1 Enoch / Chapter 75

1 Enoch 75

9 verses • Ge'ez (Ethiopic)

Translator's Introduction

What This Chapter Is About

The leaders of the stars and the heads of the seasons are described. Four intercalary days separate the four quarters of the year. The chapter explains how these extra days belong to the star-leaders and stand apart from the regular 360-day count, bringing the total to 364.

What Makes This Chapter Remarkable

The explicit identification of four intercalary days as structurally distinct from the twelve 30-day months provides the clearest explanation of how the 364-day calendar works: (12 × 30) + 4 = 364. These four days are assigned to the 'leaders' — the star-chiefs who govern the solstices and equinoxes — giving them a quasi-sacred status above ordinary days.

Translation Friction

The relationship between the 'leaders of the heads of the thousands' (stars) and the four intercalary days is obscure. Whether these leaders are individual stars, constellations, or purely calendrical markers is debated. The text's cosmology blurs the line between astronomical observation and angelic hierarchy.

Connections

1 Enoch 72:13, 19, 25, 31 — the four 31-day months containing the intercalary days. Jubilees 6:23-29 — the four memorial days dividing the year. 4Q394 (4QMMT) — the 364-day calendar as the basis for legal disputes with the Jerusalem temple.

1 Enoch 75:1

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

The leaders who head the thousands, placed over all creation and all the stars, also govern the four intercalary days. These are inseparable from their office according to the reckoning of the year. They render service on the four days that are not counted in the regular reckoning of the year.

REF And the leaders of the heads of the thousands, who are placed over the whole creation and over all the stars, have also to do with the four intercalary days, being inseparable from their office, according to the reckoning of the year, and these render service on the four days which are not reckoned in the reckoning of the year.

Notes & Key Terms 1 term

Key Terms

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Four additional days at the solstices and equinoxes that bring the 360-day base year to 364

Translator Notes

  1. The four intercalary days exist outside the normal 360-day count — they are 'not reckoned in the reckoning of the year' yet are essential to the year's completion. This liminal status gives them special significance, like the extra day in a leap year but built permanently into the system.
1 Enoch 75:2

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

Because of these days people go wrong, for the luminaries truly serve at the world-stations: one in the first gate, one in the third gate of heaven, one in the fourth gate, and one in the sixth gate. The exactness of the year is accomplished through its separate three hundred and sixty-four stations.

REF And owing to them men go wrong therein, for those luminaries truly render service on the world-stations, one in the first portal, one in the third portal of the heaven, one in the fourth portal, and one in the sixth portal, and the exactness of the year is accomplished through its separate three hundred and sixty-four stations.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The accusation that 'people go wrong' because of the intercalary days is the Astronomical Book's polemical core — those who use a different calendar (whether the 354-day lunar or 365-day solar) are in error. The four gates mentioned (1, 3, 4, 6) correspond to the two solstices and two equinoxes.
1 Enoch 75:3

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

The angel Uriel — whom the Lord of glory set forever over all the luminaries of heaven, in heaven and in the world — showed me the signs, the times, the years, and the days. The luminaries rule over the face of heaven and are seen on earth. They are leaders for day and night: the sun, moon, and stars, and all the serving creatures that make their circuits in all the chariots of heaven.

REF For the signs and the times and the years and the days the angel Uriel showed to me, whom the Lord of glory hath set for ever over all the luminaries of the heaven, in the heaven and in the world, that they should rule on the face of the heaven and be seen on the earth, and be leaders for the day and the night, i.e. the sun, moon, and stars, and all the ministering creatures which make their revolution in all the chariots of the heaven.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. Uriel's permanent appointment over all luminaries establishes an angelic governance structure for the cosmos. The luminaries are not autonomous forces but subordinate servants ('ministering creatures') operating under divine command through angelic administration.
1 Enoch 75:4

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

Likewise Uriel showed me twelve doors open in the circumference of the sun's chariot in heaven, through which the rays of the sun break forth. From them warmth is spread over the earth when they are opened at their appointed times.

REF In like manner twelve doors Uriel showed me, open in the circumference of the sun's chariot in the heaven, through which the rays of the sun break forth: and from them is warmth diffused over the earth, when they are opened at their appointed seasons.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The twelve doors in the sun's chariot — distinct from the six gates of rising and setting — may represent the twelve months or the twelve zodiacal segments. Heat radiates through these doors on schedule, connecting the calendar to the agricultural cycle of warmth and cold.
1 Enoch 75:5

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

The same applies to the winds and the spirit of the dew when they are opened, standing open in the heavens at the ends.

REF And for the winds and the spirit of the dew when they are opened, standing open in the heavens at the ends.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. Wind and dew are governed by the same gate-and-door architecture as the luminaries — weather is part of the cosmic calendar, not separate from it.
1 Enoch 75:6

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

As for the twelve gates in heaven at the ends of the earth — from them go forth the sun, moon, and stars, and all the works of heaven in the east and in the west.

REF As for the twelve portals in the heaven, at the ends of the earth, out of which go forth the sun, moon, and stars, and all the works of heaven in the east and in the west.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The twelve gates (six east, six west) are placed 'at the ends of the earth,' reinforcing the flat-earth cosmology where the firmament meets the earth at the horizon.
1 Enoch 75:7

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

Many windows are open to their left and right. Each window produces warmth at its appointed season, corresponding to the doors from which the stars come forth as God commanded them, and where they set according to their number.

REF There are many windows open to the left and right of them, and one window at its (appointed) season produces warmth, corresponding (as these do) to those doors from which the stars come forth according as He has commanded them, and wherein they set corresponding to their number.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The windows, doors, and gates form a layered architectural system in the firmament — the cosmos is a building with precisely engineered openings. Stars emerge 'as He has commanded them,' reinforcing the theme of cosmic obedience to divine law.
1 Enoch 75:8

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

I saw chariots in heaven running through the world above those gates in which revolve the stars that never set.

REF And I saw chariots in the heaven, running in the world, above those portals in which revolve the stars that never set.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. The circumpolar stars — those that never set — have their own chariots above the normal gate system. These would be the stars near the celestial north pole, visible year-round from northern latitudes. Their perpetual visibility made them symbols of constancy and faithfulness.
1 Enoch 75:9

Ge'ez text per Charles/Knibb editions

One of them is larger than all the rest — it is the one that makes its course through the entire world, above and beneath.

REF And one is larger than all the rest, and it is that which makes its course through the entire world, above and beneath.

Notes & Key Terms

Translator Notes

  1. This great star or chariot circling 'the entire world, above and beneath' may be the celestial pole itself, or possibly the Milky Way, which appears to encircle the entire sky. Its unique status — traversing the whole cosmos — makes it the supreme stellar entity below the sun and moon.
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