The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

THE EPISTLE OF ENOCH 51
ear to everything that he asked Him', bryk smh Vim' tV wrhmn* mwd'.. .dy
qrlh byne wbybf w'nh [bk]l dy qrh {CIS ii 4047).^
Living in a distant town the author of the Epistle of Enoch could not
follow too closely the fashions of Judaean scribes, such as those of Jerusalem
or Hirbet Qumran (above, p. 23). Likewise his Aramaic dialect contained
some peculiarities, for example the particle of exclamation ^2 in 106: 13
(En« 5 ii i7).2
Despite the fiercely hostile attitude of our writer, the cultural and intellectual
influence of the Greek environment none the less breaks through. It
reveals itself in his treatment of eschatological themes, which is sober and
discreet compared with the visionary exuberance of his Aramaic sources, the
Book of Watchers and the Book of Dreams.
For pseudepigraphical fiction the author of the Epistle draws on the
framework of the Astronomical Enoch and the Book of Dreams, that is, the
teachings of the patriarch to his son Methuselah, to whom our writer adds
his brothers (91: 1-3). After a brief parainesis and an eschatological passage
(91: 4-10, 18-19 and 92: 1-5), he skilfully outlines the Apocalypse of Weeks
(93: I-IO and 91: 11-17), the distant archetype of which was perhaps also
attributed to Enoch (above, p. 43). It is, however, reworked according to the
personal views of the compiler, who further elaborates the Apocalypse of
the seventy periods outlined by the author of the Book of Dreams (see below,
pp. 248-56). This initial part of the work ends with a sapiential poem, formulated
in rhetorical questions, concerning the transcendence of God, which is,
however, nothing but a disguised eulogy of Enoch and his ultra-terrestrial
journeys (93: 11-14).
Essentially, however, our writer gives his book the form of an Aramaic
letter. Since the Assyrian and Persian era Aramaic letters, after the formulas
of salutation to the addressees, had begun with wk't^ wk'nt, wk'riy the adverb
being repeated at the beginning of each new section of the text. It is also
with just such a formula, naX HIX pD^ ]S7D1, that the body of the
Epistle of Enoch begins (94: i; En^ i v 24). A letter of Enoch had already
been incorporated into the Book of Watchers, but being an indictment it
became an 'anti-epistle': instead of 'peace to you' it ended 'there is no peace
for you' (above, p. 35). Our author obviously drew on this, punctuating his
* Cf. ibid. 4084: [dy] qrlh bybf wbym\ and him back to life*.
Inv. xi 35 (my reading): . . . dy gr* Ih [by]bf ^ This is found too in Nabataean Aramaic,
wbym* [wYnyh w^wzbh w^fiyh, *. . . for he called which also used the relative pronoim zy up
upon Him, on dry land and on sea, and He to the first half of the first century B.C.; see
answered his prayer, saved him, and brought Milik, DJD ii, p. 174, note to Mur 72 i 3.