The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

276 THE ASTRONOMICAL BOOK
One recognizes without difficulty in this table the summary of En 72: 8~i2
in which the duration of days-nights, reckoned in 18 'hours', is described
within the framework of the year composed of 364 days.
A more interesting table is given in fols. 40^-43^ of the same manuscript
(Gr^baut, loc. cit., pp. 422-8):
'(Consult) also (this table), if you wish to know, for each month, how the
moon rises every night and changes by turn (its) rising through six gates of
the east.
'I. Risings (of the moon) in Miyazya: through the fourth gate, 2 (days);
through the fifth gate, 2; through the sixth gate, 8; through the fifth gate, i;
through the fourth gate, i; through the third gate, 2; through the second
gate, 2; through the first gate, 8; through the second gate, 2; through the
third gate, i; through the fourth gate, i. (Total): 30 days. The month of
Miyazya is finished.
[and so on until]
'IX. Risings (of the moon) in the month of Tah^as: through the first gate,
4 (days); through the second gate, 2; through the third gate, 2; through the
fourth gate, i; through the fifth gate, i; through the sixth gate, 8; through
the fifth gate, 2; through the fourth gate, 2; through the third gate, 2;
through the second gate, 2; through the first gate, 4. (Total): 30 days. The
month of Tah^a^ is finished.
'X. Risings (of the moon) in the month of Ter: through the first gate, 4
(days); through the second gate, 2; through the third gate, 2; through the
fourth gate, i; through the fifth gate, i; through the sixth gate, 7; through
the fifth gate, 2; through the fourth gate, 2; through the third gate, 2; through
the second gate, 2; through the first gate, 4. (Total): 29 days. The month of
Ter is finished', etc.
Now it seems to me altogether out of the question that such an accurate
table of the movements of the moon across its 'gates' could ever be deduced
from the fragmentary and confused data which the Ethiopic book of Enoch
contains. Everything is easily explained, however, if one assumes that a Greek
translator of the Astronomical Book of Enoch, no doubt in Alexandria,
abridged to simple tables the data concerning the movements of the moon
and of the sun contained in the synchronistic calendar of our Aramaic manuscripts
from Qumran.