The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

THE LATIN, COPTIC, AND SYRIAC TRANSLATIONS 8i
et al.y down to the siege of Jerusalem by Titus and Vespasian, which is said
to have taken place in vengeance of Christ's crucifixion (ff. 80^, 10-80^, i).
There follows a fairly detailed summary of the Old Latin translation of BJf
vi. 196 and 201-13 concerning a case of anthropophagy in the besieged
Jerusalem (ff. 8o^ 2-81'', 5; for lines 5-9 cf. BJf vi. 419-20; lines 9-12 are
unidentified). The fourth piece resumes 2 Kings 6: 24-8: 3 according to the
Old Latin Version {ff. 81'', 13-81'', 26). We have here probably some extracts
from a chronicle or from a collection of Exempla or of Testimonia.
In conclusion, there is no irrefutable evidence for the existence of a Latin
version of the Enochic writings. Nevertheless, the books of Enoch were well
known indirectly in the Christian West, and traces of them are found both
in patristic and medieval literature and in iconography.
During the excavations of the Italian Mission from Florence in the northern
cemetery of Antinoe, numerous manuscript fragments, dating chiefly from
the sixth to seventh centuries, came to light in 1937, among others a Coptic
fragment of En. 93: 3-8.^ This fragment retains approximately one-third
of a leaf of parchment inscribed in beautiful biblical uncial in two columns
on recto and verso. It contains a part of the description of Weeks i to 6
of the Apocalypse of Weeks. A comparison of this Coptic text with the
Aramaic text of En« i iii 23-5 on the subject of the first and the second
weeks shows quite clearly that it is a very faithful version, and not a highly
glossed text as suggested by the editor, who was confused by some divergences
from the Ethiopic Enoch. In my opinion the readings of the Coptic
fragment are all preferable to those of E.^
Here is the literal Latin translation of the Coptic En. 93: 3-8 made by
G. Garitte:
Recto, col. i: ^. . . [Eg]o Enoch genitus sum in prima hebdomade {i^hoixds)
et usque ad me iustum (StVatov) opus permansit compositum.
4Et post me secunda hebdomas (ipSofids) [fiet... col. it: .. • secund]a(?)
hebd[omas] (€j8So/xaj).
^Et post ea tertia hebdomas (ipSofids) fiet et in perfectione eius eligetur
homo ad pl[antam( ?) . . .
* Published by S. Donadoni, *Un frammento nepiie, 'temple', as *chiaramente glossa'; it
della versione copta del "libro di Enoch'* ' corresponds to *the house of the sanctuary',
in Acta Orientalia (Copenhagen), xxv (i960), which, although it is the reading of E® alone,
pp. 197-202.
is preferable to 'the house of domination' of the
^ In V. 8 the editor was wrong to dismiss majority of the Ethiopic manuscripts.
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