SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This new edition of the Ethiopic text of Enoch is based on Rylands Ethiopic MS 23, and takes full account of the Aramaic fragments of Enoch that were discovered at Qumran. The Introduction provides a short account of previous editions of Enoch, and then a comprehensive survey of all the evidence (Aramaic, Greek and Ethiopic currently) available for the text. It is argued that the discovery of the Aramaic fragments renders plausible the view that the Book of Enoch was composed in Aramaic, but that uncertainty remains about the original language of the second section of Enoch, the Parables, since no fragments corresponding to this section have yet been found. It is further maintained that - apart from the third section of Enoch, the Book of Astronomy - the Aramaic text known to us from the Qumran fragments agrees in general terms with the Ethiopic and Greek texts. The Aramaic evidence is held to cast an important light on the value of the fragments of Enoch in Syncellus; whereas in the past these fragments were thought to offer a better Greek text than the Akhmim manuscript, the Aramaic evidence now indicates that the text of Syncellus has been extensively revised. With regard to the commonly accepted division of the Ethiopic manuscripts into two groups (called here Eth I and. Eth II) , it is argued. that although the gradual emergence of a standard revised text of Enoch can be seen within the Eth II manuscripts, these manuscripts by no means offer a uniform text; further that the value of the Eth I manuscripts has to some extent been over-exaggerated. Finally, new evidence is offered for the view that those who translated Enoch into Ethiopic made use not only of a Greek, but also of an Aramaic text.