3 Enoch

Odeberg1928 source English page 221

| CHH. IV, V] ENOCH-METATRON PIECE 13 prince and a ruler over you in the high heavens.’ (g) Forthwith all stood up and went out to meet me, prostrated themselves before me and said: ‘‘ Happy art thou and happy is thy father “ for thy Creator doth favour thee”’. (10) And because I am small and a youth among them 'in days, months and years", therefore they call me ‘‘ Youth” (Na‘ar). CHAPTER. V The idolatry of the generation of Enosh causes God to remove the Shekina from earth. The idolatry inspired by ‘Azza, ‘Uzza and ‘ Azziel R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Prince of the Presence, said to me: (1) }From the day! when the Holy One, blessed be He, expelled 14 C ins. ‘and thy mother’ 15-15 BCL: ‘in years’ Chev. 1-1 BCL, YR. 1. 59 a: ‘on the day’ of the Curtain of MAQOM: on ch. xlv.1, x.1). heshall bea prince and aruler over you in the high heavens for I delight in this one more than in all of you. This probably is meant to refer not only to ‘Azza, ‘Uzza and ‘Azzael, but to the ministering angels with them or else their suite of angels. Notice how CE in vs. 6 represents ‘Azza and ‘Azzael not as individual angels but as an order of angels, just as in the old tradition of 1 En. vi seqq. Asael was only one of the leaders of a multitude of angels. Metatron a ruler over ‘Azza and ‘Azzael: cf. quotation Yalqut Re’ubeni, i. 55 a, referred to above, a ruler over the princes and angels in general: cf. ch. >. 4. (9) Happy art thou and happy is thy father. This beatitude echoes the conception of “the Zakut of a Pious Posterity’’ (Schechter’s expression, Aspects, pp. 195 seqq.). [he merits of the sons retroact upon and determine the fate of the fathers. (10) because I am small and a youth among them. This is the answer to the opening question of the present chapter. Cf. note 70. The angels are existent from the days of Creation. Cf. above. Ch. v. This chapter treats of the removal of Shekina from earth on account of the idolatry of Enosh and his generation.. It contains no definite reference to the subject proper of the present section: Enoch(-Metatron) and his translation to heaven. Furthermore, it represents a different tradition from that of ch. iv as to the nature of the angels ‘Azza, ‘Uzza and ‘Azzael. The connection with the context is, however, established by ch. vi. 1, 3, which associate the translation of Enoch to heaven with the removal of Shekina from earth. The chapter may therefore in its present position be considered as an introduction to ch. vi, offering a pre- paratory explanation of the reason and circumstances of the removal of Shekina, there alluded to. As regards the relationship between ch. iv on one hand and chh. v and vi on the other, it might be safe to assume that they represent respectively two different lines of tradition as to the translation of Enoch: one (ch. iv) connecting it with the sins of the generation of the flood of which he was to bear testimony to coming generations, the other (chh. v, vi) holding the view that Enoch—as the