“Seal of Resemblance, Full of Wisdom, and Perfect in Beauty”: The Enoch/Meṭaṭron Narrative of 3 Enoch and Ezekiel 28

Extract

One of the most intriguing narratives in the Hekhalot and Merkavah (HM) literature is the account of Enoch/Meṭaṭron, included in an elaborated form in 3 Enoch. This version, attributed to the fifth or sixth century C.E., draws together threads inherited from a variety of sources. These include, for example, “angel of the Lord” traditions (e.g., Exod 23:20–21, b. Sanh. 38b, Apocalypse of Abraham), Enochic material found in 1 Enoch and 2 Enoch, and traditions of divinized angelomorphic humans and exalted figures found in Daniel 7 as well as in a host of pseudepigraphic sources (e.g., T. Levi, Ascen. Isa. 6–11, and Apoc. Ab. 15–19). They include, as well, traditions found in several Qumran texts (e.g., 4QShirShabb, 11QMelch), talmudic and midrashic polemics against beliefs in a second deity or an angelic vice-regent (e.g., b. Ḥag. 14a; b. Sanh. 38b), traditions of Meṭaṭron, and uncensored, nontalmudic speculation concerning the angel Meṭaṭron as an enthroned vice-regent in heaven.