The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

92 INTRODUCTION
from the writings of the New Testament, the Gospels especially, beginning
with the titles of the pre-existent Messiah: 'Son of Man' (Matt. 9: 6; lo: 23;
12: 8; etc.) and 'Elect' (Luke 23: 35). However, it is not likely to be an early
Christian work, since no quotation from it is recorded between the first and
fourth centuries, that is, during the period in which quotations, allusions,
and reminiscences of other works attributed to Enoch abound. In fact, the
existence of the Greek Book of Parables is not attested until the early Middle
Ages, and even then indirectly, by the stichometry of Nicephorus and by the
Slavonic Enoch (see above, p. 77 and below, pp. 109-10). Finally, we must
recall its absence from any early version (apart from the Ethiopic) and especially
the absolute silence on this subject in Coptic literature. No discovery
of Byzantine papyri in Egypt has provided a Greek or Coptic sample of it.
Where its literary genre is concerned, the Book of Parables is most closely
akin, in my opinion, to the Sibylline literature. Now, the Christian production
of Sybilline Oracles flourished in the second to fourth centuries. Someone
well acquainted with the Sibylline Oracles would doubtless have no
diflficulty in translating the Ethiopic text of the Parables into hexameters
and into a pseudo-Homeric dialect; the Greek original of this book was
certainly composed in metrical poetry. The Parables share with the Sibyllines
a clear division into sections ('parables', 'books') on the one hand but, on the
other hand, they also share a confusion in the sequence of ideas—long and
frequent repetitions, lacunae, a mixing up of historical and eschatological
plans within each part. The contents of both include descriptions of past
and future catastrophes, the punishment of sinners and the happiness of the
just, and the interventions of God, of the immortal Messiah, of angels and
demons; finally, both can be shown to have a common interest in astrological
and magical subjects. It would be a simple task to draw up a list, and it
would be a long one, of keywords, phrases, and expressions, of entire
passages and ideas, which would prove a very close relationship between
the Visions of Enoch and Noah and the Sibylline Oracles. I shall content
myself with pointing out two striking parallels.
The second book of the Sibyllines, composed essentially by Christian
authors of the third century, describes the resurrection of souls and bodies,
and judgement by the great immortal God. Five angels appear in it: BapaKLrjX
'PafjLLTiX 0vpL7]X ZafiLrjX A^ai^X T€(Sib. ii. 215).^ The archangel Ouriel breaks
open the doors of Hades and brings out for judgement the shades of the
* In group 0 of the manuscripts (ed. J. Geffcken, GCS 8 (1902), 38) Me^a^A T€ FaPpiriX