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

Sect. v.] Chapters CIV. n — CVI. 2. 301
and testify to the children of earth concerning their wisdom
show it unto them \
for ye are their guides and a recompense
over the whole earth. 2. For I and My Son will unite
with them for ever in the paths of uprightness in their lives
and ye will have peace : rejoice, ye children of uprightness.
Amen.'']
[CVI. 1. And after some days my son Methuselah took a
wife for his son Lamech, and she became pregnant by him
and bore a son. 2. And his body was white as snow and
red as a blooming rose, and the hair of his head and his long
locks were white as wool, and his eyes beautiful. And when
CV. 2. Amen. So G G 1 Mfc
belong to xci-civ. For (i) the phrase
'children of earth,' which in xci-civ
is a synonym for the sinners or
heathen, has here a good ethical sig-
nification : see c. 6 (note) ; ci. i (note).
(2) The Messiah is introduced in cv. 2,
to whom there is not the faintest
allusion throughout xci-civ. (3) The
finite duration of the lives of the
saints seems to be implied in cv. 2.
This is the doctrine in i-xxxvi, but
not in xci-civ. (4) The emphasis is
laid in cv on the finite life on earth
in xci-civ on the immortal life in
heaven. This chapter, like lvi. 5-
lvii. 3*, is a literary revival of 0. T.
thoughts and ideals. 1. Children
of earth. This phrase has a good
signification here; for the books of
Enoch, which only ' the righteous and
the wise '
will receive, are the guides
of those designated ' children of
earth.' Contrast with this the tech-
nical meaning of this phrase in c. 6;
cii. 3. Kecompense: cf. civ. 13.
2. To My Son. There is no difliculty
about the phrase • My Son ' as applied
to the Messiah by the Jews : cf.iv Ezra
vii. 28, 29 ; xiv. 9. If the righteous are
called 'God's children' in lxii. 11, the
Other MSS. 'in truth/ OJWi.
Messiah was pre-eminently the Son
of God. Moreover, the early Messianic
interpretation of Ps. ii would
naturally lead to such an expression.
In lxii. 14 above we have practically
the same thought expressed : cf. John
xiv. 23. In their lives : see intro-
duction to this chapter. Ye will
have peace. This was the special
blessing of the righteous, as its loss
was the curse entailed on the wicked
cf. xciv. 6 (note).
CVI-VII. We have here again a
fragment of a Noah Apocalypse. This
fragment, as the other fragments of
this Apocalypse, uses the Samaritan
reckoning : see lxv. 2 (note) ; lxx. 4
(note). Enoch is still alive and with
the angels at the ends of the earth,
exactly as it is presupposed in lxv. 2
lxvi. 3, when Noah is born. Only
the Samaritan reckoning would admit
of this coincidence, as according to it
Enoch was only as yet 185 years old.
According to the Hebrew text, on
the other hand, Noah's birth did not
occur till the seventieth year after
Enoch's translation, and according to
the LXX. not till the 155th year
after that event. 2. As wool