Ibises and Egypt in the Animal Apocalypse: A new identification

Abstract

The allegorical quartet of birds which prey upon the sheep in 1 Enoch 90.2 have been variously identified by early-modern and modern scholars, with no solution reaching consensus. This article proposes the “hobay” should be translated as “ibises” and accordingly represent an Egyptian people-group. I first advance this argument with the help of a parallel usage of terminology in the Greek Testament of Judah. I next confirm the utility of this identification with a brief survey of roughly contemporary primary sources (textual and material) which connect ibises and Egypt. Finally, with these cultural discourses in mind, I re-integrate the ibises into the Animal Apocalypse, suggesting that the recasting of a graceful national bird as a carnivorous monster is a deviously clever imperial critique.