The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

I04
INTRODUCTION
jr. Ill recto ... oravit {rrapaKaXeLv) [...] Enoch scribam (ypafifiarevs) iustitiae
(SLKaLoavvrf): Ne festines scribere [peccata ?] fiHorum hominum sed (dAAd)...
verso . . . mundus {KoapLos) . . . ire . . . angelus {dyyeXos) sanctus . . .
a Cf. Ps. 129: 3? (Garitte).
^ If the phi is certain, we can restore [cd.pd.]c^oyHA, the name of an archangel often in
the Coptic texts and placed in the sixth or seventh rank of the seven archangels. ^ But in that
case one can scarcely restore what follows to read *Mi[chael, Gabriel, and Raphaejl*, as Munier
does; for the first name a possible alternative would be *Mistrael, the angel of anger'.^
The Munier fragment, III recto, calls to mind the Crum fragment,
7 recto, but the remainder seems rather to belong to a homily; hence I do
not think that the Crum and Munier fragments are two copies of the same
Coptic Enochic work.
The Coptic account of Enoch and Sibylla partially preserved in the Crum
fragments is undeniably referred to—and only once, as far as I know—in a
liturgical Coptic text composed in the seventh century or even later. The
archangel Gabriel is there supposed to say:^ Tch bin wiederum derjenige,
Mein Herr, der zu der Jungfrau Sibylla {COIKZK Tne>.peewoc) hineinging,
der Schwester des Schriftgelehrten der Gerechtigkeit Henoch (enwx
nei?pi^Ajutiis.Te*Yc RT^iRi^iocYnH). Ich beschiitzte sie und errettete aus
der Hand des bosen Teufels, der ihr Schlechtes antun woUte.'
In note / to the Crum fragments we commented upon the role of Enoch
as the heavenly scribe and the keeper of the book of life. The same motive
recurs in another Coptic liturgical text, composed in the fifth, if not in the
fourth century. There the archangel Michael brings the souls of men, one
after another, before the presence of the Saviour; Enoch, the scribe of
righteousness, intervenes in the Judgement as the reader of the book of
life:4 'Da rief der Heiland jene Seele. Er gab sie in die Hand eines starken
Engels, indem Er sprach *'Nimm diese Seele und gib sie in die Hand
Henoch's, des Schriftgelehrten der Gerechtigkeit (encox ne^pivjuumevTe-yc
iiT*2i.iRiwiocynH) — auf dass sie in Heiligen Hymnos mitsinge — denn eine
I Cf. C. D. G. Miiller, Die Engellehre der Einsetzung der Erzengel Michael und Gabriel,
koptischen Kirche, 1958, pp. 59-60; J. Cl^dat, CSCO 22$/Copt, 31, p. 73 (text), and 226/32,
Le Monastkre et la ndcropole de Baoutt, 1904, p. 90. The editor did not see the connection
p. 119. between this passage and the Crum fragments,
* Cf. Miiller, loc. cit., pp. 244 and 314 and, what is worse, did not even recognize the
and K. H. Kuhn, *A Coptic Jeremiah Apocry- name of Sibyl.
phon', Le Musion, Ixxxiii (1970), 127 and 128. * Ed. Miiller, loc. cit., pp. 54 and 56 (text),
3 Ed. C. D. G. MuUer, Die Bucher der pp. 65 and 68 (version).