Righteous Forefather Enos

Place in the Genealogy

Enos stands in the third generation after Adam: he was the son of Seth, the son whom Genesis presents as born to Adam and Eve in the place of Abel. Genesis 5 records his place in the long pre-flood line of patriarchs. Through his son Kenan, the line continued by way of Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, and Lamech to Noah.

The New Testament carries this same descent forward: the genealogy of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 3:38) names Enos in the line traced back through the patriarchs to Adam. It is on this account that the Church numbers him among the Forefathers of Christ.

"Men Began to Call Upon the Name of the Lord"

The defining scriptural notice attached to Enos comes at the close of Genesis 4: "And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enosh; then began men to call upon the name of the Lord" (Genesis 4:26). The remark has been read in more than one way — most commonly as marking the beginning of the public and communal worship of God, though some interpreters have understood it otherwise. The Genesis text itself supplies no further detail about his deeds.

The chronological figures given for him differ between textual traditions. By the Masoretic Text of Genesis 5:6–11, Enos was born when Seth was 105 years old, fathered Kenan at the age of 90, and lived 905 years; the Septuagint records different ages, placing his birth when Seth was 205 and his fathering of Kenan at 190.

Commemoration

Enos is honored among the Holy Forefathers, the Old Testament ancestors and forebears of Christ — patriarchs, prophets, and the righteous who lived before and under the Law. In the Orthodox calendar these are gathered into the commemoration of the Sunday of the Forefathers, kept on a fixed Sunday in the weeks before the Nativity of Christ, which sets the lineage of the incarnate Lord before the faithful as the Nativity feast approaches. His own fixed commemoration falls on December 14.