Weird Stuff in the Bible

The Days of Jared: When the Watchers Came Down | Enoch 6 & Genesis 5
Enoch 6 & Genesis 5

Introduction
We’ve been studying Enoch, and a couple weeks ago we started into the juiciest chapter: Enoch 6.
This chapter is about when the Sons of God came down to earth, a story we’ve revisited countless times on the podcast.
And Enoch 6:6 contained this detail:
“And they were in all two hundred; who descended ⌈in the days⌉ of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon”
We actually read about this guy Jared in Genesis 5. He was actually Enoch’s daddy.
Genesis 5:18
When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch.
So Enoch’s book told us the Sons of God came down to earth in the days of Jared.
And what does the name Jared mean? “Shall Come Down.”
Wait a minute. Jared means “shall come down.” And the fallen Sons of God came down to earth in the days of Jared.
That’s…quite a coincidence. What is the connection between names and what was going on during the antediluvian period? And could understanding some of the other names of pre-flood people perhaps give us some clues about what was going on in the pre-flood world?
Because I find this to be weird, and I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to Genesis 5, and let’s get weird.
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(Continued)
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about…Hugh Grant. For a moment, anyway.
If you’re familiar with rom-coms in the 1990s, you’ve probably seen Hugh Grant here and there. I think I first remember him from Notting Hill. Why am I talking about this? Because I learned something about Hugh Grant.
His middle name…is Mungos. Mungos. His mama held him when he was born and pronounced his name to be Hugh Mongus.
This is not a joke. You can look it up yourself. I read that this week and I’m like: how big was this baby?
And I don’t know how big he was, but he probably wasn’t as big as some of the babies being born in the days of Jared. Why? Well, in his lifetime, the Sons of God- AKA the Watchers- began mating with human women, producing humongous people called the Nephilim, or giants. There are translations that use both of those terms. Genesis 6 tells us this story, and the book of Enoch does as well- with some added details.
One of those details was how many of the Watchers came down. It said there were 200 of them. Another exclusive detail is the location: Mount Hermon. Understanding the significance of Mount Hermon is going to bring a lot of spice to your Bible study once we delve into it, which should be next week.
But today, we’re going to be talking about the timing of this incursion. This nefarious plot to corrupt the bloodline of mankind. It was said to take place during the Days of Jared.

A Pointless Genealogy?
Genesis 5 is a really interesting chapter because it seems kind of pointless.
What? Uh, yeah, it’s one of those chapters that can have you scratching your head wondering: what’s the point? Genesis 5 is a genealogy. A genealogy is a list of names. This person lived this long, and then this person lived this long, and on and on. It’s about as exciting as reading the phone book. (I’m going to assume that we all know what a phone book is by this point). Genesis 5 is a list of 10 people who lived from Adam to Noah.
And when I say pointless, I don’t just mean in the sense that a lot of people read Bible genealogies and ask: what is the point of this? Because there’s an added level of bewilderment we might approach this genealogy with: why do I need to know all these people who lived before the flood? It all starts over with Noah anyway! So why even spend a whole chapter on this?
But if you’ve ever asked that question before, you won’t be asking it after today. Because there’s some pretty fascinating details to be found in Genesis 5’s genealogy, and the way it correlates with the Book of Enoch will be fun to study as well. So let’s read Genesis 5 today, and as we read through the names, I want to explain what all these names mean.
Also, to give you some context: the Genesis 5 genealogy from Adam to Noah is something you can easily map out on a timeline. If you go from Adam’s age all the way up to when Noah entered the ark, you can simply do the math and you’ll see that the earth was 1,656 years old when the flood came.
Now, I understand that not everybody listening is a Young Earth Creationist, so in your case, you might say it was 1,656 years old from the time of Adam’s Creation (or placement in the Garden of Eden) and the time of the flood. But however you want to look at it, the Bible is amazingly specific on this point, as well as the ages of these men who lived until that time.
Genesis 5:1-2
This is the book of the generations of Adam. When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. 2 Male and female he created them, and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created.
The first man was named Adam, and quite appropriately, his name simply means “Man.” Kinda like when you see a dog with a spot, so his owner just names him “Spot.” God basically created a man and named him “man.”
Genesis 5:3-5
3 When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth. 4 The days of Adam after he fathered Seth were 800 years; and he had other sons and daughters. 5 Thus all the days that Adam lived were 930 years, and he died.
It doesn’t mention Cain and Abel here because neither of them continued the bloodline of the Messiah, and this genealogy is focused on tracking the promise of a future child who would reverse the curse of sin- a child who would not actually come until thousands of years later in the person of Jesus Christ.
So we continue from Adam with he and Eve’s later son, Seth. Seth’s name means “appointed.” Perhaps because he was “appointed” as a replacement for Abel, who was killed.
Verses 6-8
6 When Seth had lived 105 years, he fathered Enosh. 7 Seth lived after he fathered Enosh 807 years and had other sons and daughters. 8 Thus all the days of Seth were 912 years, and he died.
The name Enosh means “mortal,” with the idea of being frail. Man is mortal, so man can die. And in the days of Enosh, perhaps that truth was becoming a very harsh reality.
And even though these men may have lived hundreds of years, they probably weren’t a bunch of old dudes with grey hair and beards walking around with canes like Gandalf. When man was created, man was created perfect. His DNA was designed to live forever. And for the first several generations of man, their DNA was probably so pure and perfect that they were healthier at 300 than most of us are at 30. Like, Adam probably didn’t even need to see a chiropractor until he was in his 600s.
So people lived much longer back then than we do today. There are numerous reasons for this- they had superior genetics. A lot of the diseases and sicknesses and health defects that are common today probably didn’t exist back then. And some theorize that there was a purer concentration of oxygen in the pre-flood atmosphere, which would have led to healthier bodies.
So it’s not weird at all that Seth is poppin’ out kids at 105. Well, it’s weird to us, unless you’re David Letterman. But it was totally normal to have kids at that age and probably for the next several hundred years after that, too. They must have, because the population seriously boomed during this 1600-year period leading up to the flood.
I did the math; if every couple just had one kid every 10 years- just one every 10 years, which is very spaced out- then by the time you get to the flood, you easily have tens of millions of people who have lived, if not hundreds of millions. Easily. So the population boomed in the pre-flood world.
Genesis 5:9-11
9 When Enosh had lived 90 years, he fathered Kenan. 10 Enosh lived after he fathered Kenan 815 years and had other sons and daughters. 11 Thus all the days of Enosh were 905 years, and he died.
Kenan’s name means sorrow.
Verses 12-14
12 When Kenan had lived 70 years, he fathered Mahalalel. 13 Kenan lived after he fathered Mahalalel 840 years and had other sons and daughters. 14 Thus all the days of Kenan were 910 years, and he died.
Mahalalel means “The Blessed God.” When you see a name ending with the letters E L, it usually means their name is saying something about God. Daniel means “God is My Judge.” Emmanuel means “God is With us.” A lot of the Watchers had names that ended with “-el,” as we read about the last couple of weeks.
Mahalalel’s name is linguistically similar to the word “hallelujah,” which means “Praise the Lord.” So again, Mahalalel means “The Blessed God.” And Mahalalel brings us to the days of Jared.

Investigating The Pre-Flood Timeline
Genesis 5:15-17
15 When Mahalalel had lived 65 years, he fathered Jared. 16 Mahalalel lived after he fathered Jared 830 years and had other sons and daughters. 17 Thus all the days of Mahalalel were 895 years, and he died.
As I said in the opening, the name Jared means “Shall Come Down.” And how interesting that the Watchers descended at a time when Jared- whose name means “shall come down”- was born. So it makes me wonder: did they actually come down in Mahalalel’s days, and so he named his kids after current events? Or was Jared’s name actually a prophecy? Since the book of Enoch says that the Watchers came down in the days of Jared, I take it that Jared’s name was basically a prophecy and that it happened in his lifetime.
But that’s a pretty wide berth of time when we investigate the pre-flood timeline. Let’s go back to Adam for a minute. Adam was made on the sixth day of creation. So we’ll call that Year Zero. How many years have actually passed from the time of Adam until the time of Jared?
Actually, not that much. If Adam was created at Year Zero, Jared would have been born in Year 460. So the earth is really not that old yet by the time we get to Jared.
Now, if that surprises you, it’s because we kept reading about all these guys who lived nearly a thousand years. But they’re all still alive at this point. It’s just that Adam had a kid at 130, Seth at 105, Enosh at 90, Kenan at 70, Mahalalel at 65. Add those up and we’re only at Year 460. Remember, the flood is not coming along until Year 1,656.
So if the Watchers came down to the earth and created the giants around year 460, they had more than a thousand years to try to corrupt the human bloodline with their cursed genetics. Now, they didn’t necessarily come down at year 460. Jared lived a long time, so the Days of Jared is not really that specific.
Genesis 5:18-20
18 When Jared had lived 162 years, he fathered Enoch. 19 Jared lived after he fathered Enoch 800 years and had other sons and daughters. 20 Thus all the days of Jared were 962 years, and he died.
So Jared lived 962 years. That’s a wide range of time. When he was born, the earth was in Year 460. When he died, the earth was at Year 1,422, so still a few hundred years before the flood. At what point in Jared’s life did the Watchers come down?
However, we actually can narrow it down to a pretty specific range of time based on Enoch’s book, by looking at Enoch’s age. So let’s talk about Enoch for a minute.
Genesis 5:21-24
21 When Enoch had lived 65 years, he fathered Methuselah. 22 Enoch walked with God after he fathered Methuselah 300 years and had other sons and daughters. 23 Thus all the days of Enoch were 365 years. 24 Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.
The Bible really puts a spotlight on this Enoch guy. Everything in this chapter is in a predictable pattern. So-and-so lived this long and had a son. Then he lived X number of years after. Again and again. Except for Enoch; he breaks the pattern because he never died. He was raptured to heaven at the age of 365, which would have been when the earth was in Year 987.
Now, there’s a whole lot more we could say about Enoch’s rapture, but we’ll get into that in the months ahead. For now, let’s just talk about the timeline. So Enoch was raptured in his dad’s lifetime. In fact, since Adam lived until the year 930, Enoch lived right alongside Adam for most of his life. Isn’t that wild? I mean, that blows my mind, but when you map out the timeline, you can see it right there.
Now, if there are hundreds of thousands of people on earth, or even millions, we can’t prove that Enoch met Adam; but it’s possible.
And not only that, Enoch was writing about the giants in his book. So that means the Watchers must have come down before Year 987. Long before that.
And not only that, I would narrow it down even further. Let’s re-read what Enoch said in chapter 6 of his book, verse 6: “And they were in all two hundred; who descended ⌈in the days⌉ of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon”
So if Enoch is writing about this event when the Watchers defended and he says that it happened “in the days of Jared,” that implies to me that it happened before Enoch was born. Because if Enoch was born, then Enoch could have said that it happened in his own day.
Kind of like, when my dad says “Back in my day…” he means the 70s or the 80s. Back when he was in high school. Back when Dukes of Hazzard wasn’t a rerun. Back when people sang about calling Jenny at 8675309. It wouldn’t make sense for my dad to say to me “back in my day” if he was talking about something that happened after I was born.
When I say “back in my day” to kids today, I’m not talking about the things that happened after they were born. I’m talking about the way things were when I was a kid; the dark ages of dial up internet and when we used things like phone books and when there were only three Star Wars movies and we didn’t realize how good that was.
So for Enoch, for him to write “in the days of Jared” implies to me that he’s talking about things that happened before he was born. I can’t prove that; but it seems a pretty safe bet.
So based on that, we can conclude that the Watchers came down between Year 460 and Year 622. Because that’s the 162-year timespan between Jared being born and Enoch being born. Enoch grew up in a reality where there were regular humans and there were giants. But not many giants; however, they increased in number- and humanity’s bloodline was corrupted more and more- as the years went on.
Now, this is a lot of information to take in verbally. I understand that. I hope I’m speaking clearly enough that you can kind of follow or visualize the timeline as I’m saying it. But if not, I will send out an infographic in my newsletter this weekend of the timelines of these biblical figures that we read about in Genesis 5, and I’ll try to show in that infographic when these pre-flood events likely took place. So if you’d like to receive that in the newsletter, simply sign yourself up in the show notes. I generally send out my newsletters every Sunday. And if you think you should be receiving them and you aren’t, check your spam folder. Or send me an email to WeirdStuffInTheBIble@gmail.com and I’ll make sure you are added to the list.
And if you find this episode later and think, well shoot, I missed the infographic, you can use that same link the show notes to see a whole archive of newsletters; just find the one that released on February 22, 2026.
Alright, back to today’s lesson, I just want to share one more thing before we finish up the chapter. In this section, we read about Enoch and Methuselah. Enoch’s name means “teacher” or “teaching.”
How perfect is that, as his book- the Book of Enoch- teaches us so much valuable information! And I believe Enoch was a prophet as well. After all, his writings have a very prophetic flavor to them. Jude says he accurately prophesied. And the name Enoch gave his son was a prophecy.
Enoch’s son was named Methuselah; Methuselah’s name means “His Death Shall Bring.” His death shall bring. What did Methuselah’s death bring? It sounds quite ominous. I’m sure everybody got a little nervous every time Methuselah got a cold. Let’s read what Genesis says about his life:
Genesis 5:25-27
25 When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he fathered Lamech. 26 Methuselah lived after he fathered Lamech 782 years and had other sons and daughters. 27 Thus all the days of Methuselah were 969 years, and he died.
969. I wouldn’t even want to live that long. That is the longest age of anybody in the whole bible; probably the longest of any person who has ever lived.
I remember this was one of the questions in Junior Bible Quiz, or JBQ, as I was growing up. How old was the oldest person who ever lived? Methuselah; 969 years. It was one of the 10-point questions.
But there’s more to that number than simply gaining 10 points for your JBQ team. If you consider the whole timeline, Methuselah was born in Year 687. He died 969 years later in Year 1,656. The year of the flood.
So what does that mean? Did he die in the flood? I don’t think so. “His death shall bring” the flood. His death marked the end of the antediluvian world.
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Prophetic Names
And in the genealogy, we’re actually getting close to the end, as Methuselah was Noah’s grandad. Methuselah had a son named Lamech, and Lamech had Noah.
Genesis 5:28-32
28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son 29 and called his name Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” 30 Lamech lived after he fathered Noah 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Thus all the days of Lamech were 777 years, and he died.
32 After Noah was 500 years old, Noah fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
So we get two more guys here, one who is especially important to the biblical narrative. First is Lamech; Lamech’s name means “the despairing.” That name probably speaks to the mood of civilization at this time in history.
I mean, think about it: we’re now in the years leading up to the flood. Civilization has gotten so bad, God is going to wipe out all life on the planet. As we learned about in last week’s episode about the sins of the Watchers, not only did they create the giants, but they also taught people skills in witchcraft, new ways for people to kill each other with weapons, and more forbidden knowledge. So right before the flood was not a happy time. Lamech’s name means “the despairing.”
But then Noah was born, and Lamech had a prophecy to speak over Noah’s life: he said, “out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and the painful toil of our hands.” And Noah’s name means “comfort” or “rest.”
Now, I’ve been giving you the names of all these men in the Genesis 5 genealogy and what they mean. But something really interesting happens when you put them all together. If you’re a student of Chuck Missler, as I am, you have probably heard this before. He passed away in 2018 but he loved to speak about what happens when you put all the names in the Genesis 5 genealogy together. Here is what it’s saying:
Man is appointed mortal sorrow. The blessed God shall come down teaching. His death shall bring the despairing rest.
In other words, the first 10 names in the genealogy of the Messiah give us the gospel message.
Man is appointed mortal sorrow. Man is fallen. Man sinned, and as a consequence of that sin, life will stink. As Lamech said, we have painful toil. And then it’s appointed unto all of us to die. Man is appointed mortal sorrow.
But our Heavenly Father had a backup plan. The blessed God shall come down teaching. It wasn’t just the Sons of God in Genesis 6 who came down. The Son of God came down as well. And the people called him rabbi- good teacher. And He didn’t just come to teach; He came to die.
But His death shall bring the despairing rest. We who have been appointed mortal sorrow- we who have despaired- are brought rest by the work of Jesus, living a perfect life of good works, and then dying for our sins on the cross, purchasing our redemption and our way to heaven, something we could never earn for ourselves.
Hebrews 4:11 says
Let us therefore strive to enter that rest…

Next Time
Next time on this podcast, we will continue our exploration of the Book of Enoch. My plan- if I can get my research done in time- is to talk about where the Watchers came down when they came down.
Let me read Enoch 6:6 one more time: “And they were in all two hundred; who descended ⌈in the days⌉ of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon”
What is the significance of Mount Hermon to the biblical story? Make sure you’re subscribed so you can find out all about it!
Some of this stuff I’ve been talking about today is even easier to understand if you have a visual aide. So if you want one, make sure you’re signed up for my newsletter through that link in the show notes. I’ll send you a graphic that shows the lifespans of these men who we’ve been talking about today. There are even more exciting insights we can dare out when we see it all laid out on paper. Again, sign up for the newsletter in the show notes.
SHOUTOUT to CHRYSTAL- New Official Weirdo, which means she’s listened to at least 25 episodes. Glad to have you in our weird club, Chrystal.

Closing Thoughts
In closing, I want to make one final note about timelines. There’s a lot of confusion around
Genesis 6:3
Then the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.”
God says this right in the midst of talking about the Watchers who came down and created the giants in Genesis 6. So some take this verse to mean that God was putting a hard limit on the lifespans of humans from that point on; that after the sins of the Watchers, men would no longer live longer than 120 years.
There are some problems with that interpretation, though; there are a lot of people who lived longer than 120 years after Noah and the flood. Abraham himself- who came along hundreds of years after the flood- lived 175 years.
In my opinion, Genesis 6:3 is not putting a limit on man’s lifespan- even though it does seem to be around 120 years in modern times. But I think it makes more sense to say that Genesis 6:3 was a countdown. God had had enough. This was the point at which God officially decided to lock in that He would send a flood which would wipe out all life on earth. And perhaps this is when God told Noah to start getting a big boat ready.
Now, Genesis 6 also says Noah spent 100 years building the ark. Which means Noah had to spend like the first 20 years just getting the building permits. With that much red tape, no wonder God had to flood the world.
God doesn’t pronounce judgment without also pronouncing a way to avoid the judgment. God didn’t just tell us that we had 120 years left. God also gave Noah the blueprint for an ark of salvation. And then once the rain started falling, God left the door open for 7 days before He shut it. All mankind had to do was strive to enter that Ark, and God took care of the rest.
A flood that wipes out all life on the planet sounds harsh. But yet God is way more patient and gracious than any of us. The 120 years wasn’t the first countdown and warning that God gave. He also announced a warning with Methuselah’s life- that Methuselah’s death would bring judgment- and then what happened next? Methuselah’s lifespan was longer than any other person who ever lived.
It’s amazing what you can learn when you dig into the Bible’s genealogies.
So, a lot of people think the amount of space that the Bible devotes to these genealogies is weird. And they think it’s even more weird to spend one of the precious few pre-flood chapters on a bunch of guys who lived in a world that effectively got wiped away by the flood.
But the Bible is not weird. WE are weird, because we didn’t know about how much valuable information was hidden in that chapter. But now we do. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time on Weird Stuff in the Bible.

Note: if ever making a chapter, end it with the bold sentence above.