Manuscript Tradition
2 Enoch has survived in more than twenty Slavonic manuscripts and fragments dated from 14th to 18th centuries CE. These Slavonic materials did not circulate independently but were included into collections that often rearranged, abbreviated, or expanded them. Typically, Jewish pseudepigraphical texts in Slavic milieux were transmitted as part of larger historiographical, moral, and liturgical codexes and compendiums where ideologically marginal and mainstream materials were mixed with each other.
2 Enoch exists in longer and shorter recensions. The first editors considered original the longer version, while since 1921 Schmidt and many authors challenged this theory considering more ancient the shorter recension. Vaillant in 1952 showed that the additional parts found only in the longer version use more recent Slavonic terms. Other scholars suggest that both of them preserve original material and the existence of three or even four recensions.
Two different ways to numbering verses and chapters are used for 2 Enoch: the more widely accepted is Popov's one in 73 chapters, while De Santos Otero proposed a division in 24 chapters.
The best family of manuscripts are copies of the compilation of rearranged materials from chs. 40–65 from a 14th century judicial codex "The Just Balance" ("Merilo Pravednoe"). The main manuscripts of the longer version are R, J and P. The main manuscripts of the shorter version are U, B, V, N. See also references.
Most scholars believe that the Slavonic version was translated from one or more Greek lost versions, since the text attests to some traditions that make sense only in the Greek language, for example a tradition found in 2 Enoch 30 that derives Adam’s name from the Greek designations of the four corners of the earth. The Semitisms, such as the words Ophanim, Raqia Arabot, and others found in various parts of the text, point to the possibility of the Semitic Vorlage behind the Greek version.
In 2009, four fragments from chapters 36-42 in Coptic have been identified. They follow the short recension and are related to manuscript U.
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