1 Enoch / Chapter 44

1 Enoch 44

1 verses • Ge'ez (Ethiopic)

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

This extremely brief chapter (a single verse) concludes the cosmological observations of the first parable with a note about other features of lightning that Enoch saw.

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

Chapter 44 is the shortest chapter in 1 Enoch. Its brevity has led most scholars to conclude it is either a fragment of a longer passage or a scribal annotation that became a separate chapter in the manuscript tradition. It serves as a bridge between the cosmological material and the second parable.

Translation Friction

Some scholars attach this verse to chapter 43 rather than treating it as a separate chapter. The chapter division here is almost certainly artificial, imposed during the manuscript transmission process.

Connections

The lightning observations continue the cosmological interests of chapters 41 and 43 and anticipate the more detailed meteorological revelations in chapters 59-60.

1 Enoch 44:1

Ge'ez: wa-kāle'a re'iku — 'and another thing I saw'

I also saw other things concerning the lightnings: how some stars rise and become lightnings, unable to part from their new form.

REF And other phenomena I saw in regard to the lightnings: how some of the stars arise and become lightnings and cannot part with their new form.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The transformation of stars into lightning may describe meteors or shooting stars as understood in ancient cosmology. The inability to 'part with their new form' suggests a permanent transformation — perhaps representing angels or righteous ones who have undergone irreversible glorification.
  2. This single verse closes the first parable's cosmological section. The second parable (beginning in chapter 45) shifts focus from cosmic secrets to the messianic Son of Man figure.
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