3 Enoch 11
3 Enoch 11
Section: Metatron Revealed (Enoch Transformed)
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER XI God reveals all mysteries and secrets to Metatron
R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me: (1) ‘Henceforth the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed to me? all
15-15 L om. 16-16 E: ‘are’ 17 B ins. “in my world’ Ch. xi. 1-1 BCL: ‘the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed to me, the spring (well) of’
cf. ch. xlviii D 1 (no. ros) and 2 (‘all the treasuries of wisdom are committed in his hand’). The functions of the Prince of Wisdom are then naturally merged into the conception of Metatron: Metatron is the Prince of Wisdom. Cf. on ch. xviii. 11, 16. Metatron instructed in the ‘secrets’ is the subject of the following chapter. There it is God himself who instructs him. Cf. in 2 En. xxxiii. 11, 12: ’ two angels Ariukh and Pariukh appointed by God as guardians of the Enoch-literature’’.
(6) I have set him over all the treasuries of…‘Araboth. Cf. ch. viii. Acc. to the present chapter Metatron’s initiation in the wisdoms of heaven and earth and his disposal over the treasuries is a necessary condition for (and corollary of) his office as God’s representative. Stores of Life: ch. viii. 1, 4 Ez. viii. 54, Alph. R. ’ Aqiba, BH. iii. 26, 44.
Ch. xi. That METATRON IS IN POSSESSION OF ALL SECRETS AND MYSTERIES is an essential feature of the traditions concerning him. Cf. the other Enoch-Metatron piece of the present book: ch. xlviii € 7 (and 4). He is called the ’ Knower of Secrets? ib. and Hek. R. (“wise in the secrets and Master of the mysteries”). ”he same is implied in chh. viii, x. 5. As a ‘knower of secrets’ he is also the ‘revealer of secrets’. This is the eighty-eighth of the names in ch. xlviii D 1 and the sixty-seventh in the treatise Names of Metatron, Bodl. MICH. 256, foll. 29 a-44 a. He is the Prince of Wisdom and the Prince of Understanding: ch. xlviii D 1 (105), 2, 6. He reveals the ‘secret’ to Moses: 2b. 7. He is the guide and revealer of secrets to R. Ishmael acc. to the frame of the present book, to R. Ishmael and R. ‘Aqiba (e. a.) acc. to Hek. R. (in the form of ‘ Surya’), Hek. Zot., Shi‘ur Qoma, the Apocalyptic Fragment, BH. v. 167—169, and in various scattered fragments (see Introduction). Also called ‘guide of all treasuries’, e.g. BH. ii. 117. Besides it needs hardly to be pointed out that the revelation of secrets to Enoch and Enoch as possessor of and revealer of heavenly secrets is a prominent: trait of the 1 and 2 En. Cf. also CHARLES, 1 En. 4-
(1) Henceforth the Holy One. ..revealedto me. Acc. to vs. 5 of the preceding chapter the angel(s) called the Prince of Wisdom and Prince of Understanding are the instructors of Enoch-Metatron. Here it is the Holy One himself who reveals the secrets to him. An important parallel to this is found in 2 En. xxiii, xxiv. In ch. xxiii the angel Vretil tells Enoch of ’ all the works of heaven and earth, etc. etc.’, in ch. xxiv again it is God himself who reveals to Enoch ‘the secrets of Creation’, The reason of the change is there to be seen in the explicit statement that these latter secrets are not even revealed to the angels and could therefore be handed over to Enoch only by God himself. It is probable that a similar idea has been at work here. It is at least certain that Metatron was thought to receive more
CHH. X, XI] ENOCH-METATRON PIECE 31
the mysteries of Tora and all the secrets of wisdom ?and all the depths of the Perfect Law?; and all living beings’ thoughts of heart and all the secrets of the universe? and all the secrets* of Creation were revealed unto me even as they are revealed unto *the Maker of Creation’.
(2) And I watched intently? to behold “the secrets of the depth and the wonderful mystery”. °ABL: C: Before a man did think? insecret, Before a man did think, I knew I saw® (it) and before a man what was in his thought. (3) And made a thing I beheld it. (3) And there was no thing above on high there was no thing on high nor in nor below in the deep hidden the depth of the world hidden from me. from me. !? :
2-2 so BEL (L om. ‘Perfect’) A: lacuna. C reads: ‘all the secrets of understanding and all the depths of the mysteries of the Tora’ 3-3 BCL om. 4 BC: ‘orders’ 5-5 C: ‘the Creator of the work(s) of the Beginning’ 6 lit. ‘much’ BCL om. DE: ‘from that time onward’ 7-7 perhaps to be emended with G: ‘the deep secrets and the wonderful mysteries’ 8 B ins. ‘I knew, and before he did think’ 8a L: ‘I knew’ and om. ‘in secret’ 9-9 DE corr. from ‘before a man did think etc.’ to the end of the chapter. 10 B adds: ‘from the Creator of the World alone’
of the ‘secrets’ than the angels in general; cf. ch. viii. 2 end: ‘I was honoured and adorned with all these…things more than all the children of heaven’, referring inter alia to ‘wisdom, understanding, knowledge’.
all the mysteries of Tora and all the secrets of wisdom and all the depths of the Perfect Law. The mysteries of the Tora is a technical term, denoting THE INNER ESSENCE OF WHICH THE TORA ITSELF IS AN EXPRESSION, FORM, PHENOMENON. ‘They are not to be defined as the sum of mystical interpretations of the Tora: the mystical interpretation aims at finding these secrets by the study of the Tora, in which they are embodied (cf. e.g. Baraiia of R. Meir, Pirge Ab. vi: * Whosoever is busy in the Tora for its own sake. . .to him the mysteries of Tora are revealed ”). ‘They are in fact the ‘mysteries of mysteries’, the fundament not ‘only’ of the Tora but of the universe, of heaven and earth: cf. ch. xlviii D 8 and note ad locum. In the term are thus comprised also the following: the secrets of Wisdom and the depths of the Perfect Law and also the Secrets of Creation. See Introduction, section 14 (1). Cf. Alph. R. ‘Aqiba, BH. iii. 43, 44, acc. to which God revealed to Moses (since Moses received the Tora on Sinai he was also thought to have received the ‘Secrets’ either directly from God or through Metatron; cf. ch. xlviii D 3, 7 seq.) ‘the Tora…and opened to him the treasuries of Wisdom, which the Holy One…revealed to him, that he might see by His Wisdom all the orders of Creation…’ Perfect Law. The expression is derived from Ps. xix. 8. Cf. Alph. R. ‘Agiba, BH. iii. 14: “But for the Perfect Law (Tord Temimd) the whole world would not subsist” and vice versa.
all living beings’ thoughts of heart… (2) Before a man did think, I knew, etc. (3) …no thing…on high nor…in the deep hidden from me. Metatron seems here to be invested with the attribute of omniscience proper only to ‘the Maker of the World’. All past, present and future events are recorded with God (on the Curtain cf. on ch. xlv. 1). These were also shown to Moses acc. to the passage Alph, R. ‘Aqiba, BH. iii. 44, referred to above.
32 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. XII