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

Sett. Ill] Introduction 149
leader, showed unto me.' 82 must have preceded this chapter
originally, and probably immediately. After the long disquisition
on the stars in 82, the first words of 79 would come in most
appropriately ' And now, my son, I have shown thee everything,
and the law of all the stars of the heaven is completed.' If 82 does
not precede, these words have practically no justification in 72-78.
The final editor of the whole book was fond of such dislocations.
There has been a like rearrangement of 91-93.
B. Its Independence of 1-36. (1) In 1^ the revelation of
Enoch is not for the present, but for remote generations : in 93'°
it is to remain a secret till the seventh week of the world : in
104^^ it is one day to be disclosed. But in 82^ the revelations are
entrusted to Jlethuselah to be transmitted to the generations of
the world. (2) In 33* Uriel writes down everything for Enoch,
but in 72^ 74^ 75^ 79^' " Uriel only shows the celestial phenomena
to Enoch, and Enoch himself writes them down, 82^. (3) The
description of the winds coming from different quarters in 34-36
differs from that in 76. (4) The heavenly bodies are partly con-
scious in 1-36 ; cf. 1812-10 21i-« ; but not so in 72-82. (5) The
portals of the stars in 36^ are described as small portals above the
portals of the winds. As in 72-82 these portals are also those
of the sun and moon, they can hardly be called ' small ', being
each equal to thirty degrees in width. Besides, though described
at great length in 72-82, they are never said to be 'above' those
of the winds. (6) The river of fire in 23, in which the luminaries
set and recruit their exhausted fires, has no point of connexion
with 72-82. There is undoubtedly some relationship between
the later chapters of 1-36 and 72-82 ; but it is not that of one
and undivided authorship.
C, Its Calendar and the Knowledge therein impUed. The
chronological system of this book is most perplexing. It does not
in its present form present a consistent whole, and probably never
did. We are not to regard it as anything more than the attempt
of an individual to establish an essentially Hebrew calendar over
against the heathen calendars in vogue around. In itself this
calendar cannot be said to have any value. It is useful, however,
a"s giving us some knowledge of the chronological systems more or
less known to the Palestinian Jews. For (1) the writer is acquainted
with the signs of the zodiac, but carefully refrains from using them,
replacing them by his system of portals. (2) He is acquainted with
the spring and autumn equinoxes and the summer and winter