The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

THE BOOK OF WATCHERS 41
Astronomical Book and the Babylonian tablet now becomes distinctly tripartite
(Ocean and Abyss—darkness and fire—double Paradise). Paradise is
thus to be found in the third supra-terrestrial sphere (cf. 2 Cor. 12: 2-4).' The
belief that Paradise is situated in the North (or in the North-West) is given
practical, visual expression in the orientation of the Essene tombs at Hirbet
Qumran: the bodies are stretched out South-North, with the head on the
southern side so that when brought to life the just elect will be facing the
Paradise-Abode of God.^
THE BOOK OF DREAMS (En. 83-90), THE EPISTLE OF
ENOCH (En. 91-108), AND THE BOOK OF GIANTS
The fourth section of the Ethiopic Enoch, the Book of Dreams, is represented
by the fragments of four manuscripts, 4QEn'' to 4QEn^. The lastmentioned,
of which only one piece is preserved, is the oldest, from the
third quarter of the second century B.C. The three others, En^ En^, and En*,
are from scrolls on which this book was combined with the Book of Watchers,
the Book of Giants, and the Epistle of Enoch. A quarter of the original
text of the Book of Dreams can be recovered from these fragments with their
Aramaic context restored. In the orthography we should note the representation
of the article by He (HinB andn3S7 in En* 4 i 20 and 4 iii 21), rare
exceptions in comparison with 'classical' forms.
The first dream of Enoch, which concerns the Flood (En. 83-4), is not
preserved by any piece of 4QEnoch, but the second dream is well represented
by many pieces. It has a more developed form in the Ethiopic version than in
* This observation is the starting-point from examined more closely, only one letter in the
which I believe we can resolve the crux of transcription of Avigad, namely the penultiiQGenAp
ii 23, where the editors have read mate, will be found to need alteration. The
nmm ]»ni p^tb r\hx^Vib VtXI, and trans- lower part of it is destroyed, but the upper part
lated *and he [Lamech] went off to ... and corresponds better to the upper stroke of
he found him [Enoch] down there'. The term Beth than to that of Mem. Accordingly I read
piB, 'paradise of mountains and trees in f^^^^l^^* as one single word, in spite of the
precious stones', has been adequately explained final form of the Kaph in the middle of a word
by P. Grelot in Vetus Test, xi (1961), 30-8 (which does occur occasionally in the script of
(with reference to a Jewish text which I have Qumran manuscripts). I find this term again,
pubHshed in RB Levi (1959), 567-75). Less Just as it is here, in the Judaeo-Aramaic
successful, however, is his explanation of the
meaning *the upper layer, stratum
first enigmatic term, which he proposes to (of the three)'. So here we are in the Paradise of
read as Tlttlp ('straight away'), a reading precious mountains which constitutes the third
which seems to me to take insufficient account and highest celestial sphere,
of the traces of the letters which can be seen * Milik, RB Ixv (1958), 77 n. i.
on the photograph. If the reproduction is