The Dream Visions are two dreams Enoch tells his son Methuselah. The first is the earth swallowed in a great abyss (Charles’s heading: the Deluge). The second is the history of the world from the first white bull to the last — told in bulls, sheep, beasts, birds and seventy shepherds, and from 85:4 on without a single human name. Told in animals, it shares no three-word run with Genesis: of the five sections of 1 Enoch this is the only one in which no verse shares even three consecutive Geʻez words with the Ethiopic Genesis (at two words it does not stand apart), and the eight Greek verses on the rams — Saul and David, on R. H. Charles’s reading — reach the Greek of 1–2 Kingdoms no deeper than a four-word formula. But the vision keeps count, and its counts check each other — reckoned by its own totals, twelve, twenty-three, twenty-three, twelve: seventy shepherds. Twice the Ethiopic, as Dillmann printed it in 1851, does not add up: one angel where the later verses need four who went out first, and thirty-seven shepherds where the text’s own running total needs thirty-five. Charles’s English balances both; only one of the choices that make it balance is marked in his text, and his notes record the others. It is not Scripture for us: 1 Enoch is read here as a Second-Temple witness, and tested by the canon. See the method →
1 Enoch is a collection of Jewish apocalyptic writings attributed to Enoch, the seventh from Adam (Genesis 5:18–24). On this disk it is held whole only in Geʻez (1,062 rows), with Greek for parts of it and Qumran Aramaic for others; for chapters 83–90 there are eight Greek verses, a few Greek scraps and eight pieces of leather. Jude 14–15 names Enoch, ‘the seventh from Adam’, and introduces words as his prophecy; the words correspond to 1 Enoch 1:9. That is what Jude’s text does; it does not make 1 Enoch Scripture, and this page argues neither way beyond the text. The church’s view, labelled as such: 1 Enoch is not Scripture for Pleasant Springs. We read it as we read the other Second-Temple books — as a window on the Jewish world of the centuries around Christ — critically, gratefully for the light it throws, and testing everything by the canon. Where it carries what Scripture does not — seventy angelic shepherds, a sheep that becomes a man, a history in animals — this page reports it and does not adopt it.
⚠️ What this page can and cannot measure — read this first.
HELD for 83:1–90:42: Charles’s English (159 verses) and Dillmann’s Geʻez (159 rows, 2,982 words), complete. Greek for 14 rows: the Vatican excerpt of 89:42–49 (8 verses, 199 words) and 6 Oxyrhynchus scraps of 85:10–87:3, too broken to screen. Aramaic: 8 Qumran pieces placed to these chapters, 884 preserved letters, touching 34 verses (86:1–3, 88:3–89:16, 89:26–37, 89:43–44). For comparison: the rest of the Geʻez book (903 rows), the Ethiopic Genesis (1,526 rows), Exodus (1,170) and Pentateuch (5,797), the Geʻez Jubilees (1,308 rows, measured only, never printed), the CATSS Greek (30,348 units) and the SBLGNT (7,927 verses).
NOT HELD: any Latin of these chapters (the Latin on this disk is of chapters 1, 99, 106 only); the Ethiopic manuscripts behind Dillmann’s and Charles’s texts; Dillmann’s and Charles’s apparatus as text (Charles’s notes are read from an unaligned scan and, where it matters, from the page images).
CONSEQUENCE: the Greek New Testament screen runs on the eight Vatican verses only. The word screens for the rest are Geʻez against Geʻez. Aramaic is never run against Geʻez or Greek; only what the leather preserves — a word, a number — is set beside them. English is never run against anything (Charles also translated the shelf’s Jubilees and Testaments, so English runs would measure Charles).
1 Enoch 83:1–90:42 — 24 verses, each with what was measured
Aramaic (Qumran) · Greek (Vat. gr. 1809, P.Oxy. 2069) · English: R. H. Charles · Geʻez: Dillmann (1851)The first dream, before Enoch married. Heaven falls and the earth is swallowed, and he cries out in the house of መላልኤል ፡ እምሔውየ, Mahalalel my grandfather — in Genesis 5, the father of Jared, Enoch’s father. No animal appears in the first dream: the words for bull and for sheep begin at 85:3 and 89:12 (the structure diagram).
A counter-example. Four verses of this section reach three words with the Ethiopic Pentateuch and none reaches four (Stage 4); this is one of the four, and it is a doxology: ለዓለም ፡ ወለዓለመ ፡ ዓለም, for ever and ever, three words with ለዓለም ፡ ወለዓለመ ፡ ዓለም (Exodus 15:18, run 3, band 1). The verse opens ቡሩክ ፡ አንተ ፡ እግዚኦ, blessed are you, O Lord — three words that stand also in the Geʻez Jubilees at 25:15 (run 3, band 1; Jubilees is measured here, never printed). A prayer’s formula, not a shared story.
The second dream begins — with a white bull. ላህም ፡ ፀዐዳ. Charles’s 1912 note on 90:38, looking back, reads the first white bull as Adam (‘Adam was symbolized by a white bull’). The verse also names Enoch’s wife, እድና, Edna, a name Genesis does not give — the only row of the Geʻez book that has it. After this verse the vision names no one.
A star falls among the bulls. The Geʻez ፩ኮከብ ፡ ወድቀ, one star fell; the Qumran leather keeps a star and the first letter of one, the rest restored. Charles’s note at 88:1 reads this star as Azazel (‘It is Raphael who here casts Azazel’).
The children of stars and cows: ነጌያተ ፡ ወአግማለ ፡ ወአዕዱገ, elephants, camels and asses. Charles: ‘Symbolizing the three kinds of giants’ — the giants of chapters 6–7. The page reports his reading; the text says animals.
The first count that does not add up. Dillmann’s Geʻez: ወ፩ወጽአ ፡ እምውእቱ ፡ መካን ፡ ወ፫ምስሌሁ, and one went out from that place, and three with him. Charles prints four. The rest of the vision counts them: those four at 88:1, 88:3 and 89:1 (፬እለ ፡ ወጽኡ; at 88:1 ፬እለ ፡ ወጽኡ ፡ እምቀዳሚ, four who went out first), those three at 87:3 and 90:31 (at 87:3 ፫እለ ፡ ወጽኡ ፡ ድኅረ, three who went out after), and the seven at 90:21–22 (፯ጸዓድው). Four first and three after make seven; one and three with him do not. Dillmann’s printed page reads one (p. 62, read off the image), and so does the Ethiopian church’s printed text; Charles’s note: his manuscripts of the group he calls α read four, those he calls β one. The Oxyrhynchus scrap of this verse breaks off before the number.
A bull becomes a man. ላህም ፡ ተወልደ ፡ ወኮነ ፡ ሰብአ, [that] bull was born and became a man, and built መስቀረ ፡ ዐቢየ, a great vessel. The Aramaic keeps [he m]ade himself one vessel and dwelt in it (gloss). In the whole vision only two animals become men: this one and, at 89:36, the sheep that leads the flock away from the wolves (Stage 3).
Seven torrents — and the leather keeps the number. ፯አስራብ, seven channels; the Aramaic, every letter preserved: seeing, and behold, seven channels pouring. Every letter of the number is on the leather.
A counter-example: the flood’s nearest words are the Red Sea’s. ወተሰጥሙ ፡ ውስተ ፡ ቀላይ, and they sank into the deep — three words with Exodus 15:5 (ወተሰጥሙ ፡ ውስተ ፡ ቀላይ, Pharaoh’s army), run 3, band 1; from Exodus 15:5’s side, its deepest partner in the Geʻez Enoch is 89:6 (run 3, band 1). Against the Ethiopic Genesis 6–9 — the flood itself — no verse of the flood dream 89:1–9 reaches three.
The hinge: a bull fathers a sheep. ሐራውያ ፡ ገዳም ፡ ጸሊመ ፡ ወበግዐ ፡ ፀዐዳ, a black wild boar and a white sheep, and the sheep ወለደ ፡ ፲ወ፪አባግዐ, fathered twelve sheep. One of only two rows of the book with both bull-words and sheep-words; the other is 90:38. Charles: the boar is Esau (‘A black wild boar, i.e. Esau’) and the sheep Jacob. The Aramaic, preserved letters: …r black, and a ram of the flock — a ram where the Geʻez has a sheep.
A counter-example: the wilderness of Leviticus 16. ውስተ ፡ በድው ፡ ኀበ ፡ አልቦ ፡ ማይ, into a wilderness where there is no water, shares three words with በድው ፡ ኀበ ፡ አልቦ ፡ ዕፀ (Leviticus 16:22, run 3, band 1) — the goat sent away into the wilderness, not the sheep’s march. The escape through the sea and the wilderness, 89:13–40, reaches no further than two words with the Geʻez Exodus in any of its 28 verses.
The second animal that becomes a man. በግዕ ፡ ኮነ ፡ ብእሴ, [that] sheep became a man, and built a house for the Lord of the sheep. On the Qumran leather, every letter preserved: this one was changed, and he was a man, and made a […] (gloss). Charles: ‘i.e. Moses becomes a man to build the tabernacle’.
Where the Greek begins. The Vatican excerpt starts here and ends at 89:49 — exactly the eight rows of the Geʻez book that carry its word for ram, ሐርጌ. The Greek: the Lord of the sheep raised up one ram. The Geʻez: ካልእ ፡ በግዕ ፡ [ እግዚአ ፡ አባግዕ ፡ ], another sheep [Lord of the sheep], with Dillmann’s own square brackets (p. 67, read off the image). Charles brackets another sheep instead: ‘This reading is confirmed by the Greek’.
4Q205 2 iii 28 חזירין שגיאי·VAT. GR. 1809 89:43 καὶ ὁ κριὸς οὗτος ἤρξατο κερατίζειν καὶ ἐπιδιώκειν ἐν τοῖς κέρασιν, καὶ ἐνετίνασσεν εἰς τοὺς ἀλώπεκας, καὶ μετ᾽ αὐτοὺς εἰς τοὺς ὕας· καὶ ἀπώλεσεν ὕας πολλούς, καὶ μετ᾽ αὐτοὺς [...]το τοὺς κύνας.89:43CHARLES 89:43 “And that ram began to butt on either side those dogs, foxes, and wild boars till he had destroyed them †all†.”
Three witnesses, two counts. The Greek: ἀπώλεσεν ὕας πολλούς, he destroyed many boars. The Aramaic leather: with his horns … many boars. The Geʻez: እስከ ፡ ለኵሎሙ ፡ አኅጐሎሙ, until he destroyed them all — and Charles daggers all, with the note that the Greek is better here (‘Saul by no means destroyed them all’).
4Q205 2 iii 30 בארחVAT. GR. 1809 89:44 καὶ τὰ πρόβατα ὧν οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ ἠνοίγησαν ἐθεάσαντο τὸν κριὸν τὸν ἐν τοῖς προβάτοις, ἕως οὗ ἀφῆκεν τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἤρξατο πορεύεσθαι ἀνοδίᾳ.89:44CHARLES 89:44 “And that sheep whose eyes were opened saw that ram, which was amongst the sheep, till it †forsook its glory† and began to butt those sheep, and trampled upon them, and behaved itself unseemly.”
Way, or glory? The Greek: the ram ἀφῆκεν τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ, left his way, and walked ἀνοδίᾳ, off the road. The Geʻez: ዘኀደገ ፡ ስብሐቶ, who forsook his glory; Charles daggers it. The leather ends on the ram of the flock and the word בארח, in a way. The Geʻez verse has no word for way.
A lamb in the Greek, a sheep in the Geʻez. τὸν ἄρνα τοῦτον ἐπὶ ἄρνα ἕτερον, this lamb to another lamb; the Geʻez ለበግዕ ፡ ኀበ ፡ ካልእ ፡ በግዕ, the sheep to another sheep. Charles prints lamb both times in thick type, following the Greek (his note: “reading ‘the lamb’”).
The deepest Greek run of the section — and it is with Judges. καὶ ἔφυγεν ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ, and he fled from his face: five words with Judges 9:40, καὶ ἔφυγεν ἀπὸ προσώπου αὐτοῦ — Gaal fleeing Abimelech — band 2 (the one verse in the two Greek texts of Judges). The phrase stands in no other of the 30,348 Greek Old Testament units, and in none of 1–2 Kingdoms, which tell the flight of David from Saul. The OCP text opens with a bracketed [and]; Charles’s 1912 page prints the excerptor’s words here, [Ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις γέγραπται ὅτι] and [φησίν] (p. 197, read off the image; Stage 5).
Seventy shepherds. ፸ኖላውያነ — seventy on Dillmann’s page (p. 68, read off the image) and in Charles’s English. Charles’s note: his β manuscripts read seventy, his α seven. He reads the shepherds ‘as angels and not as men’. Seventy again at 90:22 and 90:25.
The first period: twelve. ፲ወ፪ሰዓተ, twelve hours — the time the first shepherds pasture; then three sheep return and rebuild the house.
The second count that does not add up. Charles prints thirty-five. Dillmann’s Geʻez: ፴ወ፯ኖላውያን, thirty-seven shepherds — read off his printed page (p. 70), and the Ethiopian church’s printed text writes the number out in words, thirty-seven. Charles’s note: ‘Thirty-five. All the MSS. are corrupt here’, and his 1912 page sets five in thick type. The verse that checks it is the next one but three.
The text checks itself. ፳ወ፫ኖላውያን … ፶ወ፰ጊዜያተ: twenty-three shepherds … fifty-eight times. Read as a running total — as Charles’s note reads it, ‘the three periods are summed’ — fifty-eight checks the others: twelve (89:72) and a second period and twenty-three make fifty-eight only if the second period is 23 — that is, only if 90:1’s total is 35. With 90:1’s 37 the total here would be 60.
The last twelve. ፲ወ፪ኖሎት ፡ ደኃርያን, the twelve last shepherds. Fifty-eight and twelve are seventy — the number of 89:59, 90:22 and 90:25. Twelve (89:72), twenty-three (what 90:5 leaves for the second period), twenty-three (90:5), twelve (90:17): seventy.
A white bull again. ፩ላህም ፡ ጸዐዳ, one white bull, with great horns, feared by every beast and bird. Bull-words have been absent since 89:12; they return here and in the next verse, and nowhere else in the book. Charles reads him as the Messiah (‘white bull (i.e. the Messiah)’) — Charles’s reading; the text names no one.
‘Lamb’ is Charles’s word, in thick type. The Geʻez says word. ኮነ ፡ ነገረ ፡ ወውእቱ ፡ ነገር ፡ ኮነ ፡ አርዌ ፡ ዐቢየ, became a word, and that word became a great beast (p. 73, read off the image). Charles’s note: ‘The text is corrupt and cannot be restored without the help of Test. Jos.’ 19:8–9, after Goldschmidt; he had adopted Dillmann’s explanation in his first edition, and ‘cannot any longer accept it’ (Stage 2).
Versification — a third state, stated because it is not the usual one. There is no Masoretic, no Septuagint, no KJV, no ESV and no Vulgate 1 Enoch: the shelf’s King James loader raises on 1 Enoch rather than return nothing, and the Clementine Vulgate on this disk has no such book.
The two complete texts count alike, chapter by chapter: Charles’s English and Dillmann’s Geʻez both run 11·6·10·6·4·3·77·42 verses in chapters 83–90 — 159. Every verse number on this page is Charles’s. The Greek and Aramaic witnesses carry Charles’s numbers as their editors placed them: the Vatican Greek is keyed 89:42–49, the Qumran pieces by reading (the placement file). The Ethiopic Pentateuch is cited in Dillmann’s numbering, which follows the Septuagint (its digitiser’s note); in the chapters cited it counts as the Masoretic text does — Exodus 15: 27 verses, Leviticus 16: 34 verses, Deuteronomy 11: 32 verses — so no offset arises there. The flood block uses Genesis 6–9, 21·24·22·29 rows against the Masoretic 22·24·22·29: the digitised Ethiopic Genesis has no row numbered 6:20.
Agreement of count is not agreement of division. Dillmann printed verse numerals in his margin, but the digitisation dropped them, so his rows were cut to Charles’s verses by inference: in these chapters 148 verse starts agree with Dillmann’s full stops and the Ethiopian church’s printed division, 8 are chapter openings, and 3 rest on Dillmann’s full stop alone (90:2, 90:11, 90:25). A run may drift by a clause at a boundary.
Charles prints two passages in an order of his own; the file keeps numeric order. The second half of 89:48 (on his reading, David’s death and Solomon’s accession) stands after 89:49, because, his note says, 49 recounts David’s victories and 48b his death; that the Greek lacks 48b he puts down to the fragment ending with 49. The Greek 89:48 carries only the first half. 90:13–15 and 90:16–18 stand side by side as doublets, and the transcription set 90:19 between the two tables. And the printed English is not quite the file: the transcription dropped the numerals of 85:10 and 89:77 (restored from the 1912 scan), typed not destroy for not to destroy at 84:5 and mis-cased two pronouns at 85:9 and 89:22 (corrected), read beer for been at 90:29 (corrected), and lost Charles’s thick type at 90:1 (Stage 5). Two verses carry signs that do not pair (83:11, 90:31); neither is quoted.
The Shape of the Passage
Two dreams in sequence; inside the second, an inclusio of white bulls⚠️ Where this page sits. 1 Enoch is filed here under Pseudepigrapha & Second Temple. It is printed in the Bible of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church — whose printed verse division was used to cut this page’s Geʻez rows. It is not Scripture for us, and nothing taught at Pleasant Springs rests on it.
Author
Anonymous, writing as Enoch to his son. “And now, my son Methuselah, I will show thee all my visions” (83:1). Both dreams are dated by Enoch’s life, both before he took a wife: the first when he was learning to write, the second before he took Methuselah’s mother (83:2).
The date is not tested here. Charles (1912) held that ‘83-90 must have been written before’ Jonathan’s assumption of the high priesthood, which he dates to 153 B.C., and read the great horn of 90:9–16 as Judas Maccabeus (‘other than Judas Maccabeus’). His judgement, reported; nothing on this page can date the chapters.
And the writer keeps count — of angels, of sheep, of shepherds, of their periods. Stage 4 audits the counts.
Audience
Readers who could decode animals. From 85:4 to 90:42 — 139 verses — Charles’s English names no person, people or place: every capitalised word outside the divine titles opens a sentence or a speech. The vision gives its reader no key; the names this page attaches to its animals — Noah in a bull, Moses in a sheep — are R. H. Charles’s.
Readers under foreign rule. The sheep are handed to lions and tigers, wolves and hyenas, foxes and all the wild beasts (89:55), the wild boars eating with them (89:66), and then to eagles, vultures, kites and ravens (90:2). The shepherds — Charles reads them as angels — destroy more than they are told (89:61–69).
Readers who were promised an end. The book of the shepherds is opened (90:17), the sealed books are opened before the throne (90:20), and a new house replaces the old (90:28–29).
Orient on 1 Enoch, the Dream Visions and the Animal Apocalypse.
Search by topic: Enoch, First Book of; Dream Visions; Animal Apocalypse; Seventy shepherds; Watchers; apocalyptic symbolism; Maccabees.
Which articles are relevant?
- Anchor Bible Dictionary — its articles on 1 Enoch and on apocalypses and apocalypticism.
- Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism — its entries on 1 Enoch and its parts, and on the Animal Apocalypse.
- Dictionary of New Testament Background (IVP) — its entries on the Enoch literature and on apocalyptic.
- A caution for this range. An article that gives the seventy shepherds four periods of 12, 23, 23 and 12 has a second period of 23, which only Charles’s thirty-five at 90:1, or the arithmetic of 90:5, supplies — not the Ethiopic as printed, which reads thirty-seven (Stage 4). This page has read no such article and says only what the figures require. And an article that prints ‘the first among them became a lamb’ at 90:38 is printing an emendation.
Bibliography surfaced:
- R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch, or 1 Enoch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912) — the English quoted here (through the 1917 SPCK reprint), and his notes, read from a scan.
- A. Dillmann, Liber Henoch aethiopice (Leipzig, 1851) — the Geʻez measured here, as digitised by M. Jerabek and R. HaCohen; 10 readings checked against the printed pages.
- Patrick A. Tiller, A Commentary on the Animal Apocalypse of I Enoch (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993). Not held.
- George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1: A Commentary on the Book of 1 Enoch, Chapters 1–36; 81–108 (Hermeneia; Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001). Not held.
- Daniel C. Olson, A New Reading of the Animal Apocalypse of 1 Enoch (Leiden: Brill, 2013). Not held.
History told in animals: a key that is Charles’s, a lamb that is an emendation, and other animal histories.
Comparative texts are read in their own languages and set side by side; nothing in this stage is a run. The right-hand column of the table is R. H. Charles’s key, quoted from his 1912 notes: it is one editor’s reading of the symbols, reported as his. The text itself names no one.
The animals, counted — and Charles’s key to them
| in Charles’s English | Geʻez (one place) | rows naming it · first–last (G: Geʻez words; E: Charles’s English) | Charles’s 1912 notes read it as … |
|---|---|---|---|
| bulls, cows, calves; the first a white bull | ላህም ፡ ፀዐዳ | 24 G · 85:3–90:38 | the line from Adam to Isaac: ‘Adam was symbolized by a white bull’ (the note on 90:38); ‘A white bull, i.e. Abraham’ |
| star / stars | ፩ኮከብ ፡ ወድቀ | 7 E · 86:1–90:24 | fallen angels; the first star Azazel (‘It is Raphael who here casts Azazel’) |
| elephants, camels, asses | ነጌያተ ፡ ወአግማለ ፡ ወአዕዱገ | 4 E · 86:4–89:6 | ‘Symbolizing the three kinds of giants’ |
| white men | አምሳለ ፡ ሰብእ ፡ ጸዐዳ | 4 E · 87:2–90:31 | ‘were like white men, i.e. unfallen angels’ |
| wild ass(es) | አድገ ፡ ገዳም | 2 E · 89:11–89:16 | ‘The wild ass is Ishmael’ |
| sheep | ወበግዐ ፡ ፀዐዳ | 81 G · 89:12–90:38 | Israel; the first white sheep Jacob (‘A white sheep, i.e. Jacob’) |
| wild boar(s) | ሐራውያ ፡ ገዳም ፡ ጸሊመ | 7 E · 89:10–89:72 | Esau and Edom (‘A black wild boar, i.e. Esau’) |
| wolves | ለአዝእብት | 16 E · 89:10–89:55 | ‘The wolves, i.e. the Egyptians’ |
| dogs; foxes | አክላብ ፡ ወቈናጽል | 8 E · 89:10–90:4 | dogs: ‘these are the Philistines’; foxes: the Ammonites (‘to mean the Ammonites’), where Dillmann had the Amalekites |
| ram (Geʻez ሐርጌ) | ወዝኩ ፡ ሐርጌ | 8 G · 89:42–89:49 | Saul, David, Solomon (‘Saul by no means destroyed them all’) |
| lions and tigers | አናብስት ፡ ወአናምርት | 5 E · 89:10–89:66 | ‘Lions and tigers, i.e. the Assyrians’ and Babylonians |
| seventy shepherds | ፸ኖላውያነ | 18 G · 89:59–90:25 | angels (‘as angels and not as men’) |
| eagles, vultures, kites, ravens | አንስርት ፡ ወአውስት ፡ ወሆባይ ፡ ወቋዓት | 9 E · 89:10–90:16 | Greeks or Macedonians; Seleucids; Ptolemies (‘Egyptians under the Ptolemies’) |
| the horned ram (Geʻez ዳቤላ) | ለዝኩ ፡ ዳቤላ | 6 G · 90:10–90:31 | Judas Maccabeus (‘other than Judas Maccabeus’) |
| one white bull, at the end | ፩ላህም ፡ ጸዐዳ | 1 G · 90:37 | ‘white bull (i.e. the Messiah)’ |
Counts marked G are rows of Dillmann’s Geʻez with the word; counts marked E are verses of Charles’s English that name the animal, from 85:3 to the end (89:10 names most of the beasts and birds at their birth, so many ranges begin there). The key is not the text’s: in 139 verses from 85:4 to the end, the vision never says who any animal is. Where Charles reports Dillmann reading a symbol differently (the foxes: ‘taken by Dillmann to be the Amalekites’), the table says so.
Animals that become men, and men who are angels
In this vision the beings it calls men are angels, on Charles’s reading (‘As men are represented by’ animals, he writes, the unfallen angels are men) — አምሳለ ፡ ሰብእ ፡ ጸዐዳ, the likeness of white men (87:2), and ዝኩ ፡ ብእሲ ፡ ዘይጽሕፍ, that man who writes (90:17). The Geʻez says became a man in 4 rows: 89:1, 89:9, 89:36, 89:38 — twice of the white bull who builds the vessel, twice of the sheep who builds the house. Charles links the two (‘i.e. Moses becomes a man to build the tabernacle’). On the Qumran leather the second change survives letter for letter: אתהפך והוא אנוש, he was changed, and he was a man.
The lamb of 90:38 — and the Testament of Joseph
Where Charles prints the first among them became a lamb, Dillmann’s Geʻez reads became a word (ኮነ ፡ ነገረ). Charles’s 1912 note calls the word corrupt (‘(nagar = ῥῆμα not λόγος)’); of Dillmann’s explanation of it he writes, ‘I adopted this suggestion in my first edition, but cannot any longer accept it’; and he adopts instead the proposal of Goldschmidt (Das Buch Henoch), that the word goes back, through a corruption of one Semitic word into another, to a word for lamb, citing the Testament of Joseph 19.
Charles’s own English of that chapter (1908; SPCK 1917), printed there from the Armenian version, reads “went forth a lamb” … “the lamb overcame them and destroyed them” (T. Joseph 19:8). Two of Charles’s translations, set side by side by Charles: the page prints both and runs neither against the other, because an English run between them would measure Charles.
Daniel’s ram, Charles’s note on Barnabas, and Enoch’s family
Daniel 8. A ram and a goat are kingdoms. In the Greek Old Testament the two words κριὸν ἕνα, one ram, which the Vatican Greek uses at 89:42, stand in 21 units — 12 of them in the offering lists of Numbers 7, one in Daniel 8:3, and the other 8 in the offerings of Leviticus 16 and Numbers 6, 28 and 29. A two-word phrase of the altar’s offering lists, not a link to Daniel.
Barnabas 16:5. Charles’s note on 89:56 says Barnabas ‘refers to this verse’: his note gives Barnabas’s Greek, which opens λέγει γὰρ ἡ γραφή, for the Scripture says, and goes on to the Lord handing over τὰ πρόβατα, the sheep, with the fold and the tower. Barnabas is not held on this disk; the page reports the note and tests nothing. The same note sets 89:56 beside the prophets’ image of a flock given up, citing Ezek. 34.
Enoch’s family. Genesis names no wife of Enoch; 85:3 names her Edna, in the only row of the Geʻez Enoch with that name, and the Geʻez Jubilees names Enoch’s wife at 4:20 in a spelling of its own (measured, not printed).
A title for God that, in the 1,062 Geʻez rows, stands only here; two words for ram; and a word where Charles reads a lamb.
Counts are over the 1,062 rows of Dillmann’s Geʻez, split into word forms as written, and over Charles’s English; Greek counts are over the CATSS and SBLGNT files. They are counts over these files, not over ‘the Ethiopic Bible’.
30 times in 27 rows of the Geʻez book, every one in 89:16–90:38 (with the variant their Lord, of the sheep counted). Charles’s English: 29 times in the same 27 verses. The Greek ὁ κύριος τῶν προβάτων stands twice in the Vatican excerpt and in none of the 30,348 CATSS units or 7,927 SBLGNT verses.
18 rows, 89:59–90:25, nowhere else in the book. Forms with nol- and nolot; the seventy, the twelve, the thirty-seven.
8 rows: exactly 89:42–49, the eight verses the Vatican Greek preserves, where the Greek has κριὸς (10 times in its eight verses). At 89:47 the digitisation splits one of them into two words; Dillmann’s page prints one (p. 67).
6 rows: 90:10, 90:11, 90:13, 90:14, 90:16, 90:31 — a second word for ram: the rams of 90:10–11 and the horned ram of 90:13–16 and 90:31. Charles prints ram for both Geʻez words.
4 rows: 89:1, 89:9, 89:36, 89:38. The bull that builds the vessel and the sheep that builds the house; Charles reads them as Noah and Moses (Stage 2).
At 90:38, twice, where Charles prints lamb in thick type. The ordinary Geʻez word for ‘word, thing’; Charles’s note calls it corrupt here.
No three-word run with Genesis; the numbers can be audited.
Four measurements, and what each can see. (1) The section’s own numbers, set against each other. (2) Every Geʻez verse against the rest of the book, the Ethiopic Genesis, Exodus and Pentateuch, and the Geʻez Jubilees, with the tie band from both sides — and the five sections of 1 Enoch compared. (3) The three witnesses of 89:42–48 side by side. (4) The Vatican Greek against the Greek Old and New Testaments. Then the New Testament, named, never run beyond those eight verses.
1. The count, audited.
The vision keeps four running counts, and its own later numbers check each one. Two pass in the Geʻez. The three bulls in the vessel (89:1) are three again at 89:9. The white sheep’s twelve (89:12) give one up to the asses, and the eleven are brought to it (89:14) — and the Aramaic keeps the eleven, ל·ד עשר אמריא כולהון (one restored letter). The angels and the shepherds are the other two, and they are where it fails.
| verse | Dillmann’s Geʻez | value | Charles’s English | what the text’s other numbers require | does the Geʻez agree? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 87:2 | ወ፩ወጽአ | 1 (+3 with him) | “four went forth from that place and three with them” | 88:1, 88:3, 89:1: those four; 87:3, 90:31: those three; 90:21–22: seven | no: 1 + 3 ≠ 7 |
| 89:59 | ፸ኖላውያነ | 70 | “seventy shepherds” | 90:22, 90:25: seventy | yes |
| 89:72 | ፲ወ፪ሰዓተ | 12 (hours) | “twelve hours” | first period | — |
| 90:1 | ፴ወ፯ኖላውያን | 37 | “thirty-five shepherds” | 90:5: the running total is 58 | no: 37 + 23 = 60 |
| 90:5 | ፳ወ፫ኖላውያን … ፶ወ፰ጊዜያተ | 23; 58 | “twenty-three” | 12 + 23 + 23 = 58 | yes |
| 90:17 | ፲ወ፪ኖሎት | 12 | “twelve last shepherds” | 58 + 12 = 70 | yes |
| 90:22 | ፸ኖሎት | 70 | “seventy shepherds” | = 89:59 | yes |
In Dillmann’s Geʻez the counts fail twice, at 87:2 and at 90:1, and every other number agrees with the rest. Neither failure is a digitising slip: both numerals were read off Dillmann’s printed pages (pp. 62 and 70; the image readings file), and the Ethiopian church’s printed text, held here for measurement only, reads one at 87:2 and thirty-seven at 90:1, in words. In Charles’s English the counts never fail — because at three numbers he chose: his α manuscripts’ four at 87:2 (the scan’s OCR: Four (a), 8 ‘one’, where α and β come out as a and 8; the page image reads Four (α). β ‘one’), his β manuscripts’ seventy at 89:59 (OCR: Seventy (8). a ‘seven’), and at 90:1 a number no manuscript of his gives: ‘The thirty-five gives the sum of the two periods already dealt with’, twelve and twenty-three. Only the third is marked in his text, by the thick five on his 1912 page; the other two stand in his notes, quoted above. The transcription the shelf holds has lost even the thick type.
That the arithmetic works is the measured fact. Which reading an author wrote is a question for the manuscripts, and none is held here (Stage 5).
2. Geʻez against Geʻez: the distribution first.
The normalisation, declared. Words are split on the Geʻez divider and on spaces; the full stop and other punctuation are removed; every word form is kept exactly as written — no prefix is stripped; numerals are kept as written; Dillmann’s square-bracketed words are kept (the brackets dropped). The optional letter fold (the column letters folded below) merges, in their seven vowel orders, ḥ and ḫ with h, ś with s, ʿ with ʾ, and ṣ́ with ṣ, and reruns the screen: against Genesis, folded, 90 verses share no two words, 69 share two, and none reaches three. A run is consecutive identical forms; 0 means the verse shares no two consecutive forms with any row of the target. This is the convention of the shelf’s Jubilees pages.
Against the other 903 rows of 1 Enoch: 75 share no two consecutive words with any of them; the deepest run is 2 for 79, 3 for 5; none reaches 4; median 2.
Against the 1,526 rows of the Ethiopic Genesis: 91 share no two consecutive words with any of them; the deepest run is 2 for 68; none reaches 3; median 0.
Against the 1,170 rows of the Ethiopic Exodus: 120 share no two consecutive words with any of them; the deepest run is 2 for 37, 3 for 2; none reaches 4; median 0.
Against the whole Ethiopic Pentateuch (5,797 rows): 69 share no two consecutive words with any of them; the deepest run is 2 for 86, 3 for 4; none reaches 4; median 2.
Against the 1,308 rows of the Geʻez Jubilees: 82 share no two consecutive words with any of them; the deepest run is 2 for 75, 3 for 2; none reaches 4; median 0.
The flood and the exodus, block against block. The flood dream 89:1–9 against Genesis 6–9 (96 rows): 5 verses share no two words, 4 share two (on the earth at 89:3, 89:4 and 89:8; at 89:6 into the earth, earth, and all or and every beast), none three. The escape through the sea and the wilderness, 89:13–40 (Charles’s headings: to the Exodus; in the desert), against the Ethiopic Exodus: 21 share none, 7 share two, none three.
All the texts in these screens are translations, and the Jubilees is another editor’s text (VanderKam’s critical text, 1989). A shared run is a lower bound on shared wording; a zero is not proof of independence — least of all here, where the vision speaks of bulls and sheep and Genesis of men.
… and the one section of 1 Enoch with no three-word run in common with the Ethiopic Genesis is the Dream Visions.
| section of 1 Enoch | Geʻez rows | share no two words | share two | share three or more | three or more, letters folded |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Watchers (1–36) | 248 | 143 | 100 | 5 | 5 |
| The Parables (37–71) | 295 | 158 | 129 | 8 | 8 |
| The Astronomical Book (72–82) | 154 | 84 | 66 | 4 | 4 |
| The Dream Visions (83–90) | 159 | 91 | 68 | 0 | 0 |
| The Epistle (91–108) | 206 | 122 | 78 | 6 | 6 |
Of the five sections of 1 Enoch, the Dream Visions are the only one in which no verse shares even three consecutive Geʻez words with the Ethiopic Genesis — folded or unfolded. On Charles’s key the section runs from Adam to Jacob’s sons, with the flood between. The margin is small, and the page says so: the other sections reach three in 5 of 248, 8 of 295, 4 of 154, 6 of 206 verses — a handful each. At two words the Dream Visions do not stand apart: the share of their verses with no two-word run (57.2%) is below the Epistle’s (59.2%) and the Watchers’ (57.7%). And if the 23 verses that reach three were scattered at random over the 1,062 rows, a section of 159 verses would have none about 1 time in 44 (hypergeometric, 0.023) — and the page looked at five sections. What the table shows is a direction, measured, not a law.
Where the wording runs deepest — with the band from both sides:
| 1 Enoch | screen | partner | run | band | the partner’s own deepest run against all 1,062 rows of 1 Enoch · band · ✓ if this verse is among them | the shared words |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 84:1 | Ethiopic Pentateuch | Deut 11:19 | 3 | 1 | 3 / 1 ✓ | ከመ ይትናገሩ ቦቱ |
| 84:2 | Ethiopic Pentateuch | Exod 15:18 | 3 | 1 | 3 / 3 ✓ | ለዓለም ወለዓለመ ዓለም |
| 89:6 | Ethiopic Pentateuch | Exod 15:5 | 3 | 1 | 3 / 1 ✓ | ወተሰጥሙ ውስተ ቀላይ |
| 89:28 | Ethiopic Pentateuch | Lev 16:22 | 3 | 1 | 3 / 1 ✓ | በድው ኀበ አልቦ |
| 84:2 | Geʻez Jubilees | Jubilees 25:15 | 3 | 1 | 3 / 1 ✓ | ቡሩክ አንተ እግዚኦ |
| 89:18 | Geʻez Jubilees | Jubilees 22:26 | 3 | 1 | 3 / 1 ✓ | ክልኤሆሙ ኅቡረ ውስተ |
| 83:1 | rest of 1 Enoch | 82:1 | 3 | 1 | 3 / 4 ✓ | ወልድየ ማቱሳላ ኵሎ |
| 83:11 | rest of 1 Enoch | 78:5 | 3 | 1 | 3 / 1 ✓ | ዲበ ገጸ ሰማይ |
| 84:1 | rest of 1 Enoch | 64:2 | 3 | 1 | 3 / 1 ✓ | ለውሉደ ሰብእ ከመ |
| 84:2 | rest of 1 Enoch | 71:15 71:16 82:7 | 3 | 3 | 3 / 2 ✓ 3 / 2 ✓ 3 / 1 ✓ | ለዓለም ወለዓለመ ዓለም |
| 90:24 | rest of 1 Enoch | 54:2 | 3 | 1 | 3 / 1 ✓ | ወወደይዎሙ ውስተ ዕሙቅ |
Every one of these is a formula or an accident: for ever and ever and blessed are you, O Lord (84:2); to speak with it (84:1, with Deuteronomy 11:19); sank into the deep (89:6, with the Red Sea); a wilderness where there is no (89:28, with the scapegoat); the two of them together into (89:18, Jubilees). Against the rest of 1 Enoch (outside 83–90) the deepest runs are three words: Enoch’s address my son Methuselah (83:1, with the Astronomical Book’s 82:1), on the face of the heaven (83:11), the children of men, that (84:1), the doxology again (84:2) and cast them into the deep (90:24). No verse of the section shares four consecutive words with any Geʻez row held here outside 83–90. Inside the section, the vision repeats itself further: each of its 159 rows set against the other 158, 15 share no two words, and the deepest run is 2 for 100, 3 for 29, 4 for 11, 5 for 4 — 15 rows reach four or five. The two fives are refrains: እለ ኀፍረቶሙ ከመ ኀፍረተ አፍራስ, whose privy members were like those of horses (88:3 with 90:21), and አራዊተ ገዳም ወኵሉ አዕዋፈ ሰማይ, the beasts of the field and all the birds of heaven (90:33 with 90:37). The page’s counter-examples are the three in the codex: 84:2, 89:6 and 89:28.
The doublets of 90:13–18.
Charles prints 90:13–15 and 90:16–18 side by side as doublets. Measured pair by pair in the Geʻez: 90:13 and 90:16 share 2 words (ከመ ፡ ይቀጥቅጥዎ, to break), 90:14 and 90:17 share 1, and 90:15 and 90:18 share 4 (ወርኢኩ ፡ እስከ ፡ መጽአ ፡ ኀቤሆሙ, and I saw until he came to them). From 90:18’s side, its deepest partners in the whole book are 90:15, 90:19 (run 4, band 2). Two of the three pairs share almost nothing word for word: what makes them doublets, on Charles’s reading, is the scene, not the wording.
3. Three witnesses at once: 89:42–48.
Only here in these chapters do Greek and Geʻez overlap for whole verses, and at 89:43–44 the Aramaic joins them. Elsewhere the Greek is the Oxyrhynchus scraps of 85:10–86:2, 87:1–3, broken words only; at 86:1–2 the Aramaic of 4Q207 survives beside them too. The Aramaic is never run against the others; what it preserves is set beside them.
| verse | Greek (Vat. gr. 1809) | Aramaic (preserved) | Geʻez (Dillmann) | Charles’s English — and his sign |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 89:42 | ἤγειρεν ὁ κύριος τῶν προβάτων κριὸν ἕνα the Lord of the sheep raised one ram | — | ካልእ ፡ በግዕ ፡ [ እግዚአ ፡ አባግዕ ፡ ] another sheep [Lord of the sheep] | “raised up [another sheep] a ram” — brackets |
| 89:43 | ἀπώλεσεν ὕας πολλούς many boars | חזירין שגיאי· many boars | ለኵሎሙ ፡ አኅጐሎሙ destroyed them all | “†all†” — daggers |
| 89:44 | ἀφῆκεν τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ left his way | בארח in a way | ዘኀደገ ፡ ስብሐቶ forsook his glory | “†forsook its glory†” — daggers; till in thick type |
| 89:45 | ἄρνα ἕτερον another lamb | — | ካልእ ፡ በግዕ another sheep | “another lamb” — thick type |
| 89:48 | ἀφηγήσατο τῶν προβάτων led the sheep | — | ለአባግዕ ፡ ንኡሳን the little sheep | “led the [little] sheep” — brackets |
At 89:43 the Greek and the Aramaic both say many; the Geʻez says all. At 89:44 the Greek has a word for way twice and the leather has one; the Geʻez has glory and no way. And Charles’s signs crowd where the Greek survives: 5 of the 8 Vatican verses carry a bracket, a dagger or thick type in his English (89:42, 89:43, 89:44, 89:45, 89:48), against 15 of the other 151 verses of 83–90 in the transcription (at least 17 on Charles’s 1912 pages, which also mark 86:3 and 90:1; Stage 5); 3 of the 12 thick-type spans the transcription records in these chapters fall in the eight Greek verses. Where the Greek survives, Charles’s English carries his signs. The Qumran Aramaic, found long after his edition, does not draw them: of its 32 verses outside the Vatican excerpt, 2 carry one (86:3, 89:31). The two numbers that do not add up fall where no placed Greek or Aramaic of the number survives. Charles’s note on the excerpt: the words [Ἑξῆς δὲ τούτοις γέγραπται ὅτι] between 89:46 and 47, with the [φησίν] of 89:47, show, he says, that the collector of these Greek excerpts did not have the whole Enoch before him (So Gildemeister).
4. The Vatican Greek against the Greek Old and New Testaments.
Normalisation: grk_seq_cmp — accents, breathings and iota subscripts dropped, lower case, final sigma folded, apostrophes stripped and elided forms written out in full (met’ as meta), and MorphGNT’s own spelling equivalences folded (ek/ex, ou/ouk/ouch, movable nu), in every corpus alike — the shelf’s standing Greek convention; unigram fallback on, so 1 means a single shared word and 0 none.
Against the 7,927 SBLGNT verses: 1 reaches 4, 4 reach 3, 3 reach 2. Against the 30,348 CATSS units: 1 reaches 5, 4 reach 4, 2 reach 3, 1 reaches 2. Against the 1,469 units of 1–2 Kingdoms alone — the books that tell Samuel, Saul and David — 1 reaches 4, 5 reach 3, 2 reach 2.
The Greek of the rams — Saul and David, on Charles’s key — reaches the books that tell Saul and David’s story no deeper than four words, and those four are a formula: τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ, his way, and, which meets 1 Kingdoms 26:25 (εἰς τὴν ὁδὸν αὐτοῦ καὶ, David going on his way; from its side, its deepest partner in the held 1 Enoch Greek is this verse, run 4, band 1) at band 1 inside 1–2 Kingdoms but band 10 in the whole Greek Old Testament. The deepest Greek runs of all are outside the story: five with Judges 9:40 (the codex), four with Exodus 1:7 at 89:49 (ηὐξήθησαν καὶ ἐπληθύνθησαν καὶ, Israel multiplying in Egypt; band 1), four with 2 Chronicles 9:8 at 89:45 (τοῦ στῆσαι αὐτὸν εἰς; band 1). From the other side each of those verses finds its deepest 1 Enoch partner in the Vatican excerpt (Judges 9:40: run 5, band 1; Exodus 1:7: 4, band 1; 2 Chronicles 9:8: 4, band 1) — among the held Greek of 1 Enoch, 400 rows.
The New Testament’s deepest is a counter-example. οἱ κύνες καὶ οἱ ἀλώπεκες and Revelation 22:15, ἔξω οἱ κύνες καὶ οἱ φάρμακοι, share the dogs and the: run 4, band 1 among the NT verses. From Revelation 22:15’s side, its deepest Greek Old Testament run is 3 (band 3), and its deepest in the held 1 Enoch Greek is this verse (4, band 1). A local maximum, and an accident: Charles’s dogs are Philistines (‘these are the Philistines’), Revelation’s are outside the city.
All eight Greek verses — the deepest partner on each side, with its tie band (click to open)
| Vat. gr. 1809 | NT run / band · partner | Greek OT run / band · partner | 1–2 Kingdoms only: run / band |
|---|---|---|---|
| 89:42 | 3 / 4 · Jn 10:12 Jn 10:26 + 2 more | 3 / 25 · 1/3Kgs 20:19 1/3Kgs 22:38 + 23 more | 3 / 1 |
| 89:43 | 2 / 490 · 1Co 10:5 1Co 11:12 + 488 more | 3 / 3 · 1Mac 12:45 Dan 7:8 + 1 more | 2 / 125 |
| 89:44 | 3 / 6 · Ac 8:39 Jn 10:3 + 4 more | 4 / 10 · 1Sam/K 26:25 Isa 2:3 + 8 more | 4 / 1 |
| 89:45 | 3 / 10 · 1Co 6:13 1Co 9:14 + 8 more | 4 / 1 · 2Chr 9:8 | 3 / 5 |
| 89:46 | 3 / 14 · Ac 10:3 Ac 12:20 + 12 more | 4 / 3 · 1/3Kgs 20:5 1Chr 11:6 + 1 more | 3 / 14 |
| 89:47 | 2 / 323 · 1Co 11:12 1Co 12:12 + 321 more | 5 / 2 · JudgA 9:40 JudgB 9:40 | 3 / 2 |
| 89:48 | 2 / 291 · 1Co 11:12 1Co 12:12 + 289 more | 2 / 835 · 1/3Kgs 10:13 1/3Kgs 11:1 + 833 more | 2 / 67 |
| 89:49 | 4 / 1 · Re 22:15 | 4 / 1 · Exod 1:7 | 3 / 16 |
The New Testament — named, never run:
- Jude 14 — ἕβδομος ἀπὸ Ἀδὰμ Ἑνὼχ, Enoch, the seventh from Adam (gloss), the only SBLGNT verse with the phrase. Jude’s text introduces the words that follow as Enoch’s prophecy; they correspond to 1 Enoch 1:9, which the first page of this series measures. That is what Jude’s text does; this page claims nothing beyond it, and nothing in 83–90 is named by Jude.
- John 10:11 — ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλὸς, the good shepherd, beside seventy shepherds who destroy more than they are commanded. Named beside, not run: there is no Greek of 89:59–90:25.
- Revelation 20:12 — βιβλία ἠνοίχθησαν, books were opened, beside 90:20, where the sealed books are opened before the Lord of the sheep on his throne (Geʻez only).
- Revelation 5:6 — a Lamb with seven horns, named here because Charles’s English of 90:38 has a lamb with great horns. The Geʻez there says word, not lamb; and the Vatican Greek’s word for lamb at 89:45, arēn, stands in the SBLGNT in one verse (Lk 10:3); Revelation’s word is arnion, in 28 SBLGNT verses, 27 of them in Revelation. Facts beside a reader’s association; no line drawn.
It settles what the Geʻez prints at five places where Charles’s English or another witness reads otherwise: 87:2 one, 89:43 all, 89:45 sheep, 90:1 thirty-seven, 90:38 word. It settles that the section’s own numbers balance only with Charles’s choices, and that no verse of it shares three Geʻez words with the Ethiopic Genesis — a threshold, not a distance: at two words it does not stand apart.
It does not settle why. Not which manuscript reading is original, not whether 37 is a copyist’s slip or an author’s, not who the animals are, not when the chapters were written. Those are questions for evidence this disk does not hold.
What this page could not check, what it found in the files, and where it is weakest.
This section is long on purpose. The page rests on one digitised Geʻez text, one English translation with its editor’s choices, eight Greek verses and a few lines of leather; the reader should know exactly where that leaves it.
⚠️ Found in the files while building this page — reported, not fixed:
- Charles’s thick type at 90:1 is missing from the transcription. His 1912 page 204 prints thirty-five with five in thick type; the sacred-texts transcription, and so the shelf’s list of thick-type spans, has none there. Other losses of the same kind cannot be ruled out.
- 86:3: the brackets are not the page’s. The 1912 page prints [amongst them] in full square brackets (Charles’s sign for an interpolation); the transcription and the shelf’s file have the Greek-only half-brackets. 86:3 is not quoted on this page.
- 89:47: one word split in two. The digitisation reads la-ḥa · rge where Dillmann’s page 67 prints one word, la-ḥarge. The count of ḥarge rows above allows for the split; the word screens see two forms there.
- The archive.org scan of Dillmann carries duplicate leaves (pages 68 and 69 each appear twice); the image readings file names the leaf actually read.
- The OCP text of 89:47 lacks the excerptor’s words that Charles’s 1912 page prints in square brackets; this page prints those words from Charles’s page, not from OCP.
- Signs that do not pair at 83:11, 90:31 (one dagger at 90:31, three at 83:11): neither verse is quoted.
⚠️ What this page could NOT check:
- The Ethiopic manuscripts. Every Geʻez reading here is Dillmann’s printed text (from five manuscripts, by his title) or the Ethiopian church’s printed text, held for measurement only. Charles’s reports of his α and β groups are reported as his; the manuscripts themselves are not held.
- The Greek and Aramaic of the two numbers that fail. No Greek or Aramaic of 87:2’s number or of 90:1 is placed on this disk (97 smaller Qumran pieces are unplaced): the Oxyrhynchus scrap of 87:2 breaks off before it, and no Qumran piece is placed at 90.
- The commentaries. Tiller (1993), Nickelsburg (2001), Olson (2013), Knibb (1978), Black (1985) and Milik (1976) are not held and were not consulted. Charles’s identifications of the animals, his date and his Judas Maccabeus are his (1912), and other readings exist that this page cannot weigh.
- Barnabas 16:5, which Charles says refers to 89:56, is not held. The Greek of the Testament of Joseph is held only as page images of Charles’s 1908 edition and was not read for this page; its Armenian is not held — only Charles’s English.
- The Aramaic beyond what is preserved. Restored letters are never counted, and the placement of each piece is by reading, not by a printed edition (the transcription’s provenance names Milik 1976 and DJD 36; neither is held or consulted).
⚠️ Where this page is weakest:
- The section comparison is a threshold with a small margin. No verse of the Dream Visions reaches three words with the Ethiopic Genesis; the other four sections reach three in four to eight verses each, and at two words the Dream Visions sit among the rest. A different normalisation or another edition of either text could close that gap.
- The audit rests on reading 89:72’s twelve hours as the first period of shepherds. Charles reads it so, and 90:5’s fifty-eight agrees; the text does not say twelve shepherds there.
- The English is Charles’s. Where the codex sets his English beside Dillmann’s Geʻez, the two rest on different texts: Charles translated from his own Ethiopic text and manuscripts.
- The page images were read by eye, at the resolution archive.org serves; each reading is recorded with its leaf so that anyone can look again.
Commentaries & studies:
- R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch, or 1 Enoch (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1912); English reprinted, SPCK, 1917.
- A. Dillmann, Liber Henoch aethiopice, ad quinque codicum fidem editus (Leipzig: Vogel, 1851); digitised by M. Jerabek (1995) and R. HaCohen (2011).
- A. Dillmann, Veteris Testamenti Aethiopici Tomus Primus, sive Octateuchus Aethiopicus (Leipzig, 1853–55).
- R. H. Charles, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (London, 1908; SPCK, 1917).
- The Online Critical Pseudepigrapha (I. W. Scott et al.), 1 Enoch — Vat. gr. 1809 after A. Mai (1844); P.Oxy. 2069 after A. S. Hunt (1927); CC BY 4.0.
- Scripta Qumranica Electronica, 4Q204–207 — transcription by R. G. Kratz, I. Kottsieper and A. Steudel after the Qumran-Wörterbuch (Göttingen) and M. Abegg, CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Tiller (1993); Nickelsburg (2001); Olson (2013); Michael A. Knibb, The Ethiopic Book of Enoch (1978); J. T. Milik, The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumrân Cave 4 (1976). Listed for the reader; none consulted.
Count what can be counted; let a text check itself.
Name what you learned, why it matters, and one concrete response.
What should we carry away — and do?
- A text can audit itself. The Dream Visions give their own totals, and the totals catch two numbers that do not fit. Before you build on a number in an old text, look for the verse that adds it up.
- A translation carries choices. Charles’s English balances every count, and only one of his three choices is marked in his text; the other two stand in his notes. Read the notes, not only the text.
- The church’s view, labelled as such: Pleasant Springs confesses Jesus as the good shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11) and the Lamb who was slain (Revelation 5:6). 1 Enoch’s seventy shepherds and its white bull are a Second-Temple witness to how Israel’s history was being read; they do not decide what Scripture means, and this page does not use them to.
- One concrete response. Read Ezekiel 34:1–16 and John 10:1–18 side by side this week, and notice what each says the shepherds of the flock owe it.
1 Enoch 90:5 · to share
English (Charles) · Geʻez (Dillmann)DILLMANN 90:5 ፳ወ፫ኖላውያን ፡ ወፈጸሙ ፡ በበጊዜሆሙ ፡ ፶ወ፰ጊዜያተ — twenty-three shepherds, and they completed their periods, fifty-eight times
Every Deep Research page traces its passage across the whole sweep — the Old Testament, the Second-Temple world between the testaments (historical witnesses, not Scripture), and the New Testament. Follow the thread:
Pleasant Springs Church — Deep Research
Research method after Michael S. Heiser’s Bible Research Method (examine dictionaries → ancient literature → important words → textual connections → academic publications → share), with the Pleasant Springs “Author & Audience” foundation. Scripture set in the Hebrew, the Greek editions named on each page and the ESV (Old Testament), and the Greek New Testament and the ESV (New Testament), per the practice of Pleasant Springs Church. ⚠️ Status: 1 Enoch is not Scripture for Pleasant Springs and not deuterocanonical; it is filed under Pseudepigrapha & Second Temple and read as a witness. English: R. H. Charles, The Book of Enoch (Oxford, 1912; SPCK reprint 1917), public domain; transcription John Bruno Hare, sacred-texts.com (2004), corrected against scans of the 1912 and 1917 printings — quoted verbatim; R. H. Charles, The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs (1908; SPCK 1917), public domain. Geʻez: A. Dillmann, Liber Henoch aethiopice (1851); digitised by M. Jerabek (Library of Ethiopian Texts, Prague, 1995) and R. HaCohen — used under their non-commercial permission; short passages only. Ethiopic Exodus and Leviticus: Dillmann, Octateuchus Aethiopicus (1853–55); digitised by Ran HaCohen; Beta maṣāḥəft, CC BY-SA 4.0. Geʻez Jubilees: VanderKam’s critical text (1989), digitised by Ran HaCohen — measured, never printed. Aramaic: Qumran 4Q204–207, Scripta Qumranica Electronica, CC BY-SA 4.0, © R. G. Kratz, I. Kottsieper, A. Steudel, after the Qumran-Wörterbuch; preserved letters only, restored letters shown as dots. Greek of 1 Enoch: Vat. gr. 1809 (ed. Mai 1844) and P.Oxy. 2069 (ed. Hunt 1927), as encoded by the Online Critical Pseudepigrapha (I. W. Scott et al.), CC BY 4.0. Other Greek: the CATSS Septuagint and the SBLGNT. Page images: Dillmann 1851 and Charles 1912, archive.org. No ESV verse is printed on this page; italic glosses are the page’s own. Direction of influence is nowhere asserted.
Scripture quotations marked ESV are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. ESV Text Edition: 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license, and the ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language. www.esv.org
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