🔼The name Enoch: Summary
- Meaning
- Inaugurated, Trained
- Etymology
- From the root חנך (hanak), to inaugurate or train.
🔼The name Enoch in the Bible
There are three Enochs mentioned in the Bible (not counting the highly similar name Hanoch):
- The first Enoch is a son of Cain, who was the first son of Adam and Eve.
- The second Enoch is a town named after the first, built by Cain, apparently in the land of Nod (Genesis 4:17).
- The third Enoch is a son of Jared, of the line of Seth, third son of Adam and Eve (Genesis 5:19). This Enoch, who famously "walked with God," is the seventh generation (where Adam is the first; Jude 1:14, Hebrews 11:5; spelled Ενωχ). This man also appears in the Lucan genealogy of Christ (Luke 3:37).
🔼Etymology of the name Enoch
The name Enoch comes from the root חנך (hanak):
חנך
The root חנך (hanak) deals with the beginning of discernment, which is the beginning of wisdom: discernment via taste, which is the first discernment and thus mode of wisdom a baby learns (hence the many Biblical metaphors that equate wisdom with food or milk).
The noun חך (hek) means mouth as the seat of taste (the more common word for mouth, namely פה, peh, emphasizes the mouth as orifice). From the noun חך (hek) comes the verb חנך (hanak), to "mouth," i.e. to inaugurate, train or dedicate. Likewise, adjective חניך (hanik) means trained or experienced. Noun חנכה (hanukka) means dedication.
Noun חכה (hakka) describes a fishing hook, or a hook that grabs a prey's jaw, or rather a prey's sense of taste. Perhaps accidentally similar, but perhaps not, the verb חכה (haka) means to wait or await for, and particularly to wait for sustenance. Often this verb's object is the Creator, or the sustaining insight in the Laws of the Creator.
🔼Enoch meaning
For a meaning of the name Enoch, Jones' Dictionary of Old Testament Proper Names proposes Initiated. NOBSE Study Bible Name List reads Dedicated.