1 Enoch 78

These are the names of the sun: the first is Orjares, and the second is Tomas.

1And the names of the sun are the following: the first Orjârês, and the second Tômâs.

NoteThe book gives the sun personal names, as ancient astronomy often did for heavenly bodies. Orjares and Tomas are Ethiopic spellings of names that were already garbled by the time this book was translated out of Greek, and no one now knows what words they started as. The point being made is simply that the sun, like the moon, has a proper name known in heaven.

2The moon has four names. The first name is Asonja, the second Ebla, the third Benase, and the fourth Erae.

2And the moon has four names: the first name is Asônjâ, the second Eblâ, the third Benâsê, and the fourth Erâe.

NoteFour names for the moon, against two for the sun. Ancient lists of this kind often gave a body one name per phase or per season, but these four are not explained here, and, like the sun's names, their original forms are lost.

3These are the two great lights. The circle each one makes is like the circle of the sky, and the two circles are the same size as each other.

3These are the two great luminaries: their circumference is like the circumference of the heaven, and the size of the circumference of both is alike.

Note"The two great lights" is the phrase used of the sun and moon in the opening chapter of Genesis. The claim that the two circles are the same size is about what the eye sees: sun and moon look the same width in the sky. This book treats that apparent match as a real equality of measure.

4In the circle of the sun there are seven portions of light that are added to it beyond what the moon has, and the light is passed over in fixed amounts until the seventh portion of the sun is used up.

4In the circumference of the sun there are seven portions of light which are added to it more than to the moon, and in definite measures it is transferred till the seventh portion of the sun is exhausted.

NoteA fixed ratio in this book's system: the sun's light is seven times the moon's. The seven portions are a unit of accounting, not a visible object, and the transfer described is the sun handing over light to the moon a measured amount at a time.

5They set and go in through the gates of the west, and they make their round by way of the north, and they come out through the eastern gates onto the face of the sky.

5And they set and enter the portals of the west, and make their revolution by the north, and come forth through the eastern portals on the face of the heaven.

NoteEarlier chapters of this book describe six gates in the eastern edge of the sky and six in the west. The sun and moon rise and set through different gates depending on the time of year, which is how the book explains the changing length of days. At night the sun is imagined traveling back around the northern rim of the world, out of sight, to reach the east again.

6When the moon rises, one fourteenth part of her shows in the sky. The light grows full in her, and on the fourteenth day she completes her light.

6And when the moon rises one-fourteenth part appears in the heaven: the light becomes full in her: on the fourteenth day she accomplishes her light.

NoteThe moon's disk is treated as divided into fourteen equal parts, one of which lights up each night. This is a bookkeeping scheme rather than an observation: the real moon does not brighten in fourteen even steps.

7Fifteen parts of light are passed over to her, until on the fifteenth day her light is complete, according to the sign of the year. So she becomes fifteen parts, and the moon grows by the adding of fourteenth parts.

7And fifteen parts of light are transferred to her till the fifteenth day (when) her light is accomplished, according to the sign of the year, and she becomes fifteen parts, and the moon grows by (the addition of) fourteenth parts.

NoteThe book runs two counts side by side, one in fourteenths and one in fifteenths, because a lunar month is roughly twenty-nine and a half days and neither number divides it evenly. "According to the sign of the year" is obscure in the original and seems to mean the fixed point in the yearly calendar at which the reckoning is set.

8As she wanes, the moon goes down on the first day to fourteen parts of her light, on the second to thirteen parts of light, on the third to twelve, on the fourth to eleven, on the fifth to ten, on the sixth to nine, on the seventh to eight. On the eighth she is at seven, on the ninth six, on the tenth five, on the eleventh four, on the twelfth three, on the thirteenth two, and on the fourteenth to the half of a seventh. On the fifteenth day all the light she has left goes away completely.

8And in her waning (the moon) decreases on the first day to fourteen parts of her light, on the second to thirteen parts of light, on the third to twelve, on the fourth to eleven, on the fifth to ten, on the sixth to nine, on the seventh to eight, on the eighth to seven, on the ninth to six, on the tenth to five, on the eleventh to four, on the twelfth to three, on the thirteenth to two, on the fourteenth to the half of a seventh, and all her remaining light disappears wholly on the fifteenth.

Note"The half of a seventh" does not fit the descending count that precedes it, and the Ethiopic manuscripts differ here. It is generally taken as a corruption of a smaller fraction, the last sliver of light before the moon goes dark.

9In certain months the month has twenty-nine days, and once it has twenty-eight.

9And in certain months the month has twenty-nine days and once twenty-eight.

NoteThis book's calendar alternates months of thirty and twenty-nine days. A month of twenty-eight days fits no known part of that scheme and may be a copying error.

10And Uriel showed me another rule: when light is passed over to the moon, and from which side it is passed to her by the sun.

10And Uriel showed me another law: when light is transferred to the moon, and on which side it is transferred to her by the sun.

NoteUriel is one of the chief angels, and in these astronomical chapters he is the one set over the lights of the sky and the guide who walks Enoch through the whole system. "Another law" means another fixed rule of how the heavens run, not a commandment to be obeyed.

11For the whole time that the moon is growing in her light, she is taking that light over to herself while she is opposite the sun. Over fourteen days her light is completed in the sky, and when she is lit all over, her light is complete and full in the sky.

11During all the period during which the moon is growing in her light, she is transferring it to herself when opposite to the sun during fourteen days her light is accomplished in the heaven, and when she is illumined throughout, her light is accomplished full in the heaven.

Note"Opposite the sun" is the key to the explanation: the more of the sky that separates moon from sun, the more of the moon's face is lit. The book has worked out the right relationship, though it describes the light as handed over rather than reflected.

12On the first day she is called the new moon, because on that day the light rises upon her.

12And on the first day she is called the new moon, for on that day the light rises upon her.

NoteThe new moon is the moment the thin first sliver becomes visible after the moon has been dark. In ancient reckoning this sighting, not a calculated date, began the month.

13She becomes the full moon exactly on the day when the sun sets in the west, and she rises from the east at night. The moon then shines the whole night through, until the sun rises facing her and the moon is seen facing the sun.

13She becomes full moon exactly on the day when the sun sets in the west, and from the east she rises at night, and the moon shines the whole night through till the sun rises over against her and the moon is seen over against the sun.

NoteAn accurate observation: the full moon rises in the east just as the sun sets in the west, stays up all night, and is still visible in the west as the sun comes up. The two are then at opposite ends of the sky, facing each other.

14On the side where the moon's light comes out, on that same side she wanes again, until all the light is gone and all the days of the month are over, and her circle is empty, with no light in it.

14On the side whence the light of the moon comes forth, there again she wanes till all the light vanishes and all the days of the month are at an end, and her circumference is empty, void of light.

15She makes three months of thirty days, and at her time she makes three months of twenty-nine days each. In those months she completes her waning in the first stretch of time, and in the first gate, for one hundred and seventy-seven days.

15And three months she makes of thirty days, and at her time she makes three months of twenty-nine days each, in which she accomplishes her waning in the first period of time, and in the first portal for one hundred and seventy-seven days.

NoteOne hundred and seventy-seven days is half a lunar year of three hundred and fifty-four days, made of three months of thirty days and three of twenty-nine. Elsewhere this book counts a solar year of three hundred and sixty-four days, so the moon's year runs about eleven days short of the sun's, and much of these chapters is taken up with keeping the two in step. "The first gate" is one of the six gates in the eastern sky named in verse 5.

16In the time when she goes out, she appears for three months of thirty days each, and for three months she appears with twenty-nine days each.

16And in the time of her going out she appears for three months (of) thirty days each, and for three months she appears (of) twenty-nine each.

17At night she appears like a man for twenty days each time, and by day she appears like the sky, and there is nothing else in her except her light.

17At night she appears like a man for twenty days each time, and by day she appears like the heaven, and there is nothing else in her save her light.

NoteThis last verse is obscure and the text may be damaged. "She appears like a man" has been explained as the shape seen in the moon's markings, and possibly as an image of the moon's face being fully turned toward the viewer; no reading is certain. The second half means that in daylight the moon shows only as a pale patch the color of the sky, with nothing in it but its own faint light.