1 Enoch 78

LXXVIII. The Sun and Moon: the Waxing and Waning of the Moon.

1And the names of the sun are the following: the first Orjârês, and the second Tômâs.*LXXVIII, LXXIX. The relations of the sun and moon are again described as well as the waxing and waning of the moon.*For Halevy's interpretations of the names see my Commentary in loc. He connects the two names of the sun with the two seasons, cold and hot, in Palestine, and the four names of the moon with its phases. 2And the moon has four names: the first name is Asônjâ, the second Eblâ, the third Benâsê, and the fourth Erâe. 3These are the two great luminaries: their circumference is like the circumference of the heaven, and the size of the circumference of both is alike. 4In the circumference of the sun there are seven portions of light which are added to it more than to the moon, and in definite measures it is transferred till the seventh portion of the sun is exhausted.*In lxxii. 37 and lxxiii. 3 we are told that the sun's light is seven times that of the moon: in lxxiii. 2 that light is added to the moon in due measure. Here we are further told that one-seventh of the sun’s light is gradually transferred to the moon, till the moon is full. 5And they set and enter the portals of the west, and make their revolution by the north, and come forth through the eastern portals on the face of the heaven. 6And when the moon rises one-fourteenth part appears in the heaven: [the light becomes full in her]: on the fourteenth day she accomplishes her light.*ɑ-u. A duplicate of 'accomplishes her light', u is partly untranslatable. β reads in this verse 'and when the moon rises, she appears in the heaven, and has a fourteenth part of her light, and on the fourteenth day she accomplishes all her light'.*6-17 The waxing and waning of the moon, the length of the months, etc.*See lxxiii. 5, 6 (notes) for the case of fourteen days' waxing. 7And fifteen parts of light are transferred to her till the fifteenth day (when) her light is accomplished, according to the sign of the year, and she becomes fifteen parts, and the moon grows by (the addition of) fourteenth parts.*See lxxiii. 7, 8 (notes) for the fifteen days' waxing. 8And in her waning (the moon) decreases on the first day to fourteen parts of her light, on the second to thirteen parts of light, on the third to twelve, on the fourth to eleven, on the fifth to ten, on the sixth to nine, on the seventh to eight, on the eighth to seven, on the ninth to six, on the tenth to five, on the eleventh to four, on the twelfth to three, on the thirteenth to two, on the fourteenth to the half of a seventh, and all her remaining light disappears wholly on the fifteenth.*As the moon wanes, her light decreases each day by one-fourteenth part: on the fifteenth the remainder, i.e. one twenty-eighth, vanishes. 9And in certain months the month has twenty-nine days and once twenty-eight.*a reference to the cycle of Callippus, in which the last month in seventy-six years had only 28 days. See my Commentary in loc., and cf. lxxiv. 13-16 for a reference to the octaetris. 10And Uriel showed me another law: when light is transferred to the moon, and on which side it is transferred to her by the sun. 11During all the period during which the moon is growing in her light, she is transferring it to herself when opposite to the sun during fourteen days [her light is accomplished in the heaven], and when she is illumined throughout, her light is accomplished full in the heaven.*The moon waxes over against the sun on the side turned to the sun, i.e. the western side. 12And on the first day she is called the new moon, for on that day the light rises upon her. 13She becomes full moon exactly on the day when the sun sets in the west, and from the east she rises at night, and the moon shines the whole night through till the sun rises over against her and the moon is seen over against the sun.*A true observation. 14On the side whence the light of the moon comes forth, there again she wanes till all the light vanishes and all the days of the month are at an end, and her circumference is empty, void of light. 15And three months she makes of thirty days, and at her time she makes three months of twenty-nine days each, in which she accomplishes her waning in the first period of time, and in the first portal for one hundred and seventy-seven days.*i.e. the first half-year. The author recognizes only two seasons in the year; cf. iii, iv. As often as the moon is in the first portal during the first half-year, she is waning; cf. lxxix. 3, 4. 16And in the time of her going out she appears for three months (of) thirty days each, and for three months she appears (of) twenty-nine each.*i.e. the second half of the year. 17At night she appears like a man for twenty days each time, and by day she appears like the heaven, and there is nothing else in her save her light.*i.e. a human face. Hence perhaps the name Asônjâ in v. 2 (Halevy).