The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

io6
INTRODUCTION
ihre Thaten sind aufgeschrieben." Sogleich aber hat ein greiser Mann aus
dem Vorhang der AUerheiUgsten hervor, ein Buch in seiner Hand, und er
fing an alle die Siinden jener Seele vorzulesen bis hinauf zu dem Bosen,
das sie gethan hatte/ The soul defends herself, but three witnesses accuse
her formally. Then Abraham, intrigued, asks Michael: Tch sagte zu dem
heiligen Erzengel Michael: "Mein Herr, wer ist dieser hohe, greise Mann,
der dieses Buch in seiner Hand hat und der das Memorandum iiber diese
Seelen dem Richter in die Hand setzt ?" Der Erzengel Michael sagte
zu mir: "Es ist Enoch, der Schreiber der Gerechtigkeit (eniox ^P*^jtxbjre^yc
iiTe ^*xiReocyHH) ; Gott sah, dass er ein zuverlassiger Mann
war, und er setzte ihn zu buchen alle guten und bosen Thaten, welche die
Menschen thun." ' The Coptic composition of the Testaments of Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob was attributed to St. Athanasius of Alexandria, there being
added this well-known literary motif: 'er hat es in den alten Sammlungswerken
unserer heiligen apostolischen Vater gefunden.'^ It was the liturgical
lesson for the commemoration day of Abraham's death, on the 28th Mesori.
The Coptic text of the Testament of Abraham was adapted into Greek, in
an expanded form, and is known as the Greek recension B.^ A new feature,
added by the Greek author, is the identification of the Judge with Abel.^
According to the Paris MS. 1613, the liturgical reading of the Testament of
the patriarch Abraham was fixed for the last Sunday before Christmas,
called '(the Sunday) of Holy Fathers': [Addendum, pp. 363-4].
Chapter 108 of the Ethiopic Enoch must date from the Christian period.
Its incorporation into the Enochic corpus of writings is certainly later than the
fourth century, since it is missing, in the Chester Beatty-Michigan papyrus,
from the Epistle of Enoch (the last part of the Ethiopic Enoch). This short
chapter is probably a summary, or the tnctptty of a much longer Enochic
work called 'another book which Enoch wrote for his son Methuselah and
(made from the Coptic) by W. E. Barnes in scripts: two from Paris, Bibliothhque Nationale,
M. R. James, The Testament of Abraham and Vienna, Cod. Histor. Gr. 126 (fifteenth
(Texts and Studies II, 2), 1892, pp. 136-8. century?). On checking the two Paris MSS.
Coptic text edited by I. Guidi, *I1 testo copto I have found that the editing was not quite
del Testamento di Abramo', Rendiconti d, R, satisfactory.
Acc, dei Lincei, CI, di scienze mor,, star, e 3 Paragraph XI of recension B, James, loc.
filoL, serie V, vol. ix, 1900, pp. 171 and 173 cit., pp. 115-16; Paris, Bibl. Nat. Gr. 1613
(from the Cod. Vat. Copt. 61, written in 962). (fifteenth century), ff. 94', 22-94^, 22, and
^ Andersson, loc. cit., p. 220.
2 Edited by M. R. James from three manu- ^^""3^ i- i?.
^^PP^' ^^'}^^ (fourteenth century), ff. 113',