# 3 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch) 2

**Not Scripture.** Read [Why](https://apologetics.wiki/non-canonical/3-enoch#research-notice) and [the Issues With This Book](https://apologetics.wiki/non-canonical/3-enoch#issues-with-this-book).

Not received as Scripture by the Jewish canon or by the major Christian churches, apart from local exceptions such as the Ethiopian Orthodox canon, which includes 1 Enoch and Jubilees. This is not the Apocrypha.

1. R. Ishmael said: In that hour the eagles of the Merkaba, the flaming ’Ophannim and the Seraphim of consuming fire asked Metatron, saying to him:
2. “Youth! Why sufferest thou one born of woman to enter and behold the Merkaba? From which nation, from which tribe is this one? What is his character?”
3. Metatron answered and said to them: “From the nation of Israel whom the Holy One, blessed be He, chose for his people from among seventy tongues (nations), from the tribe of Levi, whom he set aside as a contribution to his name and from the seed of Aaron whom the Holy One, blessed be He, did choose for his servant and put upon him the crown of priesthood on Sinai”.
4. Forthwith they spake and said: “Indeed, this one is worthy to behold the Merkaba”. And they said: “Happy is the people that is in such a case!” (Ps. cxliv. 15).

- Edition: odeberg-1928
- Source: https://archive.org/details/3enochorhebrewbo00unse