Enoch and Idris: What the Texts Say and How the Identification Developed

The important question is therefore not only “Are they the same?” It is “Which text or interpreter makes that identification, and what follows from it?”

Enoch in Genesis

Genesis 5 places Enoch in a genealogy, describes him as the father of Methuselah and gives his life as 365 years. Unlike the repeated death formula for other figures in the passage, Enoch is said to walk with God and then no longer be present because God took him.

This is a brief textual account, not a comprehensive biography. Its exceptional wording can help explain later interest without turning later details into the contents of Genesis itself.

Genesis 4 also names an Enoch as Cain’s son and the namesake of a city. Genesis 5 places the walking-with-God figure in Jared’s genealogy. A comparison should notice the distinct genealogical contexts rather than silently merge every person with the same name.

Enoch in a Christian text

Hebrews 11:5 interprets Enoch as taken through faith so that he did not experience death, and says that he pleased God. This is an example of a later scriptural interpretation drawing meaning from the earlier account.

It does not mean that every subsequent legend about Enoch has the same authority or appears in Hebrews. Identify the particular passage rather than treat “Christian tradition” as a single source containing every reported detail.

Idris in the Qur’an

The Arabic text of Qur’an 19:56–57 names Idris and describes truthfulness, prophethood and elevation. Qur’an 21:85–86 includes Idris among steadfast, righteous figures admitted to divine mercy. Neither passage supplies a detailed biography or explicitly states “Idris is Enoch” in Arabic.

The English translation displayed by Quran.com renders the name as Enoch. That makes the interpretive identification visible in the translation, not a separate Arabic statement naming both figures.

This is an important lesson in comparison. Translation can carry an exegetical decision that disappears if readers compare only English names.

The identification belongs to reception history

Jillian Stinchcomb’s case study distinguishes the brief Qur’anic statements from the later equation with Enoch. It discusses how interpreters drew the figures together and how Hermes also entered the network of identifications.

The history of that equation is a legitimate subject of research. It is not independent verification that a single historical person wrote all the books later attributed to Enoch or Hermes.

The first four rows follow the named scriptural passages and the reception-history case study; the final row follows the scholarly translation’s account of 1 Enoch.

What is 1 Enoch?

The scholarly preface to Nickelsburg and VanderKam’s translation describes 1 Enoch as a collection of apocalyptic texts composed from the late fourth century BCE to the turn of the era. That is a literary history, not a claim that Genesis’s patriarch personally wrote the collection centuries before those compositions.

The collection’s size and diversity matter when comparing a quotation or motif. Specify which part of Enochic literature is being discussed, rather than move from a short Genesis notice to every later text carrying the name.

Van Bladel’s study of the Arabic Hermes investigates how a pagan sage was re-presented in prophetic and scientific terms. It is useful for understanding why names and authority can move across literary traditions without proving all the associated biographies.

How to assess a proposed connection

Ask whether the connection is explicit in a source, inferred from similar motifs, or made by a later interpreter. Then ask what the connection is intended to establish: shared reception, religious identity, authorship or a recoverable historical person.

These conclusions require different evidence. A community’s recognition of a shared figure can be historically important even when no modern biography can be written from the surviving references.

Continue with the Emerald Tablet for a related case of Hermetic attribution. The text-relationship article explains how translation affects comparison.

From the author of this guide

Explore this question in Echoes of History

Echoes of History reads the Torah, the Gospels and the Qur’an side by side, with evidence and the author’s interpretation kept distinct.

Explore the book

Questions readers ask

Further reading and resources

Book links in this list are affiliate links to Amazon and Bookshop.org. As an Amazon Associate, Jossef Salman earns from qualifying purchases, at no extra cost to you.

• George W. E. Nickelsburg and James C. VanderKam, 1 Enoch: A New Translation: Based on the Hermeneia Commentary (Fortress Press, 2004; later revised editions also exist).Read the Enochic texts themselves with scholarly context instead of deriving them entirely from Genesis’s brief notice. The revised-edition preface explains the collection’s literary chronology. Amazon · Bookshop.org
• Kevin van Bladel, The Arabic Hermes: From Pagan Sage to Prophet of Science (Oxford University Press, 2009).Historical investigation of Hermes in Arabic reception, including identifications with prophetic figures. Reception history is not independent verification of a single author’s prehistoric biography. Amazon
• Gabriel Said Reynolds, The Qur’an and the Bible: Text and Commentary (Yale University Press, 2018), with Qur’an translation by Ali Quli Qarai.Passage-based comparison involving biblical and extra-biblical traditions. Read it for proposed connections and their arguments, not as a claim that all doctrines are identical. Amazon
• Echoes of History — Jossef Salman (2nd ed. 2026)Ancient religion, scripture and cosmology read as pointing to one Creator, with evidence and belief labelled.The author’s book

Written by Jossef Salman, author of Echoes of History.

This guide separates what a passage says, how traditions interpret it, what independent history can establish and the author’s own view. Scripture is paraphrased; reading lists include books by other authors, including views the author does not share.