The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

THE BOOK OF WATCHERS 35
bill of indictment,^ which Enoch reads in the presence of the children of
heaven gathered together in mourning (f ^3iX En^ vi 6) at 'Abel-maya; the
beginning of this missive takes up the subject dealt with previously (14: 1-7,
cf. 13: 4-8). There follows the account of the ascent of the patriarch to the
palace of God; the latter sends the visionary back on his mission and bids
him deliver a second discourse (14: 8-16: 4), which is to end with the 'antiepistolary'
formula of the first: 'for you there is no peace'. The two other
missions of Enoch are carried out mainly in a 'horizontal' sense, in contrast
with the descent from Paradise and the ascent to the celestial Palace of the
first two missions. The theological interest is blurred by scholarly curiosity
in such fields as cosmography, astronomy, meteorology. None the less,
the western journey leads Enoch towards the mountain of God, and the
journey round the world (En. 18) concerns above all the winds in their role
as 'pillars of heaven'. The expedition to the West ends in the far North, where
the hero beholds with terror the prison of the angels who have consorted
with women.
In the subscription to this work (19: 3), Kayo) ^Evojx ?Sov ra Oecop^qfiara
fiovoSy ra TTepara ttclvtcov, icat ov firj 1837 oifSe eh dvOpcoTTOJV cos iyoj lScdv,
the expression ra Trepara iravTcov is certainly a mistranslation. The Greek
translator wrongly read ^10 'end' as ^^'D 'extremity', and we must restore
X^D ^10 (or ]n^D ^lO)* the phrase whose equivalent is found in XD1D HD
Xn'pa n (Dan. 7: 28) and Wibn «^10 XD (4QEnGiants^ below, p. 305).
In any case we can discern here the title of this early Enochic document,
which is 'Visions of Enoch', ^lin niTIT^, ©cco/o-^/xara ^Evwx.
The third-century Judaean author (above, pp. 27-8) who included the
Visions of Enoch in his Book of Watchers gave it an unsymmetrical setting.
It is preceded by a brief introduction in which he traces in grandiose terms the
final epiphany of the Great Holy One on the mountain of Sinai and the judgement
of the just and of sinners (En. i); calls for admiration of the order of the
universe (2: 1-5: 3), drawing, particularly for the description of the seasons,
on the final section of the Astronomical Book; and finally adduces some
considerations on the destinies of sinners and of the elect (5: 4-9). After
reproducing his source, unchanged or perhaps with some slight alterations,
in En. 6-19, he goes on to give a substantially rewritten version of the
western journey of the patriarch (21-5, corresponding to 17-19). The
remainder of the Book of Watchers, devoted to the eastern voyage of Enoch,
constitutes our author's original, even in places individuaUstic, contribution.
^ *1D0 (4QEn