3 Enoch 46
3 Enoch 46
Section: Cosmic Visions
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER XLVI The place of the stars shown to R. Ishmael
R. Ishmael said: Metatron said to me:
(1) (Come and I will show thee) the space! of the stars ?that are standing °in Ragia‘® night by night in feart? of the Almighty (MAQOM) and (I will show thee) where they go and where they stand.
(2) I walked by his side, and he took me by his hand and pointed out all to me with his fingers. And they were standing °on sparks of flames round’ the Merkaba of the Almighty (MAQOM). What did
19-19 &: ‘And there were? 20-20 E: ‘both what they have done and what they will do in time to come’
Ch. xlvi. 1 E perhaps reads ‘spirit’ 2-2 emendated. E corr.: ‘that are deep (or high’) in Raqia‘ and every night in fear (YON2 obviously miswritten for ( 3-3 emendated acc. to E. A: Dona, an easy corr. of Y’p_, ‘lightnings’ perhaps under influence of vs. 2: ‘they are standing on sparks’ 4 emendated with regard taken to E; see 2-2. 5-5 E: ‘in sparks of flames of (from) | Ä
Ch. xlvi. In this chapter R. Ishmael is shown the place of the stars who are standing by the ‘Throne of the Merkaba’ praising the Holy One during the time that they are not occupied by ‘doing service to the world’—in Ragia‘, the second heaven. For the stars, acc. to vs. 3, have two functions: one (during the night) of lighting the world, the other of singing hymns to their Creator.
(1) The text of the chapter is in a bad state, both acc. to the reading of A and acc. to that of E. Especially is this the case with vs. 1. Emendations have been made in the translation with the help of a comparison of the two readings. (Come and I will show thee) is omitted in both readings but is obviously to be inserted by analogy with the opening words of the surrounding chapters, since the rest of the present chapter follows the scheme and phraseology of the other chapters of the section.
(2) standingonsparks offlamesround the Merkaba of the Almighty (MAQOM) … flew off on flaming wings. The stars are depicted as standing by the Merkaba
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Metatron do? At that moment he clapped his hands and “chased them? off from their place. Forthwith they flew off’ on flaming wings, rose and fled from the four sides of the Throne of the Merkaba, and (as they flew) he told me the names ® of every single one. As it is written (Ps. cxlvii. 4): ’ He telleth the number of the stars; he giveth them all their names”, teaching, that the Holy One, blessed be He, has given a name to each one of them.
(3) And they all enter in counted order under the guidance of (lit. through, by the hands of) RAHATIEL to Ragia‘ ha-shSHamayim to serve the world. And they go out in counted order to praise the
6-6 E: ‘made them to fly’ 7 E adds: ‘from their place’ 8 E adds: ‘and the additional names (kinnuyim)’
and evidently conceived of as living beings, presumably as angels, cf. vss. 3 and 4.
- Wings! are the regular attribute of angels and angelicized beings, cf. ch. ix. 2 and ‘the Names flying off like eagles’, ch. xxxix. 1. The stars are hence probably pictured as having bodies and wings after the scheme of the description of angels. Cf. the . representation of the fallen stars as having bodily form, in 1 En. lxxxvi. 1 seqq., Ixxxviii. I, xc. 21.
Metatron…clapped his hands and chased them off. Metatron here is re- presented as having authority over the stars—although their special ‘mamnunne’ (appointed one) is RAHATIEL. The authority over the heavenly bodies is a special distinctive mark of the Prince of the World, acc. to ch. xxxviii. 3—hence this may be regarded as a trace of the identity between Metatron and the Prince of the World, maintained by one trend of traditions: cf. note on ch. iii and intr. told me the names…has given a name to each one. Cf. ı En. Ixix. 21: “through that oath (i.e. Akae) the stars complete their course. And He calls them by their names. And they answer Him from eternity to eternity”. (Charles, 1 En. p. 140.)
(3) they all enter in counted order under the guidance of Rahatiel. For RAHA- TIEL as the ruler of the constellations, planets or heavenly bodies in general, see ch. xvii. 6 and note, ad loc. to Raqia‘ ha-shSHamayim, i.e. the second of the seven heavens, which is the region of the heavenly bodies (Chag. 12 b, chh. xvii. 4, 7, xxxviii. 1). Here the stars are represented as entering the Ragia‘ in order to serve the world, i.e. to give light, etc. to serve the world. For the expression and idea cf. 4 Ezra vi. 46: ‘‘and didst command them (the sun…moon and order of the stars) that they should do service unto man”; and see Box, Ezra-Apocalypse, p. 88, note ad locum, where attention is called to parallels in Clemens, Recogn. v. 29 and Hom. x. 25 (“‘the sun daily waits upon the world”, etc.), and where also is pointed out that the underlying idea of the expression is to “emphasize the thought that the stars are man’s servants because by all the rest of the world they were regarded as gods”.
And they go out in counted order. ‘go out’ is here obviously meant as the opposite of ‘enter (the Raqia‘)’. Hence the stars are here thought to leave the second heaven after having fulfilled their function of ‘serving the world’. From the Ragia‘ they are presumably pictured as proceeding to the ‘Araboih, the seventh heaven, since they are said (vs. 2) to be standing round the Merkaba or ‘the T’hrone of the Merkaba’.
to praise the Holy One, blessed be He, with songs and hymns. In their function of praising the Most High ‘with songs and hymns’ the stars are clearly conceived of as angelic beings, and this is especially marked by the manner in which their fate is associated with that of the song-uttering angels (see next verse). For the conception of the stars as angels, cf. Bousset, Rel. des Judentums, p. 315.
150 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. XLVI
Holy One, blessed be He, with songs and hymns, according as it is written (Ps. xix. 1): ‘‘ The heavens declare the glory of God”.
(4) But in the time to come the Holy One, blessed be He, °will create them anew?, as it is written (Lam. iii. 23): “They are new every morning”. And they open their mouth and utter a song. Which is the song that they utter? (Ps. viii. 3): ’* When I consider thy heavens “.
9-9 E corr.: “and will help them anew’
Maimonides, More Nebukim, vol. ii, ch. v, uses the same scriptural reference as the present verse (Ps. xix. 2) in support of his view, that “the globes are living and rational beings…and they serve their Master and praise and glorify him with great praise and mighty glorification, as it is written (Ps. xix. 2): ‘the heavens declare the glory of God’’’. The idea of the planets and stars as living, acting and domina- ting gods is, of course, fundamental in Babylonian and, by influence therefrom, in Persian religion—accompanied by the conception of special rulers of the stars. In the Pehlevi literature the planets and stars are represented as demons or else as animated or ruled by demons. See Bundahish, iii. 25, xxviii. 43, 44, Zad sparam, ii. 10, iv. 3, 7, 10, etc. In Jewish remodelling the planet-gods naturally become planet-angels, whereas the conception of special angels as rulers of the stars, con- ` stellations etc. or of the whole of the heavenly bodies is uncommonly frequent. The 7o princes of kingdoms are sometimes identified with the planets and con- stellations, although more often they are represented as the rulers of them. ‘The angels are the souls of the heavenly spheres’ is a comparatively frequent dictum. The ’Ophannim are the angels who move the spheres, cf. note on ch. xxv. 5. The identification of the heavenly bodies with angel-princes or demons was also prompted by the astrological speculations. The archangels are identified with the seven planets or represented as rulers of the seven planets, thus preserving the old conception of the seven sideric rulers from which the conception of the seven archangels is supposed to have originated. (See YR. i. 16 a)
(6) But in the time to come the Holy One, blessed be He, will create them anew…and they open their mouth and utter a song. The creating the stars and planets anew is here explicitly connected with their character of song-uttering angelic beings. It is, moreover, supported by the scriptural reference which tradi- tionally was used as basis for the speculations concerning the song-uttering angels, who also are said to ‘be created anew’: ‘ They are new every morning, great is thy faithfulness’, Lam. iii. 23. See ch. xl. 4, Chag. 14a, Lam. R. ii. 21, Gen. R. Ixxvili. 1. The creation anew in the case of the angels is depicted as going on con- tinually every day, whereas that of the stars is designed for the ‘time to come’. The future world is sometimes represented as referred to in the said passage (Lam. ili. 23), cf. Gen. R. ib. and Alph. R. ‘Agiba.
Nore. It is significant that there seems to be no remnant in 3 En. of the Gnostic idea of the planets and constellations as evil agencies, as enemies of the spirit and the spiritual world. Contrast e.g. the ‘Seven Great Princes’ and the ‘Seventy-two Princes of Kingdoms’ of 3 Ea. xvii. with the ‘Seven’ in Mandaitic. Vide also 1 En. xix. 13-16, xxi. 3-6. There are, however, indications that this idea was known at the time of our book. Thus the inimical réle of the planets is in our book replaced by that of ‘Uzza, ‘Azza and ‘Azzael (chh. iv, v), and the opposing angels in general. Possibly the present chapter is intentionally directed against the Gnostic (Parsic-Iranian) idea in question. (Cf. also Zimmern in Schrader, Die Keilin- schriften und das Alte Testament, 8th ed., p. 459, and Reitzenstein, Das iranische Erlésungsmysterium, pp. 59 seq.)
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