The Ways of Metatron - A Book of Enoch

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As we have seen, according to Videvdad 2. The latter meaning is clearly invoked when Aher utters: It is, therefore, the sovereignty and authority of Metatron that Aher encounters, expressed by his posture, which ultimately misleads him to mistake Metatron for God. Here, the following story is related:. The implicit Talmudic allusion to the sovereignty and authority of Metatron can be fully comprehended only in the light of more explicit descriptions of his glorious and magisterial throne. This does not necessarily indicate that the authors of the Talmudic version relied on 3 Enoch, but simply that the two versions are culturally connected and stem from the very same milieu.

Both versions of the story attempt to devaluate Metatron in one way or another, as both versions stress the punishment of Metatron for misrepresenting himself as God and leading Aher astray. Metatron misrepresented himself as God by sitting on a throne and is eventually forced to symbolically rise. It is not merely the glorious enthronement of Metatron, his authority over heavenly and earthly creatures, his seat in the heights of the seventh heaven, and his majestic symbols of lordship, which connect the Jewish Babylonian tradition with the Iranian depictions of Yima, but also the description of his sin and subsequent punishment.

Both Yima and Metatron are found guilty of misrepresenting themselves as God and as a result they are cast down from their glorious thrones and, quite symbolically, struck by another heavenly creature.

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There are also, to be sure, several differences between the narratives of Yima and Metatron. To mention one example, unlike Metatron who is accused of conveying the wrong impression to Aher, Yima himself is deceived by his majestic and glorious appearance into believing he is God and Creator.

This and other dissimilarities notwithstanding, the portrayal of Metatron in the Babylonian tradition is so close to contemporaneous descriptions of Yima that I believe that the two figures were associated, and perhaps even identified, in the minds of the Babylonian authors. Two Ways to Understand the Emergence of Metatron In sum, we see that the emergence of Metatron speculation and the accentuated engagement with binitarian theology in Jewish Babylonia during the late Sasanian period may be understood in two different, not necessarily contradictory ways.

On one hand, a gradual diachronic development from earlier Enochic traditions going back to the Second Temple period, which describe the transformation of Enoch into the Son of Man or some other heavenly figure, is evident. On the other hand, when viewed synchronically, it would seem that the Babylonian rabbis and their Jewish coreligionists were in conversation with contemporaneous religious discourse concerning binitarian theology and the existence of a God-like figure alongside the Almighty, which dangerously resembles God and shares his glory and name.

While Christian binitarianism would be the obvious candidate for such a reconstruction, we have seen that contemporaneous Zoroastrianism: He received his Ph. Cambridge University Press, Rabbi Idith uses the same passage Exodus Furthermore, as an angel Metatron has no power to pardon transgressions nor was he to be received even as a messenger of forgiveness. In the fourth quarter God sits and instructs the school children. In the preceding three quarters Metatron may take God's place or God may do this among other tasks.

The tenth century Karaite scholar Kirkisani believed that rabbinic Judaism was the heresy of Jeroboam I. The book describes the link between Enoch , son of Jared great grandfather of Noah and his transformation into the angel Metatron. His grand title "the lesser YHVH " resurfaces here.

The word Metatron is numerically equivalent to Shaddai God in Hebrew gematria ; therefore, he is said to have a "Name like his Master". Metatron says, "He [the Holy One] The narrator of this book, supposedly Rabbi Ishmael , tells how Metatron guided him through Heaven and explained its wonders. This Enoch, whose flesh was turned to flame, his veins to fire, his eye-lashes to flashes of lightning, his eye-balls to flaming torches, and whom God placed on a throne next to the throne of glory, received after this heavenly transformation the name Metatron.

The Zohar calls Metatron "the Youth", a title previously used in 3 Enoch, where it appears to mean "servant". In the later Ecstatic Kabbalah, Metatron is a messianic figure. In the Apocalypse of Zerubbabel Metatron is not identified as Enoch. Instead he is identified as the archangel Michael. There are numerous possible etymologies for the name Metatron. An early derivation of this can be seen in Shimmusha Rabbah, where Enoch is clothed in light and is the guardian of the souls ascending to heaven.

Odeberg also suggests that the name Metatron might be taken from the Persian name Mithras. Gershom Scholem argues that there is no data to justify the conversion of metator to metatron. Using this etymology, Alexander suggests the name may have come about as a description of "the angel of the Lord who led the Israelites through the wilderness: Because we see this as a word in Hebrew, Jewish Aramaic, and Greek, Alexander believes this gives even more strength to this etymology.

In the entry entitled "Paradigmata" in his study, "'The Written' as the Vocation of Conceiving Jewishly", John W McGinley gives an accounting of how this name functions in the Bavli's version of "four entered pardes". This hypothesis explains why the generators of the "chambers" portion of the Heikhalot literature make "Ishmael ben Elisha" the major protagonist of their writings even though this Rabbi Ishmael was not directly mentioned in the Bavli's account in the Gemara to tractate Khaggigah of "The Work of the Chariot".

Solomon Judah Leib Rapport in Igrot Shir suggests that Metatron is a combination of two Greek words which mean to "change" and "pass away" referring to Chanoch Enoch who "changed" into an angel and "passed away" from the world. In Dogma , Metatron is portrayed by Alan Rickman , stating that he acts as the Voice of God in situations where people hear God speak to them, as humanity is psychologically and physically incapable of hearing God's actual voice without their heads exploding.

In the course of the film, he recruits abortion clinic worker Bethany Sloan Linda Fiorentino , who is revealed over the course of the film to be the last living relative of Jesus, to stop two angels from unwittingly negating existence while God is incapacitated after the Almighty is attacked and left in a coma while in a mortal form, even directing Bethany to and providing her with aid in the form of the 'prophets' Jay and Silent Bob, Rufus the Thirteenth Apostle, left out of the Bible because he was black and Serendipity a Muse who came to Earth to write but learned that she cannot use her powers herself.

During a later conversation with Bethany, the Metatron notes that Jesus had trouble adapting to the news that he was God's son and asked Metatron to take it back, with Metatron admitting to Bethany that he regretted placing so much responsibility on a child. At the conclusion, Metatron accompanies Rufus, Serendipity and the restored God back to Heaven, after revealing that Bethany is now pregnant healed of a past infection that rendered her unable to conceive with the next generation of Jesus's descendants. In the eighth season of TV series Supernatural , protagonists Dean and Sam Winchester discover that Metatron Curtis Armstrong has been living in isolation for centuries because he became disgusted with Heaven's actions.

Although he initially presents himself as an ally in the brothers' current quests to seal up Heaven and Hell after they find him, Metatron later turns against them, tricking their angelic ally Castiel into completing a ritual that leaves Castiel stripped of his angelic powers and banishes all angels apart from Metatron to Earth.

Throughout the ninth season , the brothers and Castiel are forced to deal with the return of the arch-demon Abaddon along with the angels that were banished by Metatron's actions, with Metatron gathering allies that he will 'allow' back into Heaven while presenting Castiel as the villain, until Castiel manages to regain his powers and trick Metatron into revealing the monster he truly is to the other angels. In the tenth season , he is sought out by the Winchesters and Castiel as a way to remove the Biblical Mark of Cain from Dean's arm.

He is subsequently stripped of his powers by Castiel and though he escapes, he is left to wander Earth, powerless to do anything more than watch as the world goes by while aware that the other angels will kill him if he does anything to draw their attention. Metatron is eventually recaptured by Castiel who recovers the demon tablet, the one powerful artifact he still possesses and he is forced to tell Castiel all that he knows about the Darkness, God's older sister. Afterwards, Castiel releases Metatron, finding him pitiable and not worth imprisoning or killing. Months later, when God returns, He summons Metatron to a bar of his own creation to act as God's editor on His autobiography.

By this point, Metatron's time as a human has caused him to undergo a drastic change in personality for the better and he attempts to convince God to help with the threat, making an impassioned plea on the behalf of humanity. Metatron ultimately succeeds and he later reveals to the Winchesters that God intends to sacrifice himself to the Darkness. Metatron aids the Winchesters in rescuing Lucifer and sacrifices himself to buy them time to escape, earning a measure of redemption for his evil actions.

There is a literary press that publishes contemporary literature called Metatron. In 3 Enoch when R.

And not even to my angels have I explained my secrets Perhaps the most mysterious thing connected with this title is the fact that prominent scholars of Jewish mystical literature like Scholem and Odeberg do not find the important title in the narrative of 2 Enoch. Blessed is he who understands all works of the Lord, and glorifies Him: And behold my children, I am the Governor [62] of the earth, I wrote them down. And the whole year I combined and the hours of the day. And I compared every measure and the just balance I measured.

And I wrote them down, just as the Lord commanded My previous observations about the celestial titles of the Enoch showed that these descriptions are situated in chs. The text makes clear that during this visit Enoch is already an angelic being. Since the time when the Lord anointed me with the ointment of my glory, it has been horrible for me, and food is not agreeable to me, and I have no desire for earthly food. It is possible that in this part of the book we have some remnants of developed Metatron tradition.

Chapters differ slightly from chs.

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First, later chapters give an important description of Enoch as Governor Prince of the world, a role which in late Merkabah literature usually is connected with Metatron tradition. Second, an important aspect of the passage of chs. There is no other Slavonic text where the word prometaya is documented. Third, at the beginning of this textual block ch. This unlimited horizon of functions and deeds of Enoch is not consistent with the previous narrative of chs.

It is apparent that we have two different traditions which sometimes demonstrate the lack of linkage and reconciliation.

As I have already mentioned, the most impressive alignments between 2 Enoch and Merkabah tradition are dependent upon developing the themes connected with the Celestial Titles of Enoch Metatron. They give new evidence that the Metatron tradition has deep connections with early Enochic literature. Because of the two distinct names, it appears that the two traditions are not linked. Something seems to be missing between these two great theological streams.

One of the links may be found in the indissoluble continuity of the titles of this main character, which are common to both traditions. The titles, like the developed images of the Heavenly roles of Enoch Metatron , help us to see the transparent theological development which lies beneath the hidden meanings of these enigmatic names. Nauka, ; F. Eine untersuchung zum slavische Henochbuch Frankfurt am Main: Mohr, ; R. Sheffield Academic Press, ; J. Scholar Press, ; J.

B Mohr [Paul Siebeck], ; L. Henry Regenry Company, ; U. Milik, The Books of Enoch: Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4 Oxford: Clarendon Press, ; G.

A Historical and Contextual Approach

Ktav, ; M. Presses Universitaires de France, ; S. Brill, ; J. Scholars Press, Princeton University Press, ; M.

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