Enoch, Where Was He?
- stephenstrent7
- 6 days ago
- 6 min read
Where Science Meets the Old Testament, for the Come Follow Me lesson January 26- February 1 ; Genesis 5; Moses 6
We are told in Doctrine and Covenants 107:48-49, “Enoch was twenty-five years old when he was ordained under the hand of Adam; and he was sixty-five and Adam blessed him. And he saw the Lord, and he walked with him, and was before his face continually; and he walked with God three hundred and sixty-five years, making him four hundred and thirty years old when he was translated.” Then we are told in 107:53-57, “Three years previous to the death of Adam, he called Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, and Methuselah, who were all high priests, with the residue of his posterity who were righteous, into the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman, and there bestowed upon them his last blessing. And the Lord appeared unto them, and they rose up and blessed Adam, and called him Michael, the prince, the archangel. And the Lord administered comfort unto Adam, and said unto him: I have set thee to be at the head; a multitude of nations shall come of thee, and thou art a prince over them forever. And Adam stood up in the midst of the congregation; and, notwithstanding he was bowed down with age, being full of the Holy Ghost, predicted whatsoever should befall his posterity unto the latest generation. These things were all written in the book of Enoch, and are to be testified of in due time.”
We read in Moses 6:21-23, “And Jared lived one hundred and sixty-two years, and begat Enoch; and Jared lived, after he begat Enoch, eight hundred years, and begat sons and daughters. And Jared taught Enoch in all the ways of God. And this is the genealogy of the sons of Adam, who was the son of God, with whom God, himself, conversed. And they were preachers of righteousness, and spake and prophesied, and called upon all men, everywhere, to repent; and faith was taught unto the children of men.” Then, in Moses 6:26-28, we read, “And it came to pass that Enoch journeyed in the land, among the people; and as he journeyed, the Spirit of God descended out of heaven, and abode upon him. And he heard a voice from heaven, saying: Enoch, my son, prophesy unto this people, and say unto them—Repent, for thus saith the Lord: I am angry with this people, and my fierce anger is kindled against them; for their hearts have waxed hard, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes cannot see afar off; And for these many generations, ever since the day that I created them, have they gone astray, and have denied me, and have sought their own counsels in the dark; and in their own abominations have they devised murder, and have not kept the commandments, which I gave unto their father, Adam.”
So, Adam met with the high priests and “the residue of his posterity who were righteous…[in] the valley of Adam-ondi-Ahman”. Then we see Enoch being told by God that, “I am angry with this people…for their hearts have waxed hard, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes cannot see afar off; And for these many generations, ever since the day that I created them, have they gone astray…” etc. There appears to be two distinct populations here, the righteous and “this people” who were wicked.
We are given some very odd information in Moses 6:37-42, “And it came to pass that Enoch went forth in the land, among the people, standing upon the hills and the high places, and cried with a loud voice, testifying against their works; and all men were offended because of him. And they came forth to hear him, upon the high places, saying…there is a strange thing in the land; a wild man hath come among us…And there came a man unto him, whose name was Mahijah, and said unto him: Tell us plainly who thou art, and from whence thou comest? And he said unto them: I came out from the land of Cainan, the land of my fathers, a land of righteousness unto this day. And my father taught me in all the ways of God. And it came to pass, as I journeyed from the land of Cainan, by the sea east, I beheld a vision; and lo, the heavens I saw, and the Lord spake with me, and gave me commandment; wherefore, for this cause, to keep the commandment, I speak forth these words.”
These verses make it clear that Enoch was somewhere else preaching to the people. He had come from “Cainan, the land of my fathers, a land of righteousness unto this day”, and had journeyed “from the land of Cainan, by the sea east”. So, where was Enoch? There are at least two possibilities, one is that there is only one Adam-ondi-Ahman, in what is now Spring Hill, Missouri. Doctrine and Covenants 116:1 states, “Spring Hill is named by the Lord Adam-ondi-Ahman, because, said he, it is the place where Adam shall come to visit his people, or the Ancient of Days shall sit, as spoken of by Daniel the prophet.” That Adam-ondi-Ahman being that same Adam-ondi-Ahman, as described in Doctrine and Covenants 107:53, where Adam met with his descendants, the high priests, three years before his death.
The other possibility is that there are two Adam-ondi-Ahmans, one, apparently, in the Middle East, where Adam met with his descendants, and a different Adam-ondi-Ahman, in Missouri, where Adam shall come to visit his people.
If there is only one Adam-ondi-Ahman, then the Cainan, mentioned in Moses 6, must be more-or-less associated with modern-day Missouri, and is not the same as Canaan in the Middle East. If, on the other hand, there are two Adam-ondi-Ahmans, then the Cainan in Moses 6 may be the same as Canaan in the Old Testament.
Wherever Ether was, he traveled “from the land of Cainan, by the sea east”. If that Cainan is the same as Canaan, then the “sea east” could be the Dead Sea or the Sea of Galilee; or it could even be the Mediterranean, if the maps (or at least directions) of his time were reversed from what they are now, as was sometimes the case. If that Cainan is not the same as Canaan, but was in Missouri, then the “sea east” must be referring to the Atlantic, which is over a thousand miles from Missouri. It seems very unlikely that Enoch would have traveled on foot from Missouri by the Atlantic Ocean to wherever he was going.
It seems to be the general opinion of modern Church leaders that the term Adam-ondi-Ahman refers to a single place: Spring Hill, Missouri, that the Garden of Eden was nearby, and that the prediluvian story transpired on this, the American continent. That is the basic story I accept at the present time, and is the site I accept as the starting point where Noah built his ark.
The website, Mormon Historic Sites Foundation states, “The area known as Adam-ondi-Ahman is located in Daviess County, 70 miles northeast of Independence, Missouri. It is a place of beginnings, departures and returns. This is where Adam and Eve first dwelt when they left the Garden of Eden.”1
According to Elder Bruce R. McConkie, President Joseph Fielding Smith has stated, “In accord with the revelations given to the Prophet Joseph Smith, we teach that the Garden of Eden was on the American continent located where the City of Zion, or the New Jerusalem, will be built. When Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden, they eventually dwelt at a place called Adam-ondi-Ahman, situated in what is now Daviess County, Missouri. … We are committed to the fact that Adam dwelt on [the] American continent.”2
Until we are told something different, or there is other compelling evidence to the contrary, I tend to accept the idea that there is only one Adam-ondi-Ahman, on the American continent, in Missouri. Therefore, the story extending from Adam to Noah was played out on this stage, and wherever Enoch was sent to preach to the wicked was apparently somewhere on this continent.
Trent Dee Stephens, PhD
References
1. Mormon Historic Sites Foundation; mormonhistoricsites.org
2. McConkie, Bruce R, Doctrines of Salvation, 3:74, Bookcraft, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1956