Kenan
Kenan | |
|---|---|
| Spouse | Mualeleth |
| Children | Mahalalel more sons and daughters |
| Parent | Enos |
| Relatives | Seth (grandfather) |
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 is considered to be a scribal error by some scholars. Nevertheless, a substantial number of traditions about this other Cainan exist in the history of literature.