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3 Enoch

Hebrew Book of Enoch

About this book
Chapter 43

1 R. Ishmael said: Metatron said to me: Come and I will show you where are the spirits of the righteous that have been created and have returned, and the spirits of the righteous that have not yet been created.⁠ 2 And he lifted me up to his side, took me by his hand and lifted me up near the Throne of Glory by the place of the Shekina; and he revealed the Throne of Glory to me, and he showed me the spirits that have been created and had returned: and they were flying above the Throne of Glory before the Holy One, blessed be He. 3 After that I went to interpret the following verse of Scripture and I found in what is written (Isa. lvii. 16): "for the spirit clothed itself before me, and the souls I have made" that ("for the spirit was clothed before me") means the spirits that have been created in the chamber of creation of the righteous and that have returned before the Holy One, blessed be He; (and the words:) "and the souls I have made" refer to the spirits of the righteous that have not yet been created in the chamber (GUPH).

Texts in conversation

Compare 3 Enoch 43:1 and Yevamot 63b:16

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Rabbinic

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Summary

In 3 Enoch, Metatron offers to show Ishmael all the souls waiting to be born. Rabbinic tradition in tractate Yevamot says the Messiah must wait for every soul's birth, following a similar tradition of a fixed number of people who will ever live.

Passages

3 Enoch 43:1

Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses · Hebrew Book of Enoch
1 R. Ishmael said: Metatron said to me: Come and I will show you where are the spirits of the righteous that have been created and have returned, and the spirits of the righteous that have not yet been created. 2 And he lifted me up to his side, took me by his hand and lifted me up near the Throne of Glory by the place of the Shekina; and he revealed the Throne of Glory to me, and he showed me the spirits that have been created and had returned: and they were flying above the Throne of Glory before the Holy One, blessed be He.
400–600 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in 3 Enoch

Yevamot 63b:16

Rabbinic · Babylonian Talmud
Rabbi Asi said: The Messiah, son of David, will not come until all the souls of the body have been finished, i.e., until all souls that are destined to inhabit physical bodies will do so. As it is stated: “For the spirit that enwraps itself is from Me, and the souls that I have made” (Isaiah 57:16). It is taught in a baraita that Rabbi Eliezer says: Anyone who does not engage in the mitzva to be fruitful and multiply is considered as though he sheds blood, as it is stated: “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed” (Genesis 9:6), and it is written immediately afterward: “And you, be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 9:7).
450–550 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Yevamot

References

“... i. "The storehouse of beings": Heb. gup habberivvdt. This storehouse is mentioned in b.Yeb 62a; 63b; b.AZ 5a: b.Nidd 13b. Rashi explains the idea thus: "There is a treasure-house Vdsdr] called gup, and at the time of creation all souls destined to be born were formed and placed there" (to b.AZ 5a). "Gup: A chamber like a body [gup]; the name for the special place for souls which are about to be born" (to b.Nidd 13b). "Gup: A curtain [pargdd] which forms a partition between the Sekinah and the angels, and there are placed spirits and souls created since the six days of creation, which are to be put into bodies yet to be created" (to b.Yeb 63b). When this ch. of 3En speaks of "souls which have been created" and "souls which have not yet been created" it cannot mean creation in any absolute sense, but must refer to the entry of the soul into the body. Cf. b.Hag 12b, quoted in n. b above; ...”
Philip S. Alexander, “3 (Hebrew Apocalypse of) Enoch,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, ed. James H. Charlesworth (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1983), 1:294.

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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3 Enoch 43:1 and Yevamot 63b:16

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