The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

THE MIDDLE AGES 123
A rich iconography on the apocalyptic role of Enoch and Elijah is to be
found in manuscripts of the Commentary on the Revelation of St. John
compiled by Beatus of Liebana at the end of the eighth century. Chapter
eleven of the Revelation is usually illustrated by three miniatures: the two
witnesses (Rev. 11: 3-8^:), Antichrist kills the two witnesses (Rev. 11: 7-10),
the ascension of the two witnesses to heaven (Rev. 11: 11-14).! In some
manuscripts^ the image of the killing bears the legend: Antichristus Heliam
et Henoc occidit. This iconographic tradition is quite independent of the text
of Beatus, who does not mention Enoch, but Elijah and Jeremiah, and
denies their resurrection after three days and a half. 3 In only a few manuscripts
do the illuminations follow the text and call the two witnesses Elias
et Jheremias.
Occasionally along with Enoch and Elijah as adversaries of the Antichrist
there appear John the Baptist, John the Evangelist,^ Jeremiah, or else one or
two women, Tabitha in the Apocalypse of Elijah, Sibyl and Tabitha in the
Arabic History of Joseph the carpenter.
Enoch and Elijah appear, finally, in mystic experiences of Christian Saints.
In the 'Life' of a French female recluse of the twelfth century, whose visions
were written down from 1180 to 1184 by a Cistercian priest, she tells, among
other things, of a Vision she had one Christmas Eve: she contemplated
the Trinity, the Virgin Mary with Child and then 'statimque de coelo
descenderunt ad terram duo antiqui senes veneranda candidati canitie, prophetis
similes, erantque quasi ad bellum praeparati'. The Antichrist kills
them; 'quos ad coelum de coelo columbae descendentes nive candidiores
detulerunt'. The Adversary pursues them up to Heaven, but God precipitates
him into Hell. Another time, 'vidit puella duos antiquissimos senes, prolixa
barba, veneranda canitie candidatos, super tenuissimam nubem ad se per
aera venientes, et ostendentes ei amoenissimum fontem liquidissimis manantem
aquis, nitidissimas habentem arenas, de quo egrediebantur quattuor
maxima flumina per quattuor partes hinc et inde distinctis alveis fluentia.
Admonebant puellam senes illi grandaevi, ut ad fontem ilium accederet, et
in aquis illius se lavaret.' To her inquiries Enoch et Elijah, who 'angelis
^ See W. Neuss, Die Apokalypse des hi 3 Ed. H. A. Sanders, Beati in Apocalypsin
Johannes in der altspanischen und altchristlichen libri XII (Papers and Monographs of the
Bibel'Illustration (Das Problem der Beatus- American Academy in Rome, vii), 1930,
Handschriften), 1931, pp. 176-81 and 257, figs. pp. 448 and 452.
143-53, 252, 255. * See Th. Schermann, Prophetarum vitae,
* e.g. Paris, Bibl. Nat. Lat. 8878 (mid 1907, pp. 154 and 198.
eleventh century), f. 155.