This page was migrated in August 2022 from my older website, biblicalambiguities.net.
3 August 2022 Navigate 'up to the Genesis index: index-genesis.
And to Seth also was born a son, and he named him Enosh. Then was begun calling upon the name of Yahweh.
"Then was begun" is a literal translation of the Masoretic Text's az huhal. The KJV translates it "then men began." Same difference. Kittel suggests, as does Dillmann, that originally the text may have read ze(h) hohil, "This one (Enosh) began." So the difference concerns whether the "calling upon the name of Yahweh," Yahwistic worship, began in the time of Enosh, or was begun by him personally.
The ze reading finds support in the Septuagint and Vulgate.
Enosh is a "beginning" in a second sense as well. Enosh means "man," in a poetic sense. Presumably it or something like it is an archaic version of the Hebrew ish. In this way Enosh is a synonym for Adam, "human." They both head a list of characters with similar names.
In the genealogy of Cain (Qayin), the list is Adam, Qayin, Hanok, Irad, Mehuyael, Methushael, Lemek. In the genealogy of Seth they are Enosh, Qeynan, Mahalalel, Yered, Hanok, Methushelah, Lemek. On the two genealogies, see here.
As with other pages migrated from biblicalambiguities.net, this page may contain material paraphrased or even outright copied without direct attribution from a limited set of public domain resources described at biblicalambiguities-general-disclaimer and biblicalambiguities-translation-disclaimer.
This page is released under the CC0 1.0 license.