DID ENOCH DIE? (HEBREWS 11:5,13)

In The Atheist Papers, Rayan Zehn writes:

    “In order to answer the question of whether or not Enoch died, all we must do is read Hebrews 11. Most of the contradiction is found in this chapter, although the non-death death of Enoch also appears in Genesis 5:24.”

    “This book [sic, 'chapter'] begins by making examples out of Abel, Enoch, and Noah to show how faith is rewarded. In verse 5 Enoch’s faith is so strong that god [sic] rewards him by making him vanish into thin air. Instead of dying a physical death, god [sic] takes him (and his physical body) up to heaven.”

    “But then in verse 13 everyone mentioned in the previous verses dies, including Enoch.”

    “This is one of the funnier contradictions because it’s made in a single breath. I’m not quite certain why it wasn’t caught prior to publication. All they had to do was insert “except Enoch” in verse 13. It’s as simple as that!”

I will give credit to Zehn for pointing out this seeming contradiction since the answer is not as transparently obvious as his other “contradictions.” However, it still can be addressed in a fairly easy manner, as several scholars have already done. The problem passage should first be quoted in full before proceeding:

    “All of these died in faith without having received the promises, but from a distance they saw and greeted them.” (Hebrews 11:13; NRSV)

Thus, the major sticking point concerns the identity of “these/them.” The referent of this pronoun must be deduced by what is said in this verse regarding them. We learn from 11:13 that “these” were those who (a) did not die and (b) were given “the promises.” Thus, right off the bat we can exclude Enoch on at least the first account. And one could also make the point that even Abel and Noah in vv. 4-7 were not given the sort of promises God gave to Abraham and his descendants that they would found a mighty nation.

An analysis of the literary structure of Hebrews 11 helps to confirm the above statements. Thus, the author, after an introduction on the subject of faith (vv. 1-3), proceeds in chronological order to review the heroes of the faith from Abel to the Old Testament prophets (vv. 4-38) before the concluding statement in vv. 39-40. But there is one major exception to this chronological scheme in that vv. 8-22 comprises a more literary arrangement. Thus, the whole chapter can be diagrammed as follows:

    I. Introduction: Definition of Faith (vv. 1-3)

        II. The “Pre-Jewish” Ancestors (vv. 4-7)

            III. Jewish Patriarchs (vv. 8-22)

                A. From Abraham to Jacob (vv. 8-12)

                    B. Description of the faith of “these” (vv. 13-16)

                A'. From Abraham to Jacob's family (vv. 17-22)

        II'. Later Jewish Heroes (vv. 23-38)

    I'. Conclusion (vv. 39-40)

Thus, it appears that Hebrew 8-22 was intended to be comprehended as a whole unit so that the word “these” refers strictly to those particular patriarchs.

Confirmation of the above reasoning comes from the following statements from the scholarly literature:

    George Buchanan: “'These all' were Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and possibly Abel, Enoch, and Noah. The author probably meant only the patriarchs (plus Sarah), because they were the ones involved in 'the promises.'”

    F.F. Bruce says that 'these all' means “more particularly, those mentioned in the five preceding verses, Abraham (with Sarah), Isaac and Jacob who died in faith, as they had lived in faith. Their lives were regulated by the firm conviction that God would fulfil the promises He had given them, and in death they continued to look forward to the fulfilment of these promises, as is evident from the words in which Isaac and Jacob bestowed their final blessings on their sons or grandsons...”

So much for “one of the funnier contradictions” in the Bible.