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In:A (Re)turn to the Source Text
Edited by Malin Carlström and Richard Pleijel
[Benjamins Translation Library 169] 2026
► pp. 199–228

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Where does the source text lie?

Different strategies on editing and translating First Enoch, 1850–2018

 | Åbo Akademi University
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Available under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 20 February 2026
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https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.169.07tan
Abstract
In this chapter, I survey modern Western editions and translations of an ancient Jewish text, called First Enoch, surviving in Aramaic, Greek, and Ge’ez. After introducing the work, I analyze the editions and translations regarding how they deal with possible displacements of a text or later interpolations in the text, and how they interact with greatly differing textual traditions. Some of the sources edit and translate diplomatically one text of a work, whereas many conflate different textual traditions and reconstruct a hypothetical source text. Especially in the latter case, the de facto source text has changed significantly in 168 years, often mirroring the ongoing scholarly discussions. The translator always plays a crucial role in constructing the source text.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Introducing First Enoch
  • 3.Problems of defining the source text of First Enoch
  • 4.Editing and translating the Ethiopic Enoch
  • 5.Editing and translating the reconstructed First Enoch
  • 6.Indirect translations
  • 7.Case studies
    • 7.1Displaced “Apocalypse of Weeks” and the beginning of “the Epistle of Enoch” (1 En 91–93)
    • 7.2Possible interpolations in 1 En 91–93
    • 7.3Translating Ge’ez/Greek/Aramaic: Was the World Changed? (1 En 8:1)
  • 8.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
References (63)
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