Genesis 5:24
Enoch Was Not Found
Wording onlyQuoted by the apostles in Hebrews 11:5, in the older Greek wording
Hebrews tells Enoch’s story in words the Genesis of your Bible never uses.
Side by Side
The Older Text
Septuagint, translated before Messiah
And Enoch was well-pleasing to God, and was not found, because God translated him.
The Later Text
Masoretic, finished about 1,000 years after the cross
And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Quoted in Hebrews 11:5
The apostle’s Old Testament
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Your KJV reads: the Hebrew “walked with God” in Genesis, then the Greek “pleased God” and “translated” in Hebrews.
See what changed and why ↓What Your Bible Says
And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Genesis 5:24 KJV
Genesis gives Enoch one short line. He walked with Elohim, and then he was gone, because Elohim took him.
What the Apostle Quoted
By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.
Hebrews 11:5 KJV
Hebrews tells the same story in other words. Enoch “pleased God.” He “was not found.” God “translated him.” None of those words is in the Genesis of the King James.
What the Older Text Says
And Enoch was well-pleasing to God, and was not found, because God translated him.
Genesis 5:24, Septuagint
The Greek of Genesis has every one of them. Hebrews did not make up a new story about Enoch. It quoted the Old Testament the apostles read, almost word for word.
What Changed
Nothing was cut and nothing was added. The Greek translators put “walked with God” into Greek as “was well-pleasing to God,” and “took him” as “translated him,” which means moved him from one place to another.
The meaning holds. A man who walks with Elohim is a man who pleases Him.
Purpose of the Change
No motive evident: wording variation only. The pair still matters because Hebrews 11:5 quotes the Greek wording, which is why your KJV says two different things about one man.
The Bottom Line
Genesis says he walked with Elohim. Hebrews says he pleased Him. It is one walk told in two languages.
That walk has a future. Messiah promises the faithful: “they shall walk with me in white: for they are worthy” (Revelation 3:4).
Dig Deeper The evidence, for anyone who wants it
Noah Too
The Greek does the same with Noah. Your KJV says “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). The Greek says “Noe was well-pleasing to God.” This was the translators’ habit, not a change made for one man.
Walking Is Doing
In Hebrew, to walk is to live a way of life. “What doth Yahuah require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” (Micah 6:8).
Hebrews puts belief first: “without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:6). Trust comes first, then the walk in His ways. Enoch had both.
An Honest Note
The two texts also give Enoch different numbers. The Greek says he walked two hundred years after Methuselah was born; the Hebrew says three hundred. Both end at 365 years. That is a different question, and it does not touch the wording Hebrews quoted.