3 Enoch 42
3 Enoch 42
Section: Cosmic Visions
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER XLII
Instances of polar opposites kept in balance by several Divine Names and other similar wonders
R. Ishmael said: Metatron, tthe Angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me:
(1) Come and I will show thee, where the waters are suspended in the highest, where fire is burning in the midst of hail, *where lightnings lighten out of the midst of snowy mountains,? where: thunders are roaring in the celestial heights, where a flame is burning
4 E: ‘World’ 5-5 so E. A corr. ‘the ’Ophan of the letters, all of them’ Ch. xlii. 1-1 so E. A om. 2-2 E om.
God’s manifestation in the heavens. The Throne of Glory (pre-existent before the creation of the world) created, cf. Gen. R.1. 5.
(3) the letters by which were created wisdom etc.—by which the whole world is sustained. By ten things the world was created (wisdom, knowledge, etc.), TB. Chag. x2a, ’ Aboth R. Natan, xxvii; upon three things the world is based, Pirge Ab. i; by “knowledge, wisdom, understanding and faculty of speech the whole . world. is sustained”, A/ph. R. ‘Agiba, BH. iii. 43. The conceptions of creative agencies and of sustaining ideal forces are here recognizable together with an initial tendency towards the speculations emerging in the ideas of the Sephiroth.
(4) graven with a flaming style etc. Said of the Divine Names, ch. xxxix. 1. The mystical letters are the constituents of the Divine Names. A reads: “ showed me the Ophan (i.e. circle, circuit) of the letters’. The expression “Ophan of the letters ” occurs in Berith Menucha, 3 b (ed. Amsterdam, 1648).
Ch. xlii. (For this chapter cf. notes on ch. xiii and 1 Ez. xix. 14-25.)
The central idea of the present chapter is the COUNTERBALANCE OF POLAR OPPO- SITES, effected by one of the Divine Names in each case. The instances refer to the physical aspect of the highest of the heavens, where R. Ishmael is represented as shown the various wonders by Metatron. They are, however, certainly of cosmo- logical significance, since the heavens, esp. the ‘Araboth, are the realm of causes and the correspondence between the ‘upper world’ and the ‘lower world’ is a funda- mental presumption of the present book in general. Hence what R. Ishmael beholds in the ‘Araboth is the fountain of cosmical realities, which although they are the basis of the terrestrial world, are hidden from the eyes of man on earth.
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in the midst of the burning fire and where *voices make themselves heard? in the midst of thunder and earthquake.
(2) Then I went tby his sidet and he took me by his hand and lifted me up on his wings and showed me all those things. I beheld the waters suspended on high in ‘Araboth Ragia‘ by (force of) the name YAH ‘EHYE ‘ASHER ‘EHYE (Jah, I am that I am), Sand their fruits going down from heaven. and? watering the face of the world, as it is written (Ps. civ. 13): “(He watereth the mountains from his chambers :) the earth is satisfied with the fruit of thy work”.
(3) And I saw fire and snow and hailstone that were mingled to- gether within each other and yet were undamaged, by (force of) the name ‘ESH ‘OKELA (consuming fire), as it is written (Deut. iv. 24): “For the Lord, thy God, is a consuming fire” |
3-3 E: ‘(the) voice makes itself heard’ 4-4 E om. 5-5 E om.
(2) I beheld the waters suspended on high in ‘Araboth Raqia‘. The waters suspended on high are in all probability the ‘Upper Waters’, divided from the “Lower Waters’ by the Divine command, Gen. i. 6, 7. The cosmological specula- tions concerning these form a prominent part of Midrash Kénén and the tractate called Ma‘asé Bereshith (e.g.in S. Raziel and Seder Rabba di Bereshith, 9 a). The polar opposition is here not apparent, but is implied in the relation of the ‘ suspended waters’ to the lower waters. The upper waters are referred to in a similar form in Test. Levi, ii. (6), 7: ‘I saw there (in the first heaven) a great sea hanging”.
The upper waters are also conceived of as male, the lower as female (an ancient idea of cosmology), a clear polar opposition. This is attested in 1 En. liv. 8: ’ (And all the waters shall be joined with the waters): that which is above the heavens is the masculine, and the water which is beneath the earth is the feminine’; and in Gen. R. xiii. 14, where the fructifying, engendering function of the upper waters is connected with their nature of ‘ zékdriim, males’ (with reference to Isa. xlv. 8). Of this idea the expression in the present verse, ‘their fruits going down from heaven’, is a trace.
by the name YAH ’EHYE ’ASHER ’EHYE. The expression ‘béshém, in the name…’ is in this chapter to be understood literally, as referring to a Divine Name. The names are here all such as are derived from the O.T. YAH: Ex. xv. 2, xvii. 16, Isa. xxvi. 4, Ps. Ixviii. 5. EH YE ‘ASHER ‘EH YE: Ex. iii. 14. The names here in general represent the mediating, sustaining force, and this is probably conceived of as depending upon their character as expressing the creative and ever-sustaining activity of the Most High himself. Their function is hence to be understood in a similar way as that conveyed by the frequent expression “the Holy One created…and sealed with the Name…”’.
What significance is to be assigned to the Y AH ‘EHYE ASHER ’EH YE here is not evident. Perhaps simply the permanence, inalterability of the suspension of the waters. The important rôle played by the name “EH YE ’asher “EH YE in cabbalistic speculations is well known. It is invariably repeated in the different enumerations of the Divine Names set forth in Shi‘ur Qoma and Hek. Zot. Seder R. di-Bereshith speaks of ‘7)7N nyin’. In Zohar this name (EHYE ‘asher ‘EH YE as distinguished from the ‘EH YE alone) represents the Godhead as ‘containing and contained in the first pair of Sephiroth, the Wisdom and Intelligence, which are of course polar opposites, distinguished as masculine and feminine respectively (Zohar, 111. 65 b).
(3) Fire and snowand hailstone. . .mingledtogether… by (force of) thename
CH. XLII] | METATRON SHOWS R. ISHMAEL SECRETS 131
(4) And I saw lightnings that were lightening out of “mountains of snow and yet were not damaged (quenched), by (force of) the name YAH 7 SUR ‘OLAMIM (Jah, the everlasting rock), as it is written (Is. xxvi. 4): “For in Jah, YHWH, the everlasting rock”.
(5) And I saw thunders and voices that were roaring in the midst of fiery flames and were not damaged (silenced), by (force of) the name 9’EL-SHADDAI RABBA (the Great God Almighty) as it is written (Gen. xvii. 1): “I am God Almighty “.
(6) And I beheld a flame (and) a glow (glowing flames) that were _ flaming and glowing in the midst of burning fire, and yet were not damaged (devoured), by (force of) the name! YAD ‘AL KES YAH (the hand upon the Throne of the Lord) as it is written (Ex. xvii. 16): ‘*3 And he said?: for the hand is upon the Throne of the Lord”.
(7) And I beheld rivers of fire in the midst of rivers of water !? and they were not damaged (quenched) by (force of) the name ‘OSE
6—6 E: ‘flames of fire’ 7 Eins.: ‘YHWH’ 8-8 E om. from ‘’EL-SHADDAI RABBA’ VS. 5. to ‘YAD ‘AL KES YAH’ vs. 6. 9-9 E om. 10 E adds: ‘and rivers of water running in the midst of rivers of fire’
’“‘ESH ‘OKELA (consuming fire). Here the name seems to be chosen simply with regard to the fire, which is represented as unquenched in spite of its surroundings of snow and ice. For the idea of fire and its opposites kept in balance see vs. 7. ‘Esh ’Okéla as attribute of God, see Alph. R. ‘Agiba, BH. iii. 37. In fact ‘ESH ‘OKELA, in later Qabbala, very often follows immediately on ’EHYE ’asher ’” EH Y E in enumerations of the Divine Names, a fact that drew the special attention of Reuchlin who comments upon it in his De Verbo Mirifico, chh. xvii, xviii.
- lightnings…out of mountains of snow. ..by (force of) the name VAH SUR ‘OLAMIM. This is only another instance of the contraries of fire—ice (snow, water). The connection between instance and name seems to be, that the word ‘SUR: Rock’ suggests a relation to the ‘mountains (of snow)’. Else this verse, Is. xxvi. 4, is the regular point of support for the statement: God created the worlds by the letters Yod He (of YaH). In that case the ‘ Sur’ is interpreted from the root ‘SUR’: to form, to create. Cf. note on ch. xiii. I.
(5) thunders and voices…roaring in the midst of flames of fire…by force of the name ‘EL SHADDAI RABBA. The voice of God was thought to go forth in the midst of fire. The connection of the Voice with the name ’EL SHADDAT is established by Ezek. x. 5: “‘as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaketh”. Cf. 2 En. x. 2.
(7) And I beheld rivers of fire in the midst of rivers of water… Cf.2 En. xxix.2: “‘ And fire is in the water and water in the fire and neither is the one quenched nor the other dried up”. The juxtaposition of fire and water is a frequent cosmo- logical simile. TB. Pes. 3a, Yer. Rosh. ha-shShana, 58a, Cant. R. to iii. 11: “the sky is made of water, the stars of fire and yet they do not damage each other”. Gen. R. iv. 9: ““The Holy One, blessed be He, took fire and water, mixed them together and out of them the heavens were created”. Gen. R.x. 3: “ The Holy One, blessed be He, took fire and snow, mixed them and so out of them the universe was created”. In the last two passages the cosmology is apparent.
Emphasis is laid on the mediating function of the Divine Name, in this verse most significantly ‘OSE SHALOM, i.e. ‘maker of peace’. ‘Peace’ is the technical term for the mediation, the synthetical agency or Divine activity. Cf. the ‘angels
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SHALOM (Maker of Peace) * as it 1s written (Job xxv. 2): “He maketh peace in his high places!?“. For he makes peace between the fire and the water, between the hail and the fire,? between the wind and the cloud, between the earthquake and the sparks.