the-book-of-enoch-r-h-charles - Fallen Angels

28 The Book of Enoch [Sect. I
aboclej and what had become of him. 2. And his activities had
to do with the Watchers^ and his days were with the holy ones.
3. And I Enoch was blessing the Lord of majesty and the
King of the ages, and lo ! the Watchers called me—Enoch the
scribe—and said to me : 4. 'Enoehj thou scribe of righteous-
ness, go, f declaref to the Watchers of the heaven who have left
the high heaven, the holy eternal place, and have defiled them-
selves with women, and have done as the children of earth do,
and have taken unto themselves wives : " Ye have wrought
Enoch at this date had already been
translated ; but, if so, this was not the
meaning of the vision he has incor-
porated ; for Enoch is still living : his
final translation from earth has not yet
fallen out ; for as a man he writes the
petition for the angels, 13" : receives
a vision in sleep and is transported in
spirit unto heaven, 14^ : speaks with
a tongue of flesh, 14' : and
is tei-rified,
like a mortal man, at the presence of
God, 14'*. Furthermore, the next
verse (12') was .apparently before the
author of Jub. 4", who states that
Enoch spent six jubilees of years (i. e.
294) with the angels, being instructed
in the things of heaven and earth, and
that afterwards he was taken from
amongst the children of men. 2.
His activities. Here E reads ' all his
activities ', but kuellft = ' all' is a cor-
ruption of 'SM = TO as frequently.
For ' his ' G* corruptly reads ' their '.
His days. E corruptly prefixes ' in '.
3. This verse, which contains the
request of the Watchers that Enoch
should intercede for them, should be
read after 13'. See note on xii-xvi.
Of majesty (G"). So E (i.e. qP) by
changing the vocalization of one letter.
Otherwise E = '
great ',
' majestic '.
King of the ages. This title occurs
also in G^ 9*, where however it is
' corrupt. Watoliers. -I- of the Holy
Great One ', G^. The scribe ; of.
92'. Enoch is further called ' the scribe
of righteousness ',
12* lo^, because he
is himself a righteous man, 15^ 71"-16,
and declares the righteous judgement
that is coming, 13' 14'. ' 81» 82i, &c.
The idea of a heavenly 'scribe' is
derived in the main from the Baby-
lonian Nabfl. He is the man (in Ezek.
92 sqti.-j gj^jj jj^ linen with writer's ink-
horn by his side. He is accompanied
by six other men. These go back to
the seven gods of the planets. In later
Jewish writings this office is fulfilled
by Michael in 1 Enoch 89" »"''•, by
Enoch in 1 Enoch 12' "> 15^ 92^, and
by Vretil, an archangel, in 2 Enoch
2211 aq. 'jiijg same function was dis-
charged in the ancient Egyptian religion
by the god Thoth. Sjee Zimmern in
KA.T^ 404 sqq. 4-6. These
verses form in reality the close of the
Section chs. 2-16. See introduction to
this section, p. 27. 4. Declare
(E). Read with G^ 'and say'. Cf.
16*, where 'say' is preserve! in the
duplicate account. Have left, &c.
Cf. 15', which contains most of this
verse. djioAirroi'Tfs is used in the same
connexion in Jude 6. The holy
eternal place (E). All MSS. but g
insert ' and ' before ' eternal ' G^ ' the
holiness of the eternal place'. Ye
have wrought (G^). This is better
than E = ' and they have wrought '.
These words begin God's message to
the Watchers. This reading is supported
by the fact that both in G^ and E the