The Ethiopic Book of Enoch: A new edition in the light of the Aramaic Dead Sea fragments, Volume 2: Introduction, Translation & Commentary

266 Pages·1978·11.78 MB·English

by  Michael Anthony Knibb

THE
ETHIOPIC BOOK
OF ENOCH
A NEW EDITION IN THE
LIGHT OF THE
ARAMAIC DEAD SEA FRAGMENTS
BY
MICHAEL A. KNIBB
IN CONSULTATION WITH
EDWARD ULLENDORFF
INTRODUCTION, TRANSLATION
AND COMMENTARY
1978
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford 0x2 6DP
OXFORD LONDON GLASGOW
NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE WELLINGTON
IBADAN NAIROBI DAR ES SALAAM LUSAKA CAPE TOWN
KUALA LUMPUR SINGAPORE JAKARTA HONG KONG TOKYO
BELHI BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS KARACHI
ISBN O 19 826163 2
© Oxford University Press 1978
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted,
in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior
permission of Oxford University Press
Printed in Great Britain
at the University Press, Oxford
by Vivian Ridler
Printer to the University
CONTENTS
ABBREVIATIONS vi
INTRODUCTION I
1. Previous Editions of the Ethiopic Text of Enoch i
2. The Aramaic Fragments of the Book of Ejioch 6
3. The Greek Version of the Book of Enoch 15
4. The Ethiopic Version of the Book of Enoch 21
5. The Versions Underljring the Ethiopic Text of Enoch 37
6. A Note on the Translation 47
BIBLIOGRAPHY 48
LIST OF SIGLA 53
TRANSLATION 55
REFERENCE INDEX 253
AUTHOR INDEX 259

ABBREVIATIONS
HTR Harvard Theological Review
J A Journal asiatique
J AOS Journal of the American Oriental Society
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JES Journal of Ethiopian Studies
JSS Journal of Semitic Studies
JTS Journal of Theological Studies
NTS New Testament Studies
PL Patrologia Latina
RB Revue biblique
RRAL Rendiconti delta Reale Accademia dei Lincei (Classe di Scienze
Morali, Storiche e Filologiche)
RSE Rassegna di Studi Etiopici
SAB Sitzungsberichte der Deutschen (Preussischen) Akademie der
Wissenschaften zu Berlin
ThBl Theologische Blatter
ZAW Zeitschrift fur die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft
ZDMG Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenlcindischen Gesellschaft
ZNW Zeitschrift fiir die Neutestamentliche Wissenschaft

INTRODUCTION
I. Previous Editions of the Ethiopic Text of Enoch^
THE importance of the Ethiopic version of Enoch lies to a great
extent in the fact that, although we now possess substantial por
tions of Enoch in a Greek form and fragments of Enoch in an
Aramaic form, it is only in Geez that an entire version of this work
has survived. Until a few centuries ago little was known about the
Book of Enoch, and the short Greek excerpts in Syncellus, cover
ing 6. i-io. 14 and 15. 8-16. i,^ provided the only source of infor
mation. A report of the existence of an Ethiopic version of Enoch
reached Europe in the seventeenth century, ^ but modem know
ledge of this book really dates from 1773, the year in which the
traveller James Bruce returned from Ethiopia and brought with
him three manuscripts of Enoch.'^ Two of these manuscripts (Bodl
4 and Bodl 5)5 are now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, while
the third (Paris 32), a specially prepared copy of Bodl 5, was given
by Bruce to Louis XV and is now in the Bibliotheque Nationale
in Paris.
The first edition of the Ethiopic text of Enoch, published by
R. Laurence in 1838,* consisted of a transcript of one of the manu
scripts brought to Europe by Bruce, namely Bodl 4; Laurence
had earlier published an English translation of Enoch based on the
same manuscript.' During the course of the nineteenth century
' Useful summaries of nineteenth-century work on the text of Enoch are to
be found in A. Dillmann, Das Buck Henoch, Leipzig, 1853, pp. Iviiff., and J.
Flemming and L. Radermacher, Das Buch Henoch (Die griechischen christ-
lichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte s)> Leipzig, 1901, a f., 12 f.
(These two works are hereafter referred to as Dillmann, Translation and
Flemming, Translation.) In this section I confine myself only to the more im
portant works on Enoch.
' For details see Section 3 below. ' Cf. Flemming, Translation, a.
* On Bruce cf. E. Ullendorff, The Ethiopians, 3rd edn., Oxford, 1973, n-13.
5 The sigla used for the Ethiopic manuscripts are listed in full in Section 4
of the Introduction, those for the Greek manuscripts in Section 3, and those
for the Aramaic in Section 2; a complete list of sigla is also provided immediately
before the translation of Enoch. However, it is hoped that in general the sigla
are self-explanatory.
' R. Laurence, Lihri Enoch Versio Aethiopica, Oxford, 1838.
' R. Laurence, The Book of Enoch the Prophet, Oxford, iSai; 2nd edn. 1832
(1833); 3rd edn. 1838.
826163 B
a INTRODUCTION
many more manuscripts of Enoch were brought to Europe, but
when, in 1851, Dillmann issued the first critical edition of the text,*
he was still only able to make use of five (Bodl 4, Bodl 5, Frankfurt
MS., Curzon 55, and Curzon 56). Despite this, his edition (to
gether with the German translation which he published in 1853)'
remains of considerable value.
A fresh impetus to the study of the text was provided by the dis
covery at Akhmim in the winter of 1886/7, and the publication in
1892, of a manuscript containing a Greek version of Enoch 1-32,'°
and the years between 1892 and 1912 were marked by a not in
considerable concern with the text of Enoch. Dillmann himself
published an article devoted to the Akhmim manuscript" in which
he gave also some collations of three Ethiopic manuscripts in the
Abbadian collection;'^ this article is still of considerable value and
interest, although in one or two cases Dillmann was misled by the
somewhat unsatisfactory initial publication of the Greek manu
script. R. H. Charles, who had already been working on the text of
Enoch, was able to use the Akhmim manuscript in the English
translation of Enoch which he published in 1893 ;'3 for this trans
lation Charles made use not only of the five Ethiopic manuscripts
which had been available to Dillmann in 1851, but also of nine
other manuscripts which had in the meantime been acquired by the
British Museum (BM Add. 24185, BM 485, BM 484, BM 486,
BM 490, BM Add. 24990, BM 491, BM 492, and BM 499). Charles
argued that BM 485 and (to a lesser extent) BM 491 represented
a text somewhat older than that found in the five manuscripts
used by Dillmann or in the other British Museum manuscripts,
and he accordingly based his translation largely on BM 485.
A second, much revised, edition of this translation appeared in
• A. Dillmann, Liber Henoch Aethiopice, Leipzig, 1851 (hereafter Dillmann,
Text).
' See note i above.
For details see Section 3 below.
" 'Uber den neugefundenen griechischen Text des Henoch-Buches', SAB
1892, 1039-54 and 1079-92.
" Dillmann uses the sigla d, e, and f for these manuscripts (cf. SAB 1892,
1046), but does not further describe them. However, Dillmann's d = Abb 197,
e •= Abb 35, and f = Abb 55 (cf. Flemming, Translation, 3). R. H. Charles
(The Book of Enoch, 2nd edn., Oxford, 1912, xv) appears to suggest that
Dillmann gives collations of Berl not Abb 197, but an examination of
Dillmann's evidence relating to 10. 7 and 31. i makes clear that Dillmann's
d = Abb 197.
" R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch, Oxford, 1893.
PREVIOUS EDITIONS 3
1912.''* Besides this English translation of Enoch, German transla
tions were pubHshed by Beer in and Flemming in 1901,'*
while a French translation was published by Martin in 1906. "7 But
perhaps more important from our immediate point of view was
the publication of two editions of the Ethiopic text, by Flenmiing
in 1902"* and by Charles in i9o6.'9
Flemming knew of twenty-six Ethiopic manuscripts of Enoch,
and made direct use of fourteen of these for both his edition and
his translation. More precisely, he himself collated nine manu
scripts (BM 485, BM 491, Ryl, Berl, Abb 35, Abb 55, Abb 99,
Abb 197, and Munich ^o),^ but took over from Dillmann's text-
edition of 1851 the latter's collations of Bodl 4, Bodl 5, Frankfurt
MS., Curzon 55, and Curzon 56. Flenuning made only sparing use
of the collations of BM Add. 24185, BM 484, BM 486, BM 490,
BM Add. 24990, BM 492, and BM 499 which had been given by
Charles in his translation of 1893, on the grounds that these manu
scripts contained a text which agreed essentially with that of the
five manuscripts used by Dillmann in his text-edition of 1851. For
the same reason he made no use at all of Abb 16, Abb 30, Vat 71,
Paris 114, and Paris 32.^' Flemming rightly recognized that the
Ethiopic manuscripts of Enoch fall into two groups. Group I con
sisting of the older manuscripts BM 485, Berl, Abb 35, and Abb
55, together with BM 491, and Group II consisting of all the other
manuscripts." Flemming noted that the readings of Group I
" R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch, 2nd edn. This edition of the work is
hereafter referred to as Charles, Translation.
'5 G. Beer, 'Das Buch Henoch', Die Apokryphen und Pseudepigraphen des
Alten Testaments, Tubingen, 1900, ii. 217-310 (hereafter Beer, Translation).
See above, note i. Cf. also the translation of P. Riessler in Altjiidisches
Schrifttum ausserhalb der Bibel, Augsburg, 1928, 355-451, 1291-7.
" F. Martin, Le Livre d'Henoch, Paris, 1906 (hereafter Martin, Translation).
Das Buch Henoch, Athiopischer Text herausgegeben von J. Flemming
(Texte und Untersuchungen, neue Folge, vii. i), Leipzig, 1902 (hereafter
Flemming, Text).
" R. H. Charles, The Ethiopic Version of the Book of Enoch (Anecdota
Oxoniensia, Semitic Series xi), Oxford, 1906 (hereafter Charles, Text).
^° For the Abbadian manuscripts Flemming relied in part on collations made
by A. Meyer.
2' Paris 32 is the copy of Bodl 5 given by Bruce to Louis XV.
" Note that in practice Flemming's Group II = Bodl 4, Bodl 5, Frankfurt
MS., Curzon 55, Curzon 56 (i.e. the manuscripts used by Dillmaiui) plus Ryl,
Abb 99, Abb 197, and Munich 30, a total of nine manuscripts. But Flemming
also ascribed to this Group the seven British Museum manuscripts (BM Add.
24185, BM 484, BM 486, BM 490, BM Add. 24990, BM 492, BM 499) and the
4 INTRODUCTION
frequently agree with the Greek against those of Group II, and
based his edition and translation on the Group I manuscripts; like
Charles, he regarded BM 485 as the most important and best
manuscript. Flemming's collations of BM 485, BM 491, and
Berl are, as Charles indicates,^^ not entirely accurate, but, apart
from this, Flemming's text-edition and translation are in many
ways the most convenient and helpful of the tools hitherto
available for the study of Enoch, since Flemming's judgement on
textual matters was often more sensible than that of Charles.
The major difference between the editions of Flemming and
Charles is that the latter provides a larger number of textual
variants than the former. This increase is partly, but not entirely,
the result of the use of manuscripts ignored by, or unknown to,
Flemming. In fact, Charles knew of twenty-eight manuscripts of
Enoch, and made direct use of twenty-two.^ He himself collated
sixteen manuscripts (BM Add. 24185, BM 485, BM 484, BM 486,
BM 490, BM Add. 24990, BM 491, BM 492, BM 499, Berl, Abb
35, Abb 55, Vat 71, Munich 30, Garrett MS., and Westenholz
MS.), but, like Flemming, took over from Dillmann's text-edition
of 1851 Dillmann's collations of Bodl 4, Bodl 5, Frankfurt MS.,
Curzon 55, and Curzon ^6;^^ he likewise took over from Flemming
the latter's collations of Ryl (which, however, he used only
sparingly). In addition to the evidence which Charles gives from
these twenty-two manuscripts he occasionally also gives readings
from two other manuscripts, Abb 99 and Abb 197; Charles
apparently took these readings from Flemming's text-edition.
Charles thus left completely out of account only four manu
scripts: Abb 16, Abb 30, Paris 114, and Paris 32. These four were
also left out of account by Flemming, and in view of the indica
tions of the age and character of the manuscripts there can be little
question that Charles and Flemming were right to ignore them.^*
five other manuscripts (Abb 16, Abb 30, Vat 71, Paris 114, Paris 32) which he
did not use.
23 Text, p. xxvi.
^* Charles gives these figures as twenty-nine and twenty-three because he
counts BM 48sa, the duplicate version of 97. 6b-io8. 10 which is to be found
in BM 48s, as a separate manuscript. " Cf, Text, pp. xviii, xxv.
On Paris 114 cf. H. Zotenberg, Catalogue des manuscrits ethiopiens {gheez et
amharique) de la Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, 1877,47: 'Le texte de cette copie
pr^sente la mSme redaction que tous les autres exemplaires connus de cet ouvrage;
les le9ons s'accordent, tantot avec celles de I'un, tant6t avec celles de I'autre
des cinq mss. d'aprfes lesquels a 6t€ imprim6 le texte public par M. Dillmarm.'