The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

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INTRODUCTION
easily by the Samaritan priests of Sichem as by the Judaean priests of Jerusalem.
Other early Aramaic works, such as the book of Tobias or the Testament
of Levi, seem likewise to have been written by Samaritan writers; it was
only subsequently that they were 'adapted' by the Jewish scribes of Judaea.^
Less decisive, and this for textual reasons, is the evidence offered by
Ecclesiasticus, composed in the first third of the second century and translated
into Greek by the grandson of the author around ii6 B.c.^ The Greek
text begins the eulogy of the Fathers with:
^Evojx evripearrjaev Kvpico KOL fMereTedrj
VTToSetyfJLa [leravoias rats yeveats (Sir. 44: 16).
The identical text, apart from the addition, by dittography, of two words
taken from the following verse (which concerns Noah), is to be found in
MS. B of the Cairo Genizah:
nm nn"? ns7T
However, this passage is missing from the large fragment of Ecclesiasticus
found in the excavations at Masada, which dates from the first half of the
first century B.C. There the series of the Fathers begins with Noah:
. [... ]a •''an xsai pns mi
The editor of the Masada scroll develops a suggestion made by G. Bickell
(1882) and states: 'The Scroll now clearly indicates that Ben Sira began the
history of the "Fathers of old" with Noah, and not with Enoch.' He suggests
that 'at an early period an attempt had been made to artificially expunge a
portion of Ben Sira's observations on Enoch in the concluding verses [sc.
in 49: 14], and to insert them in their chronological order, i.e. before Noah'.^
But this 'early period' predates the translation by Ben Sira's grandson who,
as he emigrated to Egypt in 133-132, carried in his baggage what must
certainly have been a very faithful copy of the Hebrew work of his grandfather.
In the omission of the Masada scroll (just as in an analogous omission
in the Syriac version) there is perhaps evidence of the theological scruple
which grew stronger and stronger with regard to Enochic literature. Be that
' On the medieval Samaritan tradition con- U. Wilcken, Archiv filr Papyrusforschung und
ceming the antediluvian *Book of the Signs* and verzuandte Gebiete, iii (1906), 320-1.
*Book of Astronomy', see below, pp. 64-8. ^ Y. Yadin, The Ben Sira Scroll from Masada,
^ For this exact detail of chronology see 1965, p. 38.