The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

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INTRODUCTION
to the Twelve, and to the women-disciples (/xa^Tjrptat): "Come around me,
my twelve disciples (fiaOrjTai) and women-disciples {iJbadrJTpLaL)^ so that I may
tell you of the great mysteries {fivcrr'^pta) of the treasure (d-qaavpos) of light
which no one knows concerning the invisible (doparos) God"' (p. 303, 3-8,
chapter 42 § 99). Jesus here teaches his apostles the lesser mysteries of light,
in particular the three baptisms, the mystery about the wickedness of the
Archons and the way of warding it off, the mystery of spiritual unction,
the mystery of the remission of sins, and the mystery of the twelve Aeons.
The ending is missing. ^ The editor dates the original Greek form of the two
books of Yeu to the first half of the third century and connects it with the
milieu of the Barbelo-Gnostics.
With these two books of Enoch, composed in the paradise of Adam at the
dictation of Jesus spoken from the tree of life, can be connected the reference
to the Apocalypses of Adam which, according to Epiphanius, formed part of
the Borborite Gnostic books.^ Similar ideas were found in the book of Baruch,
composed by Justin the Gnostic and quoted in the Philosophoumena of
Hippoljrtus: of the twelve angels begotten of Eden by Elohim the third is
called Baruch; he is identified with the tree of life, he transmits the orders of
Elohim, he is Lord who speaks through the mouth of the Prophets (Elenchus
V 24-7 and X 15).
A Christian Enochic document, represented by nine Coptic Sa'idic
fragments, has been published in transcription and translation by W. E.
Crum.3 This manuscript, now in the J. Pierpont Morgan collection, may
perhaps come from Hou (a place situated 30 miles north of Dendera);
it dates from around the seventh century; there are two columns per page.
I reproduce these fragments in a literal Latin translation, prepared by
G. Garitte; I suggest an order which differs from that of Crum, but which
necessarily remains very hypothetical:
fol. 2 recto{ fibres ->), col. 2 ... [filius] hominis [iu]sti (S/fcaioj), [id] est Iar[ed],
(et) [ti]muit a Deo *[et] Deum eti[am] angeli {dyyeXos) eius diligunt* propter
...
' Edition of the Codex Brucianus by C. read in the apocrypha: "I saw a tree bearing
Schmidt, Gnostische Schriften in koptischer twelve fruits per year and he said to me: This
Sprache am dem Codex Brucianus, Texte und is the tree of life" ' Haer. 26. 5. i.
C7fi«^w/c/iww^en, viii, 1892; German translation, 3 Theological Texts from Coptic Papyri
GCS 45 (13), pp. 257-329.
(Anecdota Oxoniensia, Semitic Series XII),
* Haer. 26. 8. i. Cf. also the quotation: *We 1913, pp. 3-n, no. 3.