3 Enoch 2 - Metatron Identified
3 Enoch 2
Section: R. Ishmael’s Ascent
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER II
The highest classes of angels make inquiries about R. Ishmael, which are answered by Metatron
R. Ishmael said:
(1) In that hour the eagles’ of the Merkaba, the flaming ‘Ophannim and the Seraphim of consuming fire “asked *“Metatron, saying to him:
g lit. ‘power’ i.e. proclamation of God’s power. 10-10 DF: ‘the Throne of Glory’ ; Ch. ii. 1 E: ‘children’ ‘servants’ corr. 2 DE ins.‘came (and)! 2a-2a Eom.
)10( to say a.song. R. ‘Aqiba, when arriving in the seventh Hall, utters a song of praise acc. to P. R. Ishmael, ch. xviii (referred to above). (ir) opened to me the gates etc. The gates are the gates of treasuries on high ‘under the Throne of Glory’, cf. ch. viii. gates of Shekina is difficult. Jellinek in E suggests the emendation: ‘gates of Understanding’ (cf. ch. viii and the expression ‘the go gates of understanding’). (12) psalm, song…eulogy (Apps). Cf. Zohar, iii. soa, NNW (= chanting). the Holy Chayyoth…answered. The Holy Chayyoth utter the Qédushsha responses; cf. ch. xx. 2. Vide Introduction, section 17a.
Ch. ii. The present chapter setting forth the inquiries of the angels concerning the admittance of R. Ishmael to the high heavens is a travesty of the similar passages, chh. iv. 7, vi. 2, xlviii D 7.
(1) the eagles of the Merkaba. One of the four Chayyoth is described as ‘Eagle’ in accordance with Ezek. i. 10, x. 14. The plural ‘eagles* can be accounted for on the assumption that the tradition here represented holds the view that there existed two (or several) classes of Chayyoth. This may perhaps be hinted at in the preceding chapter, vs. 12: ‘the Chayyoth beneath and above the Throne’. “ The higher and the lower Chayyoth”: Zohar frequ. '''I’wo eagles”: Zohar, iti. 170 b.
6 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CHH. I1, III
(2) “Youth! Why sufferest thou one born of woman to enter and behold the Merkaba??? From which nation, from which tribe is this one? What is his character?”
(3) Metatron answered and said to them:
“From the nation of Israel whom the Holy One, blessed be He, chose for his people *from among seventy tongues (nations)?, from the tribe of Levi, whom he set aside as a contribution? to his name and from the seed of Aaron whom the Holy One, blessed be He, did . choose for his servant and put upon him the crown of priesthood on Sinai”.
(4) Forthwith they spake and said:
‘Indeed, this one is worthy to behold the Merkaba”. SAnd they said®: “‘ Happy is the people that is in such a case!” (Ps. cxliv. 15).
CHAP TER III Metatron has 70 names, but God calls him ‘ Youth’
R. Ishmael said:
(1) ?!In that hourt I asked Metatron, the angel, the Prince of the Presence?: “What is thy name?” (2) He answered me: “I have seventy names, corresponding to the seventy tongues? of the world
2a-2a L om. 3-3 so with D. 4 corr. 4-4 D: ‘who offered heave offerings’ 5-5 DE: ‘as it is written’ Ch. iii. BCL begin with this chapter. 1-1 Bom. 2-2 C: ‘When I had
ascended to the Merkaba, I asked Metatron to write down for me all that has been written concerning the angel, the Prince of the Presence, and thus said I to him’ 3 BCL: ‘nations’
Chh. iti-xvi. The ‘Enoch-Metatron piece’. See Introduction, sections 5 and 8.
Ch. iii, while stating that Metatron has seventy names ‘corresponding to (the number of) nations of the world’ gives the distinction to the name ‘ Youth’ (Na‘ar) as being that by which he is called by his ‘King’, the Holy One. Hereby it forms the introduction to the following chapter which is framed as an explanation of this name as applied to Metatron—the explanation being acc. to that chapter, vs. 10, that Metatron, as identical with Enoch, the son of Jared (Gen. v. 18, 21-24) who was taken up to the heavens and made an angel-prince, is as ‘a youngster and a youth among the other angels and princes (existent from the days of Creation) in days months and years’.
(2) I have seventy names corresponding to the seventy tongues (BCL: nations) of the world. The statement ascribing seventy names to Metatron, occurs also ch. xlviii. D 1, 9 et frequ. (cf. ch. xxix). The seventy names of Metatron are here connected with the seventy tongues (nations) of the world which represent the world in its entirety, i.e. their reason of existence is conceived of as founded on Metatron’s functions as concerned with the nations of the world or with the affairs of the world as a whole. Hence the passage reflects the tradition of Metatron being the Prince of the World. Since the seventy nations are represented in heaven
CH. III] ENOCH-METATRON PIECE 7
and all of them are based upon the name ?Metatron, angel of the Presence5; but *my King? calls me ‘ Youth’ (Na‘ar)”.
4-4. BCL: ‘are similar to’ ‘are a reflection of’ 5-5 B: ‘of my King and my Creator’ C: ‘my King, the Holy One, blessed be He’ DE: ‘the King of the Kings of kings’ L: ‘kings’ (corr. for ‘my king?) 6-6 L: ‘kings’ (corr. for ‘my king’)
by the seventy (or seventy-two) ‘ princes of kingdoms’ (cf.on chh.xvii.8 and xxx. 2), the Prince of the World is depicted as the prince and ruler of these (see ch. xxx) and this function is also assigned to Metatron: chh. x. 3, xvi. 2, xlviii c 9 (cf. notes ad loca). In the last-mentioned passage, ch. xlviiic 9, Metatron’s rulership over the seventy princes is expressly connected with his character of bearer of seventy names and he is there also pictured as wielding executive and governing power over the world and the nations through the seventy princes as agencies. Cf. YR.1: 57 b (quotation from ‘Emeqg ha-mMelek): ‘‘ Metatron is the Prince of the World, for he distributes maintenance to the princes of the nations of the world”. In the rest of the present book Metatron’s rulership is mainly presented in its celestial aspect; he is the prince, ruler and judge of the children of heaven, only implicitly brought into connection with the things terrestrial. Nowhere in this book is he definitely stated to be ‘the Prince of the World’. This term is not used by the present Enoch- Metatron section and in the latter part of the book the ‘Prince of the World’ appears as different from Metatron (see chh, xxx. 2 and xxxviii. 3 and notes).
all of them are based upon the name of my King, the Holy One (acc. to the readings of BCDE[L] and the reading implied by the opening words of ch. iv: “Why art thou called by the name of thy Creator, by seventy names?’). This is another aspect of the origin and import of Metatron’s seventy names: they are a reflection of the seventy names of the Most High (cf. the reading of BCL). The same is stated in chh. xlviii C 9, xlviii D 1, 5, appearing also in the form of the dictum “called by the name of His Master, for ‘my name is in him” (Ex. xxiii. 21)’ and in the ascribing to Metatron of the name ‘the lesser yHwWH”: chh. xii. 5, xlviii D r. There are two lines of ideas to be distinguished here: (1) Metatron’s names are conceived of as ‘based upon’ the Divine Name xkar’ e£oxnv, the Tetragrammaton, which simply means that the different names contain the YHWH or YaH as component part. This is not a trait exclusive to the Metatron-conception, but applied to various other high princes and angels, cf. ch. x. 3 and esp. ch. xxix. 1. (2) Acc. to the other line of thought the seventy names of Metatron are actually one by one the counterparts, images, reflections of the seventy names of the Godhead (cf. ch. xlviii D 5: ‘seventy names of His by which they call the King of Kings of kings in the high heavens’). This is an exclusive feature of the Metatron-picture, as is also the name ‘the Lesser YHWH’.
based upon the name Metatron. This strange expression which is attested only in A occurs also Hek. Zot. Bodl. MICH. 9, fol. 69 b, where it signifies that the divers names are to be understood as referring to the angel-prince known as ‘ Metatron’ (the names given there are such as nos. 6, 46, 84 of ch. xlviii D 1 and ‘ Pisgon, Sigron, Zebodtel etc.’). The expression might, however, also refer to variants of the name ‘ Metatron’, e.g. Mitatron, Mittron, Mitton, Mitmon, ’Atmon, ’Otron, etc.; cf. ch. xlviii D 1 and Yalqut Re’ubeni, 56 b. ‘T’he reading of BCDE is presumably correct here. Cf. above.
my King calls me Youth (Na‘ar). The name Na‘ar is regularly ascribed to Metatron; cf. on ch. xlviii D r. It is also applied to the Prince of the World, TB. Yeb. 16 b. The derivations and explanations of the name differ. The present section (cf. iv. 1, 10), as has already been pointed out, explains it from Metatron’s identity with Enoch. In TB. Yeb. ib. the name ‘ Na‘ar, Youth’ is deduced from Ps. xxxvii. 25: “I have been a youth and now am old”, which is made to refer to the Prince of the World (who was young in the days of Creation). The Tosaphoth on
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