The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

114 INTRODUCTION
of the Temple, for 'Methuselah and his brothers . . . built an altar at the
place Azouchan whence Enoch was taken' (p. 32, 10-12). The place-name
Achouzan (end-syllable of the Greek accusative) corresponds to the Hebrew
term HTIIK '(special) property (of God)', often applied in the Old Testament
to Jerusalem and to God's Temple (e.g. Ezek. 48: 20-1).^ The author
of the Secrets of Enoch does not present the Assumption of the patriarch
as a prefiguration of the Ascension of Christ which took place on the Mount
of Olives, but he is implicitly contradicting the Muslim belief which put the
place of the Ascension of Muhammad at the Rock of the Temple (looked
on in the Middle Ages as the altar of holocausts); the liturgical dates of the
assumptions of the Prophet and of *Uhnuh-Tdris are quite close, the 25th
and the 29th of the month of Ramadan.
The third and last part of the Slavonic Enoch, the most original, contains
a curious legend about Melchisedek (pp. 32, 15-42, 6, chapters XXI-
XXIII). Theological speculation about this mysterious character in Gen. 14
and Ps. no had already become very elaborate in the Essene milieu of
Qumran.2 But it was from Heb. 4: 14-5: 10 and 7: 1-28, which makes him
the prefiguration of Christ the high priest, that the spread of theological
reflections and pious legends was to gain considerable impetus. The idea of
the priesthood of the antediluvian patriarchs goes fairly far back in Christian
thought; thus in the Const. Apost. viii. 5: 6 TTpoaopiaas ii dpxv^ Upets els
eTTiGTaaiav Xaov aoVy 'A^eX iv TrpwroiSy I^rjO Kal ^Evcjs Kal ^Evwx Kal Ncbe
MeXxicreSeK Kal 'Ico^. The author of the Secrets of Enoch draws up a list of
twelve or thirteen names with Melchisedek last, that is, in the likeness of
the college of the apostles and of Christ (p. 40, 17-19). Apart from Enoch
and Methuselah, the names of the antediluvian high priests are all inventions
and have then been corrupted in the transmission of the Slavonic manuscripts.
This fact can be accounted for by our writer's aversion to accepting a
hierarchical succession from father to son, since he was familiar only with
Greek Christian hierarchs who had to be monks and single men. Accordingly
Melchisedek is not a son of Noah, but his nephew. This calls to mind also
the transmission of monastic vocations from uncle to nephew, the very widespread
custom in the Greek church during the Byzantine and medieval periods.
The anointing of Melchisedek by the three distinguished people (p. 33, 10)
reflects the consecration of the new Christian hierarch by the three bishops.
^ Cf. L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews, (1965), 354-73, and M. de Jonge and A. S. Van
i, p. 89, V, pp. 117 and 162. der Woude, *IIQ Melchizedek and the New
2 A. S. Van der Woude, OudtesU Studien, xiv Testament', in JV.T.5. xii, pp. 301-26.