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In Joseph and Aseneth, an angel sends bees to their assigned places. In 3 Enoch, Metatron sends the stars from God's throne, giving him similar authority over living creatures that fly at an angel's command.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Joseph and Aseneth 16:14
Pseudepigrapha, Hebrew Bible Expansions
14 Then all those bees encircled Asenath from feet to head, and other great bees like their queens arose from the cells, and they circled around her face and her lips, and made a comb on her mouth and on her lips like the comb that lay before the angel; and all those bees ate from the comb that was on Asenath's mouth. 15 And the angel said to the bees, "Go now to your place." Then all the bees rose and flew and departed to heaven; 16 but as many as wished to injure Asenath all fell to the ground and died. 17 And then the angel stretched his staff over the dead bees and said to them: "Rise and go to your place, you too." Then all the dead bees rose and departed into the court that adjoined Asenath's house and settled in the fruit-bearing trees.
3 Enoch 46:2
Hebrew Book of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
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 Metatron do? At that moment he clapped his hands and chased them off from their place. At once 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 tells the number of the stars; he gives them all their names", teaching, that the Holy One, blessed be He, has given a name to each one of them.
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Notes and References
“... Although the figure in Aseneth and Metatron in 3 Enoch share numerous similari-
ties that may be explained by their common angelic nature, two scenes in 3
Enoch
exhibit more than passing similiarity to scenes in Aseneth.
In 3 Enoch 46, Metatron
proposes to show the visionary Ishmael "the spirits of the stars—which stand like
fiery sparks around the chariot of the Omnipresent One." whereupon he shows Ish-
mael a scene quite similar to the scene in Aseneth 16, where the angel instructs the
bees to il y to their places: ...”
Kraemer, Ross S.
When Aseneth Met Joseph: A Late Antique Tale of the Biblical Patriarch and His Egyptian Wife, Reconsidered
(p. 125) Oxford University Press, 1998
* 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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