The Book of Enoch

...I was obliged to follow their authority in three hundred additional instances against Dillmann's text. However, as I could introduce only a limited number of these new readings into the critical notes already in type, the reader will not infrequently have to consult Appendix C for the text followed in the translation in the earlier chapters. In addition to the new readings incorporated in the translation, a number of others are proposed in Appendices C, D, and E. These are preceded by the readings they are intended to displace and are always printed in italics. I might add that the Gizeh fragment, which, through the kindness of the Delegates of the Press, is added on pages 326–370, will be found to be free from the serious blemishes of M. Bouriant's edition.

To the kindness of the Rev. M. R. James, of King's College, Cambridge, I owe the Latin fragment in Appendix E. This fragment was lately discovered by Mr. James in the British Museum. It will be seen that it helps to emend the Ethiopic text in a few points.

II. Of late years, the criticism of Enoch has reached certain assured results. From these, duly given and substantiated, a fresh departure in criticism is made. The so-called Grundschrift original: "Grundschrift" (German); term for the underlying or original document/source text is shown to proceed from at least four different authors. The book thus becomes intelligible, and much light is thereby thrown on the internal history and thought-development of the Jews in the two centuries preceding the Christian era. The present writer is convinced that until this plurality of authorship is recognized, no true or adequate interpretation of Enoch is possible. In the Book of Enoch, we have a typical example of the Oriental method of editing. Less important books were constantly rescued from oblivion by incorporation into larger books. Plagiarism and literary property were ideas alike foreign to the Palestinian consciousness of the time. As the name of David attracted different collections of the Psalms, and the name of Solomon successive...