What Is 3 Enoch? Metatron, Date, and Canon Status

3 Enoch, also called the Hebrew Book of Enoch, is a Jewish mystical book in Hebrew. Its narrator, Rabbi Ishmael, meets the angel Metatron, who says he was once Enoch, the son of Jared (3 Enoch 43 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch) 4 · R. H. Charles, 1917Non-CanonicalNot 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.^4:1 R. Ishmael said: I asked Metatron and said to him: “Why art thou called by the name of thy Creator, by seventy names? Thou art greater than all the princes, higher than all the angels, beloved more than all the servants, honoured above all the mighty ones in kingship, greatness and glory: why do they call thee ‘Youth’ in the high heavens?” ^4:2 He answered and said to me: “Because I am Enoch, the son of Jared. ^4:3 For when the generation of the flood sinned and were confounded in their deeds, saying unto God: ‘Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways (Job xxi. 14)’, then the Holy One, blessed be He, removed me from their midst to be a witness against them in the high heavens to all the inhabitants of the world, that they may not say: ‘The Merciful One is cruel’.3 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch) 4 · R. H. Charles, 1917Open source). The 3 Enoch page has the full text and a short summary of the book. This article covers when it was written, who Metatron is, the “two powers” problem, and why no tradition counts it as Scripture. (1)

The book belongs to the Hekhalot (“halls”) or Merkabah literature: Jewish texts about ascending past guarded heavenly palaces to see God’s throne. It shares Enoch with 1 and 2 Enoch, but it is a different kind of book. In 1 and 2 Enoch, Enoch tells his own visions. In 3 Enoch he has already become an angel, and the narrator is a rabbi. (2)

Key Points

• No Jewish or Christian body has ever counted 3 Enoch as Scripture.
• Its date is disputed: the 3rd century AD for Odeberg, the 5th or 6th century for Alexander.
• Its picture of Enoch enthroned as a lesser YHWH raised the rabbinic worry about “two powers in heaven.”

Contents

Charlesworth outlines the 48 chapters this way: Ishmael’s ascent (1–2); Metatron, who is also Enoch (3–16); the angels (17–28:6); judgment and the heavenly court (28:7–33:2); the Merkabah (33:3–40); and the secrets Metatron shows Ishmael (41–48A). Odeberg also prints three short appendices, 48B–48D, on divine names and the names of Metatron. Chapter 48 on this site is 48A. (2)

When It Was Written

Scholars agree that the book grew over time and disagree on when it reached its present form. Odeberg dated the main body and its editing to the second half of the 3rd century AD. He held that chapters 3–15 go back to the 1st or 2nd century, and that chapters 1–2 and the appendices are later. (2)

Philip Alexander calls the book “the deposit of a ‘school tradition’” and places its final form in the 5th or 6th century AD. He reasons that it seems to draw on the Babylonian Talmud, and that magic bowls from Nippur show its ideas about Metatron in circulation in the 6th and 7th centuries. By the 10th century, Jewish writers such as Saadia treated Merkabah books as old and respected. (2)

Metatron and the Two Powers Problem

In 3 Enoch 123 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch) 12 · R. H. Charles, 1917Non-CanonicalNot 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.^12:1 R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Prince of the Presence, said to me: By reason of the love with which the Holy One, blessed be He, loved me more than all the children of heaven, He made me a garment of glory on which were fixed all kinds of lights, and He clad me in it. ^12:2 And He made me a robe of honour on which were fixed all kinds of beauty, splendour, brilliance and majesty. ^12:3 And he made me a royal crown in which were fixed forty-nine costly stones like unto the light of the globe of the sun.3 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch) 12 · R. H. Charles, 1917Open source, God puts a crown on Metatron and calls him “the lesser YHWH,” citing Exodus 23:21Exodus 23:21 · King James VersionBeware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him.Exodus 23:21 · King James VersionOpen source: “my name is in him.” The Jewish Encyclopedia notes that later mystical works call Metatron the “prince of the presence,” give him “the lesser divine name,” and make him “identical in all respects with Enoch.” (3)

That exalted role raised a problem the rabbis took seriously. The Talmud tells how Elisha ben Abuyah, called Acher (“the other one”), saw Metatron seated in heaven and wondered whether there were two powers there. Metatron was then led out and given sixty lashes of fire. (4) 3 Enoch 163 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch) 16 · R. H. Charles, 1917Non-CanonicalNot 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.^16:1 R. Ishmael said: Metatron, the Angel, the Prince of the Presence, the Glory of all heaven, said to me: At first I was sitting upon a great Throne at the door of the Seventh Hall; and I was judging the children of heaven, the household on high by authority of the Holy One, blessed be He. And I divided Greatness, Kingship, Dignity, Rulership, Honour and Praise, and Diadem and Crown of Glory unto all the princes of kingdoms, while I was presiding (lit. sitting) in the Celestial Court ( Yeshiba), and the princes of kingdoms were standing before me, on my right and on my left—by authority of the Holy One, blessed be He. ^16:2 But when Acher came to behold the vision of the Merkaba and fixed his eyes on me, he feared and trembled before me and his soul was affrighted even unto departing from him, because of fear, horror and dread of me, when he beheld me sitting upon a throne like a king with all the ministering angels standing by me as my servants and all the princes of kingdoms adorned with crowns surrounding me: ^16:3 in that moment he opened his mouth and said: “Indeed, there are two Divine Powers in heaven!”3 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch) 16 · R. H. Charles, 1917Open source tells the same story from Metatron’s side, which shows that the book knew the danger and answered it. However high Metatron is raised, he stays a servant who can be punished.

Canon Status

3 Enoch was never proposed for any Bible. It was written after the Hebrew Bible was closed, and it reads as a work of rabbinic mysticism rather than prophecy. Each tradition’s statement on the canon leaves it out.

Jewish

Josephus, writing in the 1st century, says: “we have not an innumerable multitude of books among us, disagreeing from and contradicting one another, [as the Greeks have,] but only twenty-two books.” (6) The Talmud’s list of the Prophets and the Writings in Bava Batra 14b does not include any Enoch book. (7)

Catholic

The Catechism says: “It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books.” 3 Enoch is not on that list. (8)

Protestant

The Westminster Confession lists the books of the Old and New Testaments and says even of the Apocrypha that they, “not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the Canon of Scripture.” 3 Enoch is on neither list. (9)

Orthodox

An OCA clergy answer names the extra Old Testament books the Orthodox accept: “Tobit, Judith, more chapters of Esther and Daniel, the Books of Maccabees, the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, the Book of Sirach, the Prophecy of Baruch, and the Prayer of Manasseh.” (10) The Confession of Dositheus (1672), as summarized by Schaff, names a similar set. Neither includes 3 Enoch. (11)

People Also Ask

Is 3 Enoch the Same as the Book of Enoch?

No. “The Book of Enoch” usually means 1 Enoch, a much older apocalypse. 3 Enoch is a separate Hebrew work from centuries later.

Who Is Metatron?

In 3 Enoch, Metatron is the chief angel, the Prince of the Presence, who was once the man Enoch (3 Enoch 43 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch) 4 · R. H. Charles, 1917Non-CanonicalNot 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.^4:1 R. Ishmael said: I asked Metatron and said to him: “Why art thou called by the name of thy Creator, by seventy names? Thou art greater than all the princes, higher than all the angels, beloved more than all the servants, honoured above all the mighty ones in kingship, greatness and glory: why do they call thee ‘Youth’ in the high heavens?” ^4:2 He answered and said to me: “Because I am Enoch, the son of Jared. ^4:3 For when the generation of the flood sinned and were confounded in their deeds, saying unto God: ‘Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways (Job xxi. 14)’, then the Holy One, blessed be He, removed me from their midst to be a witness against them in the high heavens to all the inhabitants of the world, that they may not say: ‘The Merciful One is cruel’.3 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch) 4 · R. H. Charles, 1917Open source). Genesis 5:24Genesis 5:24 · King James VersionAnd Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.Genesis 5:24 · King James VersionOpen source says only that “God took him.” (5)

Does the New Testament Quote 3 Enoch?

No. The New Testament line about Enoch’s prophecy in Jude 14–15Jude 1:14 · King James VersionAnd Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,Jude 1:14 · King James VersionOpen source matches 1 Enoch, which is centuries older than 3 Enoch.