1 Enoch 78
Study resource: not ScriptureR. H. Charles translation (1917) · public domain
1And the names of the sun are the following: the first Orjârês, and the second Tômâs.
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.
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.
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.
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.
9And in certain months the month has twenty-nine days and once twenty-eight.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The chapter, studied
Counting the Moon Down to Nothing
Enoch records mysterious names given to the sun and the moon, then returns to the moon's changing light in exact daily fractions: fourteen parts to full, then one fewer part each day of waning until, on the fifteenth day, "all her remaining light disappears wholly." He notes that months run twenty-nine or thirty days, and that Uriel showed him from which side the sun's light is transferred to the moon.
This chapter is the fullest working of the moon's phase-arithmetic in the book, walking the waning moon down day by day, fourteen parts, thirteen, twelve, all the way to none, almost like a lesson meant to be memorized. The line "there is nothing else in her save her light" denies the moon any light of its own; every bit of it is borrowed from the sun, consistent with how chapter 73 already framed her.
The names given to sun and moon (Orjares and Tomas for the sun; four names for the moon) belong to a wider ancient habit of naming heavenly powers, distinct from Genesis's plain naming: "God made two great lights… the sun… the moon" — which pointedly withholds proper names from sun and moon, a concern this very book raises explicitly two chapters later.
A reader working through the Astronomical Book should see chapter 78 as the technical peak of the moon material: after this the text pivots from description to warning, in chapters 80-82, about what happens when this fixed order breaks down.
Doors into the 66
- Genesis 1:16 — Genesis names the two lights only by function, never by proper name: a restraint this chapter's mythic naming of sun and moon stands against.
Teachers on this ground
R. H. Charles
The Book of Enoch (1917)
The public-domain translation this shelf reads, with the critical introduction the field still builds on.
Johnny Enlow
The Book of Enoch: Paraphrase and Commentary (2025)
A living teacher's paraphrase of the whole book with his own running commentary, from the prophetic stream.
1And the names of the sun are the following: the first Orjârês, and the second Tômâs.
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.
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.
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.
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.
9And in certain months the month has twenty-nine days and once twenty-eight.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The language it was written in
Aramaic (the Qumran fragments' language); parts possibly Hebrew. The Parables (chs. 37–71) have no Qumran witness and their original language is debated.
What survives, and where
Aramaic: Dead Sea Scrolls
Eleven fragmentary manuscripts from Qumran Cave 4 covering every section except the Parables (3rd c. BC – 1st c. AD).
Greek
Substantial portions: chs. 1–32 (Codex Panopolitanus), quotations in Syncellus, and the Chester Beatty papyrus of the Epistle.
Ge’ez (Ethiopic)
The only complete text, preserved by the Ethiopian church, whose canon receives the book; the base of every full translation.
What you are reading here
R. H. Charles's 1917 English translation, made from the Ge’ez against the Greek and Aramaic evidence then known — public domain, quotable in full.
No tagged word floor exists for the Aramaic or Ge’ez text; word-by-word study on this shelf awaits a future ingest. What stands here is the manuscript story itself.