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

22 The Book of Enoch.
was made. Ethiopia did not exist as a literary language before
350 (see Noldeke ' Semitic Languages/ Encyc. Brit., 9th ed.,
vol. xxi. 654). The translation of the Bible into Ethiopic
was made between 350 and 600, and it is probable that the
book of Enoch was not made much earlier than the later
date.
The Place of Composition.—There is no room for doubt
as to the Palestinian origin of the book. The various authors
are at home in Palestine and accurately acquainted with the
various localities close to Jerusalem, the valleys, brooks, and
other natural features in its immediate neighbourhood. To
them further Jerusalem is the city of the elect, the centre of
the coming Messianic kingdom, and Gehenna is the destined
habitation of the apostate. Greek elements have no doubt
found an entrance in certain fragments of the book, but as a
rule there is a deliberate and sustained opposition rendered
to all Hellenistic ideas and influences. The whole tone and
exegesis of the book are Palestinian in character.
§ 9. The Object of Apocalyptic Literature.
The object of Apocalyptic literature in general was to solve
the difficulties connected with the righteousness of God and
the suffering condition of his righteous servants on earth.
The righteousness of God postulated according to the Law
the temporal prosperity of the righteous, and postulated this
temporal prosperity of necessity; for as yet there was no
promise of life or recompense beyond the grave. But in the
experience of God's servants this connexion of righteousness
and temporal reward was so often found to fail that the
Psalmists at times go so far as to complain that the best
things of this life are bestowed on the wicked. The difficul-
ties thus arising from this conflict between promise and
experience might be shortly resolved into two, which deal
respectively with the position of the righteous as a com-
munity, and the position of the righteous man as an in-