3 Enoch 6 - Enoch Enlarged and Exalted
3 Enoch 6
Section: Metatron Revealed (Enoch Transformed)
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER VI
Enoch lifted up to heaven together with the Shekina. Angels’ protests answered by God
R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me:
(1) When the Holy One, blessed be He, desired?! to lift me up on high, He first sent ‘Anaphiel H (H = Tetragrammaton), the Prince,
[and he took me from their midst in their sight and carried? me ?in great glory? upon® a fiery chariot with fiery horses, $ervants’ of glory And he lifted me up to the high heavens together with the
Shekina. 1 C: ‘sought me’ 2 so BCDL. A: ‘led me’ 3-3 BCL: ‘on a great kerub’ 3a BCL: ‘in’ 4. BDEL: ‘and a servant’ C: ‘and with songs’
Chh. vi seqq. The translation of Enoch. On the affinities of the representations of Enoch’s translation in 1 En., 2 En., and 3 En. vide Introduction, 7 (a) and (b).
Ch. vi. According to this chapter Enoch was translated together with the Shekina :|the Shekina was removed from earth on account of the idolatry of men The chapter is a sequel to the antecedent chapter; cf. note ib. intr. As was pointed out above, note on v. 14, the connection of the removal of Shekina with the transla- tion of Enoch is also attested in the znd Enoch-Metatron piece, ch. xlviii c r. There, as in ch. vii, it is referred to the sins of the generation of the Flood (ch. iv). Besides, the present chapter contains a new specimen of angelic accusation against man before God or of protest against privileges awarded to man: in this case Enoch’s ascension to the high heavens.
(x) When the Holy One. . .desired to lift me up… He first sent ‘Anaphiel H. For ‘Anaphiel cf. ch. xviiii. 18 and note. Acc. to Hek. R. xxii Anaphiel is the highest of the angels, “‘ higher t 6 Presence and than he”. Ch. xvi here (acc. to reading of BDL) he is the angel sent to ‘punish’ Metatron
with strokes of lashes of fire ‘The meaning of the name; \ Branch of God. is explained
ch. xviii 10. He represents the in the heavens, ramifying through all the fir ents. ia he is also conceived of as protecting Zurde- grammaton (H) is contained in his name, cf. on chh. x. 3,
xxx. I1; cf. Hek. R. xxi. YR. i. 5a (from Sédé Raza): “the ring with the seal of heaven and earth (cf. on ch. xlviii D 5) are entrusted to him and all in heaven and earth kneel down and prostrate themselves before him”
upona fiery chariot with fiery horses. The biblical narrative of Elijah’s ascension to heaven has been suggestive here. In mystical liter
to Elijah are referred to Enoch and vice versa: they are regarded as belonging to the same category Of sa mien, since they Were both removed from earth in their
lifetime. ‘‘1 En. 70 describes Enoch’ s final translation in terms of that of Elijah ” e i En. xlix). (Cf. 1 En. Ixxxix. 52, xciii. 8, 4 Ez. vi. 26, note (m) in Box, Anew
Ezra-Ap. pp. 77 seq.) In later mysticism Elijah is ‘often identified with the ’ twin- brother of Metatron’, Sandalfon, in explicit analogy with the identification of Enoch with Metatron (YR. i. 54. b. 57 b, 58. a; cf. Introduction).
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20 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. VI
(2) As soon as I reached the high heavens, the Holy Chayyoth, the ‘Ophannim, the Seraphim, the Kerubim, the Wheels of the Merkaba (the Galgallim), and the ministers of ‘the consuming fire®, perceiving
my - +, [ of 365,0007% myriads of parasangs, said:
CDEL: «What smellt? of 1
a woman-born is this
and what taste of a 8white drop? that as- cends to the high heavens to minister among dividers”? of
B:
“What is one born of woman between (among) us? The taste of a8$white drop? which ascends to the high heavens to min- ister? among those
A:
“What smell of one born of woman and what taste of a “white drop® (is this) that ascends on high, and (lo, he is merely) a gnat among those
who ‘divide flames who ‘divide flames flames.
(of fire)?” of fire”.
5-5 C: ‘the fire which consumeth fire’ L: ‘the heavenly fire’ ‘the fire above’ 6 BE: ‘spirit’ (‘ruhi’ for “reki’) 7 So BCDEL. A: ‘among smells’ 7a L: ‘5360’ YR. i. 55 b: ‘5380’ and om. ‘myriads’ 8-8 lit. ‘drop of semen’ g read pr“‘el instead of /ithpa‘‘el. 10 E: ‘spirit’ 11 Lins. ‘a drop of’ 12-12 C: ‘here and in (those) cut of flames’ L: ‘between hedges of flames’
(2) the Holy Chayyoth, the ‘Ophannim, the Seraphim, the Kerubim, the Wheels of the Merkaba and the ministers of the consuming fire. This is evidently intended as an enumeration of the highest classes of angels. The classes here mentioned are the five classes of Merkaba-angels of the angelological section, chh. xxi, xxv, xxvi, xxii and xix resp. The ‘ministers of the consuming fire? may refer to the ministering angels in general—whose substance is fire—or to the angels in charge of the fire issuing forth from under the Throne (cf. on ch. xxxii. 4). For the present enumeration cf. the parallel in the following chapter. All these highest classes of angels are here represented as protesting against the privilege awarded to the man Enoch of ascending to the high heavens. Cf. P. R. ’ El. passim. Cf. also Deut. R. xi. 4 (the Galgallim of the Merkaba and the flaming Seraphim praise God for not regarding persons—with reference to Moses).
perceiving my smell etc. For the expression cf. Gen. R. xxxiv. 10: “ God per- ceived the smell of Abraham, the Patriarch, ascending from the furnace. ..of Chananya, Misael and Azaria…the smell of the generation of the religious per- secution”. There it equals ‘foresaw’. Here it perhaps denotes the idea that any intrusion of a lower, unclean element or being into the higher heavens is imme- diately sensed and guarded. against.
What smell of a woman-born…(ACDEL), what is a woman-born between (among) us (B)… Cf. TB. Shabbat, 88b: “R. Yehoshua ben Lewi said: in the hour when Moses ascended on high, the ministering angels said before the Holy One, blessed be He: Master of the World, what is a woman-born among us”, i.e. ‘what has he to do here?’ The expressions ‘one born of woman’ and ‘taste of a drop of semen’ are of course used in a contemptuous sense, denoting the extreme in- significance of man in the eyes of the high angels. what taste of a white drop (A) etc. There is a play here on the two-fold meaning of the word fa‘am, viz. ‘taste’ and ‘reason, ground’ (‘what is the reason that one conceived of a white drop should ascend…’) those who ‘divide flames of fire.’ The expression is deduced from Ps. xxix. 7 and denotes the angel-princes. In Alph. R. ‘Agiba BH. iii. 45, it is used of the ‘ Voice’.
CH. VI] ENOCH-METATRON PIECE 21
(3) The ely Qam blesses be He, paks unto them: 7 servants, my hosts, my Kerubim, my ‘Ophannim, my
Seraphim! Be ye not displeased on account of this! Since all the children of men have denied me “and my great Kingdom and are gone worshipping idols, I have removed my Shekina from among them and have lifted it up on high. But this one whom I have taken from among them is an ELECT ONE among (the inhabitants of) the world and he is equal to all of them in faith, righteousness and perfection of deed? and J] have taken him for (as) a tribute from” my world under all the heavens”.
13-13 so BCDELZ. A: ‘host of (my Kerubim)’ 14-14 L: ‘and worship’
15-15 L: ‘but this one (only) have I taken from my whole world under all the heavens’ 16-16 BC om. 17 so DE. A: ‘beauty, form (tabmth)’
18-18 S, YR. i. 55 b (Pirge Hekaloth): ‘he is the (only) reward that I have received for all my labour under all the heavens’
(3) My servants, my hosts, my Kerubim etc. Cf. ch. i. 8. A close parallel is the answer attributed to God acc. to Hek. R. xxix. 2 (on the protest of the angels against the revelation of the ‘secret’ to the Yorede Merkaba): ‘‘My ministering angels, my servants, be ye not displeased on account of this etc.”
he is equal to all of them in faith, righteousness and perfection of deed states the justification for the translation of Enoch: his merits, his perfection. This is not explicit in ch. iv, but might have been understood. Enoch is worth as much as the whole generation.
I have taken him for a tribute (or: he is my reward, remuneration; YR.). There is a covert allusion here to the destruction of the rest of the generation, hence to the Flood: Enoch ts the only one preserved from the ruin of the first generation, God’s only remuneration for all his labour. Also in the tradition represented by chh. v, vi, Enoch was connected with the Flood (as is explicitly stated in the parallel ch. xlviii C 1, several times referred to). The original tradition seems to have been somewhat like this: Owing to the general downfall of the first generation, caused by the idolatry arising among men with Enosh and his followers—an idolatry inspired by the demons or fallen angels—Shekina was removed from earth, and on the removal of the Shekina followed the destruction of the entire race in the waters of the Flood. One righteous man, Enoch, was exempted from the general fate of his contemporaries: he was taken up to the heavens together with the Shekina.
The aspect in which Enoch’s translation is seen here is his being the tribute from the first generation, God’s remuneration—the Creation of the first generation had not been in vain. In ch. iv it is seen from the aspect of the function assigned to Enoch of being a witness before coming generations, in the world to come, to the sinfulness and corruption of the generation that was ultimately destroyed in the waters of the Flood.
22 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. VII