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

SECTION II.
(chapters XXXVII—LXXI.)
THE SIMILITUDES. INTRODUCTION.
A. Critical Structure. B. Relation of xxxvii-lxxi to the rest of
the booh. C. Date. D. The Problem and its Solution.
A. Critical Structure. This Section gives on the whole
a consistent apocalyptic as distinguished from a prophetic picture
of the future, and may be regarded as coming from one and the
same hand. It contains, however, numerous and extensive inter-
polations, i.e. xxxix. i, 2 a ; xli. 3-8; xliii ; xliv; 1; liv. 7-lv. 2 ;
lvi. 5-lvii. 3 a ; lix; lx; lxv-lxix. 25; lxxi. These interpolations,
with the exception possibly of 1; lvi. 5-lvii. 3*; lxxi, are drawn
from an already existing Apocalypse of Noah and adapted by their
editor to their adjoining contexts in Enoch. This he does by
borrowing characteristic terms, such as ' Lord of Spirits,' ' Head of
Days,' ' Son of Man,' to which, however, either through ignorance
or of set intention he generally gives a new connotation : see Notes
for details. 1; lvi. 5-lvii. 3 a may be from the same hand, but
belong rather to the prophetic than to the Apocalyptic school of
thought, lxxi is of the nature of a mosaic and is modelled, as
Kostlin saw (Theol. Jahr. 1856, p. 378), on ch. xiv, and on
various sections of the Similitudes, of which it appears to give
a deliberate perversion. See Notes.
B. Relation of xxxvii-lxxi to the rest of the book. As all
critics are now agreed that the Similitudes are distinct in origin
from the rest of the book, there is no occasion for treating ex-
haustively the grounds for this conclusion. Accordingly, we shall
give here only a few of the chief characteristics which differentiate
this Section from all the other Sections of the book. (a) Names
of God found only in xxxvii-lxxi. ' Lord of Spirits ' (passim)