Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Signification of the Proper Names, Etc;, Occurring in the Book of Enoch, From the Hebrew and Chaldee Languages
Archbishop Laurence, the learned translator of the Book of Enoch into English from the Ethiopian ms. Brought to this country by Bruce, favours (in his Dissertation on this work prefixed to his translation) the opinion of its having been originally written in Hebrew or Chaldee, which he supports by his quotations from Scaliger, and from a passage in the Cabbalistic book called the Zohar, in which direct references occur to a Book of Enoch. After which he adds, These allusions of the Zohar to the repositories of the celestial and terrestial kingdoms, and to the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden shewn to Enoch after his ascent into heaven, are distinctly stated to have been taken from a book entitled the Book of Enoch, and the very same allusions will be found immediately detailed between Chaps. Xvi. And xxxvii. Of the present version. The reference to the tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden occurs in Chap. Xxxi. Now the authors of the Ca balistical remains wrote or conveyed down their recondite doctrines in Chaldee. Scarcely therefore, I apprehend, will it be questioned that the copy of the Book of Enoch which they cited was written either in that language or in Hebrew, for they appear to have regarded it as a genuine work of him whose name it bore, and not as the spurious pro duction of a later age. Had they been solely acquainted with the Greek copy, which is very improbable, they never could have con templated it as an original; but they certainly seem to invest that to which they referred with this high and distinguished character. The conclusion is obvious.
The learned Sylvestre de Sacy* does perhaps too precipitately infer.
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