The fourth heaven was a machine.
The angels carried Enoch upward and showed him the workings of the sun and moon — not as distant lights in the sky, but as colossal engines of fire and gold, driven by angels, running on wheels, passing through gates of enormous size.
The sun's light was greater than the moon's. Its wheel spun ceaselessly, fast as wind, and it never rested — not by day, not by night. Four great stars flanked it on the right, four more on the left, each commanding a thousand lesser stars beneath it. Eight thousand stars in total, issuing alongside the sun in an endless procession of light.
By day, fifteen myriads of angels attended the sun. By night, a thousand. Six-winged angels flew before the sun's wheel into fiery flames, and one hundred angels kindled the sun each morning and set it ablaze.
Then Enoch saw the creatures. The Phoenixes and the Chalkydri — marvellous beings with feet and tails like lions, heads like crocodiles, and skin that shimmered purple like the rainbow. Each was nine hundred measures in size, with twelve wings like an angel's wings. They attended the sun, bearing heat and dew as God commanded them.
The angels brought Enoch to the eastern gates — six gates through which the sun emerged each day, each gate sixty-one and a quarter stadia wide. He measured them himself. He watched the sun pass through according to the seasons, the months, the circuit of the year. Then the western gates, six more, where the sun descended and hid its brightness beneath the earth. Four hundred angels guarded the sun's crown while it traveled underground for seven hours each night.
At the eighth hour of the night, the sun returned to the east. The Phoenixes and Chalkydri burst into song. Every bird on earth fluttered its wings, rejoicing at the giver of light. Morning broke at God's command.
Then they showed him the moon — twelve great gates, crowned from west to east, through which it traveled on its own slower circuit. The solar year: three hundred sixty-five and a quarter days. The lunar year: three hundred fifty-four. Twelve days separated them — the lunar epacts that ancient astronomers would spend centuries trying to reconcile.
And in the midst of the heavens, Enoch heard armed angelic soldiers singing with instruments — drums and organs and voices so sweet, so layered, so unlike anything on earth, that he could not describe them. He could only listen, astonished, as the music of the fourth heaven washed over him.
1 Those men took me, and led me up on to the fourth heaven, and showed me all the successive goings, and all the rays of the light of sun and moon.
2 And I measure their goings, and compared their light, and saw that the suns light is greater than the moons.
3 Its circle and the wheels on which it goes always, like the wind going past with very marvellous speed, and day and night it has no rest.
4 Its passage and return (are accompanied by) four great stars, (and) each star has under it a thousand stars, to the right of the suns wheel, (and by) four to the left, each having under it a thousand stars, altogether eight thousand, issuing with the sun continually.
5 And by day fifteen myriads of angels attend it, and by night A thousand.
6 And six-winged ones issue with the angels before the suns wheel into the fiery flames, and a hundred angels kindle the sun and set it alight.
1 And I looked and saw other flying elements of the sun, whose names (are) Phoenixes and Chalkydri, marvellous and wonderful, with feet and tails in the form of a lion, and a crocodiles head, their appearance (is) empurpled, like the rainbow; their size (is) nine hundred measures, their wings (are like) those of angels, each (has) twelve, and they attend and accompany the sun, bearing heat and dew, as it is ordered them from God.
2 Thus (the sun) revolves and goes, and rises under the heaven, and its course goes under the earth with the light of its rays incessantly.
1 Those men bore me away to the east, and placed me at the suns gates, where the sun goes forth according to the regulation of the seasons and the circuit of the months of the whole year, and the number of the hours day and night.
2 And I saw six gates open, each gate having sixty-one stadia and A quarter of one stadium, and I measured (them) truly, and understood their size (to be) so much, through which the sun goes forth, and goes to the west, and is made even, and rises throughout all the months, and turns back again from the six gates according to the succession of the seasons; thus (the period) of the whole year is finished after the returns of the four seasons.
1 And again those men led me away to the western parts, and showed me six great gates open corresponding to the eastern gates, opposite to where the sun sets, according to the number of the days three hundred and sixty-five and A quarter.
2 Thus again it goes down to the western gates, (and) draws away its light, the greatness of its brightness, under the earth; for since the crown of its shining is in heaven with the Lord, and guarded by four hundred angels, while the sun goes round on wheel under the earth, and stands seven great hours in night, and spends half (its course) under the earth, when it comes to the eastern approach in the eighth hour of the night, it brings its lights, and the crown of shining, and the sun flames forth more than fire.
1 Then the elements of the sun, called Phoenixes and Chalkydri break into song, therefore every bird flutters with its wings, rejoicing at the giver of light, and they broke into song at the command of the Lord.
2 The giver of light comes to give brightness to the whole world, and the morning guard takes shape, which is the rays of the sun, and the sun of the earth goes out, and receives its brightness to light up the whole face of the earth, and they showed me this calculation of the suns going.
3 And the gates which it enters, these are the great gates of the calculation of the hours of the year; for this reason the sun is a great creation, whose circuit (lasts) twenty-eight years, and begins again from the beginning.
1 Those men showed me the other course, that of the moon, twelve great gates, crowned from west to east, by which the moon goes in and out of the customary times.
2 It goes in at the first gate to the western places of the sun, by the first gates with (thirty)-one (days) exactly, by the second gates with thirty-one days exactly, by the third with thirty days exactly, by the fourth with thirty days exactly, by the fifth with thirty-one days exactly, by the sixth with thirty-one days exactly, by the seventh with thirty days exactly, by the eighth with thirty-one days perfectly, by the ninth with thirty-one days exactly, by the tenth with thirty days perfectly, by the eleventh with thirty-one days exactly, by the twelfth with twenty-eight days exactly.
3 And it goes through the western gates in the order and number of the eastern, and accomplishes the three hundred and sixty-five and a quarter days of the solar year, while the lunar year has three hundred fifty-four, and there are wanting (to it) twelve days of the solar circle, which are the lunar epacts of the whole year.
4 Thus, too, the great circle contains five hundred and thirty-two years.
5 The quarter (of a day) is omitted for three years, the fourth fulfills it exactly.
6 Therefore they are taken outside of heaven for three years and are not added to the number of days, because they change the time of the years to two new months towards completion, to two others towards diminution.
7 And when the western gates are finished, it returns and goes to the eastern to the lights, and goes thus day and night about the heavenly circles, lower than all circles, swifter than the heavenly winds, and spirits and elements and angels flying; each angel has six wings.
8 It has a sevenfold course in nineteen years.
1 In the midst of the heavens I saw armed soldiers, serving the Lord, with tympana and organs, with incessant voice, with sweet voice, with sweet and incessant (voice) and various singing, which it is impossible to describe, and (which) astonishes every mind, so wonderful and marvellous is the singing of those angels, and I was delighted listening to it.
