A T e a c h e r f o r A l l G e n e r a t i o n s

Essays in H o n o r of J a m e s C. VanderKam

Volume Two

Edited by

E r i c F. M a s o n ( g e n e r a l e d i t o r )
Kelley C o b l e n t z B a u t c h ( l e a d v o l u m e e d i t o r )
Angela Kim Harkins
Daniel A. Machiela

V 5 W

B R I L L

LEIDEN . BOSTON
2012
 ENOCH AND JUBILEES IN THE CANON OF THE ETHIOPIAN
ORTHODOX CHURCH*

Leslie Baynes

Traditionally the Ethiopian Orthodox Church has numbered eighty-

one books in its biblical canon. Often, but not always, its canon lists
include 1 Enoch (Ge'ez Henoch) and Jubilees (Ge'ez Kufale), making
it the only community in modern Christendom that holds them in
such high regard. Since these two books are part of the living tradition
of a contemporary religious group, we have a unique opportunity to
investigate how they function in it by speaking with the very people
who use them. This study investigates the Ethiopian concept of canon
and the place and function of 1 Enoch and Jubilees in it as assessed by
scholarly and ecclesiastical works. We also consider the perspectives
of clergy and laity in Ethiopia and the United States in order to illus-
trate, underscore, and contrast the evaluation of these writings with
those of the standard textual sources. 1 This study demonstrates that
the Ethiopian concept of canon differs from western and even other
eastern Christian traditions, and that the primary readers of 1 Enoch
and Jubilees traditionally have been the scholarly elite, as is true of
their readers today. In terms of interpretation, the primary (though
not the only) significance of the two books in Ethiopian thought has
been christological.
It may be helpful to begin with a very brief overview of Enochic
literature and Jubilees and their reception in the early church, both
Western and Eastern. Enochic booklets and Jubilees are ancient Jewish
works. The earliest sections of what became 1 Enoch date to the fourth
century B.C.E.2 Jubilees can be dated more precisely, probably to about

* Jim VanderKam's contributions to the study of 1 Enoch and Jubilees need no

elaboration here. Those of us who follow him are mere Epigoni. It is to lim that many
of us, his students, owe our continued interest in these two books, and it is through
his generous and patient instruction that we are able to study them in Ge'ez. On this
happy occasion, Jim, cheers!
1
I wish to thank the College of Humanities and Public Affairs, Missouri State Uni-
versity,
2
for partial funding to travel to Ethiopia in March 2010.
George W. E. Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1 (Hermeneia; Philadelphia: Fortress, 2001),
1. In contrast to western critical scholarship, "traditional Ethiopian scholarly opinion
800 LESLIE BAYNES

160-150 B.C.E.3 The earliest extant fragments of both, in Aramaic and

Hebrew, respectively, were discovered in the caves of Qumran in the
mid-twentieth century. The yahad at Qumran may have granted Eno-
chic literature and Jubilees the same status as Genesis, although it is
important to note that statements about the "canonicity" of any book
are lacking in the Dead Sea Scrolls.4
While Jubilees' influence in the ancient world was limited, Eno-
chic literature was quite popular at least to the time of Augustine in
the Western Church and somewhat later in the Eastern Church. 5 The
Book of Jude (w. 14-15), for instance, quotes 1 En. 1:9 verbatim and
is familiar with the Watchers story.6 Since Jude would eventually find
a place in the New Testament canon, its citation of Enochic literature
proves important in later disputes about the status of these writings.
The Epistle of Barnabas introduces an allusion to Enoch's works with
the formula "for scripture says (Aeyet yap fj ypacpf))."7 Justin Martyr
uses the Book of the Watchers and to a much lesser extent Jubilees
in his Second Apology; Irenaeus does the same in Against Heresies.6
Tertullian and Origen employ Enochic literature extensively, but both
admit that not everyone holds it in the same esteem as they do. Tertul-
lian launches a spirited defense of the authority of Enoch's work to
counter its naysayers, relying, among other things, on the fact that
Jude used it.9 Origen expresses more ambivalence. As George Nickels-
burg writes, "He considers [the works of Enoch] to be the authentic
products of the patriarch and cites them as Scripture; however, he also
indicates that others in the church do not hold this opinion." Origen
seems content to rest in that ambiguity; he does not defend the writ-

regards Enoch and Job as the first O.T. books to be written, dating En. in 4014 B.C."
Roger W. Cowley, The Traditional Interpretation of the Apocalypse of John in the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church (University of Cambridge Oriental Publications 33; Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 15.
3
James C. VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees (Guides to Apocrypha and Pseude-
pigrapha; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001), 21. Traditional Ethiopian schol-
arship takes the Mosaic context of Jubilees at face value.
4
See VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees, 7; cf. James C. VanderKam, The Dead Sea
Scrolls Today (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 153-156; James C. VanderKam and
Peter Flint, The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls (New York: HarperSanFrancisco,
2002), 172-181.
5
VanderKam, The Book of Jubilees, 13.
6
Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 86.
7
8
Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 87.
Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 88.
9
Tertullian, De cult, fern 1.3.
 ENOCH AND JUBILEES

ings of Enoch. Augustine, on the other hand, although he uses Enochic

literature to prove his points, also argues against it.10 It seems that
Augustine has the last word about Enochic literature in the Western
Church, from which it essentially disappears. In the Byzantine East,
however, the chronographer George Syncellus (ninth century) pre-
serves portions of the Book of the Watchers in Greek. Further, a Greek
translation of approximately the first thirty-two chapters of the Book
of the Watchers was uncovered in the grave of an Egyptian monk bur-
ied in Akhmim in the eighth-ninth centuries. 11
After the ninth century, enthusiasm for Enochic literature, not to
mention Jubilees, appears for the most part to have faded—except
in Ethiopia. 1 Enoch and Jubilees are both preserved in their entirety
only in the ancient Ethiopian language of Ge'ez, and today virtually
everyone—scholar, priest, and lay person alike—agrees that the books
are in the Ethiopian canon, if there is indeed an identifiable Ethiopian
canon. In 1974 Roger Cowley offered a seminal examination of the
topic. He begins by noting that in Ethiopia "the concept of canonic-
ity is regarded more loosely than it is among most other churches." 12
Nothing has changed regarding this concept since 1974—ecclesiasti-
cal and scholarly texts as well as clergy and lay people today confirm
Cowley's observation. Before looking at other textual evidence on this
point, it is instructive to investigate contemporary contexts. The fol-
lowing interviews were not systematic, and neither are they numerous,
but I believe they are nonetheless valuable, as they offer the views of
established Ethiopian scholars, pastors of large congregations, and laity
representative of Ethiopian churches, as well as of Ethiopian Orthodox
communities in North America.
Daniel Assefa, professor of Scripture and Rector of the Capuchin
Franciscan Institute of Philosophy and Theology in Addis Ababa,
writes, "One can say that Enoch and Jubilees are in the canon, although
we need to be careful in our use of the term canon. The concept of
canon is not as rigid as in the West. You have various lists and no one

10
Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 95.
11
Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 12-13. Nickelsburg also mentions a twelfth century
Syriac
12
fragment of 1 En. 6:1-6.
R. W. Cowley, "The Biblical Canon of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church Today,"
Ostkirchliche Studien 23 (1974): 318-23, esp. 318.
802 LESLIE BAYNES

seems to be worried or to be preoccupied to have something definitive

or normative." 13
Emmanuel Fritsch, an expert on the Ethiopian liturgy and resident
of Ethiopia since 1985, notes, "My understanding is that there is no
canon in the generally received sense; rather, there are various codices
which include various books, not always the same, and the same names
do not always indicate the same contents. It follows that I would not
speak of a canon but of lists of books, lists which do not point in them-
selves of the nature of the reception of the various writings listed." He
also points out that "Enoch and Jubilees are among the books regularly
found [there], and, for that matter, in the Amharic Bible printed by
the Bible Society in 1980 E.C/1988 A.D."14
Meri Gheta Deredge, a church leader in Addis Ababa, confirms that
1 Enoch and Jubilees are part of the canon. "Yes, indeed! In Ethio-
pian tradition, Jubilees is Kufale, which means to separate or divide
[from Genesis]. Being 'taken out' from Genesis might give the impres-
sion that it is not important, but it is in the list of sacred books, as is
Enoch. Ii Enoch were not considered a sacred book, Jude would not
be, either."15 A dozen or more Ethiopian laity in Addis Ababa, Lalibela,
Gondar, and Debark whom I interviewed also stressed that 1 Enoch
and Jubilees are part of the canon. Interestingly, when pressed for
more information about the books, no one, even those who described
themselves as devout, could express further knowledge of them other
than that fact.16
Two Ethiopian priests in the United States echo the sentiments
expressed in Ethiopia. When I described the Ethiopian canon as
"fluid" in conversation with Abba Thomas, pastor of Virgin Mary
Ethiopian Church in Los Angeles, he agreed that fluid was indeed the
word. Canon, he said, "depends upon which author you're reading."
His church uses the Orthodox canon of Scripture plus 1 Enoch and

13
Email interview with Daniel Assefa, OFM, Cap., 8-28-09. The Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Addis Ababa uses the Ethiopian Rite, which is quite similar to the
Ethiopian Orthodox liturgy. It should be noted here that members of the Ethiopian
Orthodox church often refer to 1 Enoch simply as "Enoch," while Western scholars
have adopted the use of I Enoch to differentiate this collection from later Enochic
works such as 2 Enoch and 3 Enoch.
14
Email interview with Emmanuel Fritsch, C.S.Sp., 10-14-09. "E.C" = Ethiopian
Calendar.
15
Interview in Addis Ababa with Meri Gheta Deredge, 3-14-10.
16
Interviews conducted March 2010.
 ENOCH AND JUBILEES

Jubilees, which he considers to be canonical.17 Tesis Isaac Tedla, pas-

tor of Menbere Tsebaot in Alexandria, VA, agrees that 1 Enoch and
Jubilees are in the canon. "We call them the Bible," he said. "They are
part of the Bible."18
While all the interviewees, a small sample to be sure, concur in plac-
ing 1 Enoch and Jubilees in the Ethiopian canon, however one might
define it, other sources do not. For instance, A Short History, Faith
and Order of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, produced by the Ethi-
opian Orthodox Church Holy Synod in Addis Ababa in 1983, does
not include 1 Enoch and Jubilees in its list of the "Holy Books of the
Old Testament" at all.19 On the other hand, a book published by the
Ethiopian Orthodox Mission, also based in Addis Ababa, places Jubi-
lees after Job and 1 Enoch after Maccabees (a different set of books in
Ethiopia than one finds in other collections of authoritative texts; see
also below).20 Popular tradition, as expressed on a website that claims
to draw its information from both of the previously mentioned books,
suggests that 1 Enoch and Jubilees appear together after 2 Chronicles
and before Ezra and Nehemiah. 21
Why such diverse views on 1 Enoch and Jubilees? To begin to
answer this question, we must turn to the standard scholarly sources
on Ethiopia's canon. The oldest and most important written sources
for the Ethiopian canon are Sinodos, "a collection of material attrib-
uted to the apostles and early church councils," and Fetha Nagast,
which uses Sinodos as a source.22 The latter source, Fetha Nagast or
the "law of the kings," was written in Arabic by a Coptic Egyptian in
the thirteenth century. Tradition has it that the book came to Ethiopia
in the fifteenth century, during the reign of the emperor Zar'a Ya'aqob.
The first mention of Fetha Nagast is in the sixteenth century, while the

17
Telephone interview with Abba Thomas (who refused to give his last name),
2-18-09.
18
Telephone interview with Tesis Isaac Tedla, 10-1-09.
" Ethiopian Orthodox Church Holy Synod, A Short History, Faith, and Order of
the Ethiopian Church (Addis Ababa/Arouca, Trinidad: Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido
Church Holy Synod, 1983), 36-37.
20
Aymro Wondmagegnehu and Joachim Motovu, The Ethiopian Orthodox Church
(Addis Ababa: Ethiopian Orthodox Mission, 1970), 77-78. After its canon list, the
book devotes several paragraphs to highlight the fact that Enoch and Jubilees are part
of the canon.
21
http://Ethiopianorthodox.org/English/canonical/books.html, accessed 2-17-09.
22
Cowley, "The Biblical Canon," 318.
804 LESLIE BAYNES

earliest manuscript evidence of it comes from the seventeenth century.

Ethiopian rulers used it as a law book as recently as the 1960s.23
Fetha Nagast (in Ge'ez) claims an eighty-one book canon, a number
also found in Coptic canon lists and in the Syriac Octateuch. 24 Count-
ing the books in the Fetha Nagast list is not an easy task, however.
On the one hand, Cowley writes that "the list does not total 81" and
that "the total is a matter of dogma rather than of arithmetic" since
there are only seventy-one books in the list.25 He states his puzzlement
about exactly how one should count the Old Testament books there.26
G. Ammanuel Mikre-Selassie, on the other hand, confidently asserts
that the Fetha Nagast canon list numbers seventy-three, with forty-six
Old Testament and twenty-seven New Testament books. Both Cowley
and Mikre-Selassie agree, however, that the Amharic commentary on
the Fetha Nagast attempts to rectify the discrepancy in number by
adding books to the New Testament list.27 This creates the "broader
canon" of the Ethiopic church, so called because of its expanded New
Testament, which numbers thirty-five books.28
The Old Testament canon list in Fetha Nagast itself does not include
1 Enoch or Jubilees. The Amharic commentary on Fetha Nagast
acknowledges that fact but at the same time launches into full apolo-
getic mode:
If one asks why Kufale (Jubilees) and the Book of Enoch are left out (of
the Fetha Nagast list), Kufale means that which is taken out from the
Book of Genesis. The Fetha Nagast considered it then to be the same
as Genesis. Another says: the Samaritan Pentateuch is good; the Pen-
tateuch of the translators (LXX) is good. The Pentateuch of the Jews is
futile. The Samaritan Pentateuch, which is good, has been written by
Manasse, the son of Manasse. The Pentateuch of the translators, which is

23
Peter L. Strauss, ed., The Fetha Nagast (Addis Ababa: Faculty of Law Haile
Sellassie I University, 1968), xv-xxix.
24
Roger Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church
(London: SPCK, 1985), 492.
25
Respectively, Cowley, "The Biblical Canon," 319 and also his "Old Testament
Introduction in the Andemta Commentary Tradition," Journal of Ethiopian Studies
12 (1974): 133-75, esp. 139.
26
27
Cowley, "The Biblical Canon," 319.
See Cowley, "The Biblical Canon," 319 n. 4, and G. Ammanuel Mikre-Selassie,
"The Bible and Its Canon in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church," The Bible Translator
44 (1993): 111-23, esp. 120 n. 50. See also Peter Brandt, "Geflecht aus 81 Buchern zur
variantenreichen Gestalt des athiopischen Bibelkanons," Aethiopica 3 (2000): 79-115,
esp. 89-90, which relies on Mikre-Selassie.
28
Cowley, "The Biblical Canon," 319.
 ENOCH AND JUBILEES 805

good, is the one translated by the 70 erudite (doctors) during the reign of
Ptolemy. The Jewish Pentateuch, (which is) futile, is named Abul Faher,
which means glory of our race. The year of Cainan is 800. Yet it (the
Jewish Pentateuch) affirmed that the incarnation was not at hand by
erasing 400 years.29 Knowing that cancelling 400 years from one person
is difficult to hide, it has reduced 1000 years from the patriarchs that fol-
lowed. Thus, by reducing 1400 years, it affirmed that the incarnation was
not at hand. They thus removed it (Jubilees) from the list because of this
defect. Yet, in order to show that the Book of Jubilees is an important
book, the Apostles said in the Sinodos: "As the Lord said in one book
called Kufale."
If one asks, why does the Fetha Nagast leave out the book of Book of
Enoch from the list, [the reason is as follows]. Enoch fell near Paradise
and stayed for six years, where, reaching perfection, he had revelation
on the exit of winds, on the movement of stars and on the atmosphere.
Had the apostles included the Book of Enoch in the list of sacred books,
philosophers would have said: "The apostles have not criticized our wis-
dom; it is for this reason that they have included the Book of Enoch
in the list." In order to avoid such a conclusion, the apostles did not
include the Book of Enoch in the list. Yet, in order to show that the
Book of Enoch is an important book, the Apostle has confessed on its
account by saying, "It was with them in mind that Enoch, the seventh
patriarch from Adam, made his prophecy..." [Jude 14]. Paul also said,
"Enoch was taken up" [Hebrews 11:5]. If the Books of Kings are counted
as two [instead of four; cf. the Fetha Nagast which says that the Book
of Kings are four], then it is possible to include Kufale and the Book of
Enoch....30

The introduction to the Ethiopian Andemta commentary on Jubilees

helps elucidate Fetha Nagast's claims about the reduction of years in
the "Jewish Pentateuch":
This (Jubilees) was written, and while it was being read and interpreted,
it was handed down from the prophets to the apostles. When the apostles
gave the 81 books to Clement, they counted this book of Jubilees in their
hearts, but with their mouths they omitted to count it. If you ask why,
it was so that the Jews should not say, "Your fathers the apostles have
indeed counted the times. The time of the promise is not yet. Let Jubilees
be witness"; for the Jews had erased the times of the patriarchs.31

29
Cf. Gen 10:22-24, 11:12-13 LXX; Luke 3:36. The Masoretic Text does not men-
tion Cainan in Genesis.
30
Fetha Nagast, Nebabenna Tergwamew, Addis Ababa, photo-offset (1958): 41-44.
I am
31
grateful to Daniel Assefa for his translation of this passage from the Amharic.
Roger Cowley, "Old Testament Introduction in the Andemta Commentary
Tradition," 138-39.
806 LESLIE BAYNES

Cowley explains,
The figures for the life-spans of the patriarchs are higher in the Geez [sic]
and LXX texts of Genesis than they are in the Hebrew text of Genesis or
in any text of Jubilees. The allegation here is that the Jews had falsified
the figures in the Hebrew text. Computations on the basis of Jubilees
would not show the elapse of 5500 years from the creation until the
birth of Jesus, and so Jubilees could not be publicly admitted into the
canon.32

Likewise, the Andemta commentary on 1 Enoch elucidates its counter-

part in the Fetha Nagast:
When the apostles delivered the books to Clement, they counted the
book of Enoch in their hearts, but did not mention it aloud. The reason
for this is as follows. In the time of the apostles, some Greeks became
Christians. What Enoch spoke by revelation from the Holy Spirit was
what the Greeks knew through their philosophy, and because of this the
apostles put the book outside their number so that the Greeks should
not boast that their wisdom had not been rejected. What demonstrates
that the apostles counted it in their hearts is that Jude spoke of it, saying,
"As Enoch prophesied, who was seventh from Adam."33

These conflicting reports about the absence of 1 Enoch and Jubilees in

the Fetha Nagast, in contrast to the insistence on its canonicity in the
later commentary on the Fetha Nagast, foreshadow the discrepancies
we have observed between some Ethiopian documents and the oral
testimony of my small sample of contemporary Ethiopian Christians.
In addition to the broader canon represented by the Amharic com-
mentary on Fetha Nagast, it is important to note that the Ethiopian
Bible is also understood in the form of the so-called narrower canon,
which is the list, Cowley observes, "actually printed in the large
Geez [sic] and Amharic diglot, and the Amharic Bibles issued by the
Emperor's command." 34 This canon list is "narrower" based on its New
Testament, which contains the standard twenty-seven books held in
common throughout the Christian world. It is not narrower in its Old
Testament, however, which contains fifty-four books, including both
1 Enoch and Jubilees.
We have examined some of the intricacies of the Fetha Nagast's
canon list and the commentary on it and have discovered some com-

Cowley, Old Testament Introduction, 139 n. 32.

Cowley, Old Testament Introduction, 160.
Cowley, "The Biblical Canon," 320; cf. comments of Fritsch above.
 ENOCH AND JUBILEES 807

plexity. The situation does not improve when we turn to Sinodos. In

fact, it worsens. Getachew Haile writes, "The Sinodos has been the
source of many controversies. No one knows yet which are the eighty-
one books it is speaking about."35 Cowley notes that "the part of [Sino-
dos] attributed to the apostles is traditionally divided into 4 sections,"
and two of these sections, designated "Gessew" and "Abtelis," contain
canon lists.36 Neither includes 1 Enoch, but both include Jubilees. Abte-
lis places Jubilees after Ruth and before 1 Samuel (1 Reigns) and counts
Jubilees as one book. Gessew places it after Judith and before Ecclesi-
asticus and counts Jubilees as three books.37 Interestingly, in otherwise
corresponding Arabic and Coptic canon lists, there are three books of
Maccabees in the same place where the three books of Jubilees appear
in Gessew. It is important to note that the books of Maccabees as read
elsewhere in Christianity were unknown in Ethiopia in the formative
period of the canon. The Ethiopian canon includes books that it titles
Maccabees, but the content of these books differs completely from the
books that other Christians know.38
At this point we may begin to make a transition from discussing
how Jubilees appears in the canon to how it functions in the Church.
To do so, we must turn to "perhaps the most creative and authoritative
voice in the history of the Ethiopian Church," Emperor Zar'a Ya'aqob,
who reigned from 1434-1468 C.E., and who presided over some of the
most significant theological disputes in Ethiopian ecclesiastical history.39
Two of the emperor's primary concerns were Christology/Trinitarian
theology and promoting the observance of the Sabbath on Saturday as

35
G. Haile, "A Study of the Issues Raised in Two Homilies of Zar'a Ya 'aqob,"
ZDMG
36
131 (1981): 85-113, esp. 100.
37
Cowley, "The Biblical Canon," 322.
See charts in Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church,
488-89, as well as Peter Brandt, "Geflecht aus 81 Buchern." It should be noted, how-
ever, that not all manuscripts of Abtelis contain Jubilees. See Marius Chain, "Le canon
des livres saints dans Feglise ethiopienne," RSR 5 (1914): 22-39, esp. 29.
38
Beckwith, The Old Testament Canon of the New Testament Church, 496. R. H.
Charles ("Ethiopic Version," in The Hastings Dictionary of the Bible [ed. James Hast-
ings; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1898], 1.791-93, here 791) writes, "The Maccabees were
either never translated or else were early lost. Since, however, the Eth. scholars found
the titles of these books in their Sinodos and Fetha Nagast, they proceeded to supply
them from their own imagination."
39
Donald Crummey, "Church and Nation: the Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo
Church (from the thirteenth to the twentieth century)," in The Cambridge History of
Christianity vol. 5: Eastern Christianity (ed. Michael Angold; Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006), 457-87, esp. 462.
808 LESLIE BAYNES

well as on Sunday.40 He wrote, or had attributed to him, several works

on these topics, and he argued primarily from Scripture, earning him-
self in the process the epithet "treasure house of the scriptures, old
[Testament] and new [kabato masahefet zabeluy wazahadis].'"11 A per-
tinent question sometimes arises in his argumentation: what, exactly,
constitutes Scripture? In a homily in honor of the Saturday Sabbath
directed against a certain Gamaleyal, who was accused of "exalting the
Father and the Holy Spirit over the Son," Zar'a Ya'aqob relies heavily
upon Jubilees.*2 In the process, he brings up the place of Jubilees in the
eighty-one book canon as well as the relation of Jubilees in single form
to the three-part Ethiopian Maccabees.
The emperor quotes Jub. 2:18-19, which discusses the seventh day
of creation: "And he (God) told us—all the angels of the presence and
all the angels of sanctification, those two great kinds—that we might
keep the Sabbath with him in heaven and on earth." The emperor
comments, "Now who are the Angel of the Presence and the Angel of
Sanctification who kept the Sabbath with God in heaven and on earth?
None of the angels rested on the seventh day in heaven and on earth,
only the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He who was called the
Angel of the Presence is the Son, and the Angel of Sanctification is the
Holy Spirit."
In what comes next, we learn that the emperor's adversary Gama-
leyal would not accept this proof text because it came from Jubilees.
The homily continues:
But Gamaleyal is determined to nullify the Book of Jubilees because it
speaks openly about the person of the Trinity. While instructing those
who accept his teaching, he said, "The Book of Jubilees is not among
the enumerated eighty-one books; but rather [it is]... Maccabees [that]
is called...Jubilees because where the Aposfies mention the Book of
Jubilees they do not mention the Book of Maccabees, and where they
mention [Maccabees] they do not mention [Jubilees]." And in order to
further nullify [Maccabees], he also said, "The Book of Maccabees, too, is
not among the enumerated eighty-one books; but rather [it is] the Book
of Joseph ben Gorion [that] is called the Book of Maccabees." Behold,

40
See Getatchew Haile, "The Forty-Nine Hour Sabbath of the Ethiopian Church,"
JSS 33 (1988): 233-54.
41
Getachew Haile, "The Letter of Archbishops Mika'el and Gabra'el Concerning
the Observance of Saturday," JSJ 26 (1981): 73-78, esp. 75, 77.
42
Getachew Haile, "A Study of the Issues Raised in Two Homilies of Zar'a Ya-
'aqob," 91.
 ENOCH AND JUBILEES 809

and so Gamaleyal nullified four books of the eighty-one, for the Book of
Jubilees is one and the Book of Maccabees is three.43
Getachew Haile hypothesizes that Zar'a Ya'aqob's opponent Gama-
leyal based his argument upon Fetha Nagast, which contains the only
known Ethiopian canon list that both "equates the Book of Joseph ben
Gorion with... Maccabees" and omits Jubilees from the eighty-one.44
Regarding the "enumerated" eighty-one books, the Ge'ez for this term
is xwlqw, to count, the word commonly used to indicate what we might
understand as "canonical."45 Jubilees "counts," both literally and meta-
phorically. The homily makes this clear when it insists that: "As for
the Book of Jubilees, the apostles honoured it highly in the Sinodos,
singling it out from the others, although all of them are holy...they
honoured Jubilees because it is a perfect law, and in it the person of
the trinity is written (about)." 46
This homily is not the only use of Jub. 2:18-19 in the Christologi-
cal controversies during the reign of Zar'a Ya'aqob. Another book,
Mashafa Berhan, or Book of Light, which some have attributed to the
emperor, uses exactly that verse to resolve a different but related ques-
tion about the Trinity. Mashafa Berhan calls itself a dersan, which is
"a form of para-exegetical composition primarily written for spiritual
guidance or enlightment [sic], common among the well-known edifi-
catory works of Ge'ez literature." 47 Book III addresses opponents who
insist that "God has no images like other creatures: in other words,
'images of God must be eliminated from the mind.' "48 In the course
of its argument against this idea, Mashafa Berhan says:
If you want to know the image of the Trinity, go to Genesis in order that
you may hear what it says [Gen 18:2]: "three men came into the house of
Abraham " One is the Father, the second is the Son, and the third is
the Holy Spirit. Secondly, go to the Book of Jubilees [2:18] ...The Angel
of the Presence [face] which he speaks about is the Son And concern-
ing the Son, God, the Father says to the Angel of the Presence [Jub. 1:27],

43 Haile, "A Study of the Issues Raised in Two Homilies of Zar'a Ya'aqob," 92-93.
44
45
Haile, "A Study of the Issues Raised in Two Homilies of Zar'a Ya'aqob," 93.
Getatchew Haile, "The Homily of Ase Zar'a Ya'aqob of Ethiopia in Honour of
Saturday," Orientalia Lovaniensia periodica 13 (1982): 185-231; esp. 193, 217.
46
47
Haile, "The Homily of Ase Zar'a Ya'aqob," 218, 219; cf. 226-227.
Ephraim Isaac, A New Text-Critical Introduction to Mashafa Berhan (Leiden:
Brill,
48
1973), 26.
Isaac, A New Text-Critical Introduction to Mashafa Berhan, 58.
810 LESLIE BAYNES

"write for Moses, from the beginning of Creation until the [time of] the
building of my temple among them for ever and ever."49
In other words, according to this interpretation, God's son, Jesus, is
the Angel of the Presence who dictates Jubilees to Moses.
The author of Mashafa Berhan apparently does not feel the need to
defend Jubilees's canonicity. Neither, in fact, do two other major theo-
logical works of the fifteenth century that cite it: Mashafa Milad ("the
Book of Nativity") and Mashafa Mestira Samay wa-Medr ("the Book of
Mysteries of Heaven and Earth"; hereafter Mashafa Mestir).50 Mashafa
Milad is a collection of homilies attributed to Emperor Zar'a Ya'aqob,
the overarching purpose of which is to defend his understanding of
Christ and the Trinity. The work addresses itself to three main hostile
interlocutors: the "denier," the "Jew," and certain Christians who dis-
agree with its theological argumentation. Mashafa Milad cites Jubilees
many times, but almost always either to illustrate Trinitarian theol-
ogy or to defend the authority of 1 Enoch. We will look at the latter
topic below. As to the former, Mashafa Milad insists that Jubilees is an
"important basis for the mystery of the Trinity," especially regarding
the figures who visit Abraham in Genesis 18.51 Jubilees 16:1 reports
that "we" (= the angels) visited Abraham at the oak of Mamre (cf.
Gen 18:1-2), and Mashafa Milad further specifies them as the Angel
of the Presence and the Angel of Sanctification, who are the Son and
the Holy Spirit. Thus, according to this treatise, "in the law and in the
book of Jubilees the personhood (gdssdwe) of the trinity and the unity
of the Godhead are completely clarified," for the Lord will not hide his
purposes from Abraham (cf. Gen 18:17 LXX).52
Mashafa Milad, too, defends the keeping of the Saturday Sabbath
through a Trinitarian interpretation of Jub. 2:18: "He said to us, we
should keep the Sabbath with him in heaven and on earth." Building

49
Mashafa Berhan III, 35-36, as quoted by Isaac, A New Text-Critical Introduction
to Mashafa Berhan, 59-60.
50
Kurt Wendt, ed., Das Mashafa Milad (Liber Nativitatis) und Mashafa Sellase
(Liber Trinitatis) des Kaisers Zar'a Yaqob (CSCO 221, 222, 235, 236; SAe 41-44;
Leuven: Peeters, 1962-1963); J. Perruchon, ed., Le Livre des mysteres du del et de la
terre (PO 1.1; Paris: Brepols, 1903), continued by S. Grebaut, ed., Les trois derniers
traits du livre des mysteres du del et de la terre (PO 6.3; Paris: Brepols, 1911); English
trans, by E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Mysteries of Heaven and Earth (Berwick,
Maine: Ibis, 2004).
51
52
Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 42:71.
Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 42:71.
 ENOCH AND JUBILEES 811

upon the idea that the angels who visited Abraham were the Son and
the Spirit, the emperor continues:
The Holy Ghost resembles a creature, although he is creator, and he
resembles the Angel of Holiness. The Son resembles the created Angel
of the Presence, although he is creator. If they are also creators, they still,
however, resemble created beings. But the created angels have no Sab-
bath in heaven and on earth. They did not rest formerly, and neither will
they rest in the future. They stand in the order of all the angels. There is
no exception for the Angel of the Presence and the Angel of Holiness;
they have no Sabbath. Because of them it is said: "He said this to us,
we should keep the Sabbath with him in heaven and on earth—and we
rested with him on the seventh day"—this was the Son and the Holy
Ghost, who rested together with the Father, since they carried out the
entire work of creation with him. But the angels had no rest from service
to the Most High because the Most High sends all angels, his servants,
wherever he wants. That all the angels of heaven kept the Sabbath, the
books of God do not report to us.53

The author of the Book of Mysteries may present some of the ideas
that Mashafa Milad opposes.54 He writes,
On the first Sabbath, he [God] rested in his trinity, and he commanded
that the trinity should rest from work. And that day is the symbol of the
rest of the righteous, and thereon the holy angels keep the Sabbath. And
the other angels are sent into their service of the Lord God, and they
are the angels of the face and the angels of consecration. Among them
there is circumcision for the angels of consecration. And similarly there
is circumcision for the angels of the face... [for Jubilees says] "Thus is the
circumcision of the angels of consecration."55
Mashafa Mestir agrees that the Trinity rests, but it does not identify
any angels with the Trinity. Moreover, at least some angels do rest on
the Sabbath. The book also emphasizes the fact that (according to Jubi-
lees) angels are circumcised, a point to which we will return below.
Other Ethiopian literature quotes or alludes to Jubilees, including
Kebra Nagast, the Ethiopian national epic, which explains the origins
of the kingdom through expansions of the Old and New Testaments

53
54
Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 42:76.
Getatchew Haile, "Religious Controversies and the Growth of Ethiopic Literature
in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries," Oriens Christianas 65 (1981): 102-136,
esp. 112, writes that Mashafa Mestir was completed June 21, 1424, putting its compo-
sition prior to the beginning of Zar'a Ya'aqob's reign in 1434.
55
Cf. Jub. 15:27. Budge, The Book of the Mysteries of the Heavens and the Earth,
137; Grebaut, Les trois derniers traits du livre des mysteres, 169-170.
812 LESLIE BAYNES

with many references to patristic theology. Internal evidence places

its final redaction with relative certainty to the fourteenth century.56
Much of its composition, however, appears to date to the sixth-sev-
enth centuries. 57 Kebra Nagast may allude to traditions found in Jubi-
lees at least four times. All concern reworkings of the Old Testament
narrative. 58
From at least the fifteenth century, then, the book of Jubilees has
held an important place in the Ethiopian church, both in terms of
its usefulness for Christological debate and as a proof text to support
more practical matters such as observing the Saturday Sabbath, which
is still common in Ethiopia and among Ethiopian Orthodox immi-
grants in the United States.
Up to this point we have not examined where Jubilees and 1 Enoch
are not found, and that is in the liturgy. None of the Old Testament is
read in the liturgy of the Ethiopian Orthodox church. At the same time,
some liturgical texts mention Enoch and/or Enochic literature. First I
will look at these, and then I will return to Mashafa Mestir and Mashafa
Milad, both of which utilize 1 Enoch in very interesting ways.
The Ethiopian Orthodox church has 14 Anaphoras, each used on dif-
ferent occasions. Three of these, the Anaphora of Mary, the Anaphora
of St. Cyril, and the Anaphora of the 300, as well as the preparatory
service for the liturgy, refer to the character of Enoch. 59 Of these, the

56
David Allen Hubbard, The Literary Sources of the Kebra Nagast (Unpublished
dissertation; St. Andrews, 1956), 352.
57
Hubbard, The Literary Sources of the Kebra Nagast, 357.
58
See Hubbard, The Literary Sources of the Kebra Nagast, 158-60, 186, 188. Depen-
dence on 1 Enoch is more uncertain. Kebra Nagast (hereafter KN) 8 probably alludes
to 1 En. 100:13. Edward Ullendorf, Ethiopia and the Bible (London: Oxford University
Press, 1968), 76, notes that "Chapter 100 [of the KN] about the angels who rebelled,
is no doubt connected with the concluding part of section II of Midrash Deuteronomy
Rabbah." Hubbard thinks that Jude 6 and 2 Pet 2:4 are the proximate sources for some
aspects of section 100 that allude to Enoch. As for KN's angels, I agree with Hubbard
when he writes, "The angelology in the KN may be more indicative of a milieu than
of a direct literary dependence" (180).
59
J. M. Harden, Anaphoras of the Ethiopian Liturgy (Translations of Christian Lit-
erature III, Liturgical Texts; London: SPCK, 1928), 4, writes, "Just as in the Orthodox
Eastern Church the Anaphora of St. Chrysostom is used generally, but that of St. Basil
is substituted for it on certain days and that of the Pre-sanctified on others, so the
Ethiopic Church had its normal Anaphora, that of the Apostles, for which others were
substituted on certain days. The only difference is that in the latter case the number
of subordinate Anaphoras is very much larger." The Anaphora of the 300 is used on
the feast day of the Four Beasts (cf. Revelation 4), and the synaxarium for that day
also references Enoch.
 ENOCH AND JUBILEES 813

most notable is the last. The preparatory service reads, "I pray and
beseech thee, O Lord my God, as Thou was well pleased with the
offering of Abel thy beloved, and the sacrifices of Enoch, Noah, and
Abraham, and the incense of Aaron, Samuel, and Zacharias: in like
manner receive from me this pure incense... ."60 It is striking that the
service identifies the "the sacrifices of Enoch," for unlike Abel, Noah,
and Abraham, the biblical character of Enoch in Genesis did not offer
sacrifice. However, post-biblical Enoch does do so; Jub. 4:25 reads,
"And he burnt the incense of the sanctuary, (even) sweet spices accept-
able before the Lord on the Mount." Here and elsewhere quotations of
Jubilees inform liturgical interpretation of Enoch.
The Ethiopic Synaxarium, Mashafa Senkesar, mentions Enoch or
Enochic literature on at least eight distinct days and commemorates
his ascension into heaven twice. One of those commemorations, 25
Hamle (August 1), notes only the claim of his ascent. The other, 27 Ter
(February 4), draws material from the Book of the Watchers (1:3-4;
13:7-8; 14:9-18; 24:2-3) the Book of Parables (40:2; 46:1; 48:1-4), and
the Animal Apocalypse (85:3; 90:28-29, 32-33), all of which it cites
with little development other than a few points of christological inter-
pretation. 61
Theological and mystical texts employ 1 Enoch as well. Mashafa
Milad finds the Book of Parables most congenial to its purposes,
while the esoteric Mashafa Mestir favors the Book of the Watchers
and Apocalypse of Weeks. So closely connected is Mashafa Mestir
with 1 Enoch that the westerner who first owned the newly discov-
ered manuscript, Nicolas Claude Fabri (Peiresc), believed that he had
indeed found the lost book of Enoch. Examining it in 1684, the great
scholar of Ethiopic Hiob Ludolf was sorely disappointed to learn that
it was not 1 Enoch.62
Mashafa Mestir quotes or alludes to material that originates in the
Book of the Watchers at least five times,63 the most sustained of which

60
Marcos Daoud, trans., The Liturgy of the Ethiopian Church (Kingston, Jamaica:
Ethiopian Orthodox Church, 1959, 1991), 27.
61
E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of Saints of the Ethiopian Church: A Translation
of the Ethiopic Synaxarium (4 vols.; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928),
2:555-57.
62
Gianfrancesco Lusini and Gianfranco Fiaccadori, "Mastira samay wamadr,"
Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, 3:945; Budge, The Book of the Mysteries of the Heavens and
the63 Earth, xxvii.
Budge, The Book of the Mysteries, 26-27, 34, 36, 85, 142.
814 LESLIE BAYNES

concerns the Watchers themselves: "[T]he Watchers (teguhan) came

down from heaven, and after they had put on the flesh of men, the
madness of sin seized them, and they were thrust aside from the mys-
teries which they had seen in heaven."64 This statement implies that
putting on human flesh resulted in the Watchers' sin, and this percep-
tion is confirmed at the end of book: "[the angels] were clothed with
flesh, and they taught great sin... because of their pride and boast-
fulness, because they had clothed themselves with flesh."65 The book
had reported earlier that angels (malaekt) have phalluses, though they
are neither male nor female, and they do not procreate. 66 As we saw
above, Mashafa Mestir also looks to Jubilees to argue that the angels
are circumcised. 67
Immediately after the reference to the Watchers in part 1 of Mashafa
Mestir is perhaps the only direct allusion to the Parables.68 A list of the
fallen angels and what they taught humanity mentions Penemus (cf. 1
En. 69:8, Penemu'd), who taught architecture and writing.69
Mashafa Mestir also retells the Apocalypse of Weeks in a passage
that deserves more attention than space allows here. The author uses
the apocalypse's structure of ten weeks (Ge'ez sanbat) and some of
its content, but he adds and subtracts material freely according to his
own purposes, some obscure, but most predictably christological. For
instance, in the sixth week, the "man who will ascend" is interpreted as
Jesus, the one who ascends his cross.70 In the seventh week the author

64
Budge, The Book of the Mysteries, 26-27; Perruchon, Le livre des mysteres, 21.
65
Budge, The Book of the Mysteries, 142; Grebaut, Les trois derniers traits du livre
des mysteres, 173. Cf. T. Reu. 5:6.
66
Budge, The Book of the Mysteries, 17; Perruchon, Le livre des mysteres, 12. Cf.
1 En. 86:4.
67
The Andemta commentary on Genesis also reflects these themes, but regarding
the Trinity: "[J]ust as a person has a complete form, so also (the members of) the
Trinity (each) have a form, as it says, 'We believe that God has real bodily parts—eye
and ear, hands and feet, and that he has organs which are in addition to these.'" Roger
Cowley, Ethiopian Biblical Interpretation (University of Cambridge Oriental Publica-
tions 38; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), 213.
68
There is a paraphrase of 1 En. 60:5-6 in Budge, The Book of Mysteries, 18. Cf.
Nickelsburg, 1 Enoch 1, 105 n. 174.
69
Budge, The Book of Mysteries, 28; Perruchon, Le livre des mysteres, 22.
70
1 En. 93:8; Budge, The Book of Mysteries, 142; Grebaut, Les trois derniers traits
du livre des mysteres, 174.
 ENOCH AND JUBILEES 815

attacks Arius. In the eighth week, the new building to be constructed

represents Christian churches built at the time of Constantine.
The colophon to the second part of Mashafa Mestir commands its
reading on the second day of Passion Week, the Feast of Mt. Tabor,
and the feast of the Four Beasts. All of the Ethiopian clergy with whom
I spoke, however, agreed that it is not and perhaps never was read on
those holy days. The book has sunk into obscurity and now finds only
an academic audience.71
Mashafa Milad is permeated with quotations from 1 Enoch, with
which it both begins and ends: "We write this dersan on the birth of
our God... who... breaks the teeth and curbs the mouth and tongue
of the denier, as Enoch taught us [1 En. 46:4], the one who was taken
up in the whirlwind, who observed the gate of the sun as well as the
rise of the moon and the stars, who saw the light and who announced
the times, years, months, days, hours, and weeks, Amen." 72 Although
one might infer from this passage that Mashafa Milad will favor the
Book of the Watchers and the Astronomical book, in fact it relies
most heavily on the Book of Parables, which, unsurprisingly, it inter-
prets christologically.73 Ethiopian thought considers Enoch the first of
God's prophets and also the first to preach the advent of Christ.74 It
comes to the latter conclusion primarily through its readings of the
Son of Man sections of I Enoch, especially 46:1, which it uses repeat-
edly: "There I saw one who had a head of days... and with him was
another, whose face was like the appearance of a man, and his face was

71
In his introduction to 1 Enoch in Charlesworth's Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
(1:10), Ephraim Isaac claims that "Enochic ideas" have exerted a significant influence
on contemporary Ethiopian Christian literature and theology, particularly through the
Book of Mysteries, but the concepts that Isaac outlines as "Enochic" can and do come
from many other sources than the Book of Mysteries or even 1 Enoch itself.
72
Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 41:2; 42:2.
73
It quotes the Book of the Watchers (1 En. 1:9) twice (Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad,
42:58, 108) and the Astronomical Book four times (Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad,
42:55-56, 97; 44:89). The number of citations from the Astronomical Book belies its
importance, however, as demonstrated by the book's many appeals to the computus of
Enoch. In addition, it uses the Animal Apocalypse and the Apocalypse of Weeks; i.e.,
Iesus is born in the eighth week (Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 42:31, 47).
74
Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 42:47.
816 LESLIE BAYNES

full of graciousness like one of the holy angels."75 Because of its belief
about Enoch's position at the beginning of the line of Jewish prophets,
Mashafa Milad considers him an especially valuable weapon to wield
against Jews and/or Judaizing Christians: "Hear, O Jew, not from us,
but from Enoch Tell me, who else of creation goes with the head
of days... whose appearance looks human?... One of the holy angels
or [one] of the human children of Adam, or the son, Jesus Christ, the
conversion of sinners?"76 He also quotes 1 En. 62:3-16, 63:11-12, and
69:26-70:3 to the same effect.
Unlike Mashafa Mestir, Mashafa Milad does not take the place
of 1 Enoch in the canon for granted. As Peter Wendt observes, "Als
zum Alten Testament gehorig zahlen widerspruchslos in rangmafiiger
Reihenfolge apokryphe Schriften wie...das Jubilaenbuch...Demge-
genuber erscheint das sogannante 'Henoch-buch' noch stark in Frage
gestellt [zu sein] Und in der apostolischen Schriftenreihe rangiert
der sogenannte 'Synodus der Apostel' als das kanonische Rechtsbuch
der athiopischen Kirche und damit eben auch als Grundlage ihres
Kanons schlechthin." 77 Opponents of the author's Christology, both
Jew and Christian, evidently used 1 Enoch's questionable canonical
status to challenge him. He writes, "There are foolish people who do
not know and affirm the books of the law and the venerable prophets
[and claim that] Enoch does not belong to the canonical books and
neither did the apostles give him to us. But we counter them: accord-
ing to whose calculation did Moses and Aaron and the entire commu-
nity of Israel... make Passover in the first month?... According to the
calendar of Enoch... [and] perceiving the day according to the num-
bering of Enoch."78 When addressing Christians who do not accept
Enoch, the author substitutes Easter for Passover.79 Just as Mashafa
Milad reiterates the same claims from the Parables repeatedly, so too
does it appeal repeatedly to the computus of Enoch (as seen in the
Astronomical Book).
Regardless, there were still some who refused to accept the book:
"Hear, O denier, you also say T do not accept the Book of Enoch

75
1 En. 46:1 is also one of only two references to 1 Enoch in Mashafa Berhan. See
Isaac, A New Text-Critical Introduction to Mashafa Berhan, 4, 60, 134.
76
Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 42:52.
77
Wendt, "Der Kampf," 108.
78
Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 44:89.
79
Cf. Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 42:59.
 ENOCH AND JUBILEES 817

because Sinodos has not canonized it,' although our Lord in the Tes-
tament counts him with all the holy prophets." 80 As we have seen,
Sinodos counts Jubilees but not 1 Enoch in its lists, and as Wendt
points out, Sinodos is highly influential in matters of canon. To his
critics, the emperor notes that the Testament of Our Lord (Testamen-
tum domini, Ge'ez Mashafa Kidan) briefly mentions 1 Enoch twice.81
In Ethiopian thought, the Testamentum domini, as the title indicates,
comes directly from the mouth of Jesus in the interlude between his
resurrection and ascension. The authority of Jesus' testimony trumps
everything. The emperor argues, "He [Jesus] even cited Enoch twice
and canonized (xwlqw) it." If someone were to question the authority
of the Testamentum, the emperor would counter: "Hear, O denier, you
cannot argue that the Sinodos didn't offer the possibility of regarding
Mashafa Kidan... as canonical. But we ask you: Who gave you Sinodos
and canonized it? One doesn't first supply a letter to canonize it; one
must ask others to accept it, because it is just a letter. The Testament
is the Ur-letter, because it was written first. Jesus Christ spoke to them
with the words of the Testament when he appeared to them after he
was raised from the dead."82 Mashafa Milad depends so heavily on
arguments from 1 Enoch to make its christological points that it must
defend 1 Enoch's authority with every weapon it can muster.
The crescendo of Enoch's exultation sounds at the very end of
Mashafa Milad, thus framing the work with references to it:
Because the book of Enoch is like sweet seawater, all fleshly creatures,
strong and weak, drink from it. But whoever does not drink from it dies
in an agony of thirst. One can also compare it to a rain cloud which
waters the land, and grassland and forest drink from it deep, and the
animals of the field and desert exalt over it. Without water and sources
of rain, nothing of flesh and blood can live. In the same way the entire
world cannot exist without the Book of Enoch The book of Enoch
is in fact like the sun. The one on whom the sun does not shine, his
entire way is darkness. In the same way goes each person who does not
walk in the prophecy and teaching of Enoch. Because of him Eden, the
garden of God, was saved from the wrath of the Most High's flood [cf.

80
81
Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 42:97.
Robert Beylot, Testamentum Domini Ethiopien (Louvain: Peeters, 1984), 161,
207.
82
Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 42:98; 41:112.
818 LESLIE BAYNES

Jub. 4:24] .83 May our Lord make us stand the test through the prayer of
Enoch, forever and ever, Amen, Amen, so be it."84
1 Enoch and Jubilees are part of the contemporary eighty-one book
Ethiopian canon. As demonstrated by its acceptance in Sinodos and by
the relatively few disputes about its canonicity in later literature, Jubi-
lees appears to have become authoritative earlier and more decisively
than 1 Enoch. While the scholarly elite of the fifteenth century used
Jubilees to argue christological controversies, today it plays a more
mundane role in the life of the contemporary church, for example, in
undergirding uniquely Ethiopian Orthodox Christian observances of
circumcision and Saturday Sabbath.85 On the whole, however, refer-
ences to the texts, as opposed to the person, of Enoch appear mainly
in Ethiopian theological literature, and these function primarily to
support christological claims. Mashafa Mestir and Mashafa Milad,
two major works that use 1 Enoch, are known today (as, most likely,
throughout their history) only to the elite.86

83
Quotations from and allusions to Jubilees lend support to Enoch in Mashafa
Milad. See especially Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 42:58-60.
84
85
Wendt, Das Mashafa Milad, 44: 89, 91.
Emmanuel Fritsch adds, "Kufale is much better regarded [than J Enoch]. Though
it is not read, it is sometimes used by preachers when they come to speak about
Adam's creation and salvation. They also see in it a support for baptizing boys on the
fortieth day and girls on their eightieth day, although the source of this is already in
Leviticus." Email interview 10-14-09.
86
Daniel Assefa notes, "The influence of Enoch is (over) scholars. Besides, the influ-
ence of Enoch on subsequent Ethiopian literature would still need thorough exami-
nation. Up to now, only direct references or citations have caught the attention of
western scholars. Yet a study of I Enoch's influence on the style, symbolism, vocabu-
lary and narrative structure of Ethiopic literature would be a big desideratum." Inter-
view in Addis Ababa, 2-14-10; email 6-16-10.