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3 Enoch

Hebrew Book of Enoch

About this book
Chapter 12

1 R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Prince of the Presence, said to me: By reason of the love with which the Holy One, blessed be He, loved me more than all the children of heaven, He made me a garment of glory on which were fixed all kinds of lights, and He clad me in it. 2 And He made me a robe of honour on which were fixed all kinds of beauty, splendour, brilliance and majesty. 3 And he made me a royal crown in which were fixed forty-nine costly stones like the light of the globe of the sun. 4 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. 5 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".⁠

Texts in conversation

Compare Apocalypse of Abraham 10:8 and 3 Enoch 12:5

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In the Apocalypse of Abraham, Yahoel's power comes from God's name within him. In 3 Enoch, Metatron similarly receives God's name, identifying the angels' authority in the God who sends them.

Passages

Apocalypse of Abraham 10:8

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
7 Do not be afraid, and hurry to Him. 8 He who moves those who are with me on the seventh expanse on the heavenly vault calls me Jaoel. I am a power through the unutterable Name that dwells in me. 9 I have been assigned, by His command, to restrain the threatening attack of the living creatures of the Cherubim against one another, and to teach those who carry Him the song for the seventh hour of the human night. 10 I am appointed to restrain the Leviathans, for the attack and threat of every reptile are subject to me.
70–150 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in the Apocalypse of Abraham

3 Enoch 12:5

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Hebrew Book of Enoch
2 And He made me a robe of honour on which were fixed all kinds of beauty, splendour, brilliance and majesty. 3 And he made me a royal crown in which were fixed forty-nine costly stones like the light of the globe of the sun. 4 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. 5 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".
400–600 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 3 Enoch

References

“... one encounters familiar references to the Angel of the Lord figure. This associ- ation becomes an important conceptual devise already in b. Sanh. 38b, where Metatron’s name is defined as “similar to his Master, for it is written: For My name is in him.” Reflecting on this excerpt from the Babylonian Talmud, Ger- shom Scholem notices a connection of this passage not only to the Angel of the Lord tradition but also to the Yahoel figure. He observes that the talmudic tra- dition from the beginning of the fourth century, according to which Metatron is the angel of YHWH, is also “found in the tenth chapter of the Apocalypse of Abraham ... where the angel Yahoel says to Abraham: ‘I am called Yahoel ... a power in virtue of the ineffable name that is dwelling in me.’” 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.’” 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 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017), 155.

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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