The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

SEVENTH COPY 255
to quote here (along with my restorations) some phrases from 4Q390,
which is probably another copy of the same pseudo-Ezekiel. The author of
this text, like the author of the Testament of Levi in Aramaic, is primarily
interested in the destinies of the Aaronic priesthood. The repeated transgressions
of the Sons of Aaron deliver them up automatically into the power
of the wicked angels: maDB^an ^DN'?^ nann t>m^ 390 I 11; ^DX'pa T2
•na t>m^ maDu^an 2 i 7; Dna '7S7^'?3 n'ra^aa ''n[n]i 2 i 4. The beginning
of the reckoning of the ten jubilees coincides with the 'destruction of the
Land', in all probability the fall of the kingdom of Judah: ''S7''32?n
yiKTl ]3in^ I 7-8 determinative of the era, as is usual in the dates of
documents). The jubilees are divided into weeks of years, again as in the
Testament of Levi. Thus in 2 i 4: Xinn b2V[2 lUH U^W 171212?, 'a Week of
years in this jubilee'; in 2 i 6: D''S732? ITl^y 'two Weeks' (and not 'seventy
years'; defective form of dual s'bu'ainiy as in Lev. 12: 5; cf. fS722?, plural,
in Ens i iv 25); in i 2-3: [Xinn ] 7]W 0^X722; [0^22? ]l]nnX ''32 T'pf
n[an]2 pnnX ''32 1^2?ai, '(power win pass) into the hands of the Sons
of Aaron during [two] Weeks of years (and not 'seventy years') [in this
jubilee] and the Sons of Aaron will have dominion over them (sc. over
Israel)'.
A similar era of ten jubilees, whatever its point of departure, is referred to
by the author of a Qumran pesher, ^ the interest of which is centred on the
person of Melchisedek regarded as 'himmlische Erlosergestalt'. At line 7 of
the fragment we find 'the first Week of the jubilee, after nine jubilees, . . .
the end of the tenth jubilee'.
This apocalypse of jubilees was altered in a most original way by the
author of the Epistle of Enoch (En. 93: 3-10+91: 11-17 and 4QEn» i iii
23-5 and iv 11-26). He replaces the ten jubilees by the ten weeks of years
and compresses the history of the world, starting from Adam, into seven
Weeks, hence into one complete jubilee, no doubt drawing on the jubilee
of jubilees which includes the sacred history from Adam up to the revelation
at Sinai, according to the author of the book of Jubilees. A great theological
innovation made by our Enochic author, in line with the thinking of the
writer of the Book of Dreams, and one which was to be exploited later by
Christian thinkers, is the idea of progressive development applied to the
eschatological era; it is subdivided into three Weeks. No serious evidence
exists to disprove that the author of this apocalypse of Weeks is the same
* Edited by A. S. Van Der Woude, Oudtesta- see Milik, Journal of Jewish Studies, xxiii
mentische Studien, xiv (1965), 354-73, pls. 1-2; (1972), 96-109.