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In 1 Enoch, Michael knows the secret oath that sustains creation. In 3 Enoch, Metatron invites Ishmael to see the letters used to create the world, giving a human visitor access to knowledge held by angels.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
1 Enoch 69:16
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
14 This angel asked Michael to reveal the hidden name so that he could declare it in the oath, causing those who revealed secrets to the children of men to tremble before it. 15 This is the power of this oath; it is mighty and strong, and he placed this oath Akâe in the hand of Michael. 16 And these secrets are powerful through his oath: the heavens were suspended before the world was created and will be forever. 17 By this oath the earth was founded upon water, and from the hidden depths of the mountains come beautiful waters, from the creation of the world and on forever.
3 Enoch 41:1
Hebrew Book of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Angel, the Prince of the Presence, said to me: Come and behold the letters by which the heaven and the earth were created, the letters by which were created the mountains and hills, the letters by which were created the seas and rivers, the letters by which were created the trees and herbs, the letters by which were created the planets and the constellations, the letters by which were created the globe of the moon and the globe of the sun, Orion, the Pleiades and all the different luminaries of Raqia'. the letters by which were created the Throne of Glory and the Wheels of the Merkaba, the letters by which were created the necessities of the worlds, the letters by which were created wisdom, understanding, knowledge, prudence, meekness and righteousness by which the whole world is sustained.
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Notes and References
“... Order and regularity in nature are sometimes conceived as being bound to
a secret oath. 1 Enoch 41, 5 mentions the astronomical order which is preserved
“in accordance with an oath”. An oath, probably the same one, is later on men-
tioned in connection with the creation of the world (Chapter 69). Although
not everything said is as lucid as one could wish, it appears that Michael is
in possession of the knowledge of a secret oath, and possibly also of a secret
name—the two are not necessarily identical—which sustains the whole work
of creation. That there was such a secret principle, which the ancients believed
to be operative in the creation of the world and in its subsequent government,
is neither new nor unique to the “Book of Similitudes” (1 Enoch 37–71). At any
rate, the idea and its parallels are amply documented in post-biblical Jewish lit-
erature. Thus, for instance, the major Hekhalot text, Hekhalot Rabbati (Synopse,
§ 166),16 contains a brief reference to the “. . . wondrous and strange and great
secret; the name through which the heaven and the earth were created, and all
the orders of the creation of the world (Hebrew: sidrey bereshit) . . . were sealed
by it”.17 Presumably, the “secret name” and the “oath”, or the “great secret”, in
these sources refer to the same cosmic principle. Indeed, the secret name, or
names, of God played a great role in some of the ancient Jewish concepts of
creation. Thus, we find in Jubilees 36, 7 that Isaac makes his sons swear “a great
oath—for there is no oath which is greater than it—by the name glorious and
honored and great and splendid and wonderful and mighty, which created the
heavens and the earth and all things together . . .” Later on, in the third century
C.E., we hear from Rav Yehudah in the name of Rav that “Beẓal’el (Exodus 31, 2)
knew how to form the combinations (Hebrew: le-ẓaref) of the letters (of the
Alphabet) through which the heaven and the earth had been created”.18 Again,
3 Enoch 41 refers to a series of letters by which several things were created. ...”
* 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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