Come let us reason together – Enoch chapter 78

By Yosiah Yedidiah

I have had many, many people recently showing difficulty understanding this passage of
Enoch. Many have been wrongly interpreting this to prove a dark or first crescent new
moon. When read and understood correctly, nothing could be further from the truth.
This passage in fact clearly proves the new moon is the full moon by reason of splitting
the moon cycle into 2-14 day portions which all who study the moon cycle should know
is in fact as Enoch states based on the minimum 28 day moon. This allows there after 1 or
two days to be added depending on a 29 day or 30 day cycle, which is of course the entire
purpose and length of a new moon feast (2 or 3 days read 1Sam 20).
Let us carefully and prayerfully reason this passage together. You will find all my input
RED in brackets and I have underlined in bold all significant wording; all other bracketed
and quotationed wording is original in the R.H. Charles translation.

[Enoch Chapter 78]

1, 2 And the names of the sun are the following: the first Orjares, and the second Tomas.
And the moon has four names: the first name is Asonja, the second Ebla, the third
Benase, and the fourth 3 Erae. These are the two great luminaries: their circumference is
like the circumference of the 4 heaven, and the size of the circumference of both is alike.
In 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 s transferred till the seventh portion
of the sun is exhausted. And they set and enter the portals of the west, and make their
revolution by the north, and come forth through the eastern portals 6 on the face of the
heaven. And when the moon rises [in the East 1] one-fourteenth part appears in the
heaven: 7 [the light becomes full in her]: on the fourteenth day she accomplishes her
light. And 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 8 parts [she is now full2]. And in her waning
[Waning3] (the moon) decreases on the first day [day 2 after the full moon] 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 9 fourteenth to the half of a seventh, and
all her remaining light disappears wholly on the fifteenth [Conjunction4]. And 10 in
certain months the month has twenty-nine days and once twenty-eight. And Uriel showed
me another law: when light is transferred to the moon, and on which side it is transferred
to her by the sun. During all the period during which the moon is growing in her light
[after conjunction5], she is transferring it to herself when opposite [only the full moon6]to
the sun during fourteen days [her light is accomplished in the heaven, 12 and when she is
illumined throughout, her light is accomplished full in the heaven. And on the first 13
day she is called the new moon, for on that day the light [all the light7] rises upon her.
She 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. [full moon is the new moon8] On
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 15 light [Chodesh - cycle9]. And 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 16 portal for one hundred and seventy-
seven days. And 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. At 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.

Footnotes:
1. It is the full moon only that rises in the East, not the first crescent or any other
new moon theory to my knowledge.
2. She has now accomplished her light becoming full, having just completed the
waxing phase that comes after the conjunction.
3. Note well Enoch is describing the moon waxing from conjunction 14 days to full,
then waning from full 14 days back to conjunction.
4. Enoch now states that the 15th day the moon disappears completely which can
only mean 15 days from the full moon because that’s when it wanes. This is of
course starting the fifteen day count as Enoch did, from the new full moon day,
then the next day is day 14 of the downward 14 day count to conjunction.
5. Having just aligned with the sun, and now beginning to depart from it, she is now
again receiving her light from the sun, working her way to opposite from him.
6. We must understand this again proves the full moon is the new moon because it is
the only time the sun and the moon are truly opposite the world from one another!
This cannot be speaking of the conjunction period because that is when the sun
and moon are aligned, hence the term conjunction!
7. She is now called the new moon, having completed 14 days working from
conjunction more and more opposite the sun, until this day, all of the suns light is
upon her!
8. As if the fact that this portion of verse 13 literally states “the full moon is the new
moon” is not proof enough, can anyone really argue that thus far this entire
chapter has been describing the moon cycle from conjunction which is dark or
empty to a full new moon? Let those who have ears hear!
9. I must admit the word translated as “Month” here is very misleading at least until
one realizes that in Hebrew, there is no such word. In Hebrew the word used here
is “Chodesh” and is defined and used as follows:
H2320
‫חדש‬
chôdesh
kho'-desh
From H2318; the new moon; by implication a month: - month (-ly), new moon.

The chodesh is from the following root - chadash

H2318
‫חדש‬
châdash
khaw-dash'
A primitive root; to be new; causatively to rebuild: - renew, repair.

Based on this we must realize that in Hebrew when we are referring to any part of the
29 or 30 day Chodesh moon cycle, from which the English word “Month” derives, we
would have to use the same word – chodesh, and the meaning would be based on the
context. This is because Hebrew and in fact most ancient languages are strictly
contextual. This means that the reader must determine the context in which the writer
is using the exact same word.

I therefore submit for your consideration that what Enoch is referring to here is the
“Mid-point of the chodesh cycle” we so fondly call a month, and is therefore again
describing the conjunction phase when “there again she wanes till all the light
vanishes and all the days of the month [half way point of the chodesh cycle] are at an
end, and her circumference is empty, void of light.

Let those who have ears hear, respectfully – Yosiah

You may also read my in depth interpretation of Enoch 78:13-15 at

http://www.scribd.com/doc/26622545/Yosiah-on-Enoch-78