Kenan

Kenan (also spelled Qenan or Kainan, as found in Luke 3:36, 37; Hebrew: קֵינָן, Modern Keinan Tiberian Qênān ; "possession; smith"), or Cainan, was a Biblical patriarch first mentioned in the Hebrew Bible Book of Genesis as living before the Great Flood.

Family

According to Genesis 5:9-14, Kenan/Cainan was a son of Enos and an unnamed woman, and a grandson of Seth. Born when Enos was ninety years old,^[1] Kenan had his only named son, Mahalalel, when he was seventy.^[2] Other sons and daughters were born to Kenan before he died at 910 years of age.

According to Book of Jubilees, Kenan's mother was Noam, wife and sister of Enos; and Kenan's wife, Mualeleth, was his sister.

Postdiluvian Cainan

Two men named Cainan are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus given in Luke 3 in the New Testament. One of these is the son of Enos above; a second Cainan is listed as the son of Arpachshad and father of Saleh, who lived in the time between Noah and Abraham.

This Cainan also appears in the Septuagint (Greek) Old Testament, but is omitted by the Hebrew Masoretic text. For this reason, this second Cainan has been considered to be a scribal error by some scholars, although it has recently been argued that the omission is deliberate.^[3] Despite his name being omitted from the rabbinical Hebrew text, a substantial number of traditions about this other Cainan exist in the history of literature.

References