3 Enoch 30
3 Enoch 30
Section: Metatron’s Rank and Cosmic Form
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER XXX
The 72 princes of Kingdoms and the Prince of the World officiating at the Great Sanhedrin in heaven
R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me:
(1) Whenever the Great Beth Din is seated in the ‘Araboth Ragia‘ on high !there is no opening of the mouth for anyone in the world save! those great princes who are called H’ by the name of the Holy One, blessed be He.
1—I É om. corr,
Ch. xxx. Another representation of the daily judgement in the Celestial Beth Din. The function of court-officers (ch. xxviii. 8) is here attributed to the Princes of Kingdoms with their leader, the Prince of the World. In contrast with ch. xxviii. 8, 9, this function is here seen exclusively from the aspect of defence or plea in favour of the world (vs. 2). The accusing part is hereby implicitly reserved for the Most High himself.
(1) Whenever (lit. every fixed time that) the Great Beth Din is seated. Every day, at a fixed time, the Great Sanhedrin assembles in the highest of the heavens, the ‘Araböth, under the presidency of the Holy One. This is explicit from vs. 2: “every day at the hour that’, and ‘ pleads. ..before the Holy One, blessed be He’. The sittings of the Beth Din are here for judgement, although the judgement may include all the various decisions with regard to the affairs of the world. But the Celestial Beth Din has even a wider scope. So, e.g. in Gen. R. xlix. 6, it is said that God introduces new Halakas daily in His Celestial Beth Din. For the Beth Din Shelma’ala as giving daily decisions with regard to the happenings of the world cf. Hek. R. i-iii seqq.
there is no opening of the mouth for anyone in the world etc. For the expression in this sense cf. Alph. R. ‘Aqiba, BH. iii. 57. Cf. also the phrase ‘opening of the mouth for the Minim (heretics, Christians)’ = scriptural points of support for heretical beliefs. Here it apparently means that no one is allowed to speak either as accuser or defender except the Great Princes called H’.
great princes…called H’ by the name of the Holy One. Ch. x. 3 speaks of ‘8 great princes called H’ by the name of their King’, to whom also 1s assigned an exceptional status. Cf. note, ib., and Hek. R. xxi. ‘called H’ etc. In most cases simply means that the Tetragrammaton forms the latter part of the name. It seems to have been a general assumption, that the highest circle of angels were marked out from the other angels by the common distinction of the Tetragrammaton as part of their name, whereby their names were ‘based upon the Name of the Holy One’. But the traditions are at variance as to the further character, number and function of these highest angels. Thus, in the present book, ch. x. 3 (already referred to), ‘the 8 Great Princes, called H’ etc.’ occupy so high a position as to be above the jurisdiction of Metatron (the Lesser YHWH), which includes all the other angels and princes; in the angelological classification of ch. xviii each one of the sixteen highest princes have the ‘H’ at the end of their names; in the angelo- logical section, chh. xix-xxii, xxv—xxvii (xxviii), the six princes there named have likewise all the T’etragrammaton as part of their names. (It is in fact altogether in harmony with that angelological section, when ch. xxix, the ‘Jrin and Qaddishin, the highest of the princes acc. to ch. xxvii. 1-0, are in ch. xxix represented, or made
CH, Xxx] = DIVINE JUDGEMENT 105
(2) How many are those princes? Seventy-two princes of the kingdoms of the world besides the Prince of the World who speaks (pleads) in favour of the world before the Holy One, blessed be He,
to be represented, as having their names ‘ based upon the name of the Holy One’.) Acc. to Hek. R. xxii. 1, the highest angels who are there the door-keepers of the Seventh Hall and seven in number, have all names of the form X-H’; in the pre- ceding chapter of Hek. R. one meets with the statement that the awe-inspiring power of these guardians of the seventh Hall and of their names lies just in the fact that ‘‘each one of them, his name is called (based) upon the name of the King of the Universe”. |
In the present chapter again, the Princes H’ are defined as the
(2) Seventy-two princes of the kingdoms, and this evidently because, acc. to the view contended here, the seventy-two princes of kingdoms, inclusive of the Prince of the world, form the highest angelic order in their capacity of constituting the Celestial Beth Din.
For the different conceptions of the Princes of Kingdoms, cf. note on ch. xvii. 8. Here they are decidedly conceived of as the REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NATIONS OF THE WORLD. The conception of representatives in heaven of the various kingdoms on earth is a well-known, early idea attested in the O.T., Dan. x. 20, 21; it occurs in Sir. xvii. 17 (“for every nation He appointed a ruler. But Israel is the Lord’s part”). Since the nations were counted as seventy, the number of these representa- tives was at first usually given as seventy (cf. ch. xlviii c 9); so in 1 En. lxxxix. 59 (seventy shepherds). Apposite for the resemblance to vs. 2 of the present chapter is Targ. Yer. to Gen. xi. 7, 8 (“every nation has its own guardian angel who pleads the cause of the nation under his protection”). In Talmud the conception occurs, e.g. TB. Yoma, 77 a (MIKAEL, the prince of Israel, DUBBIEL, the prince of Persia etc.), Sukka, 29 a (the Gods of the nations suffer punishment with them). Cf. further Gen. R. lxviii, lxxvii, Ex. R. xxi, Lev. R. xxix, Pesitkta R. xxiii, xxvii, P. R.’ El. xxiv. Notice, ’ how in Mass. Hek. the conception of seventy princes is replaced by that of “‘ 70 thrones of the Holy One, blessed be He, corresponding to the nations of the world”.
For discussion of the origin of the number 72 as ascribed to these princes, see note on ch. xvii. 8. In the present connection—the seventy-two princes of kingdoms constituting the Great Sanhedrin of heaven—one is reminded of the fact that the Great Sanhedrin proper, of which the Beth Din shelma’ala is a counterpart, is in a few Mishna passages represented as consisting of seventy-two members : M. Zebachim, i. 3, Yad. iii. 5, iv. 2.
For the princes of kingdoms as the Celestial Beth Din cf. also Bachya’s Commen- tary on the Pentateuch, Par. Beha‘aloteka (162 b): ‘‘ The Holy One, blessed be He, said to the 70 angels who surround the Throne of Glory…and they are the Beth Din of the Holy One”. Cf. Zohar, i. x73 b, and Mass. Hek. v. 7o, thrones always surrounding the Shekina. The ‘thrones’ in Zohar are angelic beings when termed 111075, and similarly their ‘thrones’ are 102260 .’
the Prince of the World who speaks in favour of the world. The Prince of the World is here, then, the leader of the princes of kingdoms. He combines the functions of the rulers of the nations: they plead each one the cause of his nation, the Prince of the World pleads the cause of all the nations together, of the world in its entirety. There is no reference here to any contrast between the Gentile Nations, the idolaters, and Israel. On the contrary, the representation is strikingly universal in its character. The Accuser is God himself, whereas acc. to other views, the Prince of Israel and the princes of the nations, especially the prince of Rome (or of Persia) are represented as accusing each other before the Most High. Cf. the Introduction.
For the conception of the nations (or their representatives) appearing before God in judgement or pleading before God, cf. inter alia 4 Ezra vii. 37, and the reference in BOX, Ezra- Apocalypse, p. 124, note ad loc., to the passage in TB. Aboda Zara,2ab=
106 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH _ [CHH. XXX, XXXI
every day, at the hour when the book is opened in which are recorded all the doings of the world, according as it is written (Dan. vii. 10): ‘The judgement was set and the books were opened.”