1 Enoch 73

After this law I saw another law, one dealing with the smaller light, which is named the Moon.

1And after this law I saw another law dealing with the smaller luminary, which is named the Moon.

Note"Law" here means a fixed rule or appointed course, not a legal code: the previous chapter laid out the sun's course through the year, and this one lays out the moon's. "The smaller light" follows the wording of the Genesis creation account, where the sun and moon are made as the greater and the lesser light. Throughout this chapter the moon is spoken of as "she" and the sun as "he", which is the grammatical gender the two words carry in the languages behind the text rather than a statement about them.

2Her circle is like the circle of the sky, and the chariot she rides in is driven by the wind, and light is given to her in a set amount.

2And her circumference is like the circumference of the heaven, and her chariot in which she rides is driven by the wind, and light is given to her in (definite) measure.

NoteThe image of a heavenly body riding in a chariot driven by the wind was a common way of picturing the movement of the sun and moon across the sky in the ancient world; the same picture is used of the sun in the previous chapter. The first clause is obscure and has been read two ways: that the moon's disc is a circle like the circle of the sky, or that her circuit runs the whole round of the sky. "Light is given to her in a set amount" states the premise of the whole chapter, that the moon has no light of her own but receives a measured portion, which is then counted out day by day in the verses that follow.

3Her rising and her setting change every month, and her days are like the days of the sun. When her light is even all over, that is, when it is full, it comes to a seventh part of the light of the sun.

3And her rising and setting change every month: and her days are like the days of the sun, and when her light is uniform (i.e. full) it amounts to the seventh part of the light of the sun.

NoteThis book works with fixed fractions rather than observation. At full moon her light is reckoned as one seventh of the sun's light, and that seventh is then divided into halves to give the fourteen daily steps used in the rest of the chapter. "Her days are like the days of the sun" means a day of the moon is counted as the same length as a day of the sun, so the two can be measured against each other.

4This is how she rises. Her first phase in the east comes out on the thirtieth morning. On that day she becomes visible, and she is for you the first phase of the moon on the thirtieth day, together with the sun in the gate where the sun rises.

4And thus she rises. And her first phase in the east comes forth on the thirtieth morning: and on that day she becomes visible, and constitutes for you the first phase of the moon on the thirtieth day together with the sun in the portal where the sun rises.

Note"The gate where the sun rises" refers to the system set out in chapter 72: six gates in the eastern edge of the sky and six in the western, with the sun rising through a different gate as the seasons move north and south. The moon uses the same gates. "Her first phase" is the new crescent, the moon's first visible appearance after she has been lost in the sun's light. In this scheme a lunar month runs thirty days, so the new crescent shows itself on the thirtieth morning, close beside the sun and in the same gate.

5One half of her goes out by a seventh part, and her whole circle is empty and without light, except for one seventh part of it, that is, the fourteenth part of her light.

5And the one half of her goes forth by a seventh part, and her whole circumference is empty, without light, with the exception of one-seventh part of it, (and) the fourteenth part of her light.

NoteTwo ways of counting run alongside each other here and can be hard to follow. The moon's full light is one seventh of the sun's, and that seventh is split into fourteen daily portions, so half of a seventh part is a fourteenth part. At this stage almost the whole disc is dark and only the first small portion is lit. The wording of this verse and the next is difficult in the Ethiopic manuscripts, which do not agree among themselves, and no translation makes the arithmetic come out cleanly.

6And when she receives one seventh part of the half of her light, her light comes to one seventh part and half of that again.

6And when she receives one-seventh part of the half of her light, her light amounts to one-seventh part and the half thereof.

NoteOne seventh part plus half of that again works out as three of the fourteen daily portions, the moon's light two or three days into the month.

7She sets with the sun, and when the sun rises the moon rises with him and receives half of one part of light. And in that night, at the start of her morning, at the beginning of the lunar day, the moon sets with the sun and is not seen that night, with the fourteen parts and the half of one of them.

7And she sets with the sun, and when the sun rises the moon rises with him and receives the half of one part of light, and in that night in the beginning of her morning in the commencement of the lunar day the moon sets with the sun, and is invisible that night with the fourteen parts and the half of one of them.

NoteThis describes the moon at conjunction, when she rises and sets at the same times as the sun and so is swallowed in his light and cannot be seen. "The lunar day" is the day of the lunar month, which in this reckoning begins in the evening rather than at dawn, which is why the night is spoken of as coming at the start of the day and not at its end.

8She rises on that day with exactly a seventh part, and she comes out and moves back from the place where the sun rises, and on her remaining days she grows bright in the remaining thirteen parts.

8And she rises on that day with exactly a seventh part, and comes forth and recedes from the rising of the sun, and in her remaining days she becomes bright in the (remaining) thirteen parts.

Note"Moves back from the place where the sun rises" describes the moon falling farther behind the sun each day, rising and setting later than he does, so that she is out of his light for longer and shows more of her disc. The remaining thirteen parts are the thirteen of the fourteen daily portions still to be added before she is full.