Before going any further, consider the credibility of the annotations that were later penned into the manuscript to provide clarification and additional information having MARKERS like the ones shown earlier for Adam, Seth, Enos, and Cainan. These insertions were used by Smith in combination with the Book of Moses and D&C 107. Several things need to be considered to help better understand how Smith may have been influenced to use “430” years for
“all the days of Enoch” instead of the biblical (Genesis 5) “365” (65 + 300 = 365) which is the sum of adding the age of Enoch (65) when he begat Methuselah to (300) the rest of his days when he walked with God.
It’s possible the well known biblical number for Israel’s sojourn in Egypt was a factor in influencing Smith to use it in calculating his own revelation for Enoch. The 430 number referencing the life of Enoch is entirely a Joseph Smith construct and is not biblical.
Compare the following:
Exodus 12:40,41 wrote:Now the sojourning of the children of Israel, who dwelt in Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years. And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt.
D&C 107:49 wrote:And he saw the Lord, and he walked with him, and was before his face continually; and he walked with God three hundred and sixty-five years, making him four hundred and thirty years old when he was translated.
Now, let’s take a look at
page 19 on the manuscript and scroll down about 2/3 of the page and notice the annotation in the middle of the page inserted above the original handwriting of Sidney Rigdon where it says:
Old Testament Revision 1 & Annotation in RED wrote:. . . and from thence went forth the saying Zion is fled.]
And all the days of Enoch were 34 430 years
٨
The Joseph Smith Papers do not include the annotation in the transcript and makes no mention of the 430 years in the commentary. The following explanation provides insight on exactly how the above annotation was added to the page in real time:
1) The penman wrote:
“And all the days of Enoch were”
2) The penman wrote the number
“3”
3) The penman anticipated writing the numbers
365
4) The penman realized that the number
“3” was a mistake
5) The penman crossed out the number
“3”
6) The penman overwrote a large number
“4”
7) The penman was not happy with how it looked and crossed out the numbers
“34”
8) The penman moved on and wrote
“430 years”
Although Smith may have been influenced by the 430 years of the Exodus, there is however a more plausible explanation of how he arrived at that number.
1. The Geneses account and Smith’s revelations declare that Enoch was 65 years old when he begat Methuselah.
2. The Genesis acount affirms that
“And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years” but Smith did not adopt that but came up with his own total of 430.
3. Smith’s D&C revelation is that Enoch
“walked with God three hundred and sixty-five years, making him four hundred and thirty years old when he was translated.”
Therefore:
365 + 65 = 430
The above sum is undoubtedly how Smith arrived at his number of 430.