and put your shoes on your feet, and do not cover your mustache and do not eat the bread of men. 18 So I spoke to the people in the morning, and in the evening my wife died. And in the morning I did as I was commanded.