Greek word · G1800
Ἐνώς
enōs
Enosh
Greek spelling of Hebrew ʾĕnôš, a personal name that is also a common, mostly poetic word for "human being, mortal", often with a note of frailty (Psalm 8:4; 103:15: "as for ʾĕnôš, his days are like grass").
Appears once in the Greek New Testament. ·
What it means
From G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (1922), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
Greek spelling of Hebrew ʾĕnôš, a personal name that is also a common, mostly poetic word for "human being, mortal", often with a note of frailty (Psalm 8:4; 103:15: "as for ʾĕnôš, his days are like grass").
- Against the English
KJV and ESV spell it "Enos" (from the Greek). BSB, NIV and NASB use "Enosh" (from the Hebrew). The name's meaning, "mortal human", is invisible in English.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Genesis 4:26 links Enosh's birth with the time people "began to call on the name of the LORD". The Greek Genesis renders this as "he hoped to call on the name of the Lord God". Later Jewish tradition read Enosh in different ways: some writers saw him as a model of hope, and some rabbinic sources saw his generation as the start of idolatry.
Where it appears
Luke · 1
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Luke 3:38 Ἐνὼς of Enosh
the son of Enosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
Here: Enosh, son of Seth (Genesis 4:26; 5:6). His Hebrew name ʾĕnôš is an ordinary word for a human being, often a frail, mortal one. Genesis connects him with the time when people "began to call on the name of the LORD".
Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.