The book of Enoch : translated from Professor Dillmann's Ethiopic ...

98 The Book of Enoch. [Sect. I.
6. Then answered Michael, one of the holy and honoured
angels who was with me, and was in charge thereof
XXV. I. And he spake to me ;
' Enoch what dost thou ask
as touching the fragrance of this tree and what dost thou seek
to know ? 1. Then I, Enoch, answered him and said :
( I should like to know about everything, but especially about
this tree/ 3. And he answered me and said :
' This high
mountain which thou hast seen, whose summit is like the
throne of the Lord, is His throne, where the Holy and Great
One, the Lord of Glory, the Eternal King, will sit, when He
shall come down to visit the earth with goodness. 4. And
no mortal is permitted to touch this tree of delicious fragrance
XXV. 4. Till the great day of judgment, when He shall
avenge and bring everything to its consummation for ever;
this tree, I say, will (then) be given, &c. So G : Xfth; Oft£;
OtfVfc MT: Mb *; £*ft#&: h-ta (D^K^i Xfth; Cfi(W°\
"Hh» . . . J&faDlMl. Din., supported in the main by the other MSS.,
reads : Xlftii fcn>: 0O£; Mi; frn>; £tft*&: fr.ft>: wj^gj^^i
'
XftJl*. MCWl 7ttb . . . PfWlMl ; which he translates thus : Bis
um die Zeit des grossen Gerichts : wann Alles gesiihnt nnd vol-
lendet werden wird fur die Ewigkeit, wird dieser— 'ubergeben
life, xxv. 4-6 (notes). G.Michael, of life. By the eating of this tree
the patron angel of Israel, is in charge after the final judgment men are en-
of these special treasures of the Mes- dovved with long life—not eternal
sianic kingdom. life: cf. v. 9 ; x. 17; xxv. 6. Cf.
XXV. 3. This high mountain, Apoc. Bar. lxxiii. 2, 3, 6, 7. The
i. e. the middle one of the seven. writer of i-xxxvi has not risen to the
This mountain, described in xviii. 6- conception of an eternal life of blessed-
9, xxiv. 1-3, is not to be identified ness for the righteous, and so has not
with Sinai, i. 4, for there God descends advanced a single step beyond the
to judgment. This mountain is God's conceptions found in Is. lxv, lxvi.
throne on earth when he comes down This materialistic conception of the
to bless the earth. Cf. lxxvii. 1 tree of life based on Gen. ii. 9, iii. 2 2,
Holy and Great One : see i. 3 (note). and here published afresh, gained
Lord of Glory: cf. xxii. 14; xxv. afterwards a wide currency in Jewish
7 ; xxvii. 3, 5 ; xxxvi. 4 ; xl. 3 ; lxiii.
2; lxxxiii. 8. Eternal King: cf.
and Christian literature : cf. Rev. ii.
7; xxii. 2, 14; iv Ezra viii. 52. Why
vv - 5> 7 > xxvii. 3 ; only found in i- - this tree should be amongst the
xxxvi. 4, 5. This tree is the tree mountains in the South does not