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This Is Appendix 21 From The Companion Bible. "Then began men to call upon the name of
Jehovah." If this refers to Divine worship it is not true: for Abel
and Cain both began, and their descendants doubtless followed their
example.
What was really begun was the profanation of
the Name of Jehovah. They began to call something by
the Name of Jehovah. The Authorized Version suggests
"themselves", in the margin. But the majority of the ancient
Jewish commentators supply the Ellipsis by the words "their
gods"; suggesting that they called the stars and idols their gods,
and worshipped them.
The Targum of Onkelos explains it: "then in
his days the sons of men desisted from praying in the Name of the
Lord."
The Targum of Jonathan says: "That was the
generation in whose days they began to err, and to make themselves idols,
and surnamed their idols by the Name of the Word of the Lord."
Kimchi, Rashi, and other ancient Jewish commentators
agree with this. Rashi says: "Then was there profanation in calling
on the Name of the Lord."
Jerome says that this was the opinion of many Jews in
his days.
Maimonides, in his Commentary on the
Mishna (a constituent part of the Talmud), The name Enos agrees with this; for his name means
frail, weak, sickly, incurable. The sons of men, as
"Enosh", are so called for a similar reason (Job
7: If Jonathan, the grandson of Moses, became the first
idolatrous priest in Israel (see notes on Judges
18: Moreover, what "ungodliness" did Enoch,
"the seventh from Adam" have to prophesy about in Jude
Surely this is sufficient evidence that this
profanation of the Name of the Lord was the reason why Enoch was raised up
to prophesy against it. |