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3 Enoch

Hebrew Book of Enoch

About this book
Chapter 11

1 R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me: Henceforth the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed to me all the mysteries of Tora and all the secrets of wisdom and all the depths of the Perfect Law; and all living beings' thoughts of heart and all the secrets of the universe and all the secrets of Creation were revealed to me even as they are revealed to the Maker of Creation.⁠ 2 And I watched intently to behold the secrets of the depth and the wonderful mystery. Before a man did think in secret, I saw (it) and before a man made a thing I saw it. 3 And there was no thing on high nor in the deep hidden from me.

Texts in conversation

Compare 2 Enoch 24:3 and 3 Enoch 11:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In 2 Enoch, God reveals creation's secrets to Enoch even beyond what the angels know. In 3 Enoch, God gives him the same hidden knowledge, describing his understanding of creation to be equal to the creator.

Passages

2 Enoch 24:3

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Secrets of Enoch
1 And the Lord summoned me, and said to me: 'Enoch, sit down on my left with Gabriel.' And I bowed down to the Lord, and the Lord spoke to me: 2 Enoch, beloved, I am telling you about everything you see, everything that now stands completed, starting even before the very beginning, all that I created from non-being, and visible things from invisible. 3 Listen, Enoch, and take in these words of mine, for I have not told my secret to My angels, and I have not told them their rise, nor my endless realm, nor have they understood my work of creation, which I tell you today.
1–100 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 2 Enoch

3 Enoch 11:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Hebrew Book of Enoch
1 R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me: Henceforth the Holy One, blessed be He, revealed to me all the mysteries of Tora and all the secrets of wisdom and all the depths of the Perfect Law; and all living beings' thoughts of heart and all the secrets of the universe and all the secrets of Creation were revealed to me even as they are revealed to the Maker of Creation. 2 And I watched intently to behold the secrets of the depth and the wonderful mystery. Before a man did think in secret, I saw (it) and before a man made a thing I saw it.
400–600 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 3 Enoch

References

“... Several details in these descriptions of Metatron’s expertise in the secrets recall similar conceptual developments already known not only from early Enochic but also Yahoel traditions. First, the peculiar emphasis on the se- crets associated with “the orders of creation” found in 3 Enoch recalls the early Enochic booklets, more specifically, the Astronomical Book, in which Enoch’s initiation into astronomical, cosmological, and meteorological lore by Uriel can also be viewed as pertaining to such orders. A similar theme unfolds in 2 Enoch, wherein the secrets of creation stand at the center of the Lord’s revelations to the elevated Enoch. In the Apocalypse of Abraham as well, the secrets of creation, now refashioned as the mysteries of the Hayyot and the Leviathans, represent a pivotal part of the patriarch’s initiation by Yahoel. ...”
Andrei A. Orlov, Yahoel and Metatron: Aural Apocalypticism and the Origins of Early Jewish Mysticism (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), 178.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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2 Enoch 24:3 and 3 Enoch 11:1

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