John S. Bergsma
marized or (by intention or accident) omitted in the later Ethiopic version.
Furthermore, the oldest manuscript by far, 4QEnastra, consists only of a ta
ble of moon phases, which is not present in Ethiopic AB (although perhaps
summarized in 1 En 73:4-8). Enoch is not mentioned within 4QEnastra: it is
possible, though unlikely, that it represents a free-standing astronomical
work only later associated with Enoch. 4QEnastrb does include both (1) sec
tions of text overlapping with 4QEnastra and (2) material with an observable
textual relationship to portions of Ethiopic AB. J. T. Milik, editor of the
editio princeps, concluded from this that 4QEnastra was indeed an Enochic
document whose demonstrably Enochic portions were missing but partially
extant in 4QEnastrb.^3
If one wished to contest the explicitly Enochic character of 4QEnastra,
then the next earliest manuscript with a significant relationship to Ethiopic
AB is 4QEnastrc from the mid-first century B.C.E. But even in this case,
4QEnastrc is not simply the Aramaic Vorlage for the Greek from which
Ethiopic AB was translated. It is a considerably different text, although simi
lar enough that a literary relationship is certain.
To summarize: the Qumran evidence demonstrates, at least, that by
the mid-first century B.C.E. an Enochic astronomical book larger than, but
textually related to, the Ethiopic Enoch 72-82 was in circulation. Further
more, it is highly probable that 4QEnastra was indeed an Enochic text, part
of the larger Aramaic AB abbreviated in the Ethiopic, and thus the date of
the composition of this document would be at the latest (terminus ad quern)
in the late third century B.C.E. — substantially earlier than the usual date as
signed to Jubilees.
- Internal Evidence. The simple schemes and formulas of AB appear
closely related to primitive Babylonian astronomical texts dating as early as the
seventh century B.C.E. The astronomical principles of AB are simplistic and,
unfortunately, inaccurate. It is striking, however, that the same linear pro
gressions of increasing light or darkness and the same ratios expressing the
relative lengths of day and night are found in texts from the infancy of Baby
lonian astronomical science, especially in the so-called MUL.APIN texts.^4
The earliest extant tablet of the MUL.APIN series dates from 687 B.C.E. - See VanderKam, Enoch, 81-82.
- For fuller discussion of the relationship between AB and the Qumran astronomical
texts, see H. Drawnel, "Some Notes on Scribal Craft and the Origins of the Enochic Litera
ture," Hen 31, no. 1 (2009). Drawnel points out the similarities of 4Q208 and 4Q209 not only
to the MUL.APIN texts, but especially to the Babylonian Enuma Anu Enlil (EAE) astrologi
cal series, which originates in the second millennium B.C.E.