Om en opublicerad arameisk kopia av Enoks Bok

Det finns troligen en komplett arameisk, över 2000 år gammal, avskrift av Enoks bok, både på mikrofilm och, således, också bevarad som skriftrulle, undangömd någonstans.

Här är vad jag har hittat på nätet om detta.

Berättelsen börjar 1990, under Kuwaitkrisen, då oron för ett storkrig i mellanöstern gjorde att personer som satt på värdefulla antikviteter ville sälja dessa.


"The Enoch microfilm"

Från en intervju 1994 i Biblical Archeology Review, med John Strugnell, en av DSS-chefredaktörerna. Intervjun handlar om händelser som skall ha skett 1990.

Hershel Shanks: There’s this strange story that’s been in the papers, that at one point two prostitutes, one Jewish and one Arab, came to you at the École Biblique [the French School in Jerusalem] and, I believe, took you to a field outside of Bethlehem where they removed from their private parts microfilms of Dead Sea Scrolls, one of them being the complete book of Enoch. Is that true?
John Strugnell: [laughs] Well, there are a lot of mixed elements, bits of which are true, but bits of which are false.
HS: Could you tell us the story?
JS: There was a whore. [Removing colorful accretions, there were women messengers of uncertain profession who showed me a microfilm - not at the École Biblique nor even in Jerusalem.] Now the incident in the field outside Bethlehem belongs to a completely different story.
[...]
JS: ... And then I, myself, saw one - the Enoch microfilm; but I must save that story for my memoirs.
HS: This is the story about the prostitute.
JS: Yes. So I wouldn’t be surprised if there were five other manuscripts from Cave 11 sometime to be found in the near future. I wouldn’t be overwhelmed if there were seven or eight. If none ever came to light, I would wonder who on earth had been having these hallucinations, or why they are being held back.
HS: Are you currently working on trying to purchase or acquire these scrolls?
JS: Yes, we’ve got people interested in it. But after the big upheaval in Kuwait, things settled down, and the urgency of trying to get rid of this material evaporated.
HS: You tried to acquire it during the Kuwait crisis?
JS: That was when it was shown to me.
HS: And how did you communicate with the owner? Did you meet him?
JS: Yes.
[...]
HS: You’re still working on it?
JS: Oh, yes. And there are two or three serious projected buyers. But as I said, to me the most important thing is not just that there are projected buyers of that one manuscript, but the fact that it’s highly likely that there should be three or four others. -

Från "An Interview with John Strugnell", juli/aug 1994.
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Från ett kristet forum på nätet kommer ett utdrag ur en bok, utgiven 1992, som berättar mer om bakgrunden till det hela.


"A complete copy of Enoch in Aramaic has already been found"

Avi Katzman, in Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls, on p. 262, reports a complete copy of Enoch in Aramaic has already been found.

"Regarding the scrolls, Strugnell claims at least four other scrolls have been found that have not yet come to light: 'I've seen, with my own eyes, two.' One of the two is a complete copy of the book of Enoch. According to Strugnell, Israeli archaeologist Yigael Yadin is the reason these scrolls have still not come into scholarly hands. After the Six-Day War, Yadin confiscated the famous Temple Scroll from a Bethlehem antiquities dealer known as Kando. Yadin paid Kando $250,000, according to Strugnell (according to Yadin, the sum was $105,000), to encourage anyone else with scroll materials to come forward. But this was not enough, says Strugnell: 'Yadin gave Kando two hundred fifty thousand dollars where we'd offered Kando one million five weeks earlier. When the owners of the manuscripts heard that, they just crossed the Jordan River.' These scrolls, like the Temple Scroll, came from Cave 11 at Qumran, according to Strugnell. The manuscripts are now 'somewhere in Jordan. Various people own them. Several of them have been sold to big bankers. They're investments for these people. There's no point in forcing a sale. If they really need cash — as one seems to now — I have the money.'

"As for the other two scrolls — the ones Strugnell has not seen — '[Lankester] Harding [the director of Jordan's Department of Antiquities] on his death bed told me he'd seen three, only one of which I've seen — so that makes four.'

"Strugnell is not concerned that the scrolls may deteriorate before scholars can look at them: 'They're all being kept very carefully; no one need worry about them. They're a better investment than anything on the Israeli or the New York stock exchanges,' he added."

In this light consider the following from Michael Wise, in A New Translation - The Dead Sead Scrolls, p. 279, "No trace of the Parables of Enoch has been discovered at Qumran, and it is widely considered today to be a composition of the later first century C.E. If a pre-Christian copy of the Parables were ever discovered, it would create a sensation, since it is the only text besides the Christian Gospels that uses the title 'Son of Man' for the heavenly Savior of Israel."

(sept 2008)
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Efter det var det tydligen tyst i några år om saken, och så 1999 kommer det nya uppgifter, och rykten, om en skriftrulle som "liknar" innehållet i Enoks bok. Här handlar det uppenbarligen om en annan skrift än Enoks bok, men dock väldigt närbesläktad, i samma tradition, och därför mycket troligt ur samma samling, och möjligen, ägare, som den gömda arameiska enoksrullen.


"The Angelscroll"

27 Sept 1999 - statement by Stephen J Pfann on "the Angel" Scroll in the Jerusalem Report.

"Four months ago I was approached by a senior writer from the Jerusalem Report, Netty Gross, and was asked if I would help verify the existence of a Dead Sea Scroll manuscript which had not been published previously.
I was aware of a story, known by other scholars, that there was at least one rather well-preserved scroll which had made its way to Europe and which was similar to the Book of Enoch or Jubilees. This may be identified as the source of a scroll fragment examined by Prof. John Strugnell sometime in 1967-1968 which he described elsewhere as something "resembling the Book of Enoch".
The scroll discovery at hand was already known at least as early as 1974 and may have actually been discovered in the mid-to-late 1960's. If its authenticity could be verified, its similarity in content to writings of the Enochic tradition would posit this as being either similar to or identical to the elusive scroll of Europe."
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Den nämnda änglarullen är alltså inte densamma som Strugnell såg på microfilm, eftersom det var en fullständig kopia av Enoks bok, och, som det väl framgår av texterna ovan, tiden då han såg den var under Kuwaitkrisen, dvs ~1990-91. Änglarullens innehåll beskrivs närmare på sidan länken pekar på. Av värde här kan vara uppgiften om att en annan skriftrulle skall ha sålts till någon i Europa (bankirerna nämnda av Strugnell?). Det framgår inte helt klart om det är enoksrullen, den som Strugnell sade fanns i Jordanien, eller någon av de andra nämnda, icke namngivna rullarna.

Tyvärr dog Strugnell 2007, och några memoarer har inte kommit ut, så det kommer antagligen ingen mer information därifrån, såvida inte det finns kvarlämnat material som kommer att ges ut postumt. Något mer om Änglarullen har heller inte framkommit.
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Ytterligare några år går, och 2004 händer det något igen. Ett papyrusfragment av Enoks bok har hittats, vilket är ovanligt eftersom de flesta tidigare funna DSS-fragmenten var gjorda av pergament. Det innebär alltså att Enoks bok utgavs på både papyrus och pergament. Det innebär också att antalet av de skilda utgåvor av enoks bok som fanns bland dss ökar. Vilket ju visar dess betydelse (och spridning).

Följande kommer från bloggen Paleojudica, och börjar med ett citat av en uppräkning av alla kända omnämnanden av den eftersökta enoksrullen:


"REGARDING THE NEW ENOCH PAPYRUS FRAGMENT" - Okt 2004

* "P. Ross in Scientific American, vol. 263 no 5 (Nov. 1990) refers to "a nearly complete scroll", but doesn't state if it is of Enoch or another book.
* A. Katzman in Biblical Archeology Review, vol. XVII no. 1 (Jan.-Feb. 1991), p.64,70 mentions a "complete copy of the Book of Enoch".
* H. Shanks interviewing Strugnell in Biblical Archaeology Review, vol. 20 no. 4 (July-Aug. 1994), p. 46-47 mentions "the complete book of Enoch" on microfilm and in a rather mixed up conversation also mentions Cave 11.
* N. Silberman in The Hidden Scrolls: Christianity, Judaism & the War for the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: Putnam and Sons, 1994), p.162 mentions "a complete manuscript of the book of Enoch".
* Pfann in a web article, The Visions of Yeshua Ben Padiah Scroll, (1999) mentions a "rather well preserved scroll ... resembling the book of Enoch". It is not clear if this is the same MS as the other Enoch MS which is mentioned by Shanks as being seen by Strugnell on microfilm, rather than the actual MS."

If the above is representative of Strugnell's Enoch scroll, it is unlikely to be the same as the papyrus fragment of Enoch to be published by the Eshels, as Strugnell's Enoch is complete or nearly compete. [However --- what if the photograph provided to the Eshel's is just a sample, perhaps provided by a seller/vendor to test the market or create anticipation so as to inflate the market? This is of course, just my speculation.].

Prior to seeing the post in PaleoJudaica, I had not heard of this papyrus fragment. It was new to me too.

As for the last reference, follow the link for Stephen Pfann's website on the Ben Padiah (Angel) Scroll. Five years after the partial transcript surfaced, this document - if it exists at all - has not been published or, as far as I know, even shown to a specialist. The mention of the rumor about an Enoch scroll is near the beginning of the "Background" section of the web page.

UPDATE (19 October): Seth Sanders reminds me that he e-mailed the following a few days ago, referring to the same text:

'I assume you recall the excitement over the last "other Qumran manuscript of Enoch", the so-called "Angel Scroll" story of 1999. Like this putative Enoch fragment, it was not presented to scholars to examine. Of course, in that case it was even more dubious because there was not even a photograph. [---] We have not heard anything further about this text. The problem, as you know, is that you or I or any other linguistically trained scholar of Second Temple Judaism could produce such a scroll, given enough Chutzpah and the help of a competent manuscript forger. It could certainly be proven to be genuine (and I hope it is!), but I think the burden of proof is on those arguing for its authenticity.'

I blog, you decide. As usual with these things, the authenticity question really needs to be sorted out in the peer-review journals.

As for forging a scroll fragment like this, it would not be easy to come up with something that would stand up to C-14 dating. But perhaps it could be done."

by Jim Davila
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I boken "The Hidden Scrolls" nämnd ovan finns följande intressanta detalj:

"There are those that will swear to this day (John Strugnell is one of them) that they were shown by bedouin a complete manuscript of the Book of Enoch..."

Påståendet är ganska starkt, och gör att det verkligen är troligt att det finns en bevarad arameisk Enoksrulle. Flera olika personer skall ha fått se den, och den ägs, eller har ägts, av jordanska beduiner*. Antingen finns den fortfarande i deras eller deras släktingars ägo, eller så har den alltså sålts till någon bankir i Europa (en detalj som verkligen kan mana till spekulation, då vi vet vilka sällskap rika bankirer ofta ingår i).

* I en film om DSS framgår det att den beduin som hittade de första rullarna, i grotta 1, är densamme som hittade grotta 11, den grotta där Strugnell säger att enoksboken kom ifrån. Det är också den grottan som givit flera av de bäst bevarade rullarna. Beduinen säger att han och hans vänner sålde rullarna till flera olika personer, bland dem Kando.


I samma blogg följer nu mer info om det nya papyrusfragmentet:


MORE 1 ENOCH FROM THE QUMRAN LIBRARY!

Gabriele Boccaccini e-mails:
A New Fragment of Enoch found at Qumran

"In March 2004 Esther and Hanan Eshel received for publication a photograph of a fragmentary papyrus preserving five lines identifiable as the end of Enoch 8 and the beginning of Enoch 9 (8:4-9:3). The new fragment can be dated approximately to the Hasmonean or the early Herodian era (50-25 BCE) and was undoubtedly found at Qumran. As we cannot identify the cave, we suggest this fragment be labeled XQpapEnoch. Because the only Enochic book written on papyrus is the Book of Giants from Cave 6, 6QpapGiant (=6Q8), which is written in a different semi-cursive later hand, it appears that this fragment is the first to be published from an additional copy of Enoch. The verses in question describe how the angels heard the cries of the people killed as a result of Asa'el's teaching humans to make weaponry. The publication of this new fragment of Enoch is important not only as a witness to an additional manuscript of Enoch found at Qumran, but also because of its contribution to the reconstruction of two Cave 4 manuscripts (4QEna and 4QEnb). Despite their poor preservation, it is possible to read and reconstruct in the three witnesses to the Aramaic a similar, if not identical, text. This version differs from the Greek translation found at Gizeh, which has scribal errors and various omissions. Even though Syncellus' versions also contain corruptions, it appears that the Greek cited by Syncellus is the closest to the Aramaic source. The article which includes the new fragment was submitted for publication in DSD [the journal Dead Sea Discoveries] in the beginning of May 2004. On Oct 11, 2004, the fragment was discussed at the University of Michigan by a panel composed by Profs. Gabriele Boccaccini, James C. VanderKam, Esti Eshel and Hanan Eshel, and will be presented again at Camaldoli during the Third Meeting of the Enoch Seminar (6-10 June 2005)."

Quoted with the permission of Boccaccini and the Eshels. There have been rumors for many years of the existences of another Qumran Aramaic manuscript of 1 Enoch. I wonder if this is it and if there's any more of it out there somewhere.

15 okt 2004.
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Monday, November 22, 2004
NEWS ON THE NEW 1 ENOCH FRAGMENT

Yesterday evening after the Qumran session, Esther and Hanan Eshel gave an impromptu presentation on the new 1 Enoch fragment, whose story broke on PaleoJudaica some time ago. They are calling it XQpapEnoch, since they are confident it comes from a Qumran cave, but they don't know which one, and (unusually for a Qumran scroll and uniquely for a Qumran Enoch manuscript) it's written on papyrus rather than leather. It contains the damaged Aramaic text of 1 Enoch 8:4-9:3, a passage that tells how the archangels looked down from heaven on the corruption of the earth before the Flood, and it allows us to correct one of Milik's reconstructions since the word in question survives on this papyrus. The correct reading or something very close to it was conjectured by Loren Stuckenbruck (of Durham University) some time ago, before this fragment was discovered. (Well done, Loren.)

The fragment belongs to the Kando family. (Kando was an antiquities dealer who brokered the original Dead Sea Scrolls acquistions.) The Enoch papyrus is one of 12 unpublished fragments owned by them. The Eshels have seen infra-red photos of 6 of these. Five are biblical fragments from three already known manuscripts: 4QIsac, 4QGenf, and 8QGen. The other six look like "black corn flakes" and are now on tour in the USA in the From the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Forbidden Book exhibition. The Eshels haven't seen the fragment in person yet but they are confident enough of its authenticity to publish it now. They passed around a photo of the text during the lecture and Moshe Bernstein promptly challenged one of their readings. Scholarship in action.

There are also rumors that another fragment of the same manuscript exists.
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Efter detta tycks det inte ha sagts något mer om enoksrullen.

Det var alltså oroligheter i området som förmådde den dåvande ägaren/upphittaren att söka köpare 1990. Finns rullen kvar i släktens ägo kan samma sak möjligen ske igen, vid någon framtida händelse. Är rullen såld till Europa, blir saken en helt annan. Man kan tänka sig flera skäl till att någon i Europa skulle vilja hindra denna skrift från att nå allmänheten.

Här kunde man komma in på vem som är rullens rätta ägare, och till vilka den är ämnad, men det får jag lämna tills vidare. Den här informationen måste sätta sig först.
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