21. Enoch lived sixty-five (165) years and begat Methuselah.

"Enoch... begat Methuselah..." In literal translation from Hebrew, this name, according to authoritative Hebrewists, means: "man of the arrow, man of weapons." Since, according to a more probable calculation, Methuselah perished in the very year of the flood, it is found possible to see in his name a symbolic indication of his death from this arrow of divine wrath, i.e., from the flood. And this is all the more probable since Methuselah's father, the righteous Enoch, according to the Apostle Jude (14-15) [374a], prophesied about the flood and, therefore, in the spirit of this insight, could easily give a corresponding name to his son.

22. And Enoch walked with God, after begat Methuselah, three hundred (200) years, and begat sons and daughters.

"And Enoch walked with God..." Such an expression occurs repeatedly in the Bible (VI:9; Micah VI:8 [374]; Mal II:6 [375], etc.), and everywhere it signifies the highest degree of the moral direction of man's life, when he has become deeply imbued with a reverent sense of divine omnipresence, that with the eyes of faith he constantly sees God before him, and in strict accordance with this he harmonizes the whole manner of his behavior and every step of his life. This expression is even somewhat broader, namely, it contains an allusion to the consequences of such good behavior, in the form of a special and exceptional closeness to God, as it is rendered in the Slavonic text: "and Enoch please God," as well as the Apostles Paul (Hebrews XI:5 [376]) and Jude (14 [377]).

24. The piety of Enoch and his taking alive to heaven.

23. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. 24. And Enoch walked with God; and he was gone, because God took him.

"and he was no more, because God took him..." "And not being found" (LXX, Slavic) — Enoch, i.e. he was not absolutely destroyed, but mysteriously disappeared from among men. This one deviation of the biblical author from his usual way of expressing the death of the patriarchs shows that the end of Enoch's earthly life did not resemble the death of the other patriarchs, and, therefore, was not ordinary. The further words of the text "because God took him" reveal this very idea, although perhaps also not sufficiently detailed and clear, turning to the biblical parallels for clarification of this phrase, we find that they are literally repeated once again regarding the prophet Elijah (2 Kings II), from whose history it is positively known that he was miraculously taken alive to heaven. The same thing, according to the Apostle Paul's interpretation, had happened even earlier with Enoch (Hebrews XI:5 [376]; cf. Sir L:16 [378]).

That is probably why in the Holy Scriptures Elijah and Enoch are presented together, as forerunners of the Lord's terrible second coming to earth (Revelation XI, cf. Matthew XVII; Mark IX; Luke IX). Such an understanding of Enoch's death, finally, fully corresponds to the context in which this death is presented as a reward to the righteous man for his piety; Since death is "the penalty of sin" (Romans VI:23 [379]), and Enoch has sufficiently atoned for his guilt by his "walking with God", he also transmigrates to the afterlife, without seeing the corruption of the flesh (Psalm XV:10 [66]), which has undergone an instantaneous transformation in the likeness of what awaits the apostle, according to the promise of the Apostle, and the bodies of believers who are contemporaries of the Lord's second glorious coming (1 Corinthians XV:20-23 [380]; 2 Corinthians V:4 [381]; 1 Thessalonians IV:17 [382]).

25. Methuselah lived a hundred and eighty-seven years and begat Lamech.

"Methuselah... begat Lamech..." From the genealogy of the Cainites, we already know that the name "Lamech" means "a fierce man, a man of war and destruction." It is only difficult to determine with certainty how the thought of the Sethites is symbolized by such a name, which seems to be inappropriate for them. Most likely, it should be seen as a trace of the warlike and God-hostile spirit of the Cainites, which from this generation began to be noticeably strongly felt among the Sethites.

26. After begat Lamech, Methuselah lived seven hundred and eighty-two years and begat sons and daughters. 27. And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years; and he died.

"And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred and sixty-nine years..." He is the most enduring of all the ten antediluvian patriarchs (and together with all the historically known men), whose years or ages have become proverbial (the years, the age of Methuselah).

28–32. Noah and three sons.

28. Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two (188) years, and begat a son, 29. and he called his name Noah, saying, "He will comfort us in our work and in the labor of our hands in tilling the land which the Lord (God) has cursed."