The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

EnMxxvi FIFTH COPY 233
Paraphrasing a little, I reproduce the Greek text of chapter 28 as follows: ^Kal
cKeWev
iiTopevdrjv els ro fieaov MavSojSapa, Kal LSOV avro eprjixov' Kal avro puovov ^irX'qprjs SevSpwv Kal OLTTO
rwv aiTeppbdrwv* vSojp dvopLppov dvoOev, aip6pL€vov ^d)s vSpaycuyos Sai/tiXris d>s npos ^oppdv inl
Svapuov, ndvToOev dvdyci vSwp Kal Spoaov, 'And from there (that is, from Jerusalem) I went
towards the middle of Madbar^, and I saw it (sc. Madbar^ 'the Desert') deserted, but a single
(sc. place in the middle of the Desert, which Enoch arrives at) was full of trees and plants (ATRO
Twv oneppAroiv = [X''S7nT partitive genitive); (a stream) of water, not nourished by the
rains from above (keep dvopPpov, 'without rain', as in C and do not correct to dvopb^povv), carried
by a copious aqueduct (which runs) approximately to the North-West, brought from everywhere
water and dew.' The places referred to are certainly Petra {RB,
loc. cit., p. 72) and W^di
Musi where there was an aqueduct perhaps as early as the Hellenistic period. The verb dvdy€i
does not necessarily have the meaning 'to raise', as Charles insists; in the Greek Bible it
corresponds to a number of Hebrew verbs, *]^n, ^3*', KS*', H^S?, all in the
Hiphil, with the exception of the Qal of
and H^S?, and the Piel of IHl In our context
understand 'to bring in, to gather' (uses of dvdy€iv well known in Greek), more precisely 'to
gather the water from sources, from drippings and from seepages in rocks, from dew, and
from mist'.
L. 3 (En. 28: 3). '(Like) an (aqueduct)': for the numeral 'one' in the function of the indefinite
article, cf. mH 3*157 4 i 14 and *1T\ 4 iii 19. was followed by an adjective or participle
= Sofffi^X'qs,
Ll. 4-5 (En. 29: i). The adverb In at the beginning of this verse belongs in fact to the
preceding phrase: ... /cat Spoaov crt. ^EKCLOCV /c.r.A.—DpmX = (px^H'^jv as in En. 30: i
(En« I xii 23). Add [X**!!?] in accordance with line 20 (En. 32: 2). E has quite the opposite:
*I approached'.—[KfljKD, 'the corner, the side': Pe beyond question, clear trace of Aleph.
In C vocalize opovst and not opovs, 'the mountain', as in E, which anticipated this imaginary
mountain at 28: i.
Ll. 5-6 (En. 29: 2). At the beginning of v. 2 /cat C, 'and there' E.—Kplaecjs C and E: correct
to KTiaecos; cf. En. 22: 7, where C writes iKpelOrjaav instead of iKTladrjaav retained in E.
The Greek translator confused S^D, 'to create', with N^D, 'desert, field'; therefore restore
>n3 *'3^*'K, 'wild trees', in contrast to the cultivated trees at Petra, 28: 2.
L. 6. The traces of three letters of which only *Ain is certain favour the restoration of an
Aphel, or a Pael, participle of the verb ^Jil,
'to cry' but also, when speaking of aromatic trees,
'to exude tears, drop by drop' (thus the Pael in Syriac). This is a very exact description of the
gum-resins which flow, of their own accord or after cutting, from incense and myrrh trees; cf.
RB, loc. cit., p. 72 note 2, and, for the noun VJil, DJD iii, p. 250 no. 122. The term SdKpvov
is used by Theophrastus, Hist. Plant, ix 4, 4 (ed. F. Wimmer, 1854, p. 232) and Dioscurides,
Mat. med. i 64, i (ed. M. Wellmann, 1907, p. 57): apvpva 8dKpv6v iari SivSpov yevvwpiivov iv
Apapla, opLolov rfj AlyvnTiaKfj dKdvOrj oS iyKonropuivov dnoppei ro SdKpvov /c.r.A. {sam^at =
'gum' in the Arabic version of Diosc, ed. C. E. Dubler and E. Ter6s, 1957, p. 60, lines 6 and 8).
Pliny describes these resins as lacrima, gutta, sucus, spuma; 'sudant autem sponte prius quam
incidantur . . .'; Hist. nat. xii §§ 56 to 68 (ed. C. Mayhoff, 1909, 395-9; ed. A. Ernout, 1949,
pp. 37-42). These naturalists made a distinction between cultivated incense and myrrh trees and
wild ones: Theophrastus ix 4, 2; Pliny xii 53 and 68 'sativae' and 'silvestres' or 'arbores sponte
natae', the latter therefore identical with KHD
in our Aramaic text. There was some