חנוך בארץ החיים

As is well known, there are, among the fragments of ancient literature discovered in the Judaean Desert, a number of fragments of 1 Enoch (the "Ethiopic"). There is much interest in the examination of these fragments for scholars of apocryphal and apocalyptic literature, due to the fact that until recent times only the Ethiopic version of the book, plus a part of it (roughly a third) in its Greek version had been extant. Unfortunately, despite the fact that so many years have passed since the discovery of the above-mentioned fragments of Enoch, which are Aramaic, they have still not been published in full. Only a few fragments were published by J. T. Milik in his paper "Hénoch au pays des aromates", in Revue Biblique 65 (1958). These fragments pertain to chs. 30, 31, 32, 35, 36 and 77, all of which, except the last one, have the Greek parallels preserved, besides, of course, the Ethiopic one. These published fragments deal with Enoch's travels to the Garden of Righteousness. Milik attempted to determine the geographical location of various sites seen by Enoch, on the basis of a botanical interpretation of the names of plants mentioned in the description of Enoch's journey. This is based on a comparison with the description of those odoriferous plants by some ancient authors, such as Theophrastos and Pliny the Elder. As one can see from the name of the paper, Milik uses the Aramaic fragments, which he obviously considers as the genuine ones, to explain the geographical aspect of the story, which in his view is a travel in the Land of Aromates. A comparison between the extant versions of these fragments: Ethiopic, Greek, Aramaic, proves that the main differences are those between the Greek and Ethiopic versions on the one hand, and the Aramaic one on the other. There is enough evidence to exclude a possibility considered some years ago by E. Ullendorf, of the Ethiopic being a translation from Aramaic, rather than from Greek, as had been generally accepted. The Greek version is much more coherent and better written; some deviations of the Aramaic version might be explained either as misunderstanding of the Greek one, or as expressing certain disagreements regarding the views it contains, such as the direction in which the Paradise is located, or the name of the angel who is noticed by Enoch on his way, etc. The forgotten conjecture of F. Philippi, who some hundred years ago insisted that the original version of Enoch was a Greek one (the book being considered by him a Christian writing), seems therefore to acquire a high degree of probability. As to the different plants, which Milik located in distant countries, such as Elam and the Himalayas, most of them are common odoriferous plants, used as incense, growing in Palestine and its vicinity in most ancient times, as they do today. One can prove it by using any good Modern-Hebrew text-book of botany, as is done in the present paper. Instead of searching a geographical meaning in the enumeration of these plants, of which some are mentioned in the Bible and in the New Testament — and all are mentioned in talmudic literature as serving for the Temple ritual, one has to consider their theological meaning. The odoriferous plants were connected since most ancient times with funeral matters, being considered important for the preservation of the corpse and its fate in the future. Spices were used in the sepulchre of kings (Assa, in 2Ch. XVI,14; Alexander, Diodorus Siculus XVIII, 26.3); in a symbolic way brought in connection with the death of Jesus (Mk 13.3; 16.1) and of Christian martyrs (Mart. Polyc. XV-2) and were regarded as symbol of resurrection for the elect (2Cor. 2.16). The author of Enoch had in mind precisely this purpose: to prove by the frequency of the aromatic plants that Enoch is on his way to the Land of Eternal Life, which is a most certain reality for the chosen. The angel Zotiel, who is present in the Greek version, but missing in the Aramaic one, and who contains in his name the Greek root for life, is the one who resurrects the dead. He is the angelological correspondent of the Tree of Life and is, likewise, a proof of resurrection being real. The journey of Enoch does not aim at any precise location. A "Read Sea" is mentioned, rendered as ym' śmwq' in the Aramaic version, a concept apocalyptic rather than geographical and never found in genuine Jewish literature; but the book also mentions in its Ethiopic version (probably following the Greek one, which is missing here) in ch. 77, the north as the direction of Paradise. as is commonly accepted by the Mediterranean mythologies, whereas the Aramaic text has east, more acceptable to a Jewish listener or reader. The division of the world, the structure and order of the heavens, of the winds and of the seasons, found in chs. 70 and 77 of Enoch, is a Hellenistic one, and is present also in Christian literature, cf. 2Cor. 12.2—4, or 1 Clemens XX. Into this frame the writer of Enoch aimed at depicting for his readers a true picture of the place where resurrection is fulfilled, a picture in which an Aramaic translator did not hesitate to change what he considered unfit for his Jewish public.