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In Exodus, God places his name in the angel sent to guide Israel. In 3 Enoch, God uses that promise when naming Metatron the lesser YHWH, explaining the angel's divine title through authority God has given him.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 23:21
Hebrew Bible
19 The first of the firstfruits of your soil you must bring to the house of the Lord your God. “You must not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk. 20 “I am going to send a messenger before you to protect you as you journey and to bring you into the place that I have prepared. 21 Take heed because of him, and obey his voice; do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgressions, for my Name is in him. 22 But if you diligently obey him and do all that I command, then I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will be an adversary to your adversaries.
3 Enoch 12:5
Hebrew Book of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
And He made me a robe of honour on which were fixed all kinds of beauty, splendour, brilliance and majesty. And he made me a royal crown in which were fixed forty-nine costly stones like the light of the globe of the sun. For its splendour went forth in the four quarters of the Araboth Raqia', and in (through) the seven heavens, and in the four quarters of the world. And he put it on my head. And He called me THE LESSER YHWH in the presence of all His heavenly household; as it is written (Ex. xxiii. 21): "For my name is in him".
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Notes and References
“... Similarly, in Sefer Hekhalot the endowment of Metatron with the office of
the Lesser YHWH coincides with a reference to the Angel of the Lord tradition
from Exodus. Thus, from 3 Enoch 12:5 one learns that the deity called the great
angel “the lesser YHWH in the presence of his whole household in the height as
it is written, ‘My name is in him.’”50
The close ties between Metatron and the Angel of the Lord figure were not
forgotten in later mystical lore. Michael Miller suggests that “Eleazar of Worms
must have known these [traditions] for his interpretation the dictum: ‘My Name
is in him’ of Metatron, to mean that ‘the great name is inscribed on his heart’
(MS Paris-BN 850, fol. 83b).”51 ...”
Andrei A. Orlov
Yahoel and Metatron: Aural Apocalypticism and the Origins of Early Jewish Mysticism
(p. 155) Mohr Siebeck, 2017
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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