THE

OF THE

ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY

OF

GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND

FOR

1917

[LONDON, 1917]

{Reduced to HTML by Christopher M. Weimer, August 2002}

p. 245

VII

A COSMOLOGICAL TRACT BY PSEUDO-DIONYSIUS IN THE SYRIAC LANGUAGE

By GIUSEPPE FURLANI, PH.D., J.U.D.

   THE small cosmological tract I here publish, and which is attributed to Dionysius, Bishop of Athens, I have taken from the MS. marked 7192 Rich., now Add. 7192, of the British Museum.¹ This is a MS. in quarto on vellum, containing not more than seventy-six folios, and belongs probably, so far as we can judge from the good esṭrangĕlô chacter in which it is written, to the eighth century. The treatise begins on f. 57c—there are two columns of thirty-one lines on every page—and ends on f. 63b at the bottom. It is followed by another tract from the hand of the same author—the contents and the style, and especially the concluding lines which are nearly identical to the last ones of the tract we publish, at least point to the same author—that bears the following inscription: ###. It is an anti-astrological and anti-magical tract, as it undertakes to demonstrate that divination by means of the "stars, the zodiacal signs, the horoscopes, the fortunes, the chances, the hours, the convulsions, the auguries, the divinations, and all the deception of the Chaldæans, sons of deception" is not to be relied upon, and is contradictory the facts that daily observation affords us.

p. 246

   The MS. is, in the part at least we treat of, well preserved. Only column a of f. 58 is a little indistinct, but nowhere is the reading rendered difficult. The inscription and the words we have underlined are written with red ink. On the margin of f. 58c something has been written by some reader, but subsequently it has been erased.

   The tract is attributed to Dionysius, Bishop of Athens, for reasons easily to be understood. It is impossible for us to discern whether the author of this tract himself is the cause of the pseudo-epigraphy or whether some copyist or reader has added the false attribution.

   It presents a certain interest, as it is the first Syriac tract we know that bears a very strict connexion with the apocryphical book of Enoch, and is able to throw some light on the sources of "the book of the courses of the heavenly luminaries" that forms chapters lxxii-lxxxii of the aforesaid book.

   We give a translation of it, and point out the relations and discrepancies existing between our tract and the Book of Enoch.

p. 257

TRANSLATION

A Calculation and Computation, in which there is no mistake, made by the holy Mar Diônĕsiôs, Bishop of Athens.

   As the calculation and computation of the sun and the moon are confused by many of those who think in themselves that they are wise men, . . . the heavenly courses of the sun and the moon and the stars, and the rotation and revolution of the firmament, and the breath of the air that is contained in the midst and also of the twelve winds that come out from the twelve storehouses in which the activity of the moon takes place and in which it is born. By these twelve storehouses of the wind, indeed, we know in which of them the birth of the moon takes place, whether it is born in the wind or the rain or the snow or the dew or the heat, or what is the function of every one of the months. Whensoever one of these storehouses is shut, the change of one produces darkness. For the sun and the moon do not run by one computation. That cannot take place, p. 258 because the two have not one and the same course of movement. The sun completes the course of its movement in the number of three hundred and sixty-five days, or four thousand three hundred and eighty hours. The sun has every year, three super-abundant hours, which constitute every four years a complete day. This day is called the intercalary (day), and is intercalated at the 25th of Shebat according to the computation that the Greeks and the Syrians use. In the year that is called the intercalary (year) there are three hundred and sixty-six days by the computation of the Sun. But the moon has the number of three hundred and fifty-four days, and of these eleven days that are superabundant in the sun is constituted the month that is called intercalary. This month makes in the year in which it is intercalated a change in one of these four computations. The complete weeks of the sun are fifty-two and one day, and the weeks of the moon fifty and four days, since the sun was thirty days old when it was created and the moon fourteen, and those days that were before the sun and the moon came into existence, have been included by me in the total number. On the day, indeed, on which the sun and the moon were created they saw one another's light, but the light of the sun did not overpower that of the moon, because as soon as the rays of the sun-globe appeared from the east, the moon sank in the west. But on the fifth day the sun came out from the eastern gate of the light and the moon from the western storehouse of the wind and they saw one another freely, and the rays of the sun entered into the circle of the moon and its light was extinguished. Behold, from that time it began this succession of waxing and waning and keeps the succession of conception and birth and the changes of the days. It does not change in consequence of its existence, but because it is the key of all the storehouses of the wind and these are not opened without it. It keeps this succession of waxing and waning and runs this track of its conception and birth in the number of sixty hours, twenty for the conception, in twenty the birth (takes place), and during twenty it is visible. At the same hour, indeed, it comes out from the storehouse in which it was born, since it has nine entrances and twelve exits of the months. But the Greeks say that there are only seven storehouses of the winds p. 259 and five entrances of the moon. Hence they put the light before the darkness. Being ashamed of what they have said, they have added mistake to mistake by stating that the darkness is uncreated and has not been made. And hence they have inreased their blunder by giving eternity to the darkness. A thing that has not been created and made is eternal. With all their computations, too, the Greeks mingle blunders.

   Here fix the eyes of your mind on this orbit of the sun, how it moves above in the air!

   The sun keeps completely the course of its movement. For it has twelve gates on the path of its movement through which the passage of its course takes place. For these twelve gates a clock is fixed that the course of its path may be equal. Every gate is separated from the next by the space of only one hour. Every hour contains a degree (step). Four winds cause the disc of the sun to run. Since the wind that is above is a strong wind, that makes the eyes flow, and if this breeze above were near to (what is) below it would not leave anything on earth that it did not destroy, and since the wind above is strong these four moderate winds embrace the disc of the sun. If a wind did not run before it [the sun] on the path of its movement and bar its disc that it may move with diseretion, the east wind would drive its disc from one end of the world to the other in one hour. If the south wind did not press it to the ends of the world, the wind that is blowing from the north would hurl it (to the south), and the south wind to the north if the north wind (did not press it to the south). These four winds retain the disc of the sun and watch over it that it may not incline towards one side. And now and then one of the storehouses that serve the wind from above is opened and the wind that comes out from one of the storehouses becomes stronger from the fact that it is yoked to the chariot of the sun and it throws its disc under the step (degree) of its passage and its light is darkened till its dise rises (again) and stands on the path of its movement. For as soon as one of the big dragons that rose from the sea in which they were born, that is outside the dwelling-place of mankind, mounts and throws himself into the middle sea, or one of the animals that are called Leviathan, one of the storehouses of the whirlwinds is opened and with p. 260 dreadful shaking and gusts and lightnings it mounts and throws itself into the midst of the mountains of the north. In these days great snakes, too, are born. The dragons, however, and the Leviathan are born only in the sea that is called Maqastekos (?). But in the days of summer the sun overpowers with its light all the ends of the earth, as soon as it mounts upon the fiery track, because when it mounts above, to the fervent heat that is under the firmament, its disc is heated by the heat from above. And the sun burns the whole earth like an oven of fire, because it has mounted to the wind of heat that blows from above.

   Again, I explain without error to those who possess understanding the variation of the lower sea.

   Under the earth is the dreadful sea (containing) much water, and under the water (there is) fire, and under the fire wind, and under the wind darkness, (but) under the darkness do not ask for anything. In the hot days of summer, as soon as the sun mounts to the upper region, to the heat of this firmament, its disc is heated in the heat above, and it heats the earth like an oven of fire. Suddenly the fire under the water is quenched, the waters of the lower sea stand up and the wind of cold blows on them, the cold mounts and ascends from the interior of the earth and passes into the roots of the trees and plants and into the veins of the rocks, and the dust of the earth becomes cold, that the sun may not burn the trees, the seeds, and the plants. For if the cold did not ascend from the interior of the earth the sun would not leave anything without burning it. People, too, would not be able to walk on the earth in consequence of the heat of the fire. Because the surface of the earth from beneath is made like a sponge and its whole interior is made of canals and hollows for the flowing of the water of the streams and springs, and also for the action of the cold and the heat. In the hot days of summer, where there is no water, the animals and the birds dig into the interior of the earth and find cold soil and are relieved by it. The men, too, who are in the southem countries, that is, in the land of Kûsh and Shebâ, dig into the sand of their land during the hot days of summer and, although naked, they are protected and relieved by the coolness.

   Another season, the winter.

p. 261

   In the days of winter, as soon as the disc of the sun is thrown to the south to the cold, the storehouses of the wind of snow and ice and blasts and whirlwinds (are opened), and the heat of the sun is assuaged, that the cold may not destroy the trees, the seeds and the plants and the men, animals and birds may not die from the cold of the winter, the fire under the water is heated. The water is heated by the fire that is under it, and the heat mounts and ascends through the canals and hollows of the earth and enters into the veins of the trees and melts the cold that is in the interior of the trees, the water and the soil of the earth. By the vapour of the heat that rises from the interior of the earth, the water of the springs is melted, and instead of the wind of cold there rises from within them the vapour of heat. The course of the heat that rises from underneath flows and assuages the intensity of the cold. The animals find for themselves life in the excrements that are strewn on the dung-hills. The birds find shelter during the nights above the waters of the rivers and the fountains and springs and grow warm by what is rising from the waters of the rivers, fountains, and springs. Also the men who dwell in the north in the interior of the mountains that are called the Paps of the North—their stones are of crystal, and beyond them there is no human dwelling, since above the river called Fire-river there is nothing besides Oqîanôs, the sea that surrounds the whole earth. In Oqîanôs there is not one single reptile creeping in the water, and no bird is to be found flying above it, because it surrounds the sea, as a wall surrounds a city. Above it is the paradise of the gods. The angels bring the souls of men to the mansions that surround the paradise, as soon as they come out from their bodies, that is the souls of the saints. For the souls of those who have committed iniquities are not reckoned worthy to pass to that region of life. Those men who dwell amidst the mountains of the north, get their food from the fruits of the trees and are long-lived. On the crystal stones of these mountains descends the amazing Raphantion (?). Also the men who dwell in the western countries in the cold winter days make use of excrement (as a means) to support their life, since they are deprived of the use of wood, and in the evening they bury the food of the morning in the dung and in the morning p. 262 they find it cooked. In the same way they treat the food of the evening.

   Now that I have explained to you the combinations of the winter and the summer fix the eyes of your mind on this other treatise concerning the heavenly courses.

   The chariot of the sun is not bound within the firmament since the disc of its light is set upon the wings of the wind and upon running wheels. It is a great distance under the firmament of which the Creator only knows the measure. For the stars are united to the firmament. Their creation is planted in it, and they are the lamps of its light and they come out from it and run in it. The moon, too, has a chariot that runs with the wind, and its course is under the firmament. They were called the luminaries of heaven, because the light of their creation is united to the firmament. Under the sun is the course of the clouds. The clouds are not something corporeal, and the shape in which they always appear is not a permanent appearance, since now and then they are turned by the wind and they are dissolved and change from their (former) appearance. You will believe this from the clear appearance that on the day when there is no mist and clouds and the air is clear and pure, is seen in the midst of the firmament like a palm of a hand and so it flies in the air and the whole mid-air is filled with it. From this understand that the clouds and the fogs are the fountains of the rain and the dew, and that they fly on the wings of the wind, and not by themselves, as some wise-minded (men) have erroneously stated, but by the wind. And they stated foolishly that the clouds draw the water from the sea, but they are the fountains of the water and in them it is conceived and from them it is born.

   Now you need profound understanding about the twelve winds which come out from the ends of the earth.

   The wind is not one variety only, because it has not one storehouse only. For the twelve storehouses contain twelve varieties, the twelve winds that are enclosed in them as the twelve Apostles received tongues differing from one another. For the Apostles, too, were storehouses of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles did not because they received twelve tongues receive from twelve (different) Spirits, but from one Spirit. So neither are the twelve p. 263 storehouses twelve winds over which there is no command, but one wind, that speaks in the Apostles, dwells in them. But as the Roman tongue differs from the Greek tongue, and the Greek from the Syriac, and the Syriac from the Hebrew, and the Hebrew from the Gothic, and the Gothic from the Kushi, and the Kushi from the Barbarian, and the Barbarian from the Indian, and the Indian from the Babylonian, and the Babylonian from the Median, and the Median from the Armenian, and the Armenian from the Egyptian, and these twelve languages differ one from another, although all are included in one common name, that is in that of "men", so the twelve winds, too, are included in one common name, in that of wind.

   See, if you have no knowledge from reading, you are not profited. Here I speak with you about the science of the breath of the wind.

   As when an Indian speaks, a Greek does not understand what he says, since he has not learned the language of the Indians, so, too, those who hear the voice of the wind do not know what its course is, if they do not distinguish the smell of its breath. The Greek also knows that he with whom he is speaking is an Indian, but he has no knowledge to distinguish what he is saying. About the wind, too, there are those who know from which storehouse it has come out—(they know it) from the activity of the months—but they do not know what its operation is. What knowledge has he who does not distinguish the breath of the wind, whether it is of snow, or ice, or hail, or rain, or dew, or heat, or sickness? And even if he knew these things, his knowledge would not be great. Since there are also animals and birds that have foreknowledge. As soon as you have known that, I will call the ant or the gnat and the fish, as these, too, are superior to you in knowledge. Or how do you desire to comprehend the books about the wheels of astronomy, if you do not possess these (items of knowledge), (if you do) not (know) how the heaven turns, and from which side, nor the passages of the sun and its gates, nor which are the winds that put its disc in motion, nor how the axis of the sphere turns, nor what are the names of the gates, nor where the path of the rays of the light is attained, nor whither the stretching out of the curtain of the heavenly garment goes, now fix the gaze of p. 264 the eyes of your mind to know, of what kind is the way of the heavenly courses of the Pleiades and Aldebaran and the Wain and the Yoke and the Scales and the Balance and the Libra and the horizon and the path and the Hunter's Way, and the Fold and the Temple and the Watchman and the Lawgiver and the Hearer and the Ambassador and the Preacher and the Giver and the Hun-star and the Instructor and the Knower and the Teacher of Wisdom and the Rich-in-Doctrine. These are for those who possess understanding nothing, because it is the part of science to know the passages of the sun and its gates and its paths and its courses and the variation of its light and its darkness and about the moon and its storehouses and its conception and birth, and also about the times and their variations, and when the sun and the moon are darkened and the earth quakes and about the variations of the years and the limits of the paths and the current of the sea and the ebbs and flows of the lower sea and the wars of the barbarians. These wisdom teaches through knowledge.

   I cite the Book of Enoch according to the English translation of R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch or 1 Enoch, Oxford, 1912, and where it is necessary to refer to the Ethiopic text, according to the edition of Dr. Joh. Flemming, Das Buch Henoch, äthiopischer Text (Texte und Untersuchungen, N.F., Bd. vii), Leipzig, 1902.

   The first lines of our treatise, a brief introduction, belong of course to the Syriac author of the treatise, and we have no ground for supposing that he found it in the treatise that he has epitomized. There is no doubt that he had before him a Quellenschrift that was different from "the book of the courses of the heavenly luminaries" of the Book of Enoch so far as the peculiarity of the cosmological theories that are there expounded is concerned, but covered much the same ground as the "book of the courses" does, namely, (1) the calendar, (2) the moon, (3) the sun, (4) the winds. It is our duty now to determine what were the exact contents of the original treatise epitomized by our author and what p. 265 relation it bore to the "book of the courses" embedded in the Book of Enoch, and it will not be difficult to point out what our author has contributed himself or from other sources to the compilation.

   In our treatise a close relation is said to exist between the twelve storehouses of the wind and the moon, since in these the moon is conceived and grows. In the Book of Enoch no such relation is stated. According to our treatise the different phases of the moon depend upon the storehouses.

   In the Book of Enoch there are mentioned the store-chambers of blessing (cap. xi, 1, ###); closed chambers according to which the winds are divided, the chamber of the hail and winds, the chamber of the mist, and of the clouds (5); and I saw the chambers of the sun and moon, whence they proceed and whither they come again (cap. xli, 4-5, in the Ethiopic text ###); the chambers of the winds, and how the winds are divided (cap. lx, 12, ###); the chambers of hail, hoar-frost, etc. (cap. lxix, 23). I have no doubt that ### is a translation of the Greek word ταμει̑ον, as in the title of the well-known exegetical work by Bar ‘Ebrayâ ###, i.e. ταμει̑ον τω̑ν μυστηρίων. In the Greek text our author had before him—that it was Greek text is proved by the fact that the style of the treatise is bad and that the author employs very frequently the demonstrative pronoun ###, and ### as a substitute for the Greek article—ταμει̑ον τω̑ν πνευμάτων.

   The calendar described by Pseudo-Dionysius is completely different from the calendars—there are different calendars—set forth in different parts of the Book of Enoch. It does not agree with any one of them.

   No mention is made in the Book of Enoch of the circumstance that the sun was thirty days old and the moon fourteen when they were created, and that the sun p. 266 overpowered the moon. In the commentary of Ephraim on the Book of Genesis I have found some statements that, generally taken, agree with the theories of our author, although they vary considerably in the particulars. I give a translation of the Syriac text edited by P. Benedictus (Romæ, i, 1737): (p. 15 B) the moon was placed in the west of the firmament and the sun in the east of it; (p. 16 E) if they (sc. the sun and the moon) were full when they were created and they were created in the morning, then the sun was standing in the east and the moon opposite to it in the west. But the sun was lying low and underneath, since it was created in the place from which it comes out over the earth. The moon, however, was standing high, since it was created in the place where it stands on the fifteenth day. When the sun became visible to the earth the luminaries saw one another; (p. 17 A) from the place of the moon, from its fullness and its shining, it is clear that it was fifteen days old when it was created; (p. 17 C) but it (sc. the sun) too, was four (days) old; (p. 17 D) these eleven days by which the moon is older than the sun, and which were added to the moon in the first year, are those that men who make use of the computation of the moon add every year; (p. 17 E) for from this year onwards the Adamites learned to add eleven days every year. It is not the Chaldæans, therefore, who made this order of the times and the years that were put in order before Adam.

   Ephraim evidently cannot have been the source of our author. Both derive their theories from the haggadic tradition.

   I cannot state anything about the seven storehouses of the winds according to the Greeks: they taught, of course, that there are seven winds. This and the following disquisition about the darkness, directed principally against Manichæism, is no doubt an addition of the Syriac author, as it breathes the same contempt p. 267 of Greek natural philosophy that is a characteristic feature of the mental attitude of most of the Syriac doctors towards Greek theories so far as they contradict the teaching and statements of the Bible.

   The description of the passage of the sun through the twelve gates is not to be found in the Book of Enoch (f. 58d, l. 7-f. 58d, l. 12).

   Completely strange to the Book of Enoch is also the long description of the relation between the winds and the sun and of the function they perform according to the seasons (f. 58d, l. 12-f. 59d, l. 7). This description is continued on f. 60c, l. 4-f. 61c, l. 4, and is only apparently interrupted on f. 59d, l. 8-f. 60c, l. 3 by what purports to be a statement about the lower sea. In the Book of Enoch we read only that the winds turn the circumference of the sun (cap. xviii, 4) and carry the clouds: I saw the winds of heaven which turn and bring the circumference of the sun and all the stars to their setting. I saw the winds on the earth carrying the clouds. In his journey to the north Enoch sees also three portals of heaven open in heaven: through each of them north winds come out: when they blow there is cold, hail, frost, snow, dew, and rain. And out of one portal they blow for good; but when they blow through the other two portals it is with violence and affliction on the earth, and they blow with violence (cap. xxxiv, 2, 3). See also cap. lx, 12, and 17-21 on the spirits of the hoar-frost, the snow, the mist, the dew, the rain, and cap. lxix on their chambers. But nowhere in the Book of Enoch is such a description of the sun, the winds, and the seasons to be found; neither could such a theory be put together from the statements contained in different parts of it. We are therefore compelled to assume that the Syriac author found his theory expounded in the cosmological treatise which he epitomized.

   All the statements in the description of our author are p. 268 not clear. We should like, for instance, to hear more about the relation existing between the storehouses of the winds and the monsters in the lower sea (f. 59c, l. 3 ff.). As there is a ### in which the monsters are born and from which they jump into the ###, there must be also a ###, which is in direct relation with the storehouses of the winds. We do not gather much about Leviathan and the other monsters from the Book of Enoch, and what we learn from it is at variance with the statements of Pseudo-Dionysius: (cap. lx, 7) and on that day were two monsters parted, a female monster named Leviathan, to dwell in the abysses of the ocean over, the fountains of the waters; (8) but the male is named Behemoth, etc. Our author had avery hazy idea about the monster Leviathan, as he speaks of the "animals which are called Leviathan".

   For the general structure of the world, as outlined by our author, it is interesting to note that he assumes the existence of the sea under the earth—therefore also round the earth, that is, floating on it—and under the sea the fire, and under the fire the air—### has here no doubt the connotation of air, as it has often in the commentary of Ephraim, mentioned above—and under the air the darkness.

p. 269

   This κόσμος does not show any similarity to the Greek or Babylonian conceptions of the world.

   No mention is made of the ocean in the Book of Enoch (f. 61a, l. 4).

   f. 61a, l. 8. The MS. has ### (paradise of the gods). The Syriac author was no doubt a Christian, as is proved by the disquisition about the Holy Spirit. But perhaps the author of the treatise epitomized was pagan Greek, although it is unsafe to assume it.

   The remark about the souls of the just is an addition made by Pseudo-Dionysius. The doctrine of the mansions for the souls was a common one and widely spread.

   The universe as sketched in the Book of Enoch has not a wall of mountains round the earth, as our author assumes (f. 61a, ll. 5, 7).

   The description of the nature of the clouds is not to be found in the Book of Enoch (f. 61d, l. 4-f. 62a, l. 6); it is probably an addition made by our author.

   The comparison he makes between the oneness of the nature of the winds and the oneness of the languages spoken by mankind was hardly to be found in the source epitomized by Pseudo-Dionysius. It is an addition, as also the style, that is here much better than in the purely cosmological parts, shows. The same thing must be said about the following comparison with the Indian language (f. 62c, l. 9-1. 11).

   The conclusion is, of course, to be ascribed to our author (f. 63a, l. 7-f. 63b, l. 12).

   Of most of the terms enumerated in the concluding part, which denote no doubt stars and constellations and are therefore astronomical technical terms, I am not able to give the proper meaning. Bar ‘Ebrayâ gives in his astronomical treatise that bears the title ### (edited by F. Nau in fasc. 121 of the Bibliothèque de l'école des hautes études, Paris, 1899) a long description of all the stars and constellations according to Ptolemy, p. 270 but I have not been able to trace any one of the technical terms employed by our author. Some of them look rather like names of different degrees of adepts of some religious sect. I have translated them literally.

   The conclusions we arrive at after this brief examination can be summed up as follows:—

   The work we have published is a compilation of an unknown Syriac author with anti-Greek and anti-Babylonian tendencies so far as cosmology and natural philosophy are concerned. It is a cosmological work dealing especially with the sun, the moon, the winds, and the calendar. The author assumes that his doctrines are derived from the Bible—although he never says that expressly—that they are therefore true, and that Greek science and Babylonian or Chaldæan astronomy are false. He thinks that his work is a useful introduction to the science of astronomy.

   We cannot state definitely whether the author himself ascribed his work to Dionysius, the legendary first Bishop of Athens, or whether some reader or copyist has done so. It seems to us that the second alternative is more probable. The fact that it was ascribed to Dionysius can be explained very easily. As the Syrians and Arabs attributed all philosophical works, and particularly those about logic and metaphysics, to Aristotle when they did not know the name of the real author, and all medical works to Hippocrates or Galen, so, too, in our case we must not be surprised that this work has been ascribed to Dionysius, the reputed author of the celebrated mystical books about "heavenly science", although these books do not treat of cosmological matters. But the Syrians were not so particular about such nice distinctions. Sergius of Rish‘ainâ is the first Syriac author who knows the works of Pseudo-Dionysius—he has translated them into the Syriac language—the false inscription is therefore later than the sixth century. p. 271 This treatise, too, is later than that date, as the style of it does not show in the parts the author has not translated from his Greek source any of the characteristics of the Old Syriac language.

   The compilation can easily be divided into its component parts: the bulk of the work is a translation from the Greek, as is proved by the bad style. The author has himself added only the introduction, the conclusion, the observations about the darkness, the seven storehouses of the winds according to the Greeks, the souls of the just, and the nature of the clouds and the comparison between the oneness of all kinds of winds and the oneness of human languages. These parts are certainly to be ascribed to our author.

   What remains of his work bears a close resemblance to the "book of the courses of the heavenly luminaries", that is, section iii (cap. lxxii-lxxxii) of the Book of Enoch.¹ It covers nearly the same ground, although it exhibits theories that are wanting in the Book of Enoch and does not contain some pieces—especially the long digression about the growth of the sun (cap. lxxii)—which we find in the third section of the Book of Enoch. The peculiarity of the theories of our author is remarkable. They do not agree exactly with any one of the doctrines contained in the third section or scattered elsewhere in the Book of Enoch. They belong, as it were, to the same family of theories, but have their distinctive features. Appel has demonstrated that the Book of Enoch is not unitarian so far as its physical theories are concerned, but that in it we find remnants of four different treatises of cosmological contents.² Our p. 272 work is not identical with any one of those four treatises but is a parallel text to them. The doctrines expounded in it are, so to say, more up-to-date and more in accordance with astronomy than the doctrines of the four treatises epitomized in the Book of Enoch. This holds good especially for the calendar.

   From our treatise we can therefore infer that the literature about the mysteries of the heavens must have been very extensive indeed. Some remnants of this literature we find in the Book of Enoch and in the treatise we have published. The parallels we could cite from the so-called Slavonic Enoch (trans. by W. P. Morfill and ed. by R. H. Charles, Oxford, 1896) are only scanty and rather remote, if we except the calendar.

Journals Christian Articles

Footnotes

p. 245

¹ Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum orientalium qui in Museo Britannico asservantur. Pars prima, codices syriacos et carshunicos amplectens, Londini, 1838, pp. 83-4; R. Duval, La littérature syriaque, Paris³, 1907, 281, n. 2: Un traité de cosmographie attribué à pseudo-Denys l'Aréopagite.

p. 271

¹ This section has been analysed by H. Appel, "Die Komposition des äthiopischen Henochbuches" (Beiträge zur Förderung christlicher Theologie, Jhrg. x, Hft. iii), Gütersloh, 1906, pp. 80-90; Fr. Martin, Le livre d'Hénoch traduit sur le texte éthiopien, Paris, 1906, p. 46; and Charles, l.c., pp. xlix-l.

² Appel, l.c., p, 85.