The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

THE BOOK OF WATCHERS a?
We can readily imagine that the Judaean author of the Book of Watchers
accompanied the Nabataean caravans from Petra to Gaza across the desert of
Idumaea. We can familiarize ourselves in concrete detail with the age in
which our trader and writer was living, and bring it to life in imagination,
by examining the enormous mass of papyri from the archives of Zenon of
Philadelphia, who was the agent of ApoUonios, the minister of finance
(StotKTjT^?) of Ptolemy II Philadelphos.^
At the very least forty documents from the Zenon archives directly concern
Syria-Palestine and Transjordan, in particular those which refer to the
journey in Palestine and Jordan made by Zenon in 259-258 B.C., the 27th
and 26th years of Ptolemy Philadelphos. The Nabataeans are specifically
mentioned as living in the neighbourhood of Auranitide in western Syria
{PSI iv. 4o6).2
During his tour in the east of Jordan, in the summer of 259 B.C. Zenon
assigned deliveries of corn 'to the people of Rabb^el', T O L S irapd 'Pap^rjXov.^
This expression is analogous to rots irapd Tov^iovy 'to the people of Tobias',
Toby ah being the Jewish head of an important district situated in the west of
Amman. Rabb*el cannot be other than a Nabataean ethnarch resident in
Petra; this is a Nabataean dynastic name par excellence. The trade in aromatics
was dependent on the royal monopoly, and the convoys had to pay
a heavy tax at the Gaza customs, which was gathered by the official 6 eirl
TTjs Xc^avcjTLKTjg (PSI 628. 2-3). In the Zenon papyri there are numerous
invoices for aromatics, several of which are also mentioned in our Book of
Watchers—for example CH'^pvr) (or afjLvpvr]), A6j8ayos(Minaean and Gerrhaean),
vdpSosy KLwdfjLO)p.ovy Kaala.^ The Gerrhaean incense^ arrived at Gaza with other
* See PSI iv-vi = G. Vitelli, Papiri greci id. and A. Fuks, CFJ = Corpus Papyrorum
e latini (Societk Italiana per la ricerca dei Judaicarum, i (1957), pp, 1-47 and 115-30.
Papiri), 1917 (vols, iv and v) and 1920; PCZ * PCZ 59008 HI 25 and 33 refers to the same
i-iv = C. C. Edgar, Zenon Papyri (Catalogue mission of Zenon and his companions ety-^upava
du Mus6e du Caire), i-iv, 1925-31, and in 259.
vol. V, edited by O. Gu^raud and P. Jouguet ' PCZ 59004, 28-9 UepiTLolv. J , rots irapa
(Soci6t6 Fouad I de papyrologie, Textes et *P[a\p\p7j]\ov dXcvpwv dp{Tdpas) a) and 46-7
Documents, v); P,Mich.Zen. = Edgar, Zenon (y', sc. the third Xandikos, rot? Trapa'PajSj^T^Aov
Papyri in the University of Michigan Collec- aefjuSdXios dp, J); cf. CPJf L 2, pp. 121-2.
tion, 1931; P.CoLZen, = W. L. Westermann * PSI 628 and 678, PCZ 59009, 59011,
and E. J. Hasenoehrl, Columbia Papyri, Greek 59069, 59536, etc.; cf. En*^ i xii and En* i xxvi
Series No. 3: Zenon Papyri, i, 1931, and ii, and the botanical notes in Ixv (1958), 72-5.
1940; etc. Cf. v. Tcherikover, Talestine under * PCZ 59009 / i 5-7 and 59536, 11-12:
the Ptolemies (contribution to the Study of Xi^dvov Mivaiov rdiXavra) 8' Kal Feppaiov
the Zenon Papyri)*, Mizraim, iv-v (1937), 9-90; rd{XavTa) a' (the year 261).