2. The Language in which it was written.— The careful reader soon sees that the work was composed at first in IIebrew, or rather Hebrew Aramman. This was long ago perceived by Joseph Scaliger though he had before him nothing but the Greek fragments preserved by Syncellus. Hottinger, however, observed, in op position to Scaliger, that a Hebraising style is no sure proof of a Hebrew original. Hoffmann adduces the Hebrew-Aramwan etymologyof names, especially the names of angels, as an evidence of the Aramman original ; an argument which is more pertinent ; and Laurence infers from the book of Sohar that Hebrew was its primi tive language. The writer's thorough acquaint ance with the canonical Scriptures of the Jews in the tongue in which they were composed ; their use of them in the original, not the Greek translation of the LXX. ; their Hebrew etymolo gies of names, especially the appellations of angels and archangels ; the fact that all words and phrases can be easily rendered back into Hebrew or Aramaean ; and the many Hebrew idioms and turns that occur, prove that neither Greek nor Ethiopic was the original language, but the later Palestinian Hebrew. Thus the names of the sun are Oryares and Tomas (lxxviii. t) from Din nit.; and mi. In lxxvii. I, 2, we read that the first wind is called the eastern because it is the first,' which can only be explained by the Hebrew, ?rID ; ' the second is called the south, because the Most High there descends,' i e , nji'7 from 17: nn (Dillmann, This Bach Henoch, pp. 235, 236).
The names of the conductors of the month arc also Hebrew (lxxxii. 13), as Murray (p. 46) and Hoff mann (p. 69o) remark.
At what time the Greek version was made from the original can only be conjectured. It could not have been long after the final redaction of the whole ; probably about the time of Philo. Having appeared in Greek it soon became widely circu lated. The Ethiopic version was made after the 0. T. had been translated into that tongue.
3. Constituent pas Is, AaIthorship, and Age. —The Book of Enoch is divided in the Ethiopic MSS. into twenty sections; which are subdivided into ToS chapters. But copies differ in their specifica tion of chapters. Dillmann has properly departed from the MSS., and endeavoured to make divisions of sections, chapters, and verses, which may repre sent the text pretty nearly as it is preserved among the Abyssinians. We shall follow his edition.
The work is divided into five parts or books, with an introduction, and several concluding chap ters. The introduction consists of the first four chapters, characterising the book to which it belongs as a revelation of Enoch the seer re the future judgment of the world, and its results both towards the righteous and rebellious sinners, written to console the pious in the times of final tribulation.
The first part comprehends chapters v. -xxxvi. ; the
second, xxxvii.-1xxi. ; the third, lxxii.-lxxxii. ; the fourth, lxxxiii.-xci.; and the fifth, xcii.-cv. Chap ters cvi.-cviii. form the conclusion.
Laurence remarks, that ' the book may have been composed at different periods ; perhaps it might also be added, that there may have been different tracts, as well as tracts composed by diffe rent authors.' This idea was taken up by Murray, and wrought out in a treatise of considerable ingenuity ; though it must be affirmed that the author signally failed from want of critical ability, as well as of a better text than Laurence's. Enoch restitutus, as Murray terms his work, was reviewed by Hoffmann in his second excursus; an honour to which it was scarcely entitled.
The first thing that strikes a reader of this apocalyptic production is, that extracts from a prophecy of Noah appear in loose and awkward connection with Enoch's prophetic revelations. Thus the 65th chapter beans: ' And in those days Noah saw the earth how it was bowed down, and its corruption was near. And he lifted up his feet thence, and went to the ends of the earth, and cried to his grandfather, Enoch,' etc. etc. Portions are ascribed to Enoch; others belong to Noah. To the former belong chapters xxxvii. lxxi. ; r-16, chiefly, but incompletely, and a few other places fragmentarily; as also xci. 3-cv. ; viii. 2o-36; Lxxiii.-lxxxii., lxxxiii., ]xxxiv., lxxxv.-xc., cvi., etc., etc., etc. To the latter belong vi. 3-8, ix.-xi. fragmentarily, liv. 7-1v. 2, XVii. iXV. Nix. The first Enoch hook lies in xxxvii.-1xxi., with a few interpolations. Chapter xxxvii. is a sort of preface, in which the writer calls his book a vision of wisdom. It consists of three parts, viz., xxxviii. -xliv., xiv.-lix., lviii.-1xxi., each commencing with parable the first, parable the second, parable the third, respectively. Here the author represents Enoch as travelling through the upper heavens, where he sees many wonderful things, some actually and in the body ; others in prophetic visions; which describes them accordingly, viz., the mysteries of the angel world, of the kingdom of heaven, the Messianic kingdom, the person of the Messiah, the establishment of his kingdom by judgments, its growth and completion, the blessed ness of the elect, and the condemnation of the unbelieving. The hook treats not only of the secrets of the purely spiritual, but also those of the visible, world. The latter are evidently touched upon in subservience to the former, to shew that the secret powers of the visible world work in harmony towards the consummation of the Mes sianic reign, when righteousness shall obtain secure and eternal victory over all opposition. The ulti• mate tendency and drift of the whole production are the Messianic issues of all things.