Enos

The son of Seth. (Gen. v. 6.) The name signifies sickness, mortality, yea, the word itself, Enos, is sickness.

or ENOSH, the son of Seth, and father of Cainan. He was born A.M. 235. Moses tells us that then “men began to call upon the name of the Lord,” Gen 4:26; that is, such as abhorred the impiety and immorality which prevailed among the progeny of Cain, began to worship God in public, and to assemble together at stated times for that purpose. Good men, to distinguish themselves from the wicked, began to take the name of sons or servants of God; for which reason Moses, Gen 6:1-2, says that “the sons of God,” or the descendants of Enos, “seeing the daughters of men,” &c. The eastern people make the following additions to his history:—that Seth, his father, declared him sovereign prince and high priest of mankind, next after himself; that Enos was the first who ordained public alms for the poor, established public tribunals for the administration of justice, and planted, or rather cultivated, the palm tree.

The grandson of Adam. He lived nine hundred and five years. Adam, Seth, and Enoch died before him; and Noah was contemporary with him eighty-four years, Gen 4:26 ; 5:6-11; Luk 3:38 . In his days "began men to call upon the name of the Lord" in organized and systematic public worship; then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord; that is, for the purpose of marking the distinction between men of God and the ungodly.\par

E’nos. (mortal man). The son of Seth, Gen 4:26; Gen 5:6-7; Gen 5:9-11; Luk 3:38, properly Enosh, as in 1Ch 1:1.

(Hebrews Enosh’, אֵֹנושׁ, poet. a man; Sept. and N.T. Ε᾿νώς ; Josephus ῎Ενωσος, Ant. 1:3, 2), the son of Seth, and grandson of Adam (Gen 5:6-11; Luk 3:38). He lived 905 years (B.C. 3937-3032), and is remarkable on account of a singular expression used respecting him in Gen 4:26, "Then began men to call on the name of the Lord." This isnot to be taken absolutely, as it would be absurd to suppose that none called on the name of the Lord before that time, and accordingly there are two interpretations given of the passage: one is the marginal reading of the A.V., "Then began men to call themselves by the name of the Lord," in order, it would seem, to distinguish themselves from those who were already idolators, and were termed children of men; the other, "Then men profanely called on the name of the Lord," intimating that at that period idolatry began to be practiced among men. The latter is the interpretation adopted by the Jewish expositors generally, but the former has more currency among Christian commentators. It may be observed that they both unite in the common idea of the widening difference between the pious and the wicked. In either case the passage may be regarded as implying that divine worship, which till that time had been confined to private families, now became public — that is, religious services were held on fixed days and in public assemblies. In 1Ch 1:1, the name is Anglicized ENOSH.

ENOS.—An ancestor of Jesus, Luk 3:38.

By: Emil G. Hirsch, Eduard König

Son of Seth, Adam's third son. In his time men began to call upon Yhwh (Gen. iv. 26). At the age of ninety he begat Cainan, and he died at the age of 900 years (Gen. v. 9-11; I Chron. i. 1). The name doubtless means "man," as it is equivalent to the often recurring "nomen appellativum" ("man," Deut. xxxii. 26) and the Aramaic (Dan. ii. 10). Enos and the descendants of Seth in general (Gen. v. 1 et seq.) have been regarded by some modern scholars as simply arbitrary pendants to the Cainites (Gen. iv. 17-24); but the two series of names are very different.

Bibliography:

Friedrich Delitzsch, Wo Lag das Paradies? p. 149;

A. H. Sayce, in The Expository Times, 1898-99, pp. 352 et seq.;

Hommel, Aufsätze und Abhandlungen, 1900, part ii., p. 222;

Gunkel, Handkommentar zur Genesis, 1901, p. 46.

The son of Seth (Genesis 4:5). He was 90 years old at the birth of his son Cainan, and lived 905 years. With Henoch and Lamech, Enos is the only one of the antediluvian patriarchs, of whom Genesis gives something besides his age and his name.