The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

66 INTRODUCTION
must have had, since the Persian era, a service of the twenty-four families of
priests in their temple on Mount Gerizim. The Book of the Signs is often
quoted in the 'Asatir; various people get to know of it and consult it like a
collection of oracles: iv 2 (Noah), v 16 (Nimrod), vi 18 (an Egyptian sorcerer,
contemporary with Abraham: hrs wsmh twrts mn Uwpy spr h'wtwt bhnwkyh,
'a sorcerer named Tritos (?), one of the disciples of the Book of the Signs at
Hanokyah', f. 8"^ 4-5)>^ vii 4 (the same magician foretells disaster to the kings
Amraphel and Kedar-Laomer), viii 16 (the Pharaoh contemporaneous with
Joseph learns of the Book of the Signs in Babylon the Great), ix 7 (Palti
the soothsayer makes predictions concerning Moses), x 5 (Bileam).
In the section about Noah the 'Asatir enumerates three works of antediluvian
wisdom: bz' snyn Up tlth spry bryth spr h*twt wspr ngmwt wspr
mlhmwt zh spr twldt 'dm: 'In 7 years he (Noah) learned the three Books of
Creation: the Book of the Signs, the Book of Astronomy (Arab nagmah, *star'),
the Book of the Wars which is the Book of the Generation of Adam' (f. 4"^
18-21 = iii 9). After the flood, at the time of the distribution of the earth by
Noah among his descendants, wyhb spr h'twt Vrpksd wspr ngymwt Vylm wspr
mlhmwtyhb Vswr: *And he gave the Book of the Signs to Arpachshad, and the
Book of Astronomy to Elam, and the Book of Wars he gave to Ashur' (f. 5^
3-6 = iv 15). The second book, the astronomical document, is the Enochic
work par excellence. The third, which obviously takes up 'the book of the
Wars of Yahweh' of Num. 21: 14, seems to refer to the involvement of the
sons of Adam and their daughters (En. 6: i) in the struggle between the forces
of good and evil or, in other words, to the Visions of Enoch (En. 6-19), the
work which seems to be of Samaritan origin (cf. above, pp. 9-10 and 31).
The title of this third book occurs a second time as a place-name: wq'm
'dm bmdynh dhkmth dmtqryh sprh dspr mlhmwt yhwh w'mh ngymw dywmyh
wz' qrby yth w'mh lyt 'hd mnwn w'qr wsrh Igw b'dn: 'And Adam lived in the
country of Hokmata which is called Sifrah (the Book), i.e. the Book of the
Wars of Yahweh. And he saw the planets of the days; and 7 approached him;
and he saw that none of them was any more. And he removed and dwelt in
Badan' (f. z"" zz-z^ i = i 21-3). Adam thus lived first of all in the land of
Wisdom and of the Book; after the vision of the seven wandering stars which
approach him, and for this reason are punished (cf. En. 18: 13-16), he is
driven from paradise and lives at the 'House of Judgement', Bi{t)-Dan.^
Now, when Enoch died, he was borne off to Sifrah, and it was thither that
' The place-name means more or less *the Babylonian Jews, below, p. 337.
school of Enoch'; such a notion was known to ^ Cf. RB Ixxiii (1966), 527, n. 21.