214 



MRS. WALTER MAUNDER, ON ASTRONOMICAL 



a matter of fact, the words quoted are the last sentence of the open- 

 ing paragraph of the Book of Enoch. It is no mere illustration, no 

 coincidence of ideas. ' Enoch ' is quoted by name as inspired 

 prophecy. This famous passage is very far from being the only 

 trace of the influence of Enoch upon the New Testament, but it is the 

 clearest and best known." 



Professor Burkitt voices the (almost) unanimous opinion that 

 St. Jude quoted from the Book of Enoch, and, be it noted, from 

 the actual Book of Enoch, — Ethiopic Enoch — which we have in 

 our hands now. It is unanimously agreed that Ethiopic Enoch 

 is a collection of writings by various authors, but if so the 

 compiler used discrimination in the collecting ; he chose here and 

 there what fitted in with his purpose, and Ethiopic Enoch has a 

 certain unity. It is alleged that it was this same unity which 

 was in existence and influenced the teaching and doctrine of our 

 Lord and His Apostles, that it was this book as we have it now 

 that received this imprimatur in the Canon of New Testament 

 Scriptures from the pen of St. Jude. 



Ethiopic Enoch is an apocalypse, that is, it is a " revelation 

 .... to shew .... things which must shortly come to pass " ; 

 and to this, all of its five sections (into which Dr. Charles divides 

 it) conform, either fully or in some measure. If it was written 

 by a Jew; — when and where did he live, and what was his 

 motive in compiling it ? 



The compiler's motive is clear. He recognized that the 

 Jewish nation had suffered terribly. He also recognized that it 

 had, as a nation, deserved punishment for its sins, but he felt 

 that the sufferings it had actually experienced greatly out- 

 weighed the punishment which was justly due to it, and the 

 purpose of his book is to explain the apparent anomaly. 



He finds it here. God had placed the care of the nation in 

 the hands of a number of angelic spirits who had been false to 

 their trust, had led the nation into evil, and had destroyed them 

 more than their commission allowed. Eor his argument he 

 adduced the case of the fallen angels in the days before the 

 Elood. These had been appointed to be the Watchers over 

 mankind, but they had led men astray and ruined them. It was 

 his belief also that the spirits controlling the heavenly bodies 

 had sinned in the like manner, for in his view, sun, moon and 

 stars did not perform their revolutions according to the laws 

 which God must have laid down.* 



* " I saw there seven stars like great burning mountains, and to me, 

 when I inquired regarding them, 14. The angel said : ' This place is 



