The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

38 INTRODUCTION
in the Astronomical Book are described in detail by the author of the Book
of Watchers.
After his linear journey towards the East Enoch makes a circular flight
along the boundaries of the sky and the earth; he quickly inspects the twelve
doorways of the sun and the moon (six in the East and six in the West),
the twelve doorways of the winds (three on each side of the universe), and
the small doorways of the stars (33: 2-36: 3). In reality all this final part
of the work is just a summary of the Astronomical Book or, more exactly,
a reference to that book. The angel Uriel appears here too, but his role is
expanded. He no longer contents himself with oral instruction, but writes
down all his knowledge for the benefit of the patriarch (33: 3).
As we saw, Enoch's first journey towards the setting of the sun appears
in the Book of Watchers in a double recension (En. 17-19 and 21-5). The
first, which forms part of the Visions of Enoch (above, p. 25), is rather
imprecise as regards the siting of mythological geographical features along
the western and northern boundaries of the universe. The explorer shows an
interest, in the first place, in natural phenomena (En. 17). Carried off to the
far West he finds himself in a region watched over by the beings of fire
(17: i), and in a dark place, els ^o^coStj tottov (17: za). The latter must be
the region of the Babylonian map of the world situated right in the North,
'where the sun cannot be seen', asar ^Samst la innamar(u). The mountain
of the West is described above all as the reservoir of the stars, of thunder,
and of other natural phenomena; close by are situated the living waters
(17: zb-j^a). The depository of the luminaries was to become, in the Judaean
author's version, the quadruple depositorium of souls, one of which contains
the luminous source of water (En. 22). The fire of the setting sun (17: 46)
is described in more detail in En. 23.
The Judaean author does not take up in the second recension any of the
elements enumerated rapidly in 17: 5-18: 5. Enoch first crosses the river of
fire (Pyriphlegethon of the Odyssey), then 'the great rivers' (17: 5-6^; the
Greeks counted three of them), and ends up 'as far as the Great River and as
far as the Great Darkness there where no being of flesh may go' (17: 6b), We
easily recognize in this the circular Ocean, the Bitter River of the Babylonian
map, and the sphere of darkness already located by our author in front of the
north-eastern paradise.' It is in the region of the darkness of winter winds,
^ Note how ]''*)n3, which in the Astronomical ]'**1!3'7a of the Astronomical Book is called
Book denotes only the Ocean, here comes to be XnaiD in the Book of Giants; see above,
extended to several rivers, f31^*1 y^lXM and p. i5-
to Kin3 par excellence', analogously the