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

Sect. IV.] Chapter XC. 35-42. 259
buffalo became a great animal, and had great black horns on its
head ;
and the Lord of the sheep rejoiced over them and over all
the oxen. 39. And I slept in their midst : then I awoke and
saw everything. 40. This is the vision which I saw while
I slept, arid I awoke and blessed the Lord of righteousness
and gave Him glory. 41. Then I fell into a great fit of
weeping and my tears stayed not till I could no longer en-
dure it: when I looked, they flowed on account of what
I saw ; for everything will come and be fulfilled, and all the
deeds of men in their order were shown to me. 43. And
in that night I remembered my first dream:, on its account
also I wept and was overcome, because I had seen that
vision/
misleading translation 'the first among them was the word/
Some critics have imagined this to be a Christian interpolation
referring to the Ao'yos, but it is £»2V and never Y1C which is used
to translate the word \6yos. The LXX. renders &K") by fxovoKepas
and Ethiopic by hih&\ #CJ.. The Lord of the sheep. G has
the peculiar reading OD^-Rfc fi07A='the fatted sheep.' 41.
After when I looked G inserts hli(W; Xfc ' till I could no longer
endure it, when I looked ; for they flowed/ &c.
Crit. Note. Though nothing is said
as to the duration of the life of the
individual in this section, the implication
is that it is eternal. If Enoch
and Elijah are transferred to the
Messianic kingdom from Paradise,
surely it is only reasonable to con-
clude that the new form of existence
is an eternal one ; for this new form
S 2
of existence is more glorious than
that enjoyed by Enoch and Elijah
in Paradise. In Paradise Elijah was
symbolized by a ram, but in the
Messianic kingdom by a bull. 40.
Cf. xxii. 14. 41, 42. Enoch weeps
because of the woes that threaten
mankind in his two visions.