Enoch is the seventh in genealogical order after Adam; therefore, the seventh master of the world, son of Jared, and father of Methuselah. He is thought, by some, to symbolize perfected humanity, «a man raised to heaven by pleasing God, while angels fell to earth by transgression.» Others have thought Enoch to be the god of the new year since he lived 385 years, and did not die.
He is identical with the Thoth of the Egyptians, the Cadmus of the Phoenicians, and the Palamedes of the Greeks. The Greek and Latin fathers used Enoch and Elijah as evidences of the possibility of resurrection and future life.
He is called Edris (the learned) in the Koran, and is credited with inventing the art of writing and the sciences of arithmetic and astronomy. (see Enoch, Book of, Enoch, Book of, History) A.G.H.