The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

Enastr^as CORRESPONDING TO EN. 76-9 AND 82 293
The restorations at lines 3, 5, and 7 are drawn from terms and formulas used in fragment
Enastr^ 7 (see above, pp. 278-83). Note that there the author speaks of seventh parts of the light
of the moon, splitting them up on occasion into halves: *a seventh', *a seventh and a half, etc.
Here, at lines i (verse 6) and 6 (verse 7 end) he uses the same fractions, but at lines 5 and 7-8
(verses 7 beginning and 8) he speaks of fourteenth parts of the lunar light. Verses 6 and 7 were
more detailed in the original text than in the Ethiopic version, to judge by the length of the
lacunae in lines 2 and 4.
L. I. The expression [XS7nK X^'TIinK^ is found again at Enastr*^ i ii 18 (above,
p. 288).
L. 6. The term K^Tn** is used here with the meaning of 'phases of the moon, changeable
from one day to the next'. Cf. above, note to Enastr^ 23, line 7 (p. 291).
Ll. 7-8 (En. 78: 8). For a part of this long verse in Greek, Pap. Oxyrhynchus 2069, fragment
3^, see Chronique d'^gypte, xlvi, no. 92 (1971), 339-41.—Fractions: ^ (line 5), etc.
(lines 7-8).
4QEnastr^ 25—En. 78: 9-12 (PL XXVII)
] vacat [ ]
]1 biH n n"? mnn ]nnx ]ni&[n "pxmK •'nnxi K
n b]ii y^ifi [pn]"? x^anp xw*?!" x'^aa^n mini] 4
p. . .] years for [. . .
i^And *t}ri'el demonstrated to me] a further calculation, by having shown
it unto me that. . . [its light in heaven. ^^And the first days they are called]
new moons, because [. . .]
L. I. X^'IB?, 'the years', is not found in verse 9 of the Ethiopic version. Charles sees in this
verse a reference to the cycle of 76 years of Callippus, in correction of the cycle of 19 years of
Meton (ed. 1912, p. 168). If this reference is really to be found in this passage, it is no doubt
due to the Greek translator; perhaps the Aramaic author was speaking there of only the cycle
of 3 years, well attested by other astronomical documents from Qumran: 364X 3 = 3S4X 3+30.
L. 3 (En. 78: 10). The syntax of the phrase preserved is not at all clear to me. I assume
n*7 takes up the direct object, ]nnX ]lD2?n, whilst IT'TnX, which is asyndetic, should be
understood as the predicate of a subordinate adverbial phrase: '[and 'Ori'el demonstrated
to me] a further calculation ('law' E), by having shown it unto me, (namely) that. . .'. It is
unlikely that the verb, ^TX, probably followed by another verb, [.. .]1, has here its real meaning
'to go away'; more probably it is used syntactically, modifying the main verb which is missing
in our fragment: 'that [the light is placed, or transferred] progressively [to the moon] . . .'
L. 4 (En. 78: 12). Note the Hebrew word j'^t&in 'new moons'; on the special meaning of
m** ('new moon' in Aramaic) see above, note to Enastr*^ i iii 6.