3 Enoch 40
3 Enoch 40
Section: Metatron’s Rank and Cosmic Form
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER XL
The ministering angels rewarded with crowns, when uttering the“ Holy” in its right order, and punished by consuming fire if not. New ones created in the stead of the consumed angels
R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me:
(1) When the ministering angels say ” Holy” before the Holy One,
3-3 emendated. AE both omit ‘fire’ 4-4 emendated. A: ‘fall upon three times’ E: ‘fall upon their faces’
also means the Divine Majesty. The “Ophannim, Kerubim, Chayyoth and Seraphim are the four classes of Merkaba-angels, described in the angelological section, chh. xx-xxii, xxv, xxvi. Cf. also ch. vi. 2. The ‘Galgallim’ or ‘Wheels of the Merkaba’ are missing here.
’Er’ellim and Taphsarim occur also ch. xiv. 1; cf. note, ib.
the troops of consuming fire. The term used is ‘(’Esh) ’Okela’, used ch. xlii. 3 asa Divine Name. the fiery armies and the flaming hosts. The attributes prob- ably only convey the fiery substance of the angels. Cf. Alph. R. ’ Aqiba, BH. iii. 25.
the holy princes. This might refer to the ‘princes of Kingdoms’, ch. xiv. 2 (mentioned after the ‘Erellim and Taphsarim), ch. xvii. 8 (crowned with royal crowns, clad in royal garments etc.’, cf. here: ‘adorned with crowns, clad in kingly majesty’, in the present connection of course referring to all the enumerated angels and princes), chh. xxix and xxx (identical with the Watchers and Holy Ones, cf. note on ch. xxix, intr.).
Blessed be the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever. This is then the form of the response to the ‘Holy, Holy, Holy…’ according to the present chapter. Ch. i. 13 has the regular response: ‘Blessed be the glory of H’ from His place’. The present response is a glorification of God as King, of the Kingdom of Heaven, a form implied by ch. xxxv. 6.
Ch. xl. The ministering angels receive crowns as reward when uttering the ‘Thrice Holy’ in the proper manner. Hereby the performance of the Qédushsha is indicated as a meritorious act, an observance of a religious duty. As such it is already characterized, ch. xxxv. 6 (the angels when singing the ‘ Holy’ take upon themselves the yoke of the Kingdom of heaven). It signifies the sustainment of the whole order of the heavens by the recognition of God’s sovereignty (the whole earth is sustained by the Qédushsha, TB. Sota, 49 a). The reward of the ministering angels performing the Qédushsha is hence exactly paralleled by the rewarding of the Israelites with crowns at the time when they said, “We will do and hear (Ex. xxiv. 7)”, related in TB. Shabb. 88 a (“6o myriads of ministering angels put crowns on every single one of the Israelites etc.’’)—but for the acceptance of the
126 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. XL
blessed be He, in the proper way, then the servants of His Throne, ‘the attendants of His Glory,” go forth with great mirth from under the Throne of Glory. (2) And ?they all carry in their hands, each one of them? thousand thousand and ten thousand times ten thousand crowns of stars, similar in appearance to the planet Venus, and put them on the ministering angels and the great princes who utter the “Holy”. Three crowns they put on each one of them: one crown because they say ” Holy”, another crown, because they say ‘‘ Holy, Holy”, and a third crown because they say “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts”.
(3) And in the moment that they do not utter the “‘ Holy” in the right order, a consuming fire goes forth from the little finger of the Holy One, blessed be He, and falls down in the midst of their ranks
1-1 Eom. 2-2 580 E. A: ‘every two of them carry between them’
Tora implied in those words the whole world could not have subsisted. The im- portance of the Qédushsha in the present section always refers to the Celestial Qédushsha, at any rate in the first place. The importance of the earthly Qédushsha is the subject of Sota, 49 a, and Hek. R. ix et al.; to the latter at times the greater importance is assigned (the angels must be silent while the Israelites say the ‘Holy’ on earth).
(1) the servants.of His Throne…go forth. ..from under the Throne. The servants of His Throne are the angels entrusted with the care of the treasuries of the crowns which are under the Throne of Glory and hence also over the other treasuries that are conceived of as having their place under the Throne. From under the Throne was brought forth the fire of deafness for the Chayyoth acc. to ch. xv B, and go forth the ‘horns’ acc. to Hek. R. xii. In the secret chamber under the Throne God hid Moses away from the fury of the ministering angels acc. to Ex. R.
i.
(2) they all carry in their hands. . .crowns…and put them onthe ministering angels. The crowns are made of stars, in appearance like unto the splendour of the planet Venus. The ‘planet Venus’, ‘the shining star’, is a frequent term of comparison, cf. ch. xxvi.6 etal. one crown, because they say ‘Holy’ etc. One would have expected ‘one crown for each “‘Holy”’ or similar. The same division of the Thrice Holy is found in the Siddur of R. ‘Amram Ga’on, Morning Prayer, p. 4 (ed. Warsch), closely connected with the present chapter by reason of its being attributed to R. Ishmael: ‘‘ R. Ishmael said: There are three companies of ministering angels who say the ‘Holy’ every day. One company says ‘Holy’, the other says ‘Holy, Holy’, and the third company says ‘Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory’”. The same is repeated in a different version, ib., Evening Prayer, fol. 18, and also, with slightly corrupt readings, in Seder Rabba di Bereshith Rabba (ed. Werthheimer, Batte Midrashot). Vide Introduction, section 17 D.
(2) And in the moment that they do not utter the Holy in the right order or in the right time a consuming fire. . .consumes them in one moment. The same punishment of the ministering angels that utter the song out of order is set forth in ch. xlvii. 2. The fire is here not the fiery river, the regular means of punish- ment, but a fire sent out for the purpose from the little finger of the Holy One. In ch. xlvii. 2 the two ideas of the fire from the Most High and the fiery river are combined: the immediate extinction of the angels is effected by the fire ‘from their Creator’, but their continued punishment takes place in the fiery river.
CH. XL] | CELESTIAL QEDUSHSHA 127
and is divided into 496? thousand parts corresponding to the four camps of the ministering angels, and consumes them in one moment, as it is written (Ps. xcvil. 3): ‘A fire goeth before him and burneth up his adversaries round about”.
(4) After that the Holy One, blessed be He, opens His mouth and speaks one word and creates others in their stead, new ones like them. And each one stands before His Throne of Glory, uttering the “Holy”, as it is written (Lam. iii. 23): “They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness “.
3 E:f796?
The idea of the punishment by extinction in fire of the angels who utter the ‘ Holy’ in the wrong way is echoed in Hilkoth Mal’akim, Add. 2/7199, fol. 123 a: “‘ Every angel who begins earlier or later than his fellow-angels when singing the Song, is immediately burnt by lashes of fire through CHAYYLIEL, the Prince who attends the Chayyoth”’ (cf. ch. xx. 2).
Rekanati quotes from Sepher Hekaloth (one of the names of the present book), cited BH. ii. p. xvii: ‘‘ All the ministering angels… who are standing before Him… none of them begins (the Song) too early or too late: anyone who tarries with his voice after his neighbour as much as a hair’s breadth is instantly pushed into fire and flames”. The singing the ‘Song’ in the wrong order is acc. to both these passages understood of the time. Cf. ch. xlvii. 2.
is divided into 496 thousand parts corresponding to the four camps of the ministering angels etc. This is apparently a confusion of the two conceptions of the four camps of Shekina (consisting of song-uttering angels) and the 496 (or 506) thousand myriads of camps each composed of 496 thousand angels. It seems to imply that the whole multitude of camps of song-uttering angels are destroyed. They are treated as a whole, a unity. (Contrast the quoted passages, Hilkoth Mal akim and Recanati.)
a fire goeth before Him and burneth up his adversaries. The angels who do not utter the Song in the right way are identified with the ‘adversaries of God’ of Ps. xcvii. 3; this is altogether in accordance with the view of the performance of the Qédushsha as an all-important religious duty attested in the present chapter. The neglect of or unwillingness to perform the Qédushsha is an act of enmity against the Kingdom of the Most High. ‘The punishment in fire here should be compared with the changing of the angels into all kinds of lifeless fiery substances until their acquiescence in the performance of their duty, depicted ch. xxxv. 5, 6.
(4) After that the Holy One, blessed be He, opens His mouth and speaks one word and creates…new ones. Hence, according to the view of the present chapter (and section) the angels who continue their existence as individual, corporeal beings as long as they rightly perform their duty: the uttering of the Trisagion, are consumed by fire only as punishment for their non-observance of this duty after which new ones are created by a word of God. This view is a harmonization of the different views concerning the origin and fate of the song-uttering angels recorded TB. Chag. 14 a, Gen. R.lxxviii, Lam. R.1ii. 21: (I) the angels are created out of the fiery river and thither they are sent back again after they have uttered a Song; (2) the angels are created from the ‘dibbur (word)’ of God.
Cf. ch. xxvii. 3 and note on ch. xlvii. 2 (the angels after being consumed in the fire, viz. as corporeal beings, subsist in soul and spirit).
They are new every morning; great is thy faithfulness: Lam. iii. 23. This was the fundamental starting point and basis of the speculations on the creation and duration of the angels. Itis used, TB. Chag. 14a, as support of view (1) above, and the review of the various traditions in Lam. R., ib., is attached to this passage.
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