3 Enoch

Odeberg1928 source English page 304

96 THE HEBREW BOOK OF ENOCH [CH. XXVII (3) And why is he called RADWERIEL® ? Because out of every word that goes forth from his mouth an angel is created : and he stands in the songs (in the singing company) of the seat = angels and utters? a song before 1°the Holy One, blessed be 1161" when the time draws nigh for the recitation of the )17 hrice) Holy. 8 E: ‘Daryo’el’ 9 E: ‘they utter’ 10-10 E: ‘him’ presumably, the ‘Jrin and Qaddishin (cf. notes, ad loca). See also Hek. R. v. 3, BH. iii. 87. Fe Concerning the conception of ‘ Scribes’ cf. on ch. XXXII. 2. Acc, to some passages, there is only one ‘ Scribe’ as such: e.g. ch. אאא‎ 2 (in the reading of FE) and Hek. Ft: .ל‎ 1. Acc. to chh. xviii. 23-25 and xxxiii. 2 (in the adopted reading) the Scribes are two in number. They record the deeds of the inhabitants of the world in the ‘books’, and also write down the divine decrees (Hek. R. v. 1). \Here theyeare even more represented as reading what is written in the books before the Beth Din (cf. Alph. R. ‘Aqiba, letter Qoph, referred to above). The last function was perhaps, as already suggested, originally assigned to VRETIL-RADWERIEL: in 2 En. xxii. 12, VRETIL is asked to ‘interpret to him (Enoch) the books”’. (2) Why is he called Radweriel? Because out of every word that goes forth from his mouth an angel is created. This explanation of the name pre- supposes the form ‘DIBBURIEL’ or ‘DABARIEL’. The form “DABAR YAH’ is found in a MS. acc. to Schwab, VA. The derivation is perhaps a mere construction on the part of the writer. Exchanging * W’ for ‘ B’ he reads ‘ Ra-Dabariel’ or * Radibburiel’, regarding the ‘ Ra’ as an epenthesis. The ascribing to an angel-prince of the faculty of creating an angel by the ‘word of his mouth’ is rather singular. Such a statement is otherwise made of God, e.g. ch. xl. 4, Chag. 14 a, Gen. R. Par. |xxviii, Lam. R. on iti. 23. It would seen that the present passage could be made to refer to ‘RADWERIEL’ only on the assumption that it is one of the different names of the Godhead, and not the name of an angel. The whole of vs. 3 might have been adduced from a treatise on the Divine Names. ‘The instances where the same name at one time or in one writing is represented as = the name of an angel, and in another as one of the names of the Godhead, are frequent in the cabbalistic literature. Cf. the case of ‘TAG‘AS’, note on ch. xviii. 5; the * Pardes’ (quoted YR. i. 90 a) discusses the ‘’Akatriel’ of Ber. 7 a, rejecting the view that it is the name of the Most High, and maintains that ‘’Akatriel’ is 4 Prince on high”’. he stands etc. The ‘he’ probably refers to the created angel. in the songs. The Hebrew here might be translated ‘in the service’ instead of ‘in the songs, i.e. in the singing company’ of the ministering angels. But the latter is presumably the correct interpretation. The exact meaning is: ‘he stands and sings the songs (shiroth as a technical term) which the ministering angels sing’. Cf. Gen. R. lxxviii: “God creates every day a new order of angels who utter a song, 600." See note on ch. xl. 4. On RADWERIEL vide Introd. sect. 13 A (6).