1 Enoch: The Hermeneia Translation

The Book of the Luminaries (Chapters 72–82) Introduction 72:1 The book about the motion of the heavenly luminaries all as they are in their kinds, their jurisdiction, their time, their name, their origins, and their months which Uriel, the holy angel who was with me (and) who is their leader, showed me. The entire book about them, as it is, he showed me and how every year of the world will be forever, until a new creation lasting forever is made. The Law of the Sun (72:2-37) 2 This is the first law of the luminaries: the luminary (called) the sun has its emergence through the heavenly gates in the east and its setting through the western gates of the sky. 3/ I saw six gates through which the sun emerges and six gates through which the sun sets. The moon rises and sets in those gates and the leaders of the stars with the ones they lead, six in the east and six in the west, all of them—one directly after the other. There are many windows on the right and left of those gates. 4 The first one to emerge is the great luminary whose name is the sun; its roundness is like the roundness of the sky. It is entirely filled with fire, which gives light and heat. 5/ The wind blows the chariot where it rises, and the sun sets from the sky and goes back through the north in order to reach the east. It is guided so that it enters that gate and gives light in the firmament. 6/ This is how it emerges in the first month 96 1 Enoch 72:6-19 97 through the large gate; it emerges through that fourth one of those six gates on the side where the sun rises. 7/ In that fourth gate from which the sun emerges in the first month there are twelve open windows from which heat comes out when they are open at their times. 8/ When the sun rises ina the sky it emerges through that fourth gate for thirty mornings , and it accurately goes down in the fourth gate on the west side of the sky. 9/ During those days, day becomes longer than day and night becomes shorter than night for thirty days. 10/ On that day the daytime is two unitsb more than the night—one-ninth, with the daytime being exactly ten parts, and the night exactly eight parts. 11/ The sun emerges from that fourth gate and sets through the fourth (gate). It returns to the fifth gate in the east for thirty mornings, and it emerges from it and sets through the fifth gate. 12/ Then the daytime becomes longer by two (additional) parts: the daytime is eleven parts, while the night decreases and is seven parts. 13/ It returns to the east and enters the sixth (gate). It emerges and sets through the sixth gate for thirty-onec days because of its sign. 14/ During that day the daytime grows longer than the night, with the daytime being double the night. The daytime is twelve parts, while the night grows shorter and is six parts. 15/ The sun rises so that the daytime becomes shorter and the night longer; the sun returns to the east and enters the sixth gate. It rises from it and sets for thirty days. 16/ When the thirty days are completed, daytime decreases one part exactly; the daytime is eleven parts and the night seven. 17/ The sun emerges from the west from that sixth gate, goes to the east, and rises in the fifth gate for thirty mornings. It again sets in the west, in the fifth western gate. 18/ On that day the daytime is two parts fewer, with the daytime being ten parts and the night eight parts. 19/ The sun emerges from that fifth gate and sets through the fifth gate in the west; it rises through the fourth gate because of its a Lit. from. b Lit. double, doubling; twofold. The reference is to two of the eighteen units in a day, that is, one-ninth. c Several mss lack the number one, thus reading thirty. [18.188.20.56] Project MUSE (2024-04-24 18:46 GMT) 98 1 Enoch 72:19-29 signa—in the fourth gate in the eastb—thirty-one mornings and sets in the west. 20/ On that day the daytime is equal to...