Magic Library

17

make it plausible how the book was preserved during the Flood. To oppose this assertion with a word would be to waste paper. That the book aliquamdiu ante aevum Apostolicum exstitisse existed for some time before the Apostolic age, as Grabe expresses it in the cited work, page 344, cannot be disputed and has been sufficiently demonstrated by this scholar. The book was therefore originally written by a Jew without contradiction. Later on, it may have undergone a few changes and received a few additions here and there by a Jewish Christian. It was evidently written with the intention of providing a commentary on Gen. VI. 1—4. and to make it clear to what extent the transgression of the angels with the women caused the Flood and made it necessary. This was probably also the reason why the unknown author placed the name of Enoch at the front of the book.

Be that as it may, this is sufficient for our immediate purpose here, noting only the one thing: the passages that are important for our current investigations are also found completely in the copy of the book found in Ethiopia, so that they agree entirely with the previously known fragments collected by Grabe, as has already been noted and demonstrated by Michaelis shortly after the discovery of the ancient product, in the Orientalische Bibliothek Oriental Library to confirm the authenticity of the discovered literary treasure. The passage relevant here is quite long, but it belongs so entirely in our