3 Enoch 34
3 Enoch 34
Section: Metatron’s Rank and Cosmic Form
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER XXXIV
The different concentric circles round the Chayyoth, con- sisting of fire, water, hatlstones etc. and of the angels uttering the Qëdushsha responsorium
R. Ishmael said: Metatron; the Angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me: (1) The hoofs of the Chayyoth are surrounded by seven clouds of
the means of purification and preparation of the Intermediate (the ‘benoniyyim’, cf. ch. xliv. 5), on the other hand it became the means of punishment of the wicked (in Gehenna), a conception which is attestedly old and related to that of the punish- ment of the wicked in a sea of fire etc. Cf. Rev. xix. 20, compared with 2 En. x. 2, CHARLES’s notes on both passages, and Boeklen, Die Verwandtschaft der jiid.- christlichen nut der persischen Eschatologie, pp. 119 seqq.
In the present vss. it is primarily the conceptions indicated in the points (1) and (4) that have been foisted together. As the place of the wicked was conceived of as Gehenna, Gehenna being situated below the heavens, it was necessary, in order to reconcile the different views (Nehar di-Nur in ‘Araboth and as means of punish- ment) to present the Nehar di-Nur or the fiery rivers as flowing from the Throne of Glory in the ‘Araboth through the heavens down to Gehenna. In Ma‘yan Chokma (Rev. Mosis), BH. 1. 58-64, the points (3) and (4) are combined: “after having undergone the judgement the ministering angels bathe in the fiery river and are renewed. And then the fiery river…falls down upon the heads of the wicked in Gehenna, as it is written (Jer. xxiii. 19): ‘Behold a whirlwind of the Lord.. .it shall burst upon the head of the wicked”. Cf. vs. 5 above.
Ch. xxxiv. This chapter, in common with the latter part of the aforegoing chapter, treats of the glories of heaven with emphasis laid on the celestio-physical parts of these. The centre is the Throne of Glory, the feet of the Chayyoth carrying the Throne, and out from this centre the heavenly splendours are represented as evolving in concentric circles. This tendency towards a view arranging the heavenly objects concentrically round the Throne of Glory is noticeable in a number of earlier and later cabbalistic writings, and is, moreover, extended to the cosmological theories of the structure of heavens and earths and their foundations. Cf. especially Midrash Koénén.
A parallel to the present chapter is ch. xxxvii. For parallels in other writings reference can be made to Mzdrash Kónen, BH. ii. 33, Seder Rabba di Bereshit Rabba (in Werthheimer’s Batte Midrashot) and Helak Merkaba, Add. 27199, fol. 126.
In Midrash Koénén, 1b., where the ‘concentricism’ is already extended so as to include the whole cosmos—the lowest of the seven earths, the ‘ Eres ha-tTachtona’, and the highest of the heavens, the ‘Araboth with the Throne of Glory, being on the same circle—the passage runs: “‘the outside of the ’Eres ha-tTachtona is sur- rounded by fire and water, the water by earthquake and trembling, these by light- ning and thunder, the lightning and thunder bysparksand commotion, thesparks and commotion by the likeness of the Chayyoth (Ezek.i. 5), the likeness of the Chayyoth by ‘ Rasé wa-Shob’ (Ezek. i. 14), the Rasé wa-Shob by (those who utter) the Voice of Speech (Ezek. i. 24)…(these by) the still small Voice (x Kings xix. 12)… (this by) those who utter the ‘Holy’,…(these by) those zoho utter the ‘Blessed be the Glory of H from His place’…(these by) those who say ‘ Blessed be the Glory of H for ever and ever’… Seder R.di Bereshith R., repeating this, adds (after those who utter the Holy”): “and behind all these are the Holy Chayyoth, and the ’Ophannim and
CH. XXXIV] MERKABAH, ETC. IIS
burning coals. The clouds of burning coals are surrounded on the outside by seven walls of flame(s). The seven walls of flame(s) are surrounded on the outside by seven walls of hailstones (stones of El-gabish, Ezek. xiii. 11, 13, xxviii. 22). The hailstones are surrounded on the outside by !stones of hail (stone of Barad). The stones of hail are surrounded on thg outside by stones of ‘‘ the wings of the tempest ”. The stones of ‘the wings of the tempest” are surrounded on the outside by! flames of fire. The flames of fire are surrounded by the chambers of the whirlwind. The chambers of the whirlwind are surrounded on the outside by ?the fire and the water?.
(2) Round about ?the fire and the water? are those who utter the
ı-ı E om. 2-2 E: ‘walls of fire and water’
the Throne of Glory (cf. here ch. xxxiii. 3 and beginning of this chapter) and the feet of Shekina are resting upon their heads…and thousand thousands and ten thousand times ten thousand ministering angels are standing round the feet of Shekina (cf. ‘thousand camps of fire etc.’, vs. 2 here)“.
Helak Merkaba, referred to above, has the following representation: ‘‘ Behind the Throne is the Wind, that surrounds the Throne, and Light surrounds the Wind, and splendour surrounds the light, fire surrounds the splendour etc…and the colour of chashmal (Ezek. i. 4) surrounds the flames, and clouds surround the chash-
mal etc.” are surrounded on the outside by, it. ‘in front of’ or ‘before…are placed in a circle, are surrounded’, hailstones—stones of hail—stones of the
wings of the tempest. These are used as mystical terms, and it is difficult to determine to what extent the writer when using them has a definite or clearly conceived idea in his mind as to what they represent. ‘The ‘’el-gabish’ seems, like ‘chashmal’, to have been a difficult and hence mysterious word which, especially as it occurs only in Ezekiel, was thought to have a deeper mystical connotation. It is then natural that it came to be regarded as denoting a celestial substance or object.
- Wings of the tempest’ as a technical term occurs also e.g. in ch. xviii. 25. In Midrash Kénén, beginning of the Ma‘ase Bereshith, the *’ wings of the tempest” appears as a definite part of the cosmological structure (after ‘the mountains’ and ‘the wind’ and next to ‘’Eres ha-tTachtona’). As an illustration of the use of ex- pressions like those of the present chapter in a mystical-technical sense, attention may be drawn to the passage preceding the one just referred to, Midrash Ronen (BH. ii. 32 seqq.): in a long enumeration of the foundations of the universe (the one resting upon or in the other) we meet with the statement: “the ’Eres ha- t Tachtona is stretched out upon (over) the waters, the waters upon pillars of chashmal, the pillars of chasmal rest upon mountains of hailstones, the mountains of hailstones upon the mountains of hail, the mountain of hail upon the treasuries of snow etc.” See also ch. xix. 3, 4.
For the walls of flames, walls of fire, flames of fire etc. (fire being the celestial substance, car’ €£oynv), cf. Mass. Hek. iv, according to which four walls surround the splendours in ‘ Araboth Raqia‘, “one of lappid (firebrands), another of flames, the third of burning fire, the fourth of lightnings”. And ib. “the seven Halls (of
- Araboth) are all of them full of coal, firebrands, sparks, lightnings, pillars of coal, pillars of burning fire, pillars of lightnings, pillars of fires, pillars of flames.
fire and water. Cf. ch. xlii. 7. ‘The counterbalance of the two polar opposites of fire and water is a well-established part of the cosmological speculations as well as of those of the mysteries of the heavens.
(2) Round about. ..are those who utter the ’ Holy ”.. .those who utter the
8-2
116 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CHH. XXXIV, XXXV
“Holy”. Round about those who utter the “Holy” are those who utter the ‘‘ Blessed”. Round about those who utter the “ Blessed” are the bright clouds. The bright clouds are surrounded on the outside by coals of burning juniper; and on the outside surrounding the cgals of burning juniper there are thousand camps of fire and ten thousand hosts of flame(s). And between every several camp and every several host there is a cloud, so that they may not be burnt by the fire.