1 Enoch / Chapter 3

1 Enoch 3

1 verses • Ge'ez (Ethiopic) 1 tradition available

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

A single-verse continuation of the nature argument: Enoch points to the trees and how they appear to wither but follow God's design through seasonal cycles.

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

The brevity of this chapter suggests it may be a fragment or that chapter divisions were imposed later on a continuous discourse.

Translation Friction

None significant.

Connections

Isaiah 40:6-8 (grass withers, flower fades); Matthew 6:28-30 (lessons from nature).

1 Enoch 3:1

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

Observe and see how in winter all the trees appear to have withered and shed their leaves — except for fourteen trees that do not lose their foliage but keep the old leaves for two or three years until the new growth comes.

REF Observe and see how (in the winter) all the trees seem as though they had withered and shed all their leaves, except fourteen trees, which do not lose their foliage but retain the old foliage from two to three years till the new comes.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The fourteen evergreen trees may reflect botanical knowledge of the ancient Near East. The number fourteen may carry symbolic weight, though its significance here is uncertain.
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