The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

THE EPISTLE OF ENOCH 49
was to survive as an archaism for some time after the year 100 B.C., for
example, in Nabataean. The orthography of En*^, which was copied from
a written model in an orthography similar to that of iQIs* and iQS, likewise
points towards the year 100 B.C. On the other hand, literary analysis of
the work will scarcely provide us with the chronological details which it was
thought could be found in it.
Commentators on this part of the Ethiopic Enoch conjecture that the
author was a pious Pharisee who denounces the Sadducaean party as being
penetrated with Hellenistic influences and enjoying the support of the
Hasmonaean princes; on this supposition he wrote after Hyrcanus' split with
the Pharisaic party, most probably during the reign of Alexander Jannaeus,
or possibly under the successors of Alexandra. But the central motif of the
work is quite clearly the economic differentiation of poor and rich, which is
treated as approximately equivalent to the ethical discrimination of 'righteous'
and 'sinners'. The latter are flatly accused of idolatry (99: 6-9; cf. 91: 9
and 104: 9), which is quite unthinkable with regard to the Sadducaeans and
the Hasmonaeans, whatever might be their supposed transgressions in
respect of the Mosaic law according to Pharisaic (or, we should add, Essene)
interpretation. The appropriate framework for the denunciations of the
Enochic writer is, in my opinion, the milieu of a prosperous Greek city
where the Jews live as an economically 'under-developed' minority. Naturally,
at the very heart of such an Israelite community there would occur splits
between the 'Orthodox' and the Hellenizers, 'who transgress the eternal
covenant' {hiaarpicfyovres TTJV alcoviov (aycoviov MS.) hiaOrjKriVy 99: 2), and 'who
scorn the foundation and the eternal heritage of their fathers' {oi e^ovOevovvres
rrjv 0e/x[eAt]co(Ttv KOL rrjv KX7ipovo[JLla[v rcov Trajrcpcov avrcov rrjv (XTT* alwvoSy 99:
14). The rich sinners trample the righteous poor under foot and oppress them
continually (95: 7; 96: 5, 8; 103: 9-15; 104: 3). It may be doubted if 'the
princes' of the Ethiopic version at 103: 14 represents the original reading;
what corresponds to it in the analogous text of 104: 3 in CM is pia^ofievcov.
Occasionally there comes a day of affliction brought about by the sinners
when the righteous must shelter from the persecution of the wicked (96: 2),
a day of terrible anguish when the sinners afflict and keep (meaning?) the
righteous in fire (/cat (f>vXd^7ir[€] avrovg ev irvpeiy 100: 7). All this scarcely
seems to go beyond the bounds of commercial and artisan rivalry in a town
and an occasional 'pogrom', caused, moreover, indirectly by the military
adventures of a Hyrcanus or a Jannaeus against the towns, the ethnarchs,
and the Greek kings.
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