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

Sect. II] ampler LXV. '6-12 131
their judgement has been determined upon and shall not be with-
held by Me for ever. Because of the sorceries which they
have searched out and learnt, the earth and those who dwell
upon it shall be destroyed." 11. And these—they have no
place of repentance for ever, because they have shown them
what was hidden, and they are the damned : but as for thee, my
son, the Lord of Spirits knows that thou art pure, and guiltless
of this reproach concerning the secrets.
12. And He has destined thy name to be among the holy,
destroyed.' Here first of all Halevy
has pointed out that the knowledge of
the .future could hardly have been regarded
by tlie author as criminal. He
fixes on ' months ' as a corruption =
D''B'nn corrupt for D"|B'^^ = ' sorceries
(Is. 3'). But the objection here is that
the bulk of the evidence points not to
a Hebrew but an Aramaic original.
But since Aramaic speaking Jews (Jer.
Taanith, iii. 69) sometimes used K^B'nn
instead of the regular N*n"|i, it is
possible that N^Cin was here a cor-
ruption of NiB>in. But if Xim< did
stand in the original, it may have been
a corruption of X''"inD ' secrets '. Xext,
in my Ethiopic Text of 1906, p. 118,
I pointed out that ' shall not be
reckoned' is wrong. This phrase =
3B'n* X^l—a corruption for 'il'^'n''. XPl
' shall not be withheld '. At the same
time I pointed out in the same work,
p. xxxi, that this restoration was possible
through Aramaic. Thus SJOri'' =
' shall be numbered ' would be a cor-
ruption of ViOIV ' shall be withheld'.
Subsequently Nathaniel Schmidt, in a
reprint from Old Testament and Semitic
Studies in Memory of W. R. Barper,
pp. 338-339, adopted the idea I have
above suggested but not that of Halevy.
He renders :
' Because of their violence
their judgement will be carried out,
and will ^ot be withheld by Me, on
'
K
account of the months during which
they will inquire and learn how the
earth and its inhabitants are to be
destroyed.' Here ' will be reckoned
= KJOT' corrupt for ' WDH'
'
will be
withheld'. So far so good, but the
rest is impossible. First ' will be car-
ried out ' and ' will inquire and learn '
should be in the past. Even had these
renderings been right, the sense arrived
at is unsatisfactory. The ' months ' referred
to are those during which Noah
preached the coming end of the world
and they remained unrepentant. If
Professor Schmidt had studied ray Text
he would have seen that the word
' how ' is not admitted into it since
three of the best MSS.