Genesis 4:17 names him as the eldest son of Kayin (Cain); a city was named after him, and he was the father of Irad (עירד).
However Genesis 5:18 ff makes him a son of Yared (ירד) who, aged 65, begat Metu-Shalach (Methuselah). Yared and Irad are clearly the same name under different spellings - and yet again we note that the variant rests in the Yud-Ayin exchange.
The Kayin link establishes the tribe - the Keynim (Kenites).
This Chanoch lived 365 years, and was taken up to god for his piety. As with all the elongated lives of the Toldot fragment in Genesis 5, the time-scale is either the life-span of the sacred oak (see essay on Cults and Myth-Making), whose tutelary deity and priesthood bore the name, in this case of Chanoch; when the tree died, the god was believed to have died too, and so the dynastic title came to an end; in the meanwhile, new oaks will have grown up in the same place, and the oldest and tallest will "inherit", with a new name bestowed for the god who inhabits the tree, and a new dynastic title for its high priest.
Genesis 25:4 has a different Chanoch (חנך without the vav - ו) as a son of Midyan and a grandson of Av-Raham out of Keturah. Given that the Keturah genealogy is almost certainly a "map" of Arabia Felix, it is highly probable that this Chanoch was the town of al-Hanakiya, just north of Medinah.
Genesis 46:9 makes him a son of Re'u-Ven (Reuben) (cf Exodus 6:14 and Numbers 26:5).
The name means "initiated" or "dedicated", which is an epithet for a priest and not a name for a child. Later authorities ascribed to him great wisdom and piety, including the authorship of a book bearing his name which had much impact on Mormonism. According to the Mishnah he invented the alphabet (wishful thinking on behalf of the Jews, who would like to claim every great man and every great achievement: the alphabet was Phoenician, developed in Ugarit and Byblos in the Lebanon, adopted by the rest of the Middle East, including Greek and Yehudit), and is treated as having been some kind of antediluvian prophet.
The festival of Chanukah (חנוכה) takes its name from the same root - nothing to do with the man or men, everything to do with the meaning of the name. The festival is said to commemorate the re-dedication of the Maccabbean Temple after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes. In fact, the festival, the Yisra-Eli equivalent of Diwali, and known as "The Festival of Lights" (חג העור), was of considerable antiquity long before the Maccabees defeated the Greeks; it is noted in the dedication of the original altar (חנוכת המזבח) in Numbers 7:11 and in the dedication of the House of David (חנוכת הבית לדוד) in Psalm 30:1.
Genesis 25:4 has a different Chanoch (חנך without the vav - ו) as a son of Midyan and a grandson of Av-Raham out of Keturah. Given that the Keturah genealogy is almost certainly a "map" of Arabia Felix, it is highly probable that this Chanoch was the town of al-Hanakiya, just north of Medinah.
Genesis 46:9 makes him a son of Re'u-Ven (Reuben) (cf Exodus 6:14 and Numbers 26:5).
The name means "initiated" or "dedicated", which is an epithet for a priest and not a name for a child. Later authorities ascribed to him great wisdom and piety, including the authorship of a book bearing his name which had much impact on Mormonism. According to the Mishnah he invented the alphabet (wishful thinking on behalf of the Jews, who would like to claim every great man and every great achievement: the alphabet was Phoenician, developed in Ugarit and Byblos in the Lebanon, adopted by the rest of the Middle East, including Greek and Yehudit), and is treated as having been some kind of antediluvian prophet.
The festival of Chanukah (חנוכה) takes its name from the same root - nothing to do with the man or men, everything to do with the meaning of the name. The festival is said to commemorate the re-dedication of the Maccabbean Temple after its desecration by Antiochus Epiphanes. In fact, the festival, the Yisra-Eli equivalent of Diwali, and known as "The Festival of Lights" (חג העור), was of considerable antiquity long before the Maccabees defeated the Greeks; it is noted in the dedication of the original altar (חנוכת המזבח) in Numbers 7:11 and in the dedication of the House of David (חנוכת הבית לדוד) in Psalm 30:1.
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