The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

THE MIDDLE AGES 121
riiiipais avTiKaOiardixevos T& AvTLXpicrro) KOL cAey^^v Trjv TrXdvrjv avrov Kara
rrjv rrjs iKKXrjaias Trapdhoaiv. Exactly the same phrase (except iKKXrjaiaariKTJv
instead of TTJ? iKKXrjaias) occurs in the Christian Topography of Cosmas
Indicopleustes.^
In the Oracle of the Tiburtine Sibyl in Greek we find the following
passage :2 'And then there will appear two men who did not come to know
the experience of death, Enoch and Elijah, and they will wage war upon the
ruler of perdition. And he will say: "My time has come", and he will be
angered and slay them. And then he who was crucified on the wood of the
cross will come from the heavens, like a great and flashing star, and he will
resurrect those two men. And he who was hung on the cross will wage war
upon the son of perdition and will slay him and all his host.'
Freely adapted, this passage occurs in many versions of this Oracle.
Thus in Latin:3 'Regnante autem eo egredientur duo clarissimi viri Helias
et Enoch ad annuntiandum Domini adventum et Antichristus occidet eos,
et post dies tres a Domino resuscitabuntur.' Both Enoch and Elijah appear
anonymously in several Arabic and Ethiopic paraphrases of the same Tiburtine
Sibyl.4 One reads, for example, in the Arabic I Version, no. 180: 'Da
wird Gott zu ihm (Antichrist) zwei Manner senden, die friiher lebendig in
den Himmel versetzt worden waren; und sie werden ihn ausschelten und
ihn vor alien Leuten fiir einen Liigner erklaren und zu ihm sagen: "Nicht
bist du der Messias und nicht bist du ein Gott" ', etc.
In the Arabic Apocalypse of Daniel (eighth century; cf. above, p. 117) one
finds the following phrase:5 'Puis viendront Elie et Enoch; alors iis Tapostropheront
en face et lutteront contre lui. Leur sang sera r^pandu par lui.'
In the Coptic Apocalypse of Daniel, composed shortly after 1187, we read:^
'Puis apparaitra I'Antichrist qui en abusera plusieurs. Lorsqu'il sera fortifi^,
il seduira meme les ^lus. II fera p6nr les deux proph^tes Enoch et Elie, de
sorte que pendant trois jours et demi iis seront morts dans les places publiques
de la grande ville de Jerusalem.'
* V. 82. Ed. W. Wolska-Conus, SC 159 ein Apokryph nach den Karschunischen, Ara-
(1970) 125 (ibid, on miniatures of Enoch in bischen und Aethiopischen Handschriften zu
Cosmas' manuscripts, which influenced the London, Oxford, Paris und Rom (Denkschriften
iconography of Octateuch, discussed above, d. k. Ak. d. Wiss. Wien, Philos.-hist. Kl. 53,
p. 21). i), 1908, pp. 46-7 (texts) and pp. 71-2 (trans-
* P. J. Alexander, The Oracle of Baalbek, lations).
p. 29 and p. 22 (Greek text). ^ F. Macler, RHR, 1904, pp. 27 (translation)
3 Ed. E. Sackur, Sibyllinische Texte und and 41 (text, 66) of an offprint.
Forschungen, 1898, p. 186. ^ F. Macler, Les apocalypses apocryphes de
* See J. Schleifer, Die Erzdhlung der Sibylle, Daniel, 1895, P- 54 § 26.