Content
Modern scholars describe this book as pseudepigraphal, as it says it is written by Rabbi Ishmael who became a 'high priest' after visions of ascension to Heaven, 90 CE - 135 CE. Rabbi Ishmael is a leading figure of Merkabah literature.
The name Sefer Hekhalot (Hekhalot meaning Palaces/Temples), along with its proposed author, places this book as a member of Hekalot/Merkabah lore. Its contents suggest that 3 Enoch's contents and ideas are newer than those shown in other Merkabah texts. The book does not contain Merkabah hymns, it has unique layout and adjuration. All these facts make 3 Enoch unique not just among Merkabah writings, but also within the writings of Enoch.
3 Enoch contains a number of Greek and Latin words. This book, unlike 1 Enoch, appears to have been originally written in Hebrew. There are a number of indications suggesting that the writers of 3 Enoch had knowledge of, and most likely read, 1 Enoch.
Some points that appear in 1 Enoch and 3 Enoch are:
- Enoch ascends to Heaven in a storm chariot (3 Enoch 6:1; 7:1)
- Enoch is transformed into an angel (3 Enoch 9:1-5; 15:1-2)
- Enoch as an exalted angel is enthroned in Heaven (3 Enoch 10:1-3; 16:1)
- Enoch receives a revelation of cosmological secrets of creation (3 Enoch 13:1-2)
- The story about precious metals and how they will not avail their users and those that make idols from them (3 Enoch 5:7-14)
- A hostile angel named Azaz'el/Aza'el and two others like him are mentioned in passing (3 Enoch 4:6; 5:9)
The main themes running through 3 Enoch are the ascension of Enoch into Heaven and his transformation into the angel Metatron.
"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." —Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 67Read more about this topic: 3 Enoch
Famous quotes containing the word content:
“People disparage knowing and the intellectual life, and urge doing. I am content with knowing, if only I could know.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I have sometimes seen women, who would have been sensible enough, if they would have been content not to be called women of sense—but by aiming at what they had not, they only proved absurd—for sense cannot be counterfeited.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Strange that so few ever come to the woods to see how the pine lives and grows and spires, lifting its evergreen arms to the light,—to see its perfect success; but most are content to behold it in the shape of many broad boards brought to market, and deem that its true success! But the pine is no more lumber than man is, and to be made into boards and houses is no more its true and highest use than the truest use of a man is to be cut down and made into manure.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)