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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 Philo, On Dreams Book 1 39:4 and 3 Enoch 12:5

Classical · Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses

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Summary

In Philo's On Dreams, he asks why God seems to refer to another god. In 3 Enoch, Metatron receives the title lesser YHWH, showing how a divine title can belong to a figure distinct from the God above him.

Passages

Philo, On Dreams Book 1 39:4

Classical
(1.227) For the scripture says: "I have seen what Laban does to You," namely, things contrary to the benefits that I conferred on you, things impure, wicked, and altogether suited to darkness. But it is not right for the man who anchors his hope on the alliance of God to crouch and tremble: he is the man to whom God says, "I am the God who was seen by you in the place of God." (1.228) It is a very glorious boast for the soul that God should see fit to appear to it and converse with it. And do not pass by what is said here, but examine it accurately, and see whether there are really two Gods. For it is said: "I am the God who was seen by you;" not in my place, but in the place of God, as if he meant the place of some other God.
20–50 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Philo, On Dreams Book 1

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

“... Within the complex of Jewish medieval mysticism, a number of scholars going back to Gershom Scholem have noted a par- ticularly telling case involving the angel Metatron in Sefer Hekhalot, also known as 3 Enoch. Thought to date to the fifth or sixth century CE/AD (but perhaps considerably later), this work refers to the angel Metatron as "the lesser Yahweh," literally, "Yahweh, the little one," yhwh hgtwn (3 Enoch 12:5).93 The characterization of MMetatron stands in contrast to "the greater Yahweh" (48B:1, name 44). As noted by scholars, Gnostic texts (e. g., Pistis Sophia, chapter 7, dating to the third century CE/AD) mention "the lesser Yao," which would seem to point to an early tradition of the double-form of Yhwh. The representation of "two powers in heaven" in the Talmudic account of Elisha ben Abuyah (called Aher) in Hagigah 15a,95 repeated in 3 Enoch 16, serves as the basis for Alan Segal's dating of this "bimorphic" view of divinity to at least the third century CE/AD, and perhaps even to the second century CE/AD.96 Segal considers 3 Enoch 12:5 in connection with Philo's view of the logos as "the second God" (noted above) as well as his use of "two gods" (De Somniis 1.227-229).97 While the formulations of "angel" and "word" may seem quite distinctive, for Philo these were already related for him in part by his scriptural interpretation, as Segal has observed. ...”
Mark S. Smith, God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World, FAT 57 (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2008), 295–296.

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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Philo, On Dreams Book 1 39:4 and 3 Enoch 12:5

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