The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

94 INTRODUCTION
En. 51 is the passage of Antiquitates Bihlicae of pseudo-Philo, 3: 10: 'Cum
autem completi fuerint anni secuU, tunc quiescet lumen et extinguentur
tenebrae, et vivificabo mortuos et erigam dormientes de terra. Et reddet
infernus debitum suum et perditio restituet paratecem suam, ut reddam
unicuique secundum opera sua et secundum fructus adinventionum suarum,
quousque iudicem inter animam et carnem.'^ The date of these two apocrypha,
both composed in Greek,^ is not sufficiently certain; but it is probably
between the years A.D. 100 to 250. The passage in the Parables is drawn in
my opinion from the Ant. Bibl.; in this respect it is significant that the phrase
in pseudo-Philo forms part of the speech of God to Noah, that is, it belongs
in a context which is also that of the Book of Parables.
More important for the dating of the Book of Parables is a long passage
of the fifth book of the Sibylline Oracles; the latest element in this book
falls in the reign of Caracalla (killed in A.D. 217 during the expedition against
the Parthians).^ We find here first of all allusions to historical wars: Tor the
Persian will come on to the earth like hail and will devastate your earth . . .
All the holy places he will stain and cover with blood and with corpses . . .
And then you, most blessed town, you will suffer greatly' (Sib. v. 93-100).
This is an unmistakable reference to the occupation of Palestine and Jerusalem
by Pacorus, the son of the Parthian king Orodes, in the year 40 B.C.
According to lines 101-3 the Persian king will conduct other wars (TrroAewe
may think of the Parthian wars of Trajan, Lucius Verus, of
Septimus Severus, of Caracalla.^ Finally, in the apocalyptic perspective
(Sib. V. 104-10).^
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