3 Enoch 27

3 Enoch 27
Section: Metatron’s Rank and Cosmic Form
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)

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CHAPTER XXVII RADWERIEL, the keeper of the Book of Records

R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Angel tof H, the Prince of the

Presence, said to me: (1) Above the Seraphim there is one prince, exalted above all the

13 E adds: ‘of Glory’ 14-14 so DE. A: ‘he may not present them’ Ch. xxvii. 1-1 Hom.

they knew beforehand the decrees and the reasons of the decrees. Cf. chh. xxviii. 4, x. 1, xlv. 1, 2 and notes resp., xvili. 16 and note. A technical term for this knowledge of the Divine secrets was the expression ‘‘ know from inside the Curtain” or “hear from behind the Curtain”. Cf. Chag. 16 a (concerning the ministering angels), Chibbut ha Qeber, iv (of the angel of death), Ma’yan Chokma, et freq. (of the angel Gallisur).

receive them from the hand of Satan and burn them. . .that they may not come before the Holy One etc. Cf. how acc. to 1 En. xl, “the four presences on the four sides of the Lord of Spirits ” ‘fend off the Satans and forbid them to come before the Lord of Spirits to accuse them who dwell on the earth” (vs. 7). The accusations have no power to alter the Divine decrees concerning Israel, so far as they are sufficiently counterpoised by high merits on the part of Israel (for instance their acceptance of the Tora on mount Sinai, without which acceptance the whole world could not have subsisted). Of this impotence of the accusations the burning ‘of the writing tables of Satan’ is a metaphor.

The Seraphim are here represented as frustrating the plottings of the accusing angels. In P. R. ‘El. on the contrary, SAMMAEL, the Chayyoth and the Seraphim in unity desire man’s fall and plan to bring it about.

sitting upon the Throne of Judgement, judging the whole world in truth. The interest begins to turn to the Judgement. Similarly, in the independent angelological exposition contained in ch. xviii, the functions of the last enumerated angels centre round the different aspects of the Divine Judgement. The Throne of Glory seems to the visionary as he directs his gaze higher, to reveal itself as the Throne of Judgement. For the expression ‘judging in truth’ cf. ch. xxxi. 1.

Ch. xxvii. Ch. xxvii, although belonging to the same angelological section as the preceding chapters, leaves the subject of the angels of the Merkaba and the princes appointed over them and approaches the subject of tle Judgement, already alluded to by the last verse of the aforegoing chapter. It treats of RADWERIEL, the heavenly registrar, the keeper of the Case of Writings, of which the most important is ‘the Book of Records’. On ‘the Book of Records’ the Judgement is to be based.

(1) Radweriel H’. The name is, so far as is known to the present writer, an dma&- Aeyópevov. So is also the reading of E: ’ Daryoel’. But it seems very probable that

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princes, wondrous more than all the servants. His name is RAD- WERIEL? H’ who is appointed over the treasuries of the books.

(2) He fetches forth the Case ?of Writings (with) the Book of Records in it, and brings it before the Holy One, blessed be He.

• And he breaks the seals of the case*?, opens it, takes out? the books and delivers them before the Holy One, blessed be He*. And the Holy One, blessed be He, receives them of his hand and gives them in his sight to the Scribes, that they may read them ?in the Great Beth Dim” in the height of ‘Araboth Raqia’, before the heavenly

household.

2 E: ‘Daryo’el’ D marks, through vowel points, the pronunciation ‘ Radwertel’, which is adopted above. 3-3 Eom. 4—4 D om. 5-5 so E. A corr.: ‘gives’ 6-6 D om. 7-7 so DE. A (seemingly): ‘before the Holy One,

blessed be He, the Great One’

there exists a connection as well with regard to name as function between RADWERIEL here and the ‘vRETIL’ of 2 En. xxii. 11, 12 (and xxiii): ‘‘ And the Lord called one of his archangels, by name Vretil, who was more wise than the other archangels and wrote down all the doings of the Lord. And the Lord said to Vretil, ‘ Bring forth the books from my store-places, and give a reed to Enoch and interpret to him the books’ etc.” The affinities between this and the features represented in the present chapter are obvious. 2 Er.: VRETIL, an archangel, more wise than the other archangels—here: RADWERIEL, above the Seraphim, the highest of the Merkaba-angels, exalted above all the Princes etc.; 2 En.: VRETIL brings forth the books from God’s store-places— here: RADWERIEL is appointed over the treasuries of the books and fetches forth the ‘ Case of Writings with the Book of Records’.

The derivation of the words ‘RADWERIEL’ or ‘VRETIL’ is uncertain: from the Greek evppeirys (thus signifying ‘fluent speech, fluent reading’?). Cf. vs. 3. He may originally have had the function, here assigned to the scribes, of ‘reading the books before the Great Beth Din in heaven’.

(2) Case of Writings. The Hebrew word, here translated ‘Case’, is used in this sense in T’B. Sota, 22 d, Meg. 26 b et al., also Alph. R. ‘Agiba, letter Qoph.

Book of Records (or ‘of remembrance’). On the three main lines of conceptions of the ‘books’ at the Judgement cf. note on ch. xviii. 24. The ‘book of records’ evidently is conceived of as recording all the deeds of the inhabitants of the world relevant to the issues at the Judgement. The Book of Records is the basis of the Judgement also acc. to the liturgical prayer ‘ ‎ ’ (* and thou wilt remember all that is forgotten, and wilt open the Book of Records”).

takes out the books. The plural might either refer to other books besides and inclusive of the Book of Records or be due to a confusion between two traditions, one knowing one ‘Book’ only, the other speaking of ‘the books’. The second tradition is represented, e.g. in 4 Ez. vi. 20, Ap. Bar. xxiv. 1, Rev. xx. 12, not to mention Dan. vii. 10.

gives them .. .to the scribes, that they may read them. A similar situation, with the same expressions, is pictured in the Alph. R. ‘Agiba, letter Qoph, only with the difference that it there takes place at the court of the Pharaoh. The illustrative features are borrowed from the writer’s ideas of the proceedings at a royal court.

The Great Beth Din or Sanhedrin or Court of Justice. Cf. chh. xxviii. 9 and xxx. 1. The Sanhedrin on earth had its counterpart in heaven, the Beth Din Shel- ma‘ala under the presidency of the Most High himself. The members of the Beth Din on high were the highest angels, according to ch. xxx evidently the seventy-two princes of kingdoms together with the Prince of the World, acc. to ch. xxviii. 9,

96 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. XXVII

(3) And why is he called RADWERIEL®? Because out of every word that goes forth from his mouth an angel is created: and he stands in the songs (in the singing company) of the ministering angels and utters? a song before !?the Holy One, blessed be He!? when the time draws nigh for the recitation of the (Thrice) Holy.

8 E: ‘Däryo’el’ 9 E: ‘they utter’ 10-10 E: ‘him’

presumably, the ‘Irin and Qaddishin (cf. notes, ad loca). See also Hek. R. v. 3, BH. iii. 87.

Concerning the conception of ‘ Scribes’ cf. on ch. xxxiii. 2. Acc. to some passages, there is only one ‘ Scribe’ as such: e.g. ch. xxxiii. 2 (in the reading of E) and Hek. R. v. X. Acc. to chh. xviii. 23-25 and xxxiii. 2 (in the adopted reading) the Scribes are two in number. They record the deeds of the inhabitants of the world in the ‘books’, and also write down the divine decrees (Hek. R. v. 1). Here they are even more represented as reading what is written in the books before the Beth Din (cf. Alph. R. ‘Aqiba, letter Qoph, referred to above). The last function was perhaps, as already suggested, originally assigned to VRETIL-RADWERIEL: in 2 En. xxii. 12, VRETIL is asked to “interpret to him (Enoch) the books”.

(2) Why is he called Radweriel? Because out of every word that goes forth from his mouth an angel is created. This explanation of the name pre- supposes the form ‘DIBBURIEL’ or ‘DABARIEL’. The form ‘DABAR YAR’ is found in a MS. acc. to Schwab, VA. The derivation is perhaps a mere construction on the part of the writer. Exchanging ‘ W’ for ‘ B’ he reads ‘ Ra-Dabariel’ or ‘ Radibburiel’, regarding the ‘ Ra’ as an epenthesis.

The ascribing to an angel-prince of the faculty of creating an angel by the ‘word of his mouth’ is rather singular. Such a statement is otherwise made of God, e.g. ch. xl. 4, Chag. 14a, Gen. R. Par. lxxviti, Lam. R.on ii. 23. It would seen that the present passage could be made to refer to ‘RADWERIEL’ only on the assumption that it is one of the different names of the Godhead, and not the name of an angel. The whole of vs. 3 might have been adduced from a treatise on the Divine Names. The instances where the same name at one time or in one writing is represented as the name of an angel, and in another as one of the names of the Godhead, are frequent in the cabbalistic literature. Cf. the case of “TAG‘as’, note on ch. xviii. 5; the ‘ Pardes’ (quoted YR. i. 90 a) discusses the “Akatriel’ of Ber. 7 a, rejecting the view that it is the name of the Most High, and maintains that ‘’Akatriel’ is “a Prince on high”.

he stands etc. The ‘he’ probably refers to the created angel. in the songs. The Hebrew here might be translated ‘in the service’ instead of ‘in the songs, i.e. in the singing company’ of the ministering angels. But the latter is presumably the correct interpretation. The exact meaning is: ‘he stands and sings the songs (shiroth as a technical term) which the ministering angels sing’. Cf. Gen. R. lxxviii: ** God creates every day a new order of angels who utter a song, etc.” See note on ch. xl. 4. On RADWERIEL vide Introd. sect. 13 À (6).

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