CHAPTER I

ARAMAIC BOOKS OF ENOCH IN PERSIAN AND HELLENISTIC TIMES

The fragments of leather scrolls belonging to the Books of Enoch which come from Cave 4 of Qumrân represent eleven manuscripts. Seven have been given the sigla Enᵃ to Enᵍ, while the other four, containing the Astronomical Book alone, are denoted Enastrᵃ to Enastrᵈ. No single manuscript fragment corresponding to the second section of the Ethiopic Enoch, chapters 37–71 (Book of Parables), has been identified among the countless fragments of 4Q or in the less extensive collections from ten other Qumrân caves. This negative, but very significant pointer, in terms of the calculation of probabilities, to the post-Qumrân dating of this work, will be further reinforced by considerations of a literary nature. On the other hand, I have been able to identify quite recently a very important Enochic document entitled the Book of Giants which, in the third century A.D., was ‘canonized’ by the Manichaeans A Gnostic religious movement founded by the prophet Mani. I have located about ten, if not twelve, manuscripts of this book among the Qumrân fragments; of these, only 4QEnGiantsᵃ is edited in full here. We shall inquire later (pp. 59–69) whether the authorship of other Qumrân texts—in particular a beautiful fragment of an Aramaic apocalypse and several astronomical and calendrical documents—may be attributed to the antediluvian sage.

Regardless of the truth regarding that, the Qumrân Enochic corpus was composed essentially of five Aramaic literary works: the Astronomical Book, the Book of Watchers, the Book of Giants, the Book of Dreams, and the Epistle of Enoch. An analysis of the Book of Watchers will allow us to distinguish the very archaic Enochic document which was probably entitled Visions of Enoch. At the beginning of the first century B.C., there existed in all probability the Pentateuch of Enoch, which was copied on two separate scrolls, containing respectively the Astronomical Book and the four other works. This pentateuchal collection was to be altered during the Christian era by the elimination of the Book of Giants and the insertion of the Book of Parables.