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Celestial Choirmaster: The Liturgical Role of Enoch-Metatron in 2 Enoch and the Merkabah Tradition
Open accessAbstract
This article investigates the roots of Enoch-Metatron’s liturgical office of celestial choirmaster which plays a prominent role in the Merkabah tradition. Although references to this office of the exalted patriarch are absent in 1 Enoch, Jubilees, Genesis Apocryphon, and the Book of Giants, this article argues that the roots of Enoch-Metatron’s liturgical imagery can be traced to the Second Temple Enochic lore, namely to 2 Enoch, the Jewish apocalypse, apparently written in the first century CE. This article investigates a tradition found in 2 Enoch 18 where the translated patriarch encourages the celestial Watchers to start liturgy ‘before the Face of the Lord’, that is, in front of the divine Kabod, the exact location where Metatron will later conduct heavenly worship of angelic hosts in the Shi‘ur Qomah and Hekhalot accounts.
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Research works printed but not linked: 16
- P. S. Alexander, "From Son of Adam to a Second God: Transformation of the Biblical Enoch," in M. E. Stone and T. A. Bergen (eds.), Biblical Figures Outside the Bible (Harrisburg: Trinity Press International, 1998), 87-122 (102-104);
- M. S. Cohen, The Shi c ur Qomah: Liturgy and Theorgy in Pre-Kabbalistic Jewish Mysticism (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1983), 124-32;
- J. R. Davila, "Of Methodology, Monotheism and Metatron," in C. C. Newman, J. R. Davila and G. S. Lewis (eds.), The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism: Papers from the St. Andrews Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus (SJSJ, 63; Leiden: Brill, 1999), 3-18; idem, "Melchizedek, the 'Youth,' and Jesus," in J. R. Davila (ed.), The Dead Sea Scrolls as Background to Postbiblical Judaism and Early Christianity: Papers from an International Conference at St. Andrews in 2001 (STDJ, 46; Leiden: Brill, 2003), 248-74;
- C. Kaplan, "The Angel of Peace, Uriel- Metatron," Anglican Theological Review 13 (1931), 306-13;
- M. Idel, "Enoch is Metatron," Immanuel 24/25 (1990) 220-240; idem, The Mystical Experience of Abraham Abulafia (trans. J. Chipman; Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1988), 117-19; idem, "Metatron-Comments on the Development of Jewish Myth," in H. Pediah (ed.), Myth in Jewish Thought (Ber Sheva: Ber Sheva University Press, forthcoming);
- J. Milik, The Books of Enoch (Oxford: Clarendon, 1976), 125-35;
- H. Odeberg, "Föreställningarna om Metatron i äldre judisk mystic," Kyrkohistorisk Årsskrift 27 (1927), 1-20; idem, 3 Enoch, or the Book of Enoch, 79-146; idem, "Enoch," in TDNT, 2.556-60;
- P. Schäfer, Hidden and Manifest God: Some Major Themes in Early Jewish Mysticism (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 1992), 29-32;
- M. Himmelfarb, "The Temple and the Garden of Eden in Ezekiel, the Book of the Watchers, and the Wisdom of Ben Sira," in Jamie Scott and Paul Simpson-Housley (eds.), Sacred Places and Profane Spaces: Essays in the Geographics of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991), 63-78; idem, "Apocalyptic Ascent and the Heavenly Temple," SBLSP 26 (1987) 210-17. Himmelfarb's research draws on the previous publications of J. Maier and G. W. E. Nickelsburg; cf. J. Maier, "Das Gefährdungsmotiv bei der Himmelsreise in der jüdischen Apocalyptik und ‚Gnosis,'" Kairos 5.1 (1963) 18-40, (23); idem, Vom Kultus zur Gnosis: Studien zur Vor-und Frühgeschichte der "Judischen Gnosis." Bundeslade, Gottesthron und Märkabah (Kairos, 1; Salzburg: Müller, 1964), 127-8;
- Cf. also H. Kvanvig, Roots Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha, Vol. 14, No. 1 (2004): pg. 3-29. DOI. This article is © SAGE Publisher and permission has been granted for this version to appear in -Publications@Marquette. SAGE Publisher does not grant for this article to /distributed or hosted elsewhere without the from SAGE Publisher. 26
- It should be noted that the expression "the tabernacle of the Youth" occurs also in the Shi c ur Qomah materials. For a detailed analysis of the Metatron imagery in this tradition, see Cohen, Liturgy and Theurgy in Pre-Kabbalistic Jewish Mysticism, 124-32. 36 Midrash Rabbah (10 vols.; London: Soncino Press, 1961), 5.482-83. 37 Cf. Sefer Haqqomah 155-164; Sid. R. 37-46. 38
- W. S. McCullough, Jewish and Mandean Incantation Texts in the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1967), D 5-6.
- L. H. Schiffman and M. D. Swartz, Hebrew and Aramaic Incantation Texts from the Cairo Genizah (Semitic Texts and Studies, 1; Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 1992), 145-47, 151. On Metatron as the high priest, see Schiffman and Swartz, Hebrew and Aramaic Incantation Texts, 25-28, 145-47, 156-57;
- Al-Qirquisani alludes to the evidence from the Talmud about the priestly function of Metatron. See L. Ginzberg, The Legends of the Jews (trans. H. Szold; 7 vols.; Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1998), 6.74.
- Michael D. Swartz, Scholastic Magic: Ritual and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticism (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996), 29, 153-57; 170-72; 210-12;
- Ephraim E. Urbach, "The Traditions about Merkavah Mysticism in the Tannaitic Period," in E. E. Urbach, R. J. Zwi Werblowsky and Ch. Wirszubski (eds.), Studies in Mysticism and Religion Presented to Gershom G. Scholem on His Seventieth Birthday by Pupils, Colleagues and Friends (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1967), 1- 28 (Hebrew). 71 Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, 67. 72 Slav. .
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Metadata
- Authors
- Orlov, A. A.
- Affiliations
- Marquette University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Orlov, Andrei A.
- ORCID
- Orlov, Andrei A.
- Venue
- Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2004-01
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-29
- ISSN
- 0951-8207 (ISSN-L)
- 1745-5286
- OpenAlex
- W2047261724
- Cited by
- 5
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2023: 1 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha (publishedVersion)
- e-Publications@Marquette (Marquette University) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Université de Paris
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Biblical Studies and Interpretation
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Classics › Byzantine Studies and History
- Keywords
- 2 Enoch, liturgical offices, Jewish apocalyptic literature, Hekhalot, heavenly worship, Watchers, Genesis Apocryphon, jubilee
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