3 Enoch 47 - The Spirits of the Wicked
3 Enoch 47
Section: Cosmic Visions
Translated by Hugo Odeberg (1928)
CHAPTER XLVII
Metatron shows R. Ishmael the spirits of the punished angels
R. Ishmael said: Metatron said to me:
(1) Come and I will show thee the souls !of the angels! and the spirits of ?the ministering servants? whose bodies ? have been burnt in the fire of MAQOM (the Almighty) that goes forth from his little finger. And they have been made into fiery coals in the midst of the fiery river (Nehar di-Nur). But their spirits and their souls are standing behind the Shekina.
(2) Whenever the ministering angels utter a song at a wrong time
1-1 E om. 2—2 so E. A om., but 3 A has a lacuna which represents 2-2 and is wrongly put there instead of before its antecedent word.
Ch. xlvii. As a sequel to the exposition in chh. xliii, xliv—the spirits of the righteous, the wicked and those not yet born—the spirits and souls of the song- uttering angels who have been burnt by the fire from their Creator (cf. ch. xl. 3) are here made the subject of treatment in the general scheme of the section: they are shown to R. Ishmael by Metatron who superadds divers explanations and informations.
The angels in question are those who have uttered a song in a wrong time or improper way, and therefore, as stated in ch. xl. 3, have been consumed by fire. The object of this chapter is apparently to show that this destruction by fire refers only to the bodies of the angels, whereas their spirits and souls ‘return to their Creator and stand behind the Shekina’. (On the real object, vide Introd. sect. 15.)
Thus the nature and fate of the song-uttering angels who have failed in their duty are pictured in analogy with those of failing men. Yet there are a few differences between the representations of chh. xliii, xliv and the present chapter. Whereas in chh. xliii, xliv only the term ‘spirit’ (néshamá) is used, the present chapter uses both ‘soul’ (néshümdá) and ‘spirit’ (ridch)—although practically synonymously. And whereas acc. to ch. xliv the punishment by fire is for the ‘spirits’, it is here the bodies only that are represented as destroyed in fire, the spirits (and souls) on the other hand are said to return to ‘their Creator’, i.e. to their abode behind the Shekina, thus rather reflecting the picture of the spirits of the righteous above the Throne in ch. xliii.
(1) the souls of the angels and the spirits of the ministering servants. The terms ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ are here evidently synonymous. whose bodies have been burnt in the fire of MAQOM…made into fiery coals in the midst of the fiery river. The two traditions of the fire from God’s little finger (ch. xl. 3) and the Nehar di-Nur (see note on ch. xxxiii. 5) as means of punishment of the angels, are here harmonized, see further vs. 2. but their spirits and their souls are standing behind the Shekina. Even here the two terms ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’ are best understood as being synonymous. The juxtaposition of ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’ is a mere repetition of that in the beginning of the verse.
(2) Whenever the ministering angels utter a song at a wrong time. ..they
152 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. XLVI
or as not appointed to be sung 5 they are burnt and consumed? by the fire of their Creator and by a flame from their Maker,
A: E: in the places (chambers) of the in their place (= on the spot); and
whirlwind, for it blows upon a whirlwind blows upon them and them and drives them throws them down
into the Nehar di-Nur; and there they are made into numerous mountains’ of burning coal. But their spirit and their soul return® to their Creator, and all are standing behind their Master.
4-4. E: “and as soon as it has been sung’ 5 A ins.: (MN? (representing a corr. reading ‘MYY, ‘their spirit(s)’?) 6-6 E om. 7 E: ‘mountains of mountains’ 40 ,… :8300! 8 8 sign of uncertainty in the text. 8 E: ‘returns’
are burnt…by the fire of their Creator. Cf. on ch. xl. 3. and drives them into the Nehar di-Nur. This is to be understood as an harmonization between the view, acc. to which the song-uttering angels, when uttering the Song untimely or improperly, are consumed by a fiery stream from the little finger of the Holy One, and that, acc. to which the Nehar di-Nur is the place and medium of extinction of the angels. The latter view includes that represented in Lam. R. iii. 21, Gen. R. lxxviii. 1, which maintains that new angels are created continually to sing the song and then disappear—whither? answer: into the Nehar di-Nur from which they were created. there they are made into numerous mountains of burning coal.. This should be compared with the statement of ch. xxxv. 5 seq.: the angels, until they acquiesce in performing the Qédushsha, are changed into all sorts of lifeless, fiery substances,—by a ‘whirlwind from before the Holy One’ (cf. here). Cf. also 1 En. xxi. 3: “‘I saw seven stars of the heaven bound together in it (the place of punishment), like great mountains and burning with fire”.
their spirit and their soul return to their Creator…standing behind their Master. This recalls ch.. xliti, where the spirits of the righteous who have been created are said to ‘return’. It implies that the spirits of the song-uttering angels like those of men are pre-existent before being manifested with bodies for the purpose of performing the Qédushsha or singing hymns and songs. But in contrast with the case of men the punishment of the failing angels is assigned not to their spirits but to their bodies alone. That the permanent abode of the spirits of the angels, not only after the severance from their bodies but even in their pre-existent state, is the place ‘behind the Shekina’ may be hinted at in vs. 3: R. Ishmael sees ‘all the souls of the angels and the spirits of the ministering servants’ standing behind the Shekina. Such a view may have developed from a wish to harmonize the different traditions concerning the creation or origin of the angels, one maintaining their pre-existence or creation on the second or fifth day of Creation, the other their continual or successive creation daily. The first view would then be made to apply to the creation of the spirits and souls, the second to their bodily manifestation. In fact the wish to harmonization in this case is sometimes attested in cabbalistic commentaries, cf. the statement: ‘the angels who are created daily, sing a song, and then perish, are those who were created on the fifth day; those who were created on the second day do not perish’. On the other hand the view that the angels continue to exist in spirit after their destruction in fire is explicitly refuted in Hilkoth Mal’akim (Add. 27199, fol. 123 a): “‘for the angels who have been burnt, there is no kind of continued life (or resurrection). It is not as with men, whose bodies die, their souls however are living on high and their spirits return to God—
CH. XLVII] METATRON SHOWS R. ISHMAEL SECRETS 153
(3) And I went ?by his side? and he took me by his hand; and he showed me all the souls of the angels and the spirits of the ministering servants who were standing behind the Shekina upon wings! of the whirlwind and walls of fire surrounding them.
(4) At that moment Metatron opened to me the gates of the walls within which they were standing behind the Shekina. And I lifted up my eyes and saw them, and behold, the likeness of every one was as (that of) angels and their wings like birds’ (wings), made out of flames, the work of burning fire. In that moment I opened my mouth in praise of MAQOM and said (Ps. xcii. 5): “How great are thy works, O Lord®”’.
9-9 ins. with ₪. 10-10 E: ‘forthwith a whirlwind passed by’ II emendated (cf. chs. xxxiv. 1, xxxvii. 2): “5323 instead of ‘TJ. I2 Emend. E quotes Ps. cxi. 2: ‘the works of the Lord (are great)’ A confuses Ps. xcii. 5 with cxi. 2.
for them there is continued life. Not so with the angels: they return to the Nehar di-Nur”.
(3) who were standing behind the Shekina upon wings of the whirlwind and walls of fire surrounding them. This is of course not indicative of any idea of punishment being assigned to the spirits of the song-uttering angels. Cf. how acc. to ch. xviii. 25 the two high angels SOPHERIEL H’ MECHAYYE and SOPHERIEL H’ MEMITH are said to be standing on the wheels of the stormwind. The Kerubim acc. to ch. xxii. 13 are surrounded by ‘columns of fire on their four sides and columns of firebrands beside them’. Acc. to ch. xxxiii. 3 ‘clouds of fire and clouds of flame compass the angels to the right and to the left’. Cf. also the Enoch-Metatron piece, ch. xv. 2.
the likeness of every one was as angels and their wings like birds’ (wings). Although separated from their bodies of manifested existence, the spirits and souls of the angels have bodily form; cf. chh. xliii. 2 and xliv. 5 and note on the latter.
Nore. The juxtaposition NibWJI ninin occurs in TB. Chag. i2 5, , but immediately preceding: DP . Is this passage dependent upon our book, chh. xliii and xlvii? Also in Mandaitic the juxtaposition of ‘spirit’ and ‘soul’ in a similar vein is quite frequent. On the spirit (or perhaps better ‘soul’) as the non-physical body of the soul (spirit) in Mandaitic vide Reitzenstein, Das zranische Erlósungsmysterium, p. 35. Cf. Introd. section on ‘the conception of spirit and soul’.
154 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. XLVIII (A)