《《The book of Enoch》（以诺书）》狱蛇

31、Annotation for section □□

　　CHAP. 65
　　—1. Now follows to 69: 25 another Noachic interpolation. That it is such appears beyond a doubt from its contents. It has the peculiarities of chapter 60, and treats of the same subject, viz. revelation to Noah concerning the flood and attending circumstances. It is entirely of a fragmentary character, and certainly never existed as a tract of itself. In thought and expression it seeks to imitate the Parables. That Noah is here introduced as the seer alone stamps it as an addition foreign to the rest of the book. In 60: 2 the vision was inaugurated with a motion of the heavens; here it is done by a curving of the earth.

　　—2. Enoch had ascended on high, 60: 8, from the garden of Eden, therefore Noah goes to the ends of the earth to seek his explanation of what he had seen.

　　—3. The earth is here represented as weak and sickly, undoubtedly as a result of sin.

　　—4. Before an answer was returned there was a violent shaking of the earth. A voice, cf. vs. 6.

　　—6. A command was the voice heard in vs. 4. The destruction of the earth is at hand. Secrets of the angels, i.e. of the fallen; cf. 7: 1; 8: 1 sqq. Angels and satans; a clear proof that the fragmentist seeks to imitate the Parables, as the satans are unknown to the first part; cf. note on 40: 7. Metal images; same as idolatry in chap. 7 and 8.

　　—7. Out of the dust, cf. Job xxviii. 2. Soft metal, cf. 52: 2, 5.

　　—8. This soft metal is declared to be lead and zinc, whose origin the author, after his peculiar manner (cf. 60: 13-15, 16, 21, etc.), explains in anything but a clear way. That even this mysterious fountain has its angel agrees perfectly with 60: 16 sqq.

　　—9. Cf. vs. 4.

　　—10. Through their astrology(8: 3) these sinners had learned that a judgment would come at a certain time, but on account of their sins God will not wait to the completion of that time; cf. also Tertullian, De Cultu Fem. i. 10: Et metallorum opera nudaverunt ..... et incantationem vires promulgaverunt et omnem curiositatem usque ad stellarum interpretationem designaverunt.

　　—11. Enoch here speaks to Noah. Free, cf. Gen. vi. 9.—12. Noah is to be the father of a generation of the righteous. Fountain, cf. Deut. xxxiii. 28; Ps. lxviii. 26.

　　CHAP. 66,
　　—1. The angels of punishment, found only in the Parables (cf. notes on 53: 3), are taken overfrom there, and are here employed for a purpose entirely foreign to them. Above they were employed in the final punishment, but here in the first. The object of the interpolator to connect his statements with the Parables is observed again here.

　　—2. There is no difficulty in accepting angels here as referring to those mentioned in the previous verses. The angels of punishment are, although enemies of God, nevertheless subordinate to his will, like Satan in the Book of Job; cf. note on 40: 7.

　　CHAP. 67,
　　—1. The author’s paraphrase on Gen. vi. 9.

　　—2. As the ark is to be the means of saving the seed of life, angels construct it. That angels thus assist in forwarding God’s plans in this direct manner is not unknown to other writers: cf. 2 Macc. iii. 25 sq. with 4 Macc. § 4. The account by a different author, 89: 1, is more biblical. Lift up, cf. Gen. vii. 16; En. 89: 1. To that work; not to the building of the ark, but for the purpose of letting the waters loose; cf. chap. 66.

　　—3. Cf. 65: 12.

　　—4. With this is connected the punishment of the angels also; and as they were the real cause of men’s sin, their punishment shall be by a more terrible element—by fire. The portrait here given of this punishment, although based on therest of the book, deviates in not a few particulars. Showed me, cf. chap. 52; 55. But what is stated above should take place in the final judgment the fragmentist boldly employs in the first. Notwithstanding the valley and the mountains are locally separated, 54: 1, they are here placed together. In the west; taken from 52: 1, and therefore does not require us to seek a place west of Palestine or Jerusalem; much less does it compel us to take a trip to Italy, and seek the burning valleynear Vesuvius afterthe eruption, A.D 79, as e.g. Hilgenfeld and Drummond want us to do. In the general indefinite character of the description here it is just as easy to understand by this valley Gehinnom, even if this was east and not west of Jerusalem.

　　—5. We see we are still in the time of the deluge.

　　—6-8. The picture drawn by the author is this: There is a valley in which is medicinal water, used for the purpose of health by the powerful of the earth. But this valley shall through eruptions become a river of fire, and with that the place where the fallen angels will be punished. For a subterranean fire in Gehenna cf. note on chap. 27. And as the water-place Dillmann refers to Kallirrhoe mentioned by Josephus, Antiqq. xvii. 6, 5; Bel. Jud. i. 33, 5. This is indeed open to the objection that Josephus in the last passage quoted expressly states that these waters were sweet enough for drinking purposes, hence were not sulphurous as stated in vs.6. But not only was sulphur often found in Palestine, especially in the region from Jerusalem to the Dead Sea (cf. Josephus, Bel. Jud. vii. 6, 3), but is also in the Old Testament a standard medium of punishment for the wicked (cf. Deut. xxix. 23; Job xviii. 15; Ezek. xxxviii. 22; Ps. xi. 6); and that an author like ours, so characterized by inaccuracy, should fail in his chemistry when the failure was easily suggested by numerous Scripture passages is not surprising. Hilgenfeld and others have deemed it necessary to insist on the baths at Baiae and the eruption of Vesuvius, A.D. 79, as the only legitimate explanation of this passage. Hence, too, at least the present compilation of the Book of Enoch could not have taken place before that date. But even if we must do what the author permits us nowhere else,—go to the far west, and seek the baths of Baiae,—it is therefore by no means necessary to think of the eruption of Vesuvius. As Holtzmann has already remarked (Jahrbücher für Deutsche Theol., vol. xii. p. 391), Mt. Epomeo on the island of Ischia, much nearer Baiae than Vesuvius, suffered eruptions in the years 46 and 35 B.C., and then not again until 1301 A.D. This explanation is also recommended by the fact that Enoch pictures these phenomena as repeated. In verse 8 the so-called Trichotomy is distinctly taught.

　　—9. Their spirits will change, will no longer remain so proud, haughty, and God-denying; their pride will be broken.

　　—11. But after the angels have been removed for their final punishment from this place of temporal punishment, then those warm waters will grow cold. This makes it clear that the author imagined those springs heated by the fire underneath where the fallen angels were enduring their temporal torture. The author evidently does not trouble himself about the fact that the first part plainly taught that the temporal punishment consisted in being bound under the hills; cf. chap. 10.

　　—12. The moral of his account is that this temporal torture of the fallen angels in such a manner that its evidence is constantly before the eyes of the rich who are luxuriating in the bathing-places is a warning for them. In making the powerful the object of his warning he again connects with the Parables.

　　—13. The stress is a lies on angels; they were healed, i.e. as Dillmann remarks, probably repent; but it does not produce a similar effect on the rulers and powerful. Therefore, too, the second judgment shall be by a more terrible element—by fire; cf. Wisd. x. 7; Jude 7.

　　CHAP. 68,
　　—1. Should there have been any doubt that the author of the Noachic fragments seeks to follow the Parables, this doubt will be removed here, where he expressly quotes them as the source of his information. As the Parables treat mainly of the second judgment it is probable that the fragmentist desires to do so too in the following. This probability is heightened by the fact that the judgment is hidden. The author stands at the time of the first judgment, but there is in reserve yet a hidden future judgment that seems almost too severe in the eyes of the angels. Then, too, the judgment, according to verse 5, is to all eternity.

　　—3. By this word, i.e. the word of God that declares this punishment.

　　—4. But before the throne of God Michael acknowledges the justice of the judgment, and suppressesthe involuntary pity; cf. Isa. xiv. 11-13.

　　—5. This verse seems to say that the final punishment of the angels is so severe that none other will be like it.

　　CHAP. 69.
　　After again dwelling briefly on the terrors of this punishment, the author gives a catalogue of the angels that fell, differing to some extent from the account in 6: 7. Most of these names in both places are of doubtful etymology and of little importance, nothing but the invention of some ingenious speculator.

　　—4. This task is assigned to Semjaza in 6: 3.

　　—9. The abuse of this art was sinful. The writers sin for such reasons as are assigned 99: 2; 104: 9, 10.

　　—10, 11. Writing is sinful, as it indicates a state of dishonesty; cf. Wisd. i. 13, 14; ii. 23, 24; Matt. v. 37. It, i.e. death.

　　—12. Cf. Ps. xci. 5, 6, 13, according to the old Jewish interpretation. Beatings that take place at noon, cf. Ps. xci. 6.

　　—13. The divine name used in swearing and witchcraft.

　　—17. Cf. Ps. xxiv. 2; cxxxvi. 6.—18. Cf. Jer. v. 22; Prov. viii.; Job xxxviii.

　　—19. Cf. Prov. viii. 28.

　　—21. Calls their names, cf. Isa. xl. 26; Ps. cxlvii. 4.

　　—24. Cf. En. 41: 7.

　　—26. With this verse we are, as the name Son of man, used of the Messiah, already indicates, again in the Parables, and this is proved by the ending of vs. 29. But whether these verses to 29 are a portion of a chapter cut out by the interpolator to furnish room for his remarks, or are to be connected with a certain part of the third parable must remain doubtful. They are, however, a good summary and close of this parable.