3 Enoch 13
3 Enoch 13
Section: Metatron Revealed (Enoch Transformed)
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER XIII
God writes with a flaming style on Metatron’s crown the cosmic letters by which heaven and earth were created
R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the angel, the Prince of the Presence, the Glory of all heavens, said to me:
(1) Because of the ‘great love and’ mercy with which the Holy One, blessed be He, loved 2and cherished? me more than all the children of heaven, He wrote with his finger with a flaming style upon the crown on my head the letters by which were created Sheaven and earth, the seas and rivers?, the mountains and hills, the planets and constellations ?, the lightnings, winds, earthquakes Sand voices (thunders)$, the snow and hail, the storm-wind and the
C OM. CHH. XIII AND XIV. 1-1 so with BDEL. A: ‘love of the Holy One, blessed be He, and the’ 2-2 L om. 3-3 ins. with BDEL. A om. 4—4. BL om. 5 B ins. ‘the sun and the moon’ 6—6 L om.
ha-QATAN i 0 in ; But it here denotes nction of being God’s re tative. As His representa- tj igh has conferred upon him part of His esse name. ` Ctf-hòw acc. to later traditions etatron is regarded as part gf the Shes, the body S ot Shekina, “the Shekina is called by his name Metatron, YR. i. 57 a). Further on the significance of the name ‘the Lesser vHWH’ see Introduction,
section 8. (Add. 27199, fol. 114 a: speaking of Metatron.) The expression ‘the little Tan is found in Pistis Sunita (ed. Horner), page 6 (12b) (ed. Schmidt, pp. 7, 8). Cf. Introduction, 8 (p) and 11 H 2 (a).
Ch. xiii. (Cf. the parallel chapter xli.) ON THE CROWN WITH WHICH THE HOLY ONE CROWNED METATRON ACC. TO THE PRECEDING CHAPTER VS. 3, HE WRITES THE MYSTICAL LETTERS “BY WHICH HEAVEN AND EARTH ETC. WERE CREATED”. This is indicated as a distinction assigned to Metatron over ‘all the children of heaven’ (cf. ch. xii. 1). The idea is presumably to denote that Metatron’s crown is the counterpart of the Crown of the Most High, just as Metatron’s throne and curtain (ch. x. 1) are the counterparts of the Divine Throne and Curtain resp. Acc. to Alph. R. ‘Aqiba, BH. iii. 13 and iti. 50, the “‘22 letters by which the whole Torah was given to the Tribes of Israel. . .are engraved with a flaming style on the Fearful Crown (cf. ch. xxix. 1)’’. And the latter passage continues: ‘‘and when the Holy One, blessed be He, desired to create the world, they all went down and stood before Him”. Mass. Hek. vii: “the crown with the Explicit Name is on His (fore)head ”‘.
(1) the letters by which were created heaven and earth. Which are these letters? In three different ways the conception of © Creation by letters’ is expressed: (1) the world was created by the letter Beth, being the first one of the letters of the Tora (Béréshith): Gen. R.i. 14, TF. Chag. 77 ¢, Alph. R. ‘Aqiba, BH. iii. 5: for on the Tora the Creation was based; (2) the letters of the Divine Name are the constituents of the world (Zohar, ii. 76 a b), especially the letters of the YHWH and ‘EHYE, viz. *, 3, n, N. But also in particular the letters Yod and He (common to both these names and found in the name YAH). The biblical passage Is. xxvi. 4
CH. XII] ENOCH-METATRON PIECE 35
tempest; the letters by which were created all “the needs of the world
sand all?” the orders of Creation. | (2) And every single letter ?sent forth? !?time after time as it were!?
“liehtnings, !?time after time as it were! torches, “time after time as it were! flames of fire, time after time!?!! (rays) like [as] the rising of the sun and the moon and the planets.
‘7-7 L on. 8-8 so with BDE. A: ‘upon all’ 9-9 L: ‘flew off’ ro-ro BDE: ‘figures like unto’ or ‘figures of aspects as’ 11-11 DE om.
12-12 B as in 4
(c£. ch. xlii. 4) is ed as support, interpreted thus: ‘By Yöd Hz He created the worlds”. The ‘worlds’: “the world to come with Yod, this world by He” or vice wersa (YR.i. 8b). From the word behibbare’am, read bé Hé béra’ am (by He did He create them), in Gen. ii. 4, support is brought for the statement: ‘by He heaven and earth were created’. The first word of the Tora (Béréshith, read Bard Sheth (He created (by) six) together with the passage Is. xxvi. 4 already mentioned (interpreted: By YH YHWH he created the worlds) are used as support for the creation of heaven and earth and the world by the six letters: 7, i, n, * n, (Ma’ase Bereshith, S. Raziel, Or. 657; foll. (xg b, 20a b). Cf. for further refer- ences: TB. Men. 29 b, TJ. Chag. 77, Gen. R. xii. 2, 9, Mass. Hek. vii, Alph. R. ‘Agiba, BH. tii. 23, 24, 53, 55, 56, YR. i. 4 b, 8b. (3) The world was created by the twenty-two letters (which of course are also regarded as constituting the Divine Name). Pirqe R. Ishm. (Bodl. M1CH. 175, foll. 20 a-26 a, ch. xxi cont.) the statement to this effect is based likewise upon Is. xxvi. 4. The creation of everything in heaven and on earth by means of the twenty-two letters is notedly the fundamental doctrine of the S. Yesira: ‘‘ By means of the 22 letters, by giving them a form and,a shape,” ’ by mixing them and combining them in different ways, God made the Boul of all that which hag been created and of all that which will be” (ii. 2, cited by Abelson in Jewish Mysticism, p. 104). Cf. zb. p. 100 from Ber. 55a: “ Bezalel knew how to join together the letters by means of which the heavens and earth were created ”^. Cf. also the ‘‘Sa‘adya’’ commentary on S. Yesira, ii. 2. As no special letters are named here and no reference is made to the ‘name’, also because the wording suggests a plurality, THE ‘LETTERS’ ARE PRESUMABLY IN THE PRESENT CHAPTER TO BE UNDERSTOOD AS THE 22 LETTERS. In ch. xlviii D 5 the conferment upon Metatron of the twenty-two letters is explicitly stated.
(2) And every single letter sent forth etc. Cf. ch. xxxix. I and ch. xlviii B r, from which it appears as if the reading of L might probably be original: ‘flew off’. Cf. notes ad loca. On ‘the mystical letters? vide Introduction, section 14 (1).
The idea of creation by letters (of the Name) is to be traced back in the Enoch literature to 1 En. Ixix. 14-25: “the hidden Name (enunciated) in the oath. . .and these are the secrets of this oath:…through it the earth was founded…the sea was created…the depths made fast…the sun and moon complete their course” (Charles! ed.).
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10 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. XIV