3 Enoch 45 - Gehenna and Its Seven Chambers
3 Enoch 45
Section: Cosmic Visions
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER XLV .
Metatron shows R. Ishmael past and future events recorded on the Curtain of the Throne
R. Ishmael said: Metatron said to me:
(1) Come, and I will show thee the Curtain of MAQOM (the Divine Majesty) which is spread before the Holy One, blessed be He, (and) whereon are graven all the generations of the world and all their doings, both what they have done and what they will do until the end of all generations.
(2) And I went, and he showed it to me pointing it out with his fingers like a father who teaches his children the letters of Tora. And I saw each generation,
the rulers of each generation},
i-i so E. 4: and like a father who teaches his children (he showed me) each generation’
Ch. xlv. R. Ishmael is shown the Curtain (Pargod) of MAQOM (the Place, i.e. the Divine Majesty as manifested on the Throne of Glory). This Curtain is spread before the Holy One. The Curtain of the Throne of Glory is referred to also, ch. x. 1. The Curtain separates the Throne of Glory and its innermost mysteries from the other parts of the highest heaven and from the world of angels in general, just as the curtain veiled off the Holy of Holies in the sanctuary. (Cf. TB. Yoma, 77 a.) The Curtain hence becomes the symbol of the last secrets of heaven and earth which are kept with the Godhead, hidden even from the angels. Occasional revelations of these secrets— the reasons of the Creator’—are described either as obtained by ‘hearing from behind tbe Curtain’ or expressed by the phrase ‘to know from behind the Curtain’: this is one line of ideas. Or, according to another line, the secrets are represented as ‘written down on the (inside of) Curtain’. As instances of the former line of conception reference may be made to the tradition concerning GALLISUR-RAZIEL (see note on ch. xviii. 16), further to Mekilta on Ex. xix. 9 (voices from behind the Curtain announce the answers of prayers), and T’B. Ber. 18 b (there is heard ’ from behind the Curtain, what tribulations are in store for the world?). ]t seems, that this tradition also contained the idea of special high angels being allowed inside or having their place inside the Curtain, in the immediate Presence of the Holy One, thus partaking of the Divine secrets: so acc. to ch. x. 1 in the reading of BC (cf. note, 7b.) the case of GALLISUR, and in Mass. Hek. vii (‘‘ A curtain is spread before the Holy One…and the seven angels who were created first, minister before Him [i.e. inside the Curtain]’’). The second conception is repre- sented here and also Alph. R. ‘Agiba, BH. iii. 44—where it is as here called the Pargod of MAQOM. As a parallel in earlier Enoch-literature is to be noted especially ı En. xciii. 2 and cvi. 19: “I Enoch will declare them unto you. . .acc. to that which appeared to me in the heavenly vision, and which I bave known through the word of the holy angels and have learnt from the heavenly tablets” (the heavenly tablets correspond to the Pargod here).
(1-3) R. Ishmael is shown all generations and their doings, both past and coming. This implies the idea of pre-determination. In TB. Sanh. 38b, one finds: “‘ The Holy One, blessed be He, showed Adam every generation and its learned men (inter-
142 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. XLV
and the heads of each generation, the shepherds of each generation, the oppressors (drivers) of each generation, the keepers of each generation, ?the scourgers of each generation,? the overseers of each generation, the judges of each generation, the court officers of each generation, the teachers of each generation, ?the supporters of each generation, the chiefs of each generation,? the presidents of academies of each generation, the magistrates of each generation, the princes of each generation, “the counsellors of each generation,‘ the nobles of each generation, “and the men of might of each generation,4 the elders of each generation, and the guides of each generation. (3) And I saw Adam, his generation, their doings and their thoughts,’ | Noah , and the generation of the flood, their doings and their thoughts, Shem and his generation, their doings and their thoughts, Nimrod and the generation of the confusion of tongues, and his generation, their doings and their thoughts, Abraham and his generation, their doings and their thoughts, Isaac and his generation, their doings and their thoughts, ‘Ishmael and his generation, their doings and their thoughts,’
2-2 so 5. (’) lit. ‘ flayers, hatchellers’; cf. Zohar i. 177a: “‘‘bop ”
A: ‘eunuchs, officers’ (?) 3-3 E: ‘the helpers of each generation, and their pious men (Chasidim), their leaders, teachers, sages and heads of the schools’ 4-4. E om. 5 E ins.: ‘Methuselah, his generation, etc.’ 6-6 E om. 7—; E om.
preters of Scripture), every generation and its wise men, and when he came to the generation of R. ‘Aqiba he (Adam) rejoiced at his (great understanding of) Tora but was grieved at his death (as a martyr)“. In Alph. R. ‘Aqiba this has the fol- lowing form (BH. ili. 44): ‘‘ Moses saw on the Curtain of MAQOM numerous hosts of scribes and hosts of (members of) Sanhedrin studying the Tora, the Prophets and the writings…and in the same hour Moses saw the fate (life) of R. Aqiba on the Curtain of Maqom how he was lecturing on the letters of Tora, expounding on each of the ornaments of each single letter 365 different significations of the Tora etc.” The Curtain is here the repository of all past, present and future events, and it seems, as if the idea were rather, that the events, the ‘ generations,
CH.XLV]. METATRON SHOWS R. ISHMAEL SECRETS 143
Jacob and his generation, their doings and their thoughts,
Joseph and his generation, their doings and their thoughts,
the tribes and their generation, their doings and their thoughts,
Amram and his generation, their doings and their thoughts,
Moses and his generation, their doings and their thoughts,
(4) Aaron * and Mirjam ? their works and their doings,
“the princes and the elders, their works and doings,
Joshua and his generation, their works and doings,
the judges and their generation, their works and doings,
Eli and his generation, their works and doings,
H Phinehas, their (?) works and doings,
Elkanah and his generation, their works and their doings,
Samuel and his generation, their works and doings,
the kings of Judah with their generations, their works and their doings,
the kings of Israel and their generations, their works and their doings, |
1? the princes of Israel, their works and their doings; the princes of the nations of the world, their works and their doings,
the heads of the councils of Israel, their works and their doings; the heads of (the councils in) the nations of the world, their genera- tions, their works and their doings;
“the rulers of Israel and their generation, their works and their doings;
the nobles of Israel and their generation, their works and their doings ; the nobles of the nations of the world and their generation(s), their works and their doings;
the men of reputation in Israel, their generation, their works and their doings;
the judges of Israel, their generation, their works and their doings; the judges of the nations of the world and their generation, their works and their doings;
the teachers of children in Israel, their generations, their works
8 E ins.: ‘and his generation, their thoughts and their doings’ 9 E adds:
‘and her generation’ 10-10 E om. ı1-ıı E om. perhaps rightly 12 Eins.:
- Saul etc., David, etc., Salomo, etc.’ 13 E ins.: ‘the rulers of Israel, etc., the
nobles of Israel, etc., the nobles of the gentiles, etc., the wealthy men of Israel, etc., the wealthy men of the nations of the world, etc., the wise men of Israel, etc.’ 14-14 E om. IS E ins.: ‘the men of reputation in the nations of the world, etc.’
their thoughts and their doings’, are pourtrayed on the curtain—the images are imprinted on it—than that the various facts are merely recorded.
144 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [cH. XLV
and their doings; the teachers of children in the nations of the world, their generations, their works and their doings;
the counsellors (interpreters) of Israel, their generation, their works and their doings; the counsellors (interpreters) of the nations of the world, their generation, their works and their doings;
all the prophets of Israel, their generation, their works and their doings; all the prophets of the nations of the world, their generation,
their works and their doings;
(5) and all the fights and wars that the nations of the world wrought against the people of Israel in the time of their kingdom.
And I saw Messiah, son of Joseph, and his generation and their works and their doings that they will do against the nations of the world. And I saw Messiah, son of David, and his generation, and
I6 so E. A corr. from here to ‘the people of Israel’: ‘(that the nations) of Israel wrought against the people of Israel’ 17-17 E: ‘and all the deeds of the nations of the world at that time’
(5) And I saw Messiah son of Joseph etc. From here to the end of the verse there follows a short eschatological piece. R. Ishmael, through the medium of the Curtain of the Throne, sees the events of the last times. The end of the course of the present world is marked by the appearance of Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David in whose times there will be wars between Israel and ‘Gog and Magog’; the final consummation will then, so it seems, be brought about by the Holy One Himself.
For the conception of the two Messiahs, reference may be made to the scholarly expositions by Dalman (Der leidende und sterbende Messias, pp. 1—26), Buttenwieser (in JE. viii. 511 b, 512 a), Klausner (Die messiantschen Vorstellungen des jüdischen Volkes, etc., pp. 86-103), Rabinsohn (Le Messianisme dans le Talmud et les Midrachim). Vide also Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, ii. 729, Schoettgen, Horae Hebraicae et Talmudicae, i. 139, 267, 360-5, Wuensche, Die Leiden des Messias, pp. 65 seqq., Castelli, 7/7 Messia secondo gli Ebrei, pp. 224-9.
It will perhaps be best to follow Klausner (and Dalman) in assuming that the origin of a double Messiah was the realization of the duplicity inherent in the traditional Messianic picture, e.g. the political and military traits as against the spiritual and ethical (esp. of Isa. xi and Zech. ix. 9). “ Die Doppelnatur des Messias muss in einen Doppelmessias umgesetzt werden” (Klausner). (Cf. Dalman in a somewhat different vein: ‘es muss als möglich gelten, dass überhaupt ein etwa durch die hadrianischen Verfolgungen neu hervorgerufenes Interesse an dem Trost der Messiashoffnung zu erneutem Schriftstudium trieb… Alles was in der heiligen Schrift darauf zu deuten schien, dass Edom-Rom gestürtzt und Jerusalem, wenn auch nur vorläufig, an Israel zurückgegeben wird, musste dad en Forscher an- ziehen, und das Unbestimmteste gewann für das nach Erlósung dürstende Gemüt deutliche Umrisse und konkrete Gestalt. So erstand Messias ben Joseph, der sterbende Messias des Judentums’”.)
As to the designation ‘ben Joseph’ (son of Joseph), Klausner (op. cit. p. 97) holds that “when once a second Messiah has become necessary, he cannot be taken from any other tribe but that of Joseph”’ (“ Der erste Messias ist ein Davidide, also ein Judáer. Was sollte nun der zweite Messias anders sein, als Josephite, bezie- hungsweise Ephraimite” [Messiah ben Ephraim is sometimes a variant of Messiah ben Joseph, vide below]). Also should be noted Klausner’s remark that it “is highly
CH. XLV]. | METATRON SHOWS R. ISHMAEL SECRETS 145 all the fights and wars, and their works and their doings that they
.probable that Bar Kochba’s death as hero in the war with the enemies of Israel, after having for a time been victorious and even reigned as a king, became the starting-point (Vorbild) for the conception of a Messiah who at first is victorious but in the end is overcome by the enemies of Israel”. This is, most probably, the right explanation of the conception of a Messianic forerunner of the real Messiah: One had long been conscious of the duplicity in the Messianic picture; the Hadrianic persecutions and the Bar Kochba incident forced the attention on the Messianic ideas and hopes; the circumstances made one conscious of Israel’s fate of having to go through many tribulations, temporal victories followed by severe debacles: from this consciousness grew the picture of a forerunner-Messiah whose essential characteristic was described by the words of the Baraztha (TB. Sukka, 52 a): “he will be killed “. | |
Dalman explains the designation ‘ben Joseph’ from Deut. xxxiii. 17 ( His glory is like the firstling of his bullock and his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh’). “ The ‘firstling of his (Joseph’s) bullock’ is nearly as much the emblem of Messiah ben Joseph: Ren. R. Ixxv. 6, Ex. R. to xlix. 14 acc. to Pugeo Fidei, Num. R. xiv. 2, Midrash Tanchuma, ed. Buber, 82 b, as the ‘foal of an ass’ of Zech. ix. g is the emblem of Messiah ben David’. ‘‘ Was dort (Deut. xxxiii. 17) von Joseph gesagt ist, führt den Gedanken an das spätere Königtum Ephraims, oder, wenn man das Wort zu der messianisch verstandenen Weissagung auf Juda in Gen. xlix in Parallele setzt, an einen in der Endzeit auftretenden mächtigen König Israels aus Josephs Stamm, einen Messiah ben Joseph. Die Rabbinen, welche in Deut. xxxiii. 17 wirklich einen Messias geweissagt glaubten, wurden dann in diesem Glauben durch ein Wort Jeremias bestärkt (viz. Jer. xlix. 20)”.
[Schoettgen (op. cit.), adducing, apart from earlier sources, Zohar and Zohar Chadash, arrives at the conclusion that Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David are identical, and that the former represents the human nature of Messiah, destined to suffer death. ‘The designation ‘son of Joseph’ Schoettgen believes to be derived from the Christian designation of Christ, the Messiah, as ‘the son of Joseph’ and points out how, in the genealogy of St Matthew (1. 1), Christ is called ‘the son of David’, in that of St Luke, on the other hand, ‘the son of Joseph’.
Wuensche, in his first discourse on the present problem (op. cit.), also maintained that Messiah ben Joseph and Messiah ben David really were identical. The identity he found established already in TB. Sukka, 52a (where he, however, mis- translates; vide below and Klausner, op. cit. p. g1, note 2); in common with Schoettgen he further pointed to the fact that scriptural passages which receive Messianic interpretation are promiscuously referred now to Messiah ben Joseph, now to Messiah ben David—although passages interpreted as referring to the suffering Messiah are, according to Wuensche, more often applied to the former than to the latter; from the last-named fact he concluded that the figure of Messiah ben Joseph really symbolized the atoning function of Messiah.
Acc. to Friedmann (Seder Eliyah, Introduction, 20) the conception of Messiah ben Joseph goes back to the expectations among remnants of the tribes belonging
once to the Northern Kingdom in Palestine for a Messiah from D minsn.
Bertholdt (in Christologia fudaeorum, 157) conjectures that the origin was from certain Messianic speculations among the Samaritans.
Castelli (op. cit. pp. 234-6) thinks that Messiah ben Joseph: was the Messiah contrived for the ten tribes exiled in Media who was to lead them back to Palestine from their distant abode beyond the river Sambatyon (on the river Sambatyon, a definite detail of the eschatological scheme, vide Box, Ezra-Apocalypse, pp. 296, 208, 300 seq.). |
Hamburger (Messtanische Bibelstellen, 111) and Levy (Wéerterb.) think that the Messiah ben Joseph originated from the Bar Kochba incident. Bar Kochba, who
OHB | IO
146 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. XLV will do with Israel both for good and evil. And I saw all the fights
had been proclaimed as Messiah even by the great R. ‘Aqiba (so Yer. Ta‘an, iv. 68 d) was made to retain his Messianity by the formation of the doctrine of Messiah ben Joseph as the forerunner of the victorious Messiah ben David.
Jellinek (BH. iii. xlvi seqq.) expresses the view that the victory of Joseph Flavius in Galilee (thought as the region of the ten tribes or as part of the Northern King- dom) followed by his defeat through Vespasianus influenced the ‘saga’ of the Messiah ben Joseph.
Buttenwieser (in FE. loc. cit.) says: “it is possible that the idea of Messiah ben Joseph is connected in some way with the Alexander-Saga”. He points out how Messiah ben Joseph and Alexander (in the Koran) both are represented as horned.
Rabinsohn (op. cit.) finds the explanation of the ‘son of Joseph! in Deut. xxxiii. 17. Cf. above on Dalman’s theory.]
The conception of a Messiah ben Joseph goes back to Tannaitic times. The most important passages speaking of Messiah ben Joseph are found in TB. Sukka 52a, dated by Levy, Hamburger, Friedmann, Dalman and Klausner as post- Hadrianic. One of the said passages is a Baraitha (}227 }3N) running as follows: “Messiah, the son of David, who will shortly be revealed in our days, to him says the Holy One, blessed be He: ‘Beg of Me anything and I will give thee’ as it is written (Ps. ii. 8): ‘Ask of me, and I shail give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession’. As soon as he (i.e. Messiah ben David) saw Messiah, the son of Joseph, that he was (or: would be) killed, he says before Him: ‘Lord of the Universe! I do not ask of ‘Thee anything but Life’. He says to him: ‘Life! Before thou didst say it, David, thy father, has already prophesied (this, 1.e. life) concerning thee, as it is written (Ps. xxi. 4): He asked life of thee and thou gavest it him, even length of days for ever and ever’”, _ |
The other passage (according to Klausner, “eine amoräische Überlieferung einer tannaitischen Deutung ”) runs: **(Zecb. xii. 12): ‘And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart’; They say: ‘Must not the rule gal wachomer (a minori ad majus) be applied here: if with reference to the time to come when they are occupied with wailing and the evil inclination does not have power over them, the Scripture says “men apart and women apart” how much the more (ought this to be the law) now when they are occupied with pleasure and the evil inclination does have power over them?’ This wailing, what does it really signify? Rabbi Dosa and our teachers are divided on this point. The one says: ‘It (refers) to Messiah the son of Joseph who is (will be) killed’, and the other says: ‘It (refers) to the evil inclination which will be exterminated’. Surely (the right lies) with the one who says (that it refers) to Messiah the son of Joseph who will be killed, according as it is written (Zech. xii. 10): ‘And they shall look upon the one whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son’”.
‘En Ya’agob preserves the following version of TB. Sukka, 12 b: “‘(Zech. i. 20, Hebrew Bible, ii. 3): ‘And yHwH showed me four charashim’. What are they (i.e. the charashim)? R. Chunna bar Bizna says: R. Sim’on the Chasid says: this means Messiah ben David, Messiah ben Joseph, Elijah and the Priest of Righteousness.”
Targ. Yer. x to Ex. xl. 11 speaks of Messiah the son of Ephraim through whom Israel will in the end of time overcome Gog (“‘uthérabbé yath kiyyura wéyath bésiséh uthégaddesh yatheh métul Yehosu™ méshumshanakh rabba dé-Sanhedrin dé ‘ammeh dé’al yédoy ‘dthida ’ar‘a de-Israel le-ithpélaga uméshicha bar Ephraim denafiq minneh de‘al yédoy ‘athidin beth Israel liménagha le-Gog ulési‘atheh besof yomayya”).
Targ. Yer. to Canticles iv. 5 and vii. 4 speak of Messiah ben David and Messiah ben Joseph as deliverers of Israel like Moses and Aaron.
The earlier passages represent Messiah ben Joseph merely as the forerunner of Messiah ben David and as the Messiah “who is killed”. The passage in our book
CH.XLV| METATRON SHOWS R. ISHMAEL SECRETS 147
and wars that Gog and Magog will fight ® in the days of Messiah, and all that the Holy One, blessed be He, will do with them in the
time to come.
18 A ins.: ‘with Israel’
goes no further: he is to appear before Messiah ben David and will be engaged in warfare. Though it is not expressly stated here that Messiah ben Joseph will be killed, this is probably presupposed.
Later passages in Num. R. xiv. 2, in Pesigtha Zut. to Num. xxiv. 13, Midrash
- Asereth Melakhim, Pirqe Mashiach, BH. iii. 7o, Pereg R. Yoshiyyahu, BH. vi. 115 (Messiah ben Joseph called Nehemyah ben Hushiel) appears after the victory over Rome, is killed in the struggle with the Arabs and resuscitated by Elijah in the time of Messiah ben David. Midrash Wayyosha‘, Nistaroth de R. Shim‘on ben Yochai (BH. iii. 80), Tefillath R. Shim‘on ben Yochat (BH. iv. 124), Othoth ha-mMashiach (BH. ii. 58), Sefer Zerubbabel (BH. ii. 55) (vide Introduction, Sources and Literature, A 3 (8)) give the tradition that Messiah ben Joseph will be killed in the war with Armzlos. In the Nistaroth de R. Shim‘on ben Yochai there are three names of Messiah(s): Messiah ben Joseph, Messiah ben Ephraim and Messiah ben David. Num. R. xiv. 2, evidently dependent upon the tradition preserved in TB. Sukka, 12b (acc. to ‘En Ya‘aqob, vide above), interprets the four charashim of Zech. ii. 3 as: ‘‘ Elijah, the Messiah who shall rise from the children of Manasse, the Anointed for War (meshu%ch milchama) who will come from Ephraim and the Great Redeemer who is one of the sons of the sons of David”.
Attempts at systematization of the various traditions in respect of the two Messiahs were made by Sa‘adya in.’Emunoth we De‘oth, viii, and Hai Gaon in Ta‘am Zeqenim (ed. Frankf. am Main, 1854, pp. 59 seq.). For these vide Dalman, op. cit. and Buttenwieser (in FE. loc. cit.). A display of still later, especially cab- balistic, traditions on Messiah ben Joseph is given in Eisenmenger’s Entdecktes Judenthum, ii. 729 seqq. (from Menorath ha-Ma’or, Shene Luchoth ha-bBerith, Yalqut Chadash, ‘Emeq ha-mMelek, etc.). Passages in the Zohar treating of Mes- sianic times are: ZoAar, i. 118 a, 319a, 134a b, 139a b; ii.7a b, 32 a, 105 b, 109 b; lii. 67 b, x24 b, 125a b, 153 a b, 212 b; in the Tiqqunim, 78 a, 95 a.
Gog and Magog play the rôle of “a collective anti-Messiah” (M. Friedlander, Der Antichrist, pp. 171-3). The war with Gog and Magog was speculated upon already in pre-Hadrianic Tannaitic times. Klausner says (op. cit. pp. 90, 100), basing upon Siphra, Par. Bechuggothat, 2, Stphre Deut. Pisga. 343: ‘.We can with some certainty maintain that the belief current in pre-Hadrianic times was that the Messias ben David, supported by the presence of the Divine Glory (the Shekina), would wage war against and overcome the enemies of Israel (i.e. Gog and Magog), but in the post-Hadrianic times the warfare was assigned to Messiah ben Joseph destined after a temporal victory to be conquered, and the final victory, brought about by God Himself without shedding of blood, crowns Messiah ben David”. This distinction is evidently correct. It will easily be seen that our passage reflects the post-Hadrianic belief in respect of the Messianic times; but it may also be noticed that the vivid impression of the fate of the Messiah ben Joseph characteristic of the Tannaitic dicta has been somewhat blurred out; there is not the same nearness of the picture of war and the conquering and death of Messiah ben Joseph; on the other hand there are no traces of new developments and elaborations of the original conceptions found in later sources. This suggests that the present passage belongs to a time of peace not too far removed however from the time of origin of the Messiah ben Joseph conception, probably some time during the third century A.D.
and all that the Holy One.. .will do with them: the final consummation will be brought about by the Holy One Himself.
10-2
148 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH _ [CHH. XLV, XLVI
(6) 1? And all the rest of all!? the leaders of the generations and all the works of the generations both in Israel and in the nations of the world, 2°both what is done and what will be done hereafter” to all generations until the end of time, (all) were graven on the Curtain of MAQOM. And I saw all these things with my eyes; and after I had seen it, I opened my mouth in praise of MAOOM (the Divine Majesty) (saying thus, Eccl. viii. 4, 5): “For the King’s word hath power (and who may say unto him: What doest thou?) Whoso keepeth the commandments shall know no evil thing”. And I said: (Ps. civ. 24) ‘‘O Lord, how manifold are thy works!”