1 Enoch (Ethiopic Text)

the owners of ab bb These subscripts likely refer to specific private collections or sub-classifications of manuscripts. most kindly put these manuscripts at my service for the space of two years, while a b γ Greek letter gamma. were always at hand for consultation in the Bodleian The main research library of the University of Oxford., to which γ had been lent for that purpose by the Munich Library. Of the Abbadian manuscripts r s v w I made collations A "collation" is a line-by-line comparison of different manuscripts to note variations in the text. on a number of test passages, while at Abbadia. These readings are appended in foot-notes on these manuscripts in the following list, and are sufficient to show the affinities Family relationships or similarities between different copies of the text. of these manuscripts amongst manuscripts of the second class. Finally, as regards c d e x I have used Dillmann's collation of c d e and a photograph of x which I procured from the Vatican. Thus for the construction of the present text I have had at my service photographs of fourteen manuscripts g g¹ m q t u, the constant use of the five manuscripts a b γ ab bb, Dillmann's collations of c d e, Flemming's collation of p (which I have used sparingly)—in all twenty-three manuscripts. Four other manuscripts r s v w I have collated sufficiently to determine their character. Of the remaining manuscript z (for z may be ignored as a transcript of b) it is enough that we have Flemming's assurance that it is closely related to a b c d e.

The division of Enoch into chapters was made apparently in the sixteenth century. The division into 108 chapters was made by Dillmann without manuscript authority, but as it has been followed by all subsequent scholars it is here adopted for the sake of convenience. The above division is indeed found in one manuscript, i. e. h, but this manuscript was unknown to Dillmann when he made his text. Moreover, the chapters in h vary frequently in length from those in Dillmann's text.

The full list of the manuscripts is as follows:—
a. Bodley, No. 4. Large quarto. 40 folios. 3 columns. 105 chapters. Latter half of 18th century. Enoch only.1
b. Bodley, No. 5. Large quarto. 141 folios. 3 columns. 18th century (?). Enoch (98 chapters), Job, Isaiah, 12 Minor Prophets, Proverbs, Wisdom, Ecclesiastes, Canticles Also known as the Song of Solomon., Daniel.
c. Frankfort manuscript Rüpp. II. 1. 34 x 30 cm. 181 folios. 3 columns. 18th century. In several hands. Enoch (98 chapters), Job, Octateuch The first eight books of the Old Testament..

1 Laurence issued a transcript of this manuscript in 1838. The transcription is somewhat faulty in the earlier chapters. The errors are, as a rule, easy to correct, but, even after the rejection of the obvious errors of the press, a considerable number remains, and the most of these have been reproduced in Dillmann's Critical Apparatus original: "Apparatus Criticus"; the section of a scholarly edition listing variant readings from different manuscripts., and from Dillmann's have passed over into Flemming's text of 1901. In chapters v-x these errors are distributed as follows: one in v. 3; viii. 3; x. 1: three in vii. 1, 2, 5: four in vi. 1, 4, 7 (twice original: "bis").