View source for Mahalalel

{{short description|Patriarch named in the Hebrew Bible}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Mahalalel
| image              = Mahalalel Malaleel (titel op object) Liber Chronicarum (serietitel), RP-P-2016-49-7-2 (cropped).jpg
| caption            = Mahalalel as depicted in the<br/>''[[Nuremberg Chronicle]]'' (1493 [[Common Era|CE]]).
| native_name        = {{Script/Hebrew|מַהֲלַלְאֵל}}
| native_name_lang   = he
| birth_date         = 395 [[Anno Mundi|AM]]<br />[[Maysan]]
| death_date         = 1290 [[Anno Mundi|AM]] (aged 895)
| era                = [[Antediluvian]]
| spouse             = Dinah
| children           = [[Jared (biblical figure)|Jared]]<br />more sons and daughters
| mother             = Mûalêlêth
| father             = [[Kenan]]
| relatives          = [[Enos (biblical figure)|Enos]] (grandfather)<br/>[[Seth]] (great-grandfather)<br/>[[Adam and Eve]] (great-great-grandparents)<br/>[[Cain]] (great-granduncle)<br/>[[Abel]] (great-granduncle)<br/>[[Mehujael]] (third cousin)<br/>[[Enoch]] (grandson)<br/>[[Methuselah]] (great-grandson)<br/>[[Lamech (father of Noah)|Lamech]] (great-great-grandson)<br/>[[Noah]] (great-great-great-grandson)
}}
'''Mahalalel''' ({{Langx|he|מַהֲלַלְאֵל|translit=Mahălalʾēl}}, {{Langx|grc|Μαλελεήλ, Maleleḗl}}) is an [[Antediluvian]] [[Patriarchs (Bible)|patriarch]] named in the [[Hebrew Bible]]. He is mentioned in the [[Seth|Sethite]] genealogy as the grandfather of [[Enoch]] and subsequently the ancestor of [[Noah]].

== Etymology ==
The meaning of the name could be translated as "the shining one of [[El (deity)#Hebrew Bible|El]]."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Benner |first1=Jeff A. |title=Definition of Hebrew Names: Mahalaleel |url=https://www.ancient-hebrew.org/names/Mahalaleel.htm |access-date=21 July 2021 |website=www.ancient-hebrew.org |publisher=[[Ancient Hebrew Research Center]]}}</ref> The [[King James Version]] spells his name '''Mahalaleel'''<ref>Genesis 5:12</ref> in the Old Testament and '''Maleleel'''<ref>Luke 3:37</ref> in the New Testament.

== Biblical narrative ==
Mahalalel was born when his father [[Kenan]] ([[Adam (Bible)|Adam]]'s great-grandson through [[Seth]]) was 70 years old. He was one of many children of Kenan. ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%205%3A12-13 Genesis 5:12-13]; [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Chronicles%201:2&version=NIV 1 Chronicles 1:2]; [http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/jubilees/4.htm Jubilees 4:14] [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%203%3A37&version=NIV Luke 3:37]). 

When he was aged 54-60, Mahalalel married Dinah, the daughter of his paternal uncle Barakiel. At the age of 65, he fathered [[Jared (biblical figure)|Jared]] (when the [[Watcher (angel)|Watchers]] "descended on the earth" as per [http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/jubilees/4.htm Jubilees 4:15]). He fathered many other children after that point ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%205%3A15-16 Genesis 5:15-16]).

At the age of 227, he became a grandfather to Jared's son [[Enoch]] ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%205%3A18 Genesis 5:18]), who was born through Baraka, the daughter of Mahalalel's brother Râsûjâl ([http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/jubilees/4.htm 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:

{{Quote|text=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...|title=[[Book of Enoch|1 Enoch 83: 3-10]]|source=<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sacred-texts.com/bib/boe/boe086.htm|title=THE DREAM-VISIONS (LXXXIII-XC.) LXXXIII. LXXXIV. First Dream-Vision on the Deluge. CHAPTER LXXXIII.|website=[[Internet Sacred Text Archive]]|language=en|access-date=2022-07-16}}</ref>}}

Roughly 300 years after this incident, Enoch was [[Entering heaven alive|"taken up"]] by God ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%205&version=NIV#:~:text=23%C2%A0Altogether%2C%20Enoch%20lived%20a%20total%20of%20365%20years.%2024%C2%A0Enoch%20walked%20faithfully%20with%20God%3B%20then%20he%20was%20no%20more%2C%20because%20God%20took%20him%20away Genesis 5:23-24]). At this point, Mahalalel was 592 years old.

When Mahalalel was 840, his 910-year-old father Kenan died ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%205%3A14 Genesis 5:14]).

After Kenan's death, Mahalalel lived 55 more years and died at 895 ([https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%205%3A17 Genesis 5:17]), placing him eighth in the records for the unusually long lifespans for the [[antediluvian]] patriarchs. At the time of Mahalalel's death, Noah was 234 as per the Masoretic chronology.

== Genealogy ==
{{Antediluvian patriarchs genealogy}}

== In Islam ==
Mahalalel is mentioned in the various collections of [[qisas al-anbiya|tales 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 the [[Pishdadian dynasty|Pishdadian]] king [[Hushang]].

==Allusions==
===Latter Day Saint usage===
In the original 1835 edition of the ''[[Doctrine and Covenants]]'', Mahalaleel was [[List of code names in the Doctrine and Covenants|used as a code name]] for [[Algernon Sidney Gilbert]]. 

=== Literature ===
[[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."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hardy |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZkThXFvOKZYC&q=The+Return+of+the+Native |title=The Return of the Native |date=1995 |publisher=Wordsworth Editions |isbn=978-1-85326-238-8 |language=en}}</ref>

The pet cat that comes to the manor in the storm in [[Joyce Carol Oates]]'s novel ''[[Bellefleur (novel)|Bellefleur]]'' (1980) is named Mahalaleel.

=== Films ===
Mahalalel is named as part of the [[Generations of Adam]] by the narrator of the film ''[[Genesis: The Creation and the Flood]]'' (1994). 

In the film ''[[Noah (2014 film)|Noah]]'' (2014), [[Lamech (father of Noah)|Lamech]] (played by [[Marton Csokas]]) remembers Mahalalel and other ancestors before conferring the Sethite birthright to the young [[Noah]] ([[Dakota Goyo]]).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Adam to David}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Book of Genesis people]]
[[Category:Bereshit (parashah)]]