ALLISIOXS IX SACKKP BOOKS OF T I f K K AST. 



223 



final editor alone, we ought to acknowledge that he has woven 

 it in so deftly that we could not take it out without dis- 

 membering, — and mangling,. — the whole. 



In Genesis, the Garden of Eden contained two trees, — the 

 Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Kvil. 



But Pseudo-Enoch describes two Gardens of Righteousness, 

 placed symmetrically in the north;* one to the west, the other 

 to the east ; one containing the Tree of Life, the other the Tree 

 of Knowledge ; and each possessing seven holy mountains, 

 unless, for the descriptions are not quite clear, the seven 

 mountains are put as representing seven holy stars which sweep 

 above both Gardens, in their perpetual circuit round the 

 northern pole of the heavens. This would correspond to the 

 " seven burning mountains," which were seven wicked stars 

 imprisoned in the abyss.f 



It will be evident from the foregoing that a Graaco-Magian 

 in Hue nee permeates the whole Book of Enoch. I do not think 

 it was the only influence ; I see traces here and there of what 

 I believe to be purely Greek tradition, but I am not conversant 

 enough with Greek literature to track them to their sources. 

 But this combination of Greek and Magian thought took its 

 rise under King Valkash of Parthia, and the Bundahi-s was its 

 product near the middle of the first century of our era. This 

 Book of Enoch must then be later than the Bundahis; how 

 much later, I do not know, but if it were the contemporary of 

 the Bundahis it would still be too late to have done the work 

 ascribed to it, for ten years after our Lord's crucifixion it could 

 not have influenced His teaching and His thought. It took 

 its rise, moreover, in a region remote from Palestine, in Parthia 

 or Media, and throughout the whole book I cannot find any 

 influence that is distinctly Palestinian in its origin. 



But it will be urged that St. Jucle quoted from it : the quota- 

 tion is undeniable. And Chapters I-V( which include that quoted 

 prophecy) depend for their date to some extent on another 

 apocryphal book, whose date — it is averred — is known. 



* It is interesting to note that this curious superstition that the 

 Garden of Eden was placed at the North Pole of the earth, still lingers 

 among ourselves at the present day. In the last few years, I have come 

 across the idea in the writings of three men of learning, belonging 

 respectively to England, the United States and Canada. I think all 

 would have been astonished if they had known by what route that idea 

 had come to them. 



t For these details, compare Eth. En., chapters xxv, 4 ; lx, 8 ; lxi, 4 

 and 12 ; lxv, 2 ; lxx, 3-4 ; xviii, 12-14 (for the seven burning mountains 

 which were seven wicked stars) ; xxxii, 1-3. 



