Lamech (father of Noah)
Son of Methuselah and father of Noah
- Father
- Methuselah
- Son
- Noah
- Wife
- Bitenosh (Genesis Apocryphon); Betenos (Jubilees)
- Age at death
- 777 years (Genesis 5:31)
- Main texts
- Genesis 5:25–31; 1 Enoch 106; Genesis Apocryphon
Noah's father, who in Genesis names his son for comfort and in the Dead Sea Scrolls fears the boy was fathered by a Watcher.
What is Lamech known for?
In Genesis 5 Lamech is the son of Methuselah. He fathers Noah at 182 and names him with a hope that the boy will bring comfort from the toil of the cursed ground. Genesis says he lived 777 years. He is distinct from the other Lamech of Genesis 4, a descendant of Cain.
Two Second Temple texts give him a dramatic scene. In 1 Enoch 106 the newborn Noah has skin white as snow and eyes that light up the house like the sun, and he speaks to God. Lamech fears the child is not his but like the offspring of the angels, and sends Methuselah to ask Enoch, who reassures him. The Genesis Apocryphon from Qumran Cave 1 tells the same story in the first person: Lamech suspects the conception came from the Watchers and confronts his wife Bitenosh, who swears the child is his.
Lamech is known from Genesis and these later retellings. The site has a separate page on Lamech and Bitenosh.
Lamech's fear that Noah was a Watcher's child is one of the site's key Dead Sea Scrolls episodes.
Mentioned on these pages
- Rabbit holeGenesis Apocryphon
- Rabbit holeLamech and Bitenosh
- Rabbit holeMethuselah
- PassageLamech's wife swears (Genesis Apocryphon, column 2)
- PassageNoah's strange birth (1 Enoch 106:1–6)
- PersonEnosh
- PersonNahman Avigad
- PersonUbara-Tutu
- PlaceIsrael Museum (Shrine of the Book)
Sources
- Genesis 5 (KJV), Bible GatewayPrimary text
- 1 Enoch 106, trans. R. H. Charles (1917), sacred-texts.comPrimary text
- Wikipedia, 'Lamech (father of Noah)'Reference
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