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

264 The Book of Enoch, [Sect. v.
stition and idolatry, xcix. 7-9 : they hold that God does not
concern Himself with the doings of men, xcviii. 6, 7, civ. 7, and
that life ceases with the grave, cii. 11. As the former party are
designated as the 'children of heaven,' ci. 1, these are called the
1
children of earth,' c. 6, cii. 3.
The date of this clearly defined and developed opposition of
the two parties cannot have been pre-Maccabean, nor yet earlier
than the breach between John Hyrcamis and the Pharisees. But
a still later date must be assumed according to the literal inter-
pretation of ciii. 14, 15, where the rulers are said to uphold the
Sadducean oppressors and to share in the murder of the righteous.
This charge is not justified before 95 B.C. As for the later limit,
the Herodian princes cannot be the rulers here mentioned, for the
Sadducees were irreconcilably opposed to these, as aliens and
usurpers. It appears, therefore, that this section should be
assigned either to the years 95-79 B.C. or to 70-64 B.C., during
which periods the Pharisees were oppressed by both rulers and
Sadducees.
If, on the other hand, we might regard the word ' murder ' as
merely a strong expression for a severe persecution, and the silence
elsewhere observed as to the rulers would point to this interpreta-
tion, then we should naturally refer this section to the years
134-95 B.C., i.e. after the breach between Hyrcanus and the
Pharisees and before the savage destruction of the Pharisees by
Jannaeus in 95. If the date of the book is subsequent to 95,
the merely passing reference in ciii. 15 to the cruelties of Jannaeus
is hardly intelligible. We should expect rather the fierce indig-
nation against the kings and the mighty/ which we actually do
find in xxxvii-lxx, and which fittingly expresses the feelings of
the Pharisees towards Jannaeus, ' the slayer of the pious.' We
are inclined therefore to place xci-civ before 95 B.C., and if we
may regard c. 2 as an historical reference, these chapters are to
be assigned to the years 104-95 B « c «
The author is thus a Pharisee, writing between the years 104
and 95 b. c.
D. The Problem and its Solution. The author of i-xxxvi
solves the problem of the righteous suffering by their resuscitation
to a temporary blessedness in the Messianic kingdom : the wicked
dead who escaped punishment in life, xxii. 10, n, rise also to
receive requital for their sin. What becomes of the righteous
after their second death is not so much as hinted at in that section.