1 Enoch 73

1And after this law I saw another law dealing with the smaller luminary, which is named the Moon.*This chapter and LXXIV treat of the moon's course. 2And her circumference is like the circumference of the heaven, and her chariot in which she rides is driven by the wind, and light is given to her in (definite) measure. 3And her rising and setting change every month: and her days are like the days of the sun, and when her light is uniform (i.e. full) it amounts to the seventh part of the light of the sun.*i.e. the place of her rising and setting. 4And thus she rises. And her first phase in the east comes forth on the thirtieth morning: and on that day she becomes visible, and constitutes for you the first phase of the moon on the thirtieth day together with the sun in the portal where the sun rises.*lit. 'her beginning', i.e. the new moon in the popular sense, in the first day of the visible reappearance.*of the solar month. 5And the one half of her goes forth by a seventh part, and her whole circumference is empty, without light, with the exception of one-seventh part of it, (and) the fourteenth part of her light.*gqu. 'of the fourteenth part' mt,β. +'oi half'g, needlessly, as the fractions are fractions of half in this verse and the next.*5-8. The author's scheme is hard to follow. Apparently the lunar month amounts to 30 days and 29 days alternately, and is divided into two parts. During the first part the moon waxes from new moon to full moon in 14 days when the month is 29 days, and in 15 when the month is 30 days. During the second part it always wanes in 15 days. Again the moon is divided into fourteen parts, i.e. each half surface into seven parts, and the waxing of the moon is due to the successive lighting up of each fourteenth part. Verses 5, 6 suppose the period from new to full moon to be 14 days, verse 7 supposes it to be 15 days. 6And when she receives one-seventh part of the half of her light, her light amounts to one-seventh part and the half thereof.*²° gmqu,d. 'the thirteenth part ' t,l. 'the fourteenth part' β-dklo. Apparently 1⁄7 + 1⁄14 of 1⁄2=3⁄28 of the whole moon are lighted the first day when there are only 14 days to the full moon. 7And she sets with the sun, and when the sun rises the moon rises with him and receives the half of one part of light, and in that night in the beginning of her morning [in the commencement of the lunar day] the moon sets with the sun, and is invisible that night with the fourteen parts and the half of one of them.*i.e. one twenty-eighth. When the waxing takes 15 days, the moon only receives one twenty-eighth part, and so is practically invisible, the first morning: on the second day she attains to one-fourteenth, and becomes visible. 8And she rises on that day with exactly a seventh part, and comes forth and recedes from the rising of the sun, and in her remaining days she becomes bright in the (remaining) thirteen parts. LXXIV. The Lunar Year.