1 Enoch

Ethiopic Book of Enoch

About this book

Chapter 30

1 And beyond these, I traveled far to the east, and I saw another place, a valley full of water.⁠ 2 There, there was a tree, the color of fragrant trees such as the mastic.⁠ 3 Along the sides of those valleys, I saw fragrant cinnamon. And beyond these, I continued to the east.

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Texts in conversation

Compare 1 Enoch 30:3 and Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 24:15

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Deuterocanon

Summary

In Sirach, personified Wisdom describes herself as cassia, myrrh, and fragrant incense. 1 Enoch reshapes this into a cosmic tradition, where the traveler passes these same elements at the edge of the earth.

Passages

1 Enoch 30:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Ethiopic Book of Enoch

1 And beyond these, I traveled far to the east, and I saw another place, a valley full of water. 2 There, there was a tree, the color of fragrant trees such as the mastic. 3 Along the sides of those valleys, I saw fragrant cinnamon. And beyond these, I continued to the east.

325 BCE – 100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Enoch

Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 24:15

Deuterocanon · Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus

14 I was exalted like a palm tree on the seashore,
like rose bushes in Jericho,
and like a beautiful olive tree in the plain.
I was exalted like a plane tree. 15 Like cinnamon and aspalathus,
I have given a scent to perfumes.
Like choice myrrh, I spread a pleasant fragrance,
like galbanum, onycha, stacte,
and like the smell of frankincense in the tabernacle. 16 Like the terebinth, I stretched out my branches.
My branches are glorious and graceful.

195–175 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach

References

... Ben Sira’s description of wisdom in 24:13-17 is also similar to depictions of flora associated with Eden in other Second Temple Jewish literature. 1 Enoch, for example, portrays the trees located just outside of the Garden of Righteousness (Eden) in a similar manner (1 Enoch 29-32). In both Ben Sira (24:15) and 1 Enoch, the trees are described as aromatic (ἀρωμάτων; 1 Enoch 29:2; 30:2-3; 31:1, 3; 32:1) and associated with specific fragrances including cinnamon (κιννάμωμον; 1 Enoch 30:3; 32:1; compare Exodus 30:32), myrrh (σμύρνας; 1 Enoch 29:2), onyx, and galbanum (χαλβάνη; 1 Enoch 31:1). ...

Eric Raymond Naizer, “Adam, Humanity, and Angels: Early Jewish Conceptions of the Elect and Humankind Based on Genesis 1–3” (diss., Florida State University, 2013), 81.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

1 Enoch108 chapters

Compare 1 Enoch 30:3 and Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 24:15

Summary

Passages

1 Enoch 30:3

Jesus Ben Sira, Sirach 24:15

References

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