Texts in Conversation
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.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
(1.227) For the scripture says: "I have seen what Laban does unto Thee,"{53}{#ge 31:12.} namely, things contrary to the benefits which I conferred on you, things impure, wicked, and altogether suited to darkness. But it is not right for the man who anchors on the hope of the alliance of God to crouch and tremble, to whom God says, "I am the God who was seen by thee in the place of God." (1.228) A very glorious boast for the soul, that God should think fit to appear to and to converse with it. And do not pass by what is here said, but examine it accurately, and see whether there are really two Gods. For it is said: "I am the God who was seen by thee;" not in my place, but in the place of God, as if he meant of some other God.
Date: 20-50 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
3 Enoch 12:5
Hebrew Book of Enoch
Pseudepigrapha, Apocalypses
And He made me a robe of honour on which were fixed all kinds of beauty, splendour, brilliance and majesty. And he made me a royal crown in which were fixed forty-nine costly stones like the light of the globe of the sun. 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. 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".
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Notes and 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.92 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.94 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.9S ...”
Smith, Mark S.
God in Translation: Deities in Cross-Cultural Discourse in the Biblical World
(pp. 295-296) Mohr Siebeck, 2008
* 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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