2 Enoch 41
2 Enoch 41
Section: Instructions to Sons
Translated by W.R. Morfill, ed. R.H. Charles (1896)
Enoch instructs faithfully his Children about all Things from
the Mouth of the Lord; how he saw, and heard aud wrote them down. |
XL, 1. And now, my children, I know all things? from the lips of the Lord; for? my eyes have seen from the beginning to the end*. 2. I know all things and have written all things in the books, both the heavens and the end of them, and their fulness, and all the hosts, and I have measured their goings, and written down the stars and their innumerable quantity. 3. What man has seen their alternations and their goings? Not even the angels know their number; I have written down the names of all. 4. And I have measured the circle of the sun, and I have measured his rays; *and his coming in and going out, through all the months, and all his courses, and their names I have written down. 5. I have measured the circle of the moon, and its waning which occurs during every day, and the secret places in which it hides every day and ascends according to all the hours. 6. I have Jaid down the four seasons, and from the seasons I made four circles, and in the circles I placed the years; I placed the months, and from the
XL. ! A Sok. add One thing Ihave learned. Throughout this chapter
B is transposed in every way imaginable. 3 Sok. adds and from the end to the return.
another, A Sok.
XL. 1. Iknow all things… my eyes have seen, &c. This seems to be the passage to which Clem. Alex. Eclog. Proph.’(Dind. iii. 456) refers : 6 AavijA Aéyer épodofav 7O *Evary 7H eipnicore ‘nai eldvy Tas Aas macas’: and Origen (de Princ. iv. 35) ‘scriptum namque est in eodem libello dicente Enoch universas materias perspexi,’ Cf. Sibyll. Or. viii. 375, where, in a passage recalling several phrases of this chapter, dpyjv Kal TéAos of6a, ds obpayoy extioa Kal iv. 2. Stars and their innumerable quantity.
B oMITS VERSES 2-7. 2 And
Cf. Eth, En. xliii. 1,23; xciii.14. 3. Not even the Angels, &. Cf. xxiv. 3. 4. See xiii, xiv (notes). 5. See xvi (notes). Its waning which, &c. There is not a single reference to this phenomenon in the Slav. Enoch, but there is « complete account of its waxing and waning in Eth. En. lxxiv. Secret places in which it hides, &c. Corrupt. 6. I have laid down the four seasons. In xiii. 5 we have a reference to the four seasons, but in Eth. En. lxxxil, 11-20 there is an account which, though
54 Lhe Book of the Secrets of Enoch.
months I calculated the days, and from the days! I have
- caleulated? the hours °. 7, Moreover, I have written down all things moving upon the earth® *I have written down all things that are nourished °, all seed sown and unsown, which grows on the earth, and all things belonging to the garden, and every herb and every flower, and their fragrance and their names. 8. And the dwellings of the clouds, *and their conformations and their wings’, how they bring rain and * the rain-drops, I investigated all. g. And I wrote down the course of the’ thunder *and lightning’, and they ® showed me the keys, *and their guardians? and their path!® by which they go. They are brought forth in bonds, in measured degree, * and are let go in bonds}, lest by their * heavy course and vehemence 1! they should overload the clouds of wrath and destroy everything on earth. to. I have written down the treasuries of the snow, and the store-houses of the hail, and the cool breezes.
- And I observed the ho’der of the keys of them during the season: and how he fills the clouds with them”, and yet does not exhaust their treasuries. 11. I * wrote down !8 the abodes of the winds, * and I observed and saw”? how those who hold * their keys * bear balances and measures, and in the first place they put them on a balance, in the second they let them go in measure * moderately, with care’ over the whole earth, so that with their heavy breathing they should
1 Aom. 2 Measured and calculated, Sok. 5 Sok. adds and written them down. * That were arranged, Sok. 5 Sok. adds making inquiries into them. 6 Sok. om. 7 Bom. ®* The angels, B. ®° Which guarded them, B. 40 Coming in and going out, Sok. 11 Grievous vehemence, B. Heavy opening (?) and vehemence, Sok. 2 T saw at that time how the clouds are restrained by them as a key does prisoners, B. I watched their seasons: how those that hold the keys of them fill the clouds with them, Sok. ‘S Saw, B. 14 Keys of their prisons, B. 45 B adds measure and.
now defective, was clearly complete This is to be found in Eth. En, lix; originally. 8. Cf. Eth. En. Ix. 1g-_ lx. 13-15. 10. Of. vi. 1, 2; Eth. 22 for an account of these phenomena, En. lx. 17, 18. ll. See Eth. En. 9. Course of the thunder, &. xii. 4.
Chapter XL. 7-13. 55
not shake the whole ! earth. 12. * For I have measured the whole earth, its mountains and all hills, fields, trees, stones, rivers; all things that exist I have written down, the height from earth to the seventh heaven, and down to the lowest hell’, * the place of judgement and the mighty hell? laid open, and *full of lamentation. And I saw how! the prisoners 13. * And I wrote out all of those who are being judged by the judge, and all the judgement they receive, and all their deeds !.
suffer, awaiting the immeasurable judgement.
’ Bom. ? From thence I was taken to the place of judgement, and I saw hell, B. I append here chapter XL in tull,as it appears in B, This chapter in B is manifestly fragmentary and disarranged, and serves to justify the originality of the fuller fourm as preserved in A Suk. 1. My children, I know all from the lips of the Lord. For mine eyes saw from the beginning to the end, 8. and the dwelling places of the clouds, 9. with those which bring storme and thunder. And the angels showed me the keys which guarded them. 10. I saw the treasure of snow and ice, 9. and the path by which they go: they are hrought forth in bonds in measure, and let go in bonds, so that with grievous vehemence they should not oppress the clouds and destroy in the earth, 10. hoth the air and the cold. I saw at that time how the clouds are restrained by them as a key does prisoners, and they are not allowed to exhaust their treasuries. 11. I saw the abodes of the winds, how those who hold the keys of their prisons bear with them the balances and the measures: in the first place they lay on the balances; in the second they measure, and in measure do they let them go over the whole earth: so that by their powerful hreath they should not shake the earth. 12. Fron thence I was taken to the place of judgement and I saw hell open and the prisoners and the eternal judgement.
- Down to the lowest hell. We coms here upon a conception irre-
liell,’ and as this idea is afterwards found in Rabbinic tradition; see
concilable with the general scheme of the author. Hell, according to this scheme, is really located in the third heaven. See x, where the place, ite horrors, and the classes it is prepared for, are described at length. But the old Jewish beliefs of an underworld of punishment are too strong to be wholly excluded, and go consistency is here sacrificed to completeness. For an analogous comparison cf. xviii. 7. It is possible, further, that the author may have had some idea of a series of seven hells, as he speaks here of ‘the lowest
Hisenmengyer, ii. 302, 328-330. If, however, we observe how close this hell is to the Garden of Eden, in xlii, 3, we shall be inclined to identify it with the place of punishment de- scrihed in x. The interpretation, however, of xlii, 3 is difficult. Await- ing the immeasurable judgement. These words, which are found also in vii. 1, in reference to the fallen watchers, would seem to imply an imtermediate place of punishment, in fact, Sheol or Hades. 13. This was an ancient belief of the Jews: cf, liii, a3 lxiv. 55, subilees: iv. 23. °x. 17,
56 The Book of the Secrets of Enoch.