ArabicإدريسIdrīslinked by tradition with dars, “study”
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Before the floodRead time 1 min TorahGospelQur'an
Enoch is one of the most mysterious people in scripture. Genesis gives him a few lines: he walked with God, “and he was not; for God took him”. The Qur'an praises Idris (peace be upon him) as truthful, a prophet whom God raised to a high station, and Muslim tradition commonly identifies the two. Later Jewish, Christian and Muslim writers made him a teacher of writing, of the stars and of wisdom. All agree that he was close to God and that his ending was unusual.
Watch
To watch
Each told by its own community, in its own words, side by side. More on F-ILM.
A Muslim telling
Idris (AS): Calling to Righteousness in a Corrupt Society | Imam Hicham HallADAMS Center - Official YouTube Channel · 5 minADAMS Center Prophets of Allah: Idris, five minutes.
For everyone
The Prophet Idrīs: The Islamic Enoch?ReligionForBreakfast · 17 minReligionForBreakfast: is Idris the Islamic Enoch? Scholarly, balanced, exactly the page's question.
Side by side
Three tellings
Quotations: Torah and Hebrew Bible, JPS 1917 · New Testament, World English Bible (British Edition) · Qur'an, Pickthall (1930). Translations and sources
THebrew Bible · Torah
In Jewish tradition's own words.
Enoch is the seventh generation from Adam and the father of Methuselah.
He lives 365 years and “walked with God”.
He does not die in the usual way: “God took him”.
“And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.”Genesis 5:24 · JPS 1917
The rabbis were divided about him: Genesis Rabbah 25:1 records doubt about his righteousness, while later mystical writings make him the angel Metatron.
The Book of Enoch, known from fragments among the Dead Sea Scrolls, is not part of the Jewish canon.
Hebrews counts him among the heroes of faith, taken so that he would not see death.
Jude quotes a prophecy of Enoch.
“By faith Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn’t see death, and he was not found, because God translated him.”Hebrews 11:5 · WEB (British Edition)
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church keeps the Book of Enoch in its Bible. Some early Christian writers saw Enoch and Elijah as the “two witnesses” of Revelation 11.
In the hadith of the Night Journey the Prophet (peace be upon him) meets Idris in the fourth heaven (Bukhari 3207; Muslim 162). Ibn Kathir reports that he was the first to write with a pen.
And Enoch walked with God, and he was not; for God took him.
Read the passages The Christian telling · 2
Hebrews 11:5 · New Testament · WEB British Edition
5
By faith Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn’t see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God.
Luke 3:37 · New Testament · WEB British Edition
37
the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan,
And We brought them in unto Our mercy. Lo! they are among the righteous.
Common ground
Where they agree
An early forefather of great righteousness.
Close to God.
Taken or raised up in an exceptional way.
Said plainly, ranked never
Where they differ
Judaism is ambivalent about him; Christians hold him up as a model of faith; in Islam he is a named prophet.
That Idris is Enoch is a Muslim scholarly view, not a statement of the Qur'an.
The Book of Enoch is scripture only for the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Medieval writers also linked Idris with Hermes Trismegistus: a learned legend, not scripture.
Era and place
The world of Idris
Where
No place is named in scripture. Some Islamic traditions place him in Babylon or Egypt.
When
Before the flood.
What archaeology can and cannot say
No archaeology bears on him. What can be shown is how writing began: cuneiform on clay in Sumer, about 3200 BCE, the kind of skill later tradition credits to him.
Genesis Rabbah 25:1 debates whether Enoch was righteous. Later mystical texts, and the Aramaic Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, describe him taken up and made the angel Metatron. 1 Enoch survives in full only in Ge'ez, the old language of Ethiopia.
Christian tradition
Hebrews 11:5 makes him a hero of faith, and Jude 14–15 quotes 1 Enoch 1:9. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church reads 1 Enoch as scripture.
Read the passages Hebrews 11:5
Hebrews 11:5 · New Testament · WEB British Edition
5
By faith Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn’t see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God.
Tafsir and hadith
Ibn Kathir, on 19:56–57, reports the identification with Enoch and the tradition that he first wrote with a pen and sewed clothes. “High station” is read as his high rank, or as the fourth heaven of the Night Journey.
George Nickelsburg and James VanderKam, 1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation (Fortress, 2012)
Reference works: Encyclopaedia Judaica (2nd ed.); The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church; Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.); Ibn Kathir, Qisas al-Anbiya.
