The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

En^ I i THIRD COPY 187
L. 19. The phrase pn^^nini *in their... of Hghts' is omitted in C and E. The
meaning of this word, unknown in the later Aramaic dialects, can be established thanks to two
other scraps of evidence, one Aramaic and the other Hebrew. In a fragment of the Astronomical
Book (provisional siglum 4QEnastrb 28 2) the expression ]inmDO ]in3b^[2?D1]
corresponds to *and according to their power {and} in their stations* in En. 82: 10 end (below,
p. 295). The translation of MIDZD by ^station*, or more accurately 'relative position of a star
in relation to others*, is corroborated by the context of iQS x 2-5, which I quote in extenso
with some corrections borrowed from the manuscripts of 4QS:
*When the lights shine forth from the Holy Dwelling-Place, and when also they retire (lit.
are gathered) to the Place of Glory, when the constellations (of the Zodiac) make (their) entrance
on the days of the new moon, and their circuit at their positions, every new moon succeeding
one after another; it is a Great Day for the Holy of Holies, and a sign for the unlocking of
everlasting mercies corresponding to the beginning of (the apparition of the Zodiac) constellations,
to last for all time to come.*
The description of the movement of the heavenly bodies by the expressions D17 DDSIpD
HT^ nt DnnOQ is certainly analogous with the passage we are considering, where the
'courses* of the stars correspond to 'their circuit*, DDDLPN (nQn^RNDLPN, 'their circuits*,
4QS), that is, the apparent movement of the stars on the celestial sphere, from East to West
(line 19), according to the law of diurnal motion, following their parallels during a sidereal day.
The second term DimOQ, thanks to the explicit phrase HT^ HT, 'one in relation to the other*,
denotes with precision the permanent relative position of the stars.
From this interpretation of HDlpri and of m(1)0Qin iQS x 3-4 there follows an important
semantic definition for the term D*'^S7^H, which cannot by any means be translated by 'festivals*,
because it is parallel to FMIXQ and describes the stars, not even the phases of the moon. The
only stars which were associated with the 'days of the month*, 2?lin ''D*', and which were thought
to follow after one another every month, starting from the first of each month, Dtt^innHD,
are those of the Zodiac, one circular section of the sky divided into twelve constellations, each
one of which corresponds to one month of the year according to the position occupied by the
sun in the sky. An Aramaic work from Cave 4 of Qumran contains the traditional list of the names
of the signs of the Zodiac, divided according to the months (the Ram, K^D^, in the month of
Nisan, etc.) and to their distribution within each month. The term D*'^S7^Q in iQS x 3 should
therefore be translated as 'constellations of the Zodiac*. I find the same term in the fragment of
4QEnastrb quoted above, line i = En 82: 9: pH^^H^ piT'B^in^ ]innS7a[^ . . ],
translated in Ethiopic by 'in their festivals and in their months* (add: 'according to their signs*).
The same term will also be used to retranslate 'their festivals* of C in En 2: i; see En* i ii i
[]nns7a3i].
The relation of our term 11110X3 to IiniOan in iQM iii 3 and to DfiniOQ in iii 13 is
not clear. According to the context it is a nomen officii, no doubt 'army officers*. A term, with
a primarily astronomical meaning, 'station, position, specific rank*, is thus applied in iQM to
officials. Parallel examples of a semantic evolution like this are not hard to find, for example in