The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

ENOCHIC W R I T I N G S A N D E S S E N E T E X T S F R O M Q U M R A N 65
Enoch was 13 years old, he learned the Book of the Signs in order to give it
to men; and these are the 24 stones of cornelian, 12 for the (time of Divine)
Favour and 12 for the election of the families (from) the sons of Jacob and
of the generations of the Servants of the High God/ The copyist first wrote
dytbnh 'dm, 'in order that (the sons of) Adam might be converted (ytbnh:
Arabic pronunciation of ytpnh ?)', and then corrected it to dyhbnh I ^dm
(He above the Taw, the latter cancelled by a dot placed beside the He). A
subsequent corrector cancelled nh I by the dots placed above these letters.
Year I 2 3 4 5 6 7 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 I 2& 3 4 5 6 7 I 2 3 4 5 6 7
I St jubilee S G S G Si G S G S
2nd jubilee S G S G S G S G S G
3rd jubilee G S G S G S G S G
4th jubilee G S G S G S G S G
5th jubilee G S G S G S G S G S
6th jubilee S G S G S G S G S
7th jubilee S G S G SI G S G S
Year I 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 29 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28
Year I 2 3 4 5 6 7 I 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
I8t jubilee G S G S G S G
2nd jubilee S G S G S G S
3rd jubilee S G S G S G S
4th jubilee S G S G S G S
5th jubilee G S G S G S G
6th jubilee G S G S S G
7th jubilee G S G S G S G
Year 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49
FIG. 7. Table of the cycle of the seven jubilees
The new meaning which results from this correction, dyhb 'dm, 'which Adam
gave (to him)', reflects a later phase of tlfie legend about antediluvian literature,
according to which it was Adam himself who invented the true calendar
contained in the Book of the Signs and in two other books and had it
engraved on a staff.' In the allusion of the Samaritan Book to the double
number of names engraved on two stones of corneUan (those of the ephod,
Exod. 28: 9-11 and 39: 6; analogous to those of the breastplate, Exod. 28:
20 and 39: 13) I see a veiled but unmistalcable reference to the number of the
twenty-four priestly families. Hence the Samaritans, just like the Judaeans,
* Cf. J. Macdonald, The Theology of the and medieval Christians attributed to Adam
Samaritans, 1964, p. 319. Similarly Byzantine tlie invention of astronomy.
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