3 Enoch

Odeberg1928 source English page 223

CH. V] ENOCH-METATRON PIECE 15 (4) For the splendour of the Shekina traversed the world from one end to the other ®(with a splendour) 365,000 times (that) of the globe of the sun*. And everyone who ’*made use 017 the splendour of the Shekina, on him no flies and no gnats did rest, neither was he ill nor suffered he any pain. No demons got power over him, neither were they able to injure him. (5) When the Holy One, blessed be He, went out and went in: 8from the Garden to Eden, from Eden to the Garden, from the Garden to Ragia‘ and from Ragia‘ to the Garden of Eden® then all and everyone beheld the splendour® of His Shekina and they 6-6 DE: ‘in one moment, 365,000 and to the globe of the sun’ A reads ‘65,000’ instead of ‘365,000’ (BC'DEL). 7-7 DE: ‘beheld’ 8-8 BCDEL: ‘from Eden to the Garden, from the Garden to Raqia‘ and from Raqia‘ to the Garden of Eden’ 9 50 BCDL. A: ‘splendour of the image’ on their heads and enjoy the splendour of the Shekina’’. 'The idea of the radiance of Shekina is closely related to that of the heavenly light, of which the light created on the first day was an emanation and which is reserved for the righteous in the world to come. Cf. next vs. (4) The splendour of the Shekina traversed the world from one end to the other...And everyone who made use of the splendour of the Shekina... No demons got power over him. For a discussion of the conception of the ‘splendour (ziw) of the Shekina’ see Abelson, op. cit. pp. 85-89. ‘The splendour of the Shekina is here apparently conceived of as a light-substance protecting from illnesses, from the power of demons and from everything evil and unclean. For the idea of the splendour of Shekina as protecting from demons cf. Num. R. xii. 3. It is also conceived of as a sustaining substance, a spiritual food, both for the angels and the saints. TB. Ber. 17 a (see Abelson, op. cit. p. 87; Kohler, Fewish Theology, .כ‎ 198). Yalqut on Ps. viii (TB. Shabbat, 88 a): ““when God spread the splendour of Shekina over Moses the angels could not burn him’”’, Yalqut on Ps. xlv: “‘the righteous ‘will feed on the splendour of Shekina and... they will receive no injury”. ‘The splendour of Shekina’ is further used as an attribute of honour and glorification for the highest angels; cf. ch. xxii. 7, 13. Cf. 4 Ez. vii. 42, 122, Rev. xxi. 23 (notes in Box, Ezrva-Apocalypse, pp. 85, 127, 161). The conception of the splendour of the Shekina is sometimes seen under the aspect of the ‘first light of Creation’ or as ‘the uncreated light of the Divine Presence’ of which the first light is an emanation: this light is referred to in similar terms as those used of ‘the splendour of the Shekina’. Cf. in the present connection Gen. R. Xi. 2, xii. 5: “in the light which God created on the first day (so Gen. R. xi. 2; 70. xii. 5: the light by which the world was created) the first Adam saw from one end of the world to the other. . . but as soon as the Holy One, blessed be He, beheld the deeds of the generation of Enosh, of the Deluge and of the Dispersion he took it away and treasured it. . .for the righteous in the world to come”’. Sim. TB. Chag. Ta (5) went out and went in: from the Garden to Eden. The Garden of Eden is the greater whole of which Eden is a part: Gen. R. xv, the Garden and Eden are two distinct things: TB. Ber. 34 b. For the expression ‘went out and went in etc.’ cf. the account of Shekina’s ten different journeys in the Temple in Lam. R. Préem. 25. "Fhe idea is probably deduced from Gen. iii. 8 (‘‘and they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the Garden”’): the passage is interpreted in this sense in Num. R. xiii. 4 (although there God’s Shekina is said to have had its per- manent abode in heaven, from where it went down and went up again).