What “Walking with God” Actually Meant Before the Flood
Proto-Tabernacle Series - Week 3
Two men. Two verses. One phrase that appears only twice before the flood: Genesis 5:22–24 “Enoch walked with God … and he was not, for God took him.” Genesis 6:9 “Noah was a righteous man … Noah walked with God.”
The Hebrew phrase הִתְהַלֵּךְ אֶת־הָאֱלֹהִים is not common. It uses the hitpael form of הָלַךְ (halakh, “to walk”), which adds an intensive, reflexive sense: “to walk about with,” “to go back and forth in company with.” The preposition אֶת (et) is “with” in the sense of intimate presence (cf. Gen 3:8, where God walks “with” Adam in the Garden). Scripture reserves this exact construction for rare, intimate fellowship with God, never for casual or distant relationship.
Most of us read it as a gentle metaphor. The apostles and early church did not.
They asked the obvious question: If no one has ever seen God the Father (John 1:18), and if Enoch and Noah truly walked and talked with God for centuries, then who exactly were they walking with?
Their answer was clear: the same divine Person who later became flesh, the pre-incarnate Son, the Word who was with God and was God from the beginning (John 1:1–2).
This is the same Person whose footsteps Adam heard in the Garden (Gen 3:8). The same footsteps Enoch followed for 300 years. The same footsteps Noah followed while building the ark. The same footsteps that later walked Galilee, carried the cross, and will one day walk with us in the restored Eden.
Many of us have heard teachers soften this, some say “possibly” or “symbolically” when the text speaks so plainly. The apostles didn’t soften it. The early fathers didn’t soften it. They read the Hebrew directly and saw the Son walking with His people from the very start.
One-page printable takeaway:
Early church fathers who saw it clearly:
· Justin Martyr (~160 AD): “The Son walked with Enoch and Noah, just as He walked in the Garden.”
· Irenaeus (~180 AD): “The Word who became flesh is the same who conversed with Enoch and Noah.”
· Tertullian (~200 AD): “The Son is the One who walked with the patriarchs before the incarnation.”
· Origen (~230 AD): “The Logos accompanied Enoch and Noah in their walks with God.”
Bottom line: When Scripture says Enoch and Noah “walked with God,” it means they had face-to-face friendship with the same Person who later walked the roads of Galilee, carried a cross, and promises to walk with us again in the restored Garden.
Everything stays on one page. Print it, highlight it, keep it beside Genesis 5–6.
Next Saturday: the very first blood ever shed on planet earth and whose hands were covered in it (Genesis 3:21).
See you then.
Blessings, William
See you on the ancient paths.
© 2026 Galilee Publications. Just reading what’s written. Walk with us on the ancient paths.
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