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

102 The Booh of Enoch [Sect. II
2. There miiie eyes saw all the secret things of heaven that shall
be^ a mountain of iron^ and a mountain of copper, and a mountain
of silver, and a mountain of gold, and a mountain of soft metal,
and a mountain of lead.
3. And I asked the angel who went with me, saying, ' What
things are these which I have seen in secret ? ' 4. And he
said unto me :
' All these things which thou hast seen shall serve
the dominion of His Anointed that he may be potent and mighty
on the earth.''
5. And that angel of peace answered, saying unto me :
' Wait
a little and there shall be revealed unto thee all the secret things,
which surround the Lord of Spirits.
ends of the heaven :
here he is borne to
the west. 2. There ought to be seven
mountains mentioned here. The six that
are mentioned in this verse and in 52^
consist of iron, copper, silver, gold, soft
metal, lead. Now if we turn to 67*,
where these mountains are again re-
ferred to but the nature of only five of
them specified, we find that these five
are of gold, silver, iron, soft metal, tin.
It is not improbable, therefore, that the
seventh mountain, the mention of which
has been lost from the text, consisted
of ' tin '. This conclusion receives sup-
port from the following considerations.
In 52'"' there is a fresh enumeration
of metals, which though not referring
dh-ectly to the metal mountains yet
does BO indirectl}'. In this list the
following metals are given : gold, silver,
iron, bronze, tin, lead. Here again we
find the missing metal ' tin ', though a
fresh metal ' bronze' is also mentioned.
This ' bronze ' may be the same as the
' copper ' in the other list. So much
for our text. Now for a myth indirectly
connected with it. In Origen's Contra
Celsum, vi. 22, there is a description of
a ladder with seven gates from the
mysteries of Mithras. The first gate
C(msists of lead {n6\vl3Sos) and is as-
signed to Saturn, the second of tin
{xaaalTcpos), which is assigned to Venus
on the ground of its splendour and
softness (to tpaiSpSv re Kal paKanov rov
KatxatTepov^fthe third of copper (xaA.K(5s)
assigned to Jupiter, the fourth of iron
((rtSrjpos) assigned to Mercury, the fifth
of a mixture of metals (Kepcarbv v6iuap.a)
assigned to Mars, the sixth of silver
(ap^vpov) assigned to the Moon, and
the seventh of gold {xpva6s) assigned
to the Sun. The metals in this passage
and in our text are evidently the same.
The question now arises with which of
these seven metals is the ' soft metal
in our te.Tt to be identified? If the
word we have rendered ' tin ' is rightly
translated, then possibly it should be
identified with the Kepaarbv v6iucrpa.
On the other hand Celsus's description
of 'tin ' as being ' soft' might point to
another conclusion. Owing to the
difficulty of identifying the ancient
metals we must leave this question
undecided. See A'. A. T.' 618, note
4. Shall be. + 'upon the earth'
(2, (2,)3). Lead 52« 65'. « 67*. «.
3-4. From the Son of Man source.
See note at beginning of chapter.
5. That angel. Here w'gtd (= that)
is merely a translation of the Greek
article. Wait a little. + ' and thou
shalt see ' p. Surround, the Lord of
'