2 Enoch 14
2 Enoch 14
Section: Heavenly Journey (Ten Heavens)
Translated by W.R. Morfill, ed. R.H. Charles (1896)
They took Enoch to the West
XIV. 1. And then these * men took me to the * West of the heavens and showed me six great gates open, *cor- responding to the Eastern gates *, opposite * to which the sun goes out by the Eastern gates ®, according to the number of the days *three hundred and sixty-five, and the quarter of a day”. 2. So he sets by the Western gates. When he goes out by the Western gates® *four hundred angels
: i By his regular departure the years, B. And so ths whole year, A.
om. XIV. ° The, B. 4 Western regions, A. 5 Corresponding to the Eastern entrance, B. Opposite to the circuit of the Eastern gates, Sok.
6 Where the sun retires, A. By which the sun passes, Sok.
8 A om. glories of his luminary.
Ixxii. 2-37. 5. Four seasons: cf. xl. 6. The account of two of these seasons is found in Eth. En. ]xxxii. 15-20: that of the remaining two is lost.
XIV. 1. Three hundred and sixty-five, and the quarter of a day. I have shown in my edition of the Eth. En. pp. 190-91 that the writer of chs. Ixxii-lxxxii. was familiar with the solar year of 3654 days, but that owing to national prejudices he refused to acknowledges it. 2, According to the Eth. En. Ixxii. 5 the sun returns after sunset through the north in order to reach the east. In our text, however, the sun revolves through the fourth heaven, xi; xxx. 3, and when he rises in the sast goes under the heavens and appears to men. Dur- ing the night while he passes through
7 Bom.
9 A adds hs conceals his light under ths earth and ths
the fourth heaven he is without light, or in the words of the text his crown is taken fram him: when he is about to reappear in the east his crown, or in other words his light, is restored to him. The reason why the sun is obliged to surrender his crown in passing through the fourth heaven before God is presumably that which is given’in the Apoc. Mosis (ed. Tis- chend. p. 19): the sun cannot shine before the Light of the Universe (évwmov Tod gwrds THv Bdwv). The passage in this Apocalypse appears undoubtedly to be founded on the present text. Eve is there represented as seeing the sun and moon praying for Adam befors God but without their light. She thereupon asks: od éativ 76 pas abtay, nat bid ri yeyd- vaow pedavoede’s ; nat Aéye abrH E68. od Suvavrat daivew éywmioy Tod gwrds
take his crown and bring it to the Lord’. 3. And the sun revolves? in his chariot *and goes without light? *for seven complete hours in the night *. * And when he comes near the East 5 * at the eighth hour of the night ®, * the four hundred angels bring his crown and crown him’.