Merkavah, Hekhalot, and Kabbalah on Enoch

The Hebrew Apocalypse of Enoch (3 Enoch / Sefer Hekhalot) and the Merkavah-Hekhalot mystical literature are the principal Jewish receptions of Enoch in late antiquity and the early medieval period. The dominant motif: Enoch becomes Metatron, the "lesser YHWH."

Key features

• 3 Enoch chs 3–16 — Enoch's ascent and transformation; he is enlarged "until he matched the world in length and breadth," seated on a throne next to God's, given 72 names.
• Metatron later appears in:
  • BT Hagigah 15a (the Aher / Elisha ben Abuya story) — "Two powers in heaven" controversy.
  • BT Sanhedrin 38b — debate over whether Metatron may be worshipped.
  • Sefer Hekhalot Rabbati, Maaseh Merkavah, and other Hekhalot texts.
• Kabbalah — Metatron continues as a major figure (Zohar, Bahir); identified variously with the Shekhinah, the Memra, the highest sephirah-mediator.

Scholarship pointers

• H. Odeberg, 3 Enoch or the Hebrew Book of Enoch (1928) — first critical English edition.
• G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941), ch. 2.
• A. Orlov, The Enoch-Metatron Tradition (2005) — the standard work.
• M. Idel, Ben: Sonship and Jewish Mysticism (2007) — Metatron's "Son of God" associations.
• D. Boyarin, The Jewish Gospels (2012) — Two-Powers and Christology continuities.

See also

• chapter index
• Enoch
• overview