The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

PARTIAL RECONSTRUCTION 307
east, beyond the oikoumene, the outer deserts and darkness.^ We find again
here the account of this first journey, rather charming in my opinion, in a
Manichaean fragment of the Book of Giants written in Uigur. There, too,
the means of transport of the son of Baraq'el is that of the birds; and he
escapes clear here of the danger which had been the end of Icarus (Henning,
loc. cit., page 65):
(page i) '. . . fire was going to come out. And [I saw] that the sun was at
the point of rising, and that [his?] centre without increasing(?) above was
going to start rolling. Then came a voice from the air above. Calling me, it
spoke thus: son of Virogdad, your affairs are lamentable(?). More than
this you shall [not] see. Do not die now prematurely, but turn quickly back
from here." And again, besides this (voice), I heard the voice of Enoch, the
apostle, from the south (cf. Jub. 4: 25-6), without, however, seeing him at
all. Speaking my name very lovingly, he called. And downwards from . . .
then . . .
(page 2) '. . . for the closed door of the sun will open, the sun's light and
heat will descend and set your wings alight. You will burn and die", said he.
Having heard these words, I beat my wings and quickly flew down from the
air. I looked back: Dawn had ..., with the light of the sun it had come to rise
over the Kogmon mountains. And again a voice came from above. Bringing
the command of Enoch, the apostle, it said: "I call you, son of Virogdad,...
I know ... his direction . . . you . . . you . . . Now quickly . . . people . . .'
The following passage comes from a second manuscript of the Book of
Giants belonging to the Starcky batch, 4QEnGiants^; in it, after a speech by
Semihazah, his son 'Ohyah intervenes again:
Hb ni2 2ip pnay m2S7i 1^2 '?I[D
tnj? xn2
vacat
j^D^n ][l2XT
nnx xna nvn n nn[s7J
n mx S7T nx n1[Tn] xtna"? ^rs; DI[^ mi 10
^ Cf. a fragment of 4QEn® published by me in Revue Biblique, Ixv (1958), 71-2 and 75-7,
and above, p. 232.