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

222 The Book of Enoch, [Sect. IV.
well as the rise of the Chasids. The Chasids, symbolised by the
lambs that are born to the white sheep, xc. 6, are already an
organised party in the Maccabean revolt, xc. 6 (note). The lambs
that become horned are the Maccabean family, and the great
horn is Judas Maccabaeus, xc. g (note). As this great horn
is still warring at the close of the rule of the twelve shepherds,
xc. 1 6, this section must have been written before the death
of Judas, 161 B.C., possibly before his purification of the Temple.
As the fourth period began about 200 b. c, the author of
lxxxiii—xc, writing in the lifetime of Judas Maccabaeus, must have
expected its close between 140 and 130 B.C.; for, on the analogy
of the third period, each shepherd would rule between five and
six years. This expectation in connexion with Judas Maccabaeus
was not unnatural, as his eldest brother, Simon, did not die
till 135 B.C.
D. The Problem and its Solution. This section forms in
short compass a philosophy of religion from the Jewish standpoint.
It is divided into two visions, the former of which deals with the
first world-judgment of the Deluge, and the latter with the entire
history of the world till the final judgment. The writer does not
attempt to account for the sin that showed itself in the first
generation. In his view, it was not the sin of man, but the sin
of the angels who fell (in the days of Jared), that corrupted the
earth, lxxxiv. 4, lxxxvi-lxxxviii, and brought upon it the first
world-judgment.
In the second vision the interest centres mainly on the calamities
that befall Israel from the exile onwards. Why has Israel become
a by-word among the nations, and the servant of one gentile
power after another *? Is there no recompense for the righteous
nation and the righteous individual 1 That Israel, indeed, has
sinned grievously and deserves to be punished, the author amply
acknowledges, but not a punishment so unmeasurably transcending
its guilt. But these undue severities have not come upon Israel
from God's hand: they are the doing of the seventy shepherds
into whose care God committed Israel, lxxxix. 59. These shep-
herds or angels have proved faithless to their trust, and treach-
erously destroyed those whom God willed not to destroy; but
they have not therein done so with impunity. An account has
been taken of all their deeds and of all whom they have wickedly
destroyed, lxxxix. 61-64, an^ for all their victims there is laid up
a recompense of reward, xc. 33. Moreover, when the outlook