The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

294 THE ASTRONOMICAL BOOK Enastr^ 26
4QEnastr^ 26—En. 79: 3-5 +78:17-79: 2 (PI. XXVII)
mini nbm ]n2 ivn'^w xs7nn3[
[ n]nxn mini ^ai m nioiD nn ]p[n ]
Kirn ^DT nsp ]p xaa^'ai ma m»7D ]T xitn •'ai nii?[ ]a K*''?^'?a78i7] 5
[ V)J2W m»7D ]T
[ ] nix xina pDvoi \min'?n nhmi in*?;
[ ]]nnx ]i32?n[ ]
[^And (as for) the waning of the moon which takes place] through the
sixth gate, through it [its light is accomplished .. .4... twenty-five weeks and]
two days. ^And she falls behind the sun ... is restored in it. It looks (then)
as an image of vision. When its light is retarded in it [. . . ^^In the night]
this appearance looks a little as if it was the image of a man; and in the day
this appearance [looks a little like the sun in the sky, and there is nothing
else in her save] her light only. '^^ ^And now I show to you, my son [. . .]
another calculation [. . .]
To the Ethiopic evidence add the quotation of 78: 15-17 in CSCO 221 jAeth. 41, p. 63
(222/42, p. 56).
This fragment belongs to the same column as the preceding fragment. *A further calculation'
mentioned there, Hne 3 (En. 78: 10), seems to merge into a single description the passages
En. 78: 15-17 and 79: 3-6. In this case, what 'other calculation', ]*inX ]1Dl&n (if vera lectio of
the second word), could have begun from line 7 of our fragment, since 79: 2 is already recapitulatory;
'He has thus shown me all their laws . . .'? Do we have to assume that the Greek
translator, having—for obscure reasons—divided a single description of the original into two
sections, likewise duplicated a single recapitulatory passage in two passages. En. 79: 1-2 and
80: I ? In the strict sense of the word, however, the term ]1!32?n could head only the final
section of the Astronomical Book, that which begins with 82: 7.
L. z (En. 79: 3). The preposition Til begins the second part of the verse asyndetically, where
I would eliminate the conjunction 'for' in the Ethiopic version: '[and the waning of the moon,
which takes place] through the sixth gate; {for} through it [its light is accomplished] . . .'
nmni nbm] na.
L. 4. The expression Itn DIDID, word for word 'it (sc. the moon) resembles COT Pael
or Pual perfect), or appears, like an image of vision' (exact meaning ?), recurs in a slightly different
form in the following line (En. 78: 17). It corresponds approximately to '(such are) the vision