Mahalalel | |
|---|---|
מַהֲלַלְאֵל | |
_Liber_Chronicarum_(serietitel)%2c_RP-P-2016-49-7-2_(cropped).jpg) | |
| Born | 395AM Maysan |
| Died | 1290AM (aged 895) |
| Era | Antediluvian |
| Spouse | Dinah |
| Children | Jared more sons and daughters |
| Parents |
|
| Relatives | Enos (grandfather) Seth (great-grandfather) Adam and Eve (great-great-grandparents) Cain (great-granduncle) Abel (great-granduncle) Mehujael (third cousin) Enoch (grandson) Methuselah (great-grandson) Lamech (great-great-grandson) Noah (great-great-great-grandson) |
Mahalalel (Hebrew:מַהֲלַלְאֵל,romanized: Mahălalʾēl,Ancient Greek:Μαλελεήλ, Maleleḗl) is anAntediluvianpatriarch named in theHebrew Bible. He is mentioned in theSethite genealogy as the grandfather ofEnoch and subsequently the ancestor ofNoah.
The meaning of the name could be translated as "the shining one ofEl."[1] TheKing James Version spells his nameMahalaleel[2] in the Old Testament andMaleleel[3] in the New Testament.
Mahalalel was born when his fatherKenan (Adam's great-grandson throughSeth) was 70 years old. He was one of many children of Kenan. (Genesis 5:12-13;1 Chronicles 1:2;Jubilees 4:14Luke 3:37).
When he was aged 54-60, Mahalalel married Dinah, the daughter of his paternal uncle Barakiel. At the age of 65, he fatheredJared (when theWatchers "descended on the earth" as perJubilees 4:15). He fathered many other children after that point (Genesis 5:15-16).
At the age of 227, he became a grandfather to Jared's sonEnoch (Genesis 5:18), who was born through Baraka, the daughter of Mahalalel's brother Râsûjâl (Jubilees 4:16).
Sometime before he turned 292, Mahalalel explained to Enoch the first of the two dream visions the latter had, as recounted through the perspective of Enoch:
I had laid me down in the house of my grandfather Mahalalel, (when) I saw in a vision how the heaven collapsed and was borne off and fell to the earth. And when it fell to the earth I saw how the earth was swallowed up in a great abyss, and mountains were suspended on mountains, and hills sank down on hills, and high trees were rent from their stems, and hurled down and sunk in the abyss. And thereupon a word fell into my mouth, and I lifted up (my voice) to cry aloud, and said: 'The earth is destroyed.' And my grandfather Mahalalel waked me as I lay near him, and said unto me:Why dost thou cry so, my son, and why dost thou make such lamentation? And I recounted to him the whole vision which I had seen, and he said unto me:A terrible thing hast thou seen, my son, and of grave moment is thy dream-vision as to the secrets of all the sin of the earth: it must sink into the abyss and be destroyed with a great destruction. And now, my son, arise and make petition to the Lord of glory, since thou art a believer, that a remnant may remain on the earth, and that He may not destroy the whole earth. My son, from heaven all this will come upon the earth, and upon the earth there will be great destruction. After that I arose and prayed and implored and besought, and wrote down my prayer for the generations of the world...
Roughly 300 years after this incident, Enoch was"taken up" by God (Genesis 5:23-24). At this point, Mahalalel was 592 years old.
When Mahalalel was 840, his 910-year-old father Kenan died (Genesis 5:14).
After Kenan's death, Mahalalel lived 55 more years and died at 895 (Genesis 5:17), placing him eighth in the records for the unusually long lifespans for theantediluvian patriarchs. At the time of Mahalalel's death, Noah was 234 as per the Masoretic chronology.
Mahalalel is mentioned in the various collections oftales of the prophets, which mentions him in an identical manner. Islamic scholar Tabari tells that his story was also found in Persian literature and likens him with thePishdadian kingHushang.
In the original 1835 edition of theDoctrine and Covenants, Mahalaleel wasused as a code name forAlgernon Sidney Gilbert.
Thomas Hardy, in his novel,The Return of the Native (1878), references Mahalaleel as one who betokened an advanced lifetime: "The number of their years may have adequately summed up Jared, Mahalaleel, and the rest of the antediluvians, but the age of a modern man is to be measured by the intensity of his history."[5]
The pet cat that comes to the manor in the storm inJoyce Carol Oates's novelBellefleur (1980) is named Mahalaleel.
Mahalalel is named as part of theGenerations of Adam by the narrator of the filmGenesis: The Creation and the Flood (1994).
In the filmNoah (2014),Lamech (played byMarton Csokas) remembers Mahalalel and other ancestors before conferring the Sethite birthright to the youngNoah (Dakota Goyo).