dssdead-sea-scrolls
G — Biblically Based Apocryphal Works
Chapter 4
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Various Qumran caves have yielded for the first time the original Aramaic text of one of the major Pseudepigrapha, the Book of Enoch, which was previously known from a complete Ethiopic translation and from a Greek rendering of chapters I-XXXII and XCVII-CI, CVI-CVII, as well as from a number of Greek quotations from chapters to xv transmitted by the Byzantine writer George Syncellus. Qumran Cave has yielded seven copies of the writing attested by, but not strictly identical to, the Ethiopic, and four further copies of the related Book of Giants, dependent on chapter of Enoch, fragments of which have been discovered also in 1Q and 6Q. Palaeographically, all of them are dated to between BCE and the end of the pre-Christian era. The differences they display concern partly the structure of the work, e.g. the astronomical section is more developed in parts than the text from which the Ethiopic Enoch LXXII-LXXXII was made, while the Book of Parables with its Son of Man speculation is completely lacking at Qumran. There are also noticeable stylistic divergences which may be attributable more to the absence of a unified text of Enoch than to the work of the Ethiopic translator. The bulk of the fragments is too small for translation. It would be wholly meaningless to render into English the retranslation into Aramaic of the Ethiopic and/or Greek text supplied by their editor, J. T. Milik, who has conjecturally filled the many gaps in the Qumran manuscripts. The passages included in this volume are those which make sense in themselves. The first excerpt supplies the Aramaic names of the twenty chiefs of the fallen angels. The second relates the miraculous birth of Noah, which should be compared to the parallel accounts in the Genesis Apocryphon col. and in the fragments of the Book of Noah. The third
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and fourth extracts testify to a recension noticeably different from the corresponding Ethiopic version. The fifth, the Astronomical Book, is - as has been noted - considerably longer than the Ethiopic. As for the Book of Giants, it is missing from the Ethiopic, though it circulated in Manichaean, Talmudic and medieval Jewish literature. For a preliminary edition, see J. T. Milik, The Books ofEnoch:Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4, Oxford, 1976. See also for 4Q201 2-8, and 2-3, L. Stuckenbruck, DJD, XXXVI, 3-48. For 4Q208-9, see E. J. C. Tigchelaar and F. García Martínez, DJD, XXXVI, 95-171. For the Ethiopic, see M. A. Knibb with the assistance of Edward Ullendorff, The Ethiopic Book of Enoch I-II, Oxford, 1978. For a general introduction, cf. HJP III, 250-68. 4Q201 1=Ena.. And these are the names of their chiefs. Shemihazah who was their head, Arataqoph, his second; Ramtael, third to him; Kokabe l, fourth to him;. el, fifth to him; Ramael, sixth to him; Daniel, seventh to him; Ziqiel, eighth to him; Baraqel, ninth to him; Asael, tenth to him; Hermoni, eleventh to him; Matarel, twelfth to him; Ananel, thirteenth to him; Stawel, fourteenth to him; Shamshiel, fifteenth to him; Shahriel, sixteenth to him; Tummiel, seventeenth to him; Turiel, eighteenth to him; Yomiel, nineteenth to him; Yehaddiel, twentieth to him. These are the chiefs of the chiefs of tens. These and their chiefs took for themselves wives from all those whom they chose and they began to go in to them and defile themselves with them and to teach them sorcery and magic.. And they became pregnant by them and bore giants..
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4Q204=Enc.. And after these shall come a greater wickedness than that which will have been accomplished in their days. For I know the mysteries of the Lord which the holy ones have explained and showed me and which I read in the heavenly tablets. And I saw written in them that one generation after another will do evil in this way, and evil will last until generations of righteousness arise and evil and wickedness shall end and violence shall cease from the earth and until good shall come on the earth on them. vacat And now, please go to your son, Lamech, and explain to him that this child is his son in truth and without lie.. 4Q206 I xxii.. the soul of all the sons of man. And behold, these are the pits for their prison. They were made thus until the day of their judgement, until the final day of the great judgement which will be imposed on them. vacat There I saw the spirit of a dead man complaining and his moaning rising to heaven and crying and complaining.. 4Q206 xxvi.. And beyond those mountains roughly northwards, on their eastern side, I was shown other mountains, full of excellent nard, and pepper-wort, and cinnamon, and pepper. vacat And from there I was led to the east of all those mountains, far from them, to the east of the earth and I was taken over the Red S[ea and greatly distanced myself from it and crossed over the darkness far from it. And I passed to the Paradise of righteousness..
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The Astronomical Book of Enoch 4Q209..II.. And it shines in the remainder of this night with three seventh; and it grows during this day to four sevenths and a half; and then it sets and enters and is covered for the remainder of this day to two sevenths and a half. And in the night of the twenty fourth it is covered four sevenths and a half and four sevenths and a half are cut off from its light. And then it comes out and shines in the remainder of this night two sevenths and a half. And it grows in this day five sevenths and then it sets and enters and is covered for the remainder of this day two sevenths. vacat And in the night, on the twenty-fifth, it is covered five sevenths, five sevenths are cut off from its light. And then it comes out and shines for the remainder of this night two sevenths. And it grows in this day to five sevenths and a half. And then it sets [and enters the second gate and is covered for the remainder of this day one seventh and a half. vacat And in the night of the twenty-sixth it is covered five sevenths and a half and five sevenths and a half are cut off from its light. And then it comes out of the second gate and shines for the remainder of this night one seventh and a half. And it grows in this day six sevenths. And then it sets and enters and is covered for the remainder of this day one seventh. vacat And in the night of the twenty-seventh it is covered six sevenths and six sevenths are cut off from its light. And then it comes out and shines for the remainder of this night one seventh. And it grows in this day six sevenths and a half. And then it sets and enters … and shines in the night of the eighth four sevenths. And then it sets and enters. In this night the sun completes the passage through all the sections of the first gate and recommences to go in and come out through its sections. And then the moon sets and enters.
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And it darkens during the remainder of this night three sevenths. And it grows in this day four sevenths and a half. And then it comes out and dominates in the remainder of this day two sevenths and a half. vacat And it shines in the night of the ninth four sevenths and a half. And then it sets and enters. In this night the sun recommences to go through its sections and to set in them. And then the moon sets and enters the fifth gate and darkens in the remainder of this night two sevenths and a half. And it grows in this day five sevenths and in it the light equals five sevenths.. equals in full. And then it comes out of the fifth gate..
