Noah's Sons led astray by Evil Spirits; Noah's Prayer; Mastêmâ; Death of Noah (x. 1-17)

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Noah's Sons led astray by Evil Spirits; Noah's Prayer; Mastêmâ; Death of Noah (x. 1-17; cf. Gen. ix. 28).

X. ¹ And in the third week of this jubilee the unclean demons ² began to lead astray †the children of† ³ the sons of Noah; and to make to err and destroy them. 2. And the sons of Noah came to Noah their father, and they told him concerning the demons which were, leading astray and blinding and slaying his sons' sons. 3. And he prayed before the Lord his God, and said:

God of the spirits of all flesh, ⁴ who hast shown mercy unto me,
And hast saved me and my sons from the waters of the flood,
And hast not caused me to perish as Thou didst the sons of perdition; ⁵

For Thy grace hath been great towards me,
And great hath been Thy mercy to my soul;
Let Thy grace be lift up upon my sons,
And let not wicked spirits rule over them
Lest they should destroy them from the earth.

[paragraph continues] 4. But do Thou bless me and my sons, that we may increase and multiply and replenish the earth. 5. And Thou knowest how Thy Watchers, the fathers of these spirits, acted in my day: and as for these spirits which are living, imprison them and hold them fast in the place of condemnation, and let them not bring destruction on the sons of thy servant, my God; for these are malignant, and created in

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order to destroy. 6. And let them not rule over the spirits of the living; for Thou alone canst exercise dominion over them. And let them not have power over the sons of the righteous from henceforth and for evermore." 7. And the Lord our God bade us to bind all. ¹ 8. And the chief of the spirits, Mastêmâ, ² came and said: "Lord, Creator, let some of them remain before me, and let them hearken to my voice, and do all that I shall say unto them; for if some of them are not left to me, I shall not be able to execute the power of my will on the sons of men; for these are for corruption and leading astray before my judgment, for great is the wickedness of the sons of men." 9. And He said: "Let the tenth part of them remain before him, and let nine parts descend into the place of condemnation." ³ 10. And one of us ⁴ He commanded that we should teach Noah all their medicines; for He knew that they would not walk in uprightness, nor strive in righteousness. 11. And we did according to all His words: all the malignant evil ones we bound in the place of condemnation, and a tenth part of them we left that they might be subject before Satan ⁵ on the earth. 12. And we explained to Noah all the medicines of their diseases, together with their seductions, how he might heal them with herbs of the earth. 13. And Noah wrote down all things in a book as we instructed him concerning every kind of medicine. Thus the evil

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spirits were precluded from (hurting) the sons of Noah. 14. And he gave all that he had written to Shem, his eldest son; for he loved him exceedingly above all his sons. 15. And Noah slept with his fathers, and was buried on Mount Lûbâr in the land of Ararat. 16. Nine hundred and fifty years he completed in his life, nineteen jubilees and two

1659 A.M.

weeks and five years. 17. And in his life on earth he excelled the children of men save Enoch because of the righteousness, wherein he was perfect. For Enoch's office was ordained for a testimony to the generations of the world, 1 so that he should recount all the deeds of generation unto generation, till the day of judgment.

Footnotes

79:1 Here we have (in x. 1-15) another fragment of the lost Apocalypse of Noah (as in vii. 20-39). The Hebrew original of 1-2 and 9-14 of this section is extant.

79:2 i. e. the spirits which issued from the children of the angels and the daughters of men.

79:3 Omit the children of.

79:4 Cf. Num. xvi. 22, xxvii. 16.

79:5 Cf. 2 Thess. ii. 3.

80:1 Cf. 1 Enoch x. 4, 12.

80:2 The word apparently = maṣtîm (Hif. part of Ṣâṭam), "to be adverse," "inimical"; the Heb. noun maṣṭēmâ = "animosity," in Hos. ix. 7, 8. Thus the word = Satan ("adversary"). As a proper name it is practically confined to the Jubilees-literature. The evil spirits under the guidance of Mastêmâ tempt, accuse and destroy men.

80:3 Only one-tenth are permitted to act freely against mankind till the Day of judgment; but in 1 Enoch xv.-xvi. all the demons are allowed to do this.

80:4 The angel Raphael is referred to, as is shown by the Hebrew Book of Noah. For Raphael in this connection cf. Tobit iii. 17, xii. 14, 15.

80:5 Thus Satan and Mastêmâ are identical.