Image Details

Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY

Time to go. God takes Enoch—this time by the wrist, not the hair!—in a 12th-century enamel altarpiece created by Nicolas of Verdun for an Abbey in Klosterneuberg, Austria.

The parallels between Enoch’s life and death (or near-death), as related in the Books of Enoch, and those of Jesus go beyond just being taken by God: Both men are “born of a woman” but recognized as the Messiah; during their lifetimes, both men receive visions of God’s kingdom as well as special insight into the workings of the cosmos (including the origins of good and evil); both foretell an apocalypse brought about by human wickedness (in Enoch’s case, the Flood); and both counsel their followers to be prepared and to walk in the ways of righteousness.