The Book of Enoch

are perpetuated, even those which have been corrected in his lexicon, and to these, Dr. Schodde has added a goodly number of his own. At times he translates directly from the German instead of the Ethiopic. For instance, in xxxvi. 3, he translates ምዕራብ (mi'rab) incorrectly as "every evening" instead of "to the west." The explanation of this strange mistake is found in Dillmann’s rendering gegen Abend, which may be translated either way. Again, in lxii. 4, he provides the extraordinary rendering "when the son enters the mouth of the mother," instead of the obvious translation "enters the mouth of the womb." Here again, Dillmann’s Wann sein Sohn in den Muttermund tritt explains Dr. Schodde’s error. It is possible that this error should be set down to an imperfect knowledge of English, such as he displays in xxi. 3, where the words "tied together to it" represent some stars as tied to a void, whereas the literal translation is "bound together in it." Or, in xxv. 5, where he renders "it will be planted towards the north" instead of "it will be transplanted to the north."

At other times, Dr. Schodde confuses words that closely resemble each other in the Ethiopic, as in xxvii. 2: "here will be their judgment" instead of "here will be the place of their punishment"; in xxxii. 3: "of attractive beauty" instead of "of goodly fragrance"; in lxxxix. 18: "abode" instead of "assembly." Again, in lxxiii. 8, he comments rightly in the notes on the waxing moon, but his translation wrongly refers to the waning moon. On the other hand, the notes on the astronomical chapters are often misleading and unintelligible; compare lxxii. 3, 35; lxxiv. 6; lxxv. 1. A more thorough study of Dillmann’s commentary would have saved him from such misconceptions.

It will be sufficient to point to one or two more mistranslations in this book.

xix. 1: "On the day when the great judgment . . . shall be consummated," instead of "on the day of the great judgment . . . till they are consummated."