This new fragment of the Enoch literature has onlv recently come to light through certain MSS whicli were found in Russia and Servia. Although the very knowledge that such a book ever existed was lost for probably I'JOO years, it was nevertheless much used both by Christian and heretic in the early centuries. Thus citations appear from it, though without acknowledgiiient, in the liook of Adam and Eve, the Apocalypses of Moses and I'aul (A.D. 400-500), the Sibylline Oracles, the Ascension of Isaiah, and the Ep. of Barnabas (A.D. 70-90). It is quoted by name in the apocalyptic portions of the Testaments of the A'll Patriarclis (c. A.D. 1). It was referred to by Origen, and probably by Clement of Alexamlria, and was used by Iren.eua. Some phrases of NT may be derived from it.
Tht Slaronie Jf.5.?.— There are ave Slav. MS8. The first (i.t. A) belonK'8 to the 17th cent., and contains the complete text. It was cditcHl by Popov in ISSU, and forms tlie basis of the text which appears in the Morflll.Charles ed. of 18;»0. Tlie ■ccond M.S— ft IKth cent, one— was discovered by Sokolov in 1886. This also preserves the complete text. The remaining three MSS are very incomplete. The most important of these {i.e, B) is preserved in the Public Library of Belgrade.
Ediliojis and TTanslations. — The present writer, learning throiifh a German review in 1802 of the existence of a Slav. VS of the Ethiopic Bk. of Enoch, at once proceeded by Mr. MorfllTs help to make himself ac()uainted with two distinct recensions of this work. This speedily led to the discovery that it was not a Slav. VS of the Ethiopic Enoch, but of a hitherto unknown and extremely valuable nseudepitfrnph. By means of Mr. Morflll's tr. of the .M.^S A ana B and of Sokolov's t6xt«, an En^. V8 and ed. of this book was issued in the bcfrinninfc of 180G. Six months later Bonwetsch's Da* .^tav. Ilenochtntch appeared, in which German tr*. of the M.SS A and B are given side by side, preceiled by a short introdiietion, founded professedly in the main ou Ctiarles' edition. This is a serviceable work.
II. Language and Place of Writing.— The main part of this book was written at the first in Greek. This is clear from such statements as (1) 30" 'And I gave him a name {i.e. Adam) from the four substances : the East, the West, the North, and the South.' Adam's name is thus derived from the initial letters of the Gr. names of the four quarters, i.e. dvoroXii, iuatt, ipKTos, luTTiuppla. Tills fanciful derivation was first elaboritcd in Greek, as it is impossible in the Sem. languages; but the iilea that Adam was created from dust belonging to the four quarters of the earth is Jewish. (2) The writer follows the chron- ologj- of the lyXX. (3) In 50' be rc|iroduce8 the LX.\ text of I)t 32» against the Hebrew. (4) He constantly uses Sir, which wa.s chiclly current in Egypt. Ihit though tlie main pari of the book was written originiilly in (!rccU, certain portions of it were based on llcb. originals. Such an hypo- thesis is necessary to account for the quotations from or references to it which appear in the Testaments of tlir XII Patrinrihs. 1 he fact that the latter work was written in Hebrew obliges us to ooncludo that its authors drew upon Ueb. originals
in their references to and quotations from the Slavonic Enoch.
The l>ook was written in Eg3'pt. This is deducible from the following facts: — (1) From the variety of speculations which it holds in common with I'hilo and other Hellenistic writers : thus souls were created before the foundation of the world, 23» ; cf. Philo, <k Homno, i. 22 ; Wis 8>"-». Again, man has seven natures, 30"; cf. I'hilo, de Mundi Op. 40. (2) The whole Messianic teaching of OT linds not a single echo in the work of this Hcllcnized Israelite of Egypt, although he shows familiarity with most of its books. (3) The I'hceni.xes and Clialkydries of ch. 12 are natural products of the Egjp. imagination. (4) The syncretistic char- acter of the creation narrative in 25-26 betrays Egyp. elements.
III. Kelation to Jewish and Cueistian Litep.atuue.
ilaterials originally derived from this t>ook are discoverable in Cedrciius and Joel (a.d. lu50-l-.iU0), though in these authors these materials are assigned to other names. Two p-ossages of the Book of Adam and Eve in I. vi. and viii. are alt but quota- tions from 29^- * and al- of our book. Again, in the Apoc of Moses (ed. Tisch. 1806), p. 19, we have a further development of 14^4 of our text. Just as in the Apoc. of Paul, p. 64, curct
irrit i wetfiuiti^Of, Ivfdc . . . ilviper . . . i, w iT«,iTat,(To T» Tttv/j.x
TO «>-j«>, is a Christian adaptation of 8^ * And in the midst (of Paradise is) the tree of Ufe ... on which God_ rests when lie comes unto Paradise.' Again, the words, p. 64, ix rr.t pl^y-.e tcirou
*i^'PX*^' . . . i/iatp, fj,t/>i^o;At*»> lit rtffffaipn epiyuxret, and p. 62, TOTxutt Tirrtcfit; . . . f:c*Ttt fj^tXi Ktti y«.Xet tut* I Xeeie* xa't olvo*^ are
verlial reproductions ot 8* ' Erom its root in the garden there go furth four streams which pour honey and milk, oil and wine, and are separated in four directions.* The passage in the aiionymoiia De Montibiis Sina et ^km, 4, is ultimately derived from ;ilii^, and Augustine's peculiar speculation on the eighth eternal day (De Civ. xxii. 3)1. 0) from SS'.