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In Isaiah, seraphim proclaim that God's glory fills the earth. In 3 Enoch, that praise accompanies rivers of joy flowing through heaven, extending the song's effects beyond the angels who sing it.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Isaiah 6:3
Hebrew Bible
1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord seated on a high, elevated throne. The hem of his robe filled the temple. 2 Seraphs stood over him; each one had six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and they used the remaining two to fly. 3 They called out to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! His majestic splendor fills the entire earth!” 4 The sound of their voices shook the door frames, and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 I said, “Woe to me! I am destroyed, for my lips are contaminated by sin, and I live among people whose lips are contaminated by sin. My eyes have seen the king, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
3 Enoch 22B:8
Hebrew Book of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
There go forth rivers of joy, streams of gladness, rivers of rejoicing, streams of triumph, rivers of love, streams of friendship (another reading:) of commotion and they flow over and go forth before the Throne of Glory and grow great and go through the gates of the paths of 'Araboth Raqia at the voice of the shouting and music of the CHAYYOTH, at the voice of the rejoicing of the timbrels of his 'OPHANNIM and at the melody of the cymbals of His Kerubim. And they grow great and go forth with commotion with the sound of the hymn: "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY, IS THE LORD OF HOSTS; THE WHOLE EARTH IS FULL OF HIS GLORY!"
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Notes and References
“... The celestial Qedussah
3 Enoch represents the celebration of God's holiness through the recitation of the QeduSSah
(the Sanctus) as the central act of heavenly worship. 3 Enoch 35-40 is devoted entirely to
this subject. The celestial QeduSSah takes a number of different forms in 3 Enoch: see (1)
22B:8; (2) 1:12; 20:2; (3) 39:1-2; 48B:2.
There is a marked absence in 3 Enoch of Merkabah hymns, which are such a striking
feature of some Merkabah texts (e.g. Hekalot Rabbati and Ma
ca£eh Merkabah). The only
heavenly hymns in 3 Enoch are, like the QeduSSah, traditional and biblical. As we have
already noted, the Merkabah hymns had a theurgical use and their total absence from 3
Enoch may point to an anti-theurgical tendency in the final redaction of this work. ...”
Philip S. Alexander
"3 (Hebrew Apocalypse of) Enoch" in James H. Charlesworth (ed.) The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 1
(p. 245) Doubleday, 1983
* 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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