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

Sect. III.] Chapters LXXIL 31 L XXIII. 5. 197
Her circumference is like the circumference of the heaven,
and her chariot in which she rides is driven by the wind and
light is given to her in (definite) measure. 3. Her rising
and setting changes every month :
her days are like the days
of the sun, and when her light is uniform (i. e. full) it amounts
to the seventh part of the light of the sun. 4. And thus
she rises. And her first phase in the east comes forth on the
thirtieth morning : on that day she becomes visible, and con-
stitutes for you the first phase of the moon on the thirtieth
day together with the sun in the portal where the sun rises.
5. And the one half of her projects by a seventh part, and
LXXIII. 4. Thirtieth morning. G wrongly gives *?*?¥
portal/ Thirtieth day. So G M. Other MSS. and Din.
chapter treat of the course of the
moon. 3. Her rising and set-
ting, i. e. the place of her rising
and setting. Seventh, part of
the light of the sun : cf. lxxii.
37; lxxviii. 4. 4. Her first
phase, lit. 'her beginning.' The moon
on the first day of her reappearance
is here the new moon in the popular
sense, not the new moon strictly so
called, which is invisible. Thirtieth
morning, i. e. of the solar month.
Together with the sun. The sun
and moon are still in the same portal
on the first day after conjunction,
as each portal embraces an extent
of 30 degrees, and the moon advances
only 1 3 degrees daily. 5-8. The
author's account of the phases of the
moon is very hard to follow. His
scheme seems to be as follows. The
lunar month amounts to 30 days
and 29 days alternately. It is divided
into two parts : during the first part
the moon waxes from new moon to
full moon in 14 days when the month
is 29 days, and in 15 when the month
is 30 days. During the second part
the moon wanes from full moon till
she disappears, always, it would
seem, in 15 days. Again, the author
divides the moon into 14 parts, and
explains the waxing of the moon by
the successive lighting up of each
one of the 14 parts by the sun, and
the waning by the successive with-
drawal of light from the 14 parts
till it all disappears. But to proceed
more exactly, where there are 15
days from new moon to full moon,
the author supposes an additional
twenty-eighth part ; this part only is
lighted up on the first day of such
a month, whereas one fourteenth part
is lighted up each day of the re-
maining 14 days, till the moon be-
comes full. The waning which ap-
parently always takes 15 days is
the reverse of this process. Again,
where there are 14 days from new
moon to full moon, the moon has
at the end of the first day one four-
teenth part + one twenty-eighth part,
i.e. three twenty-eighths, and takes
an additional fourteenth part of light
each of the remaining 13 days. Ac-
cording to the text above followed,
vv. 5, 6 suppose the period from new to