# What Is 3 Enoch? Metatron, Date, and Canon Status > 3 Enoch is a Hebrew mystical book in which Enoch becomes the angel Metatron: how it is dated, the two powers problem, and its canon status. - Canonical: https://apologetics.wiki/non-canonical/what-is-3-enoch - Religions: none - Denominations: none - Beliefs: Non-Canonical - Tags: enoch, metatron, merkavah - Updated: 2026-10-15 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 4](/non-canonical/3-enoch/4)). The [3 Enoch](/non-canonical/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)](#ref-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)](#ref-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)](#ref-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)](#ref-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)](#ref-2) ## Metatron and the Two Powers Problem In [3 Enoch 12](/non-canonical/3-enoch/12), God puts a crown on Metatron and calls him “the lesser YHWH,” citing [Exodus 23:21](/bible/exodus/23/21): “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)](#ref-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)](#ref-4) [3 Enoch 16](/non-canonical/3-enoch/16) 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)](#ref-6) The Talmud’s list of the Prophets and the Writings in Bava Batra 14b does not include any Enoch book. [(7)](#ref-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)](#ref-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)](#ref-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)](#ref-10) The Confession of Dositheus (1672), as summarized by Schaff, names a similar set. Neither includes 3 Enoch. [(11)](#ref-11) ## People Also Ask ### Is 3 Enoch the Same as the Book of Enoch? No. “The Book of Enoch” usually means [1 Enoch](/non-canonical/book-of-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 4](/non-canonical/3-enoch/4)). [Genesis 5:24](/bible/genesis/5/24) says only that “God took him.” [(5)](#ref-5) ### Does the New Testament Quote 3 Enoch? No. The New Testament line about Enoch’s prophecy in [Jude 14–15](/bible/jude/1/14) matches 1 Enoch, which is centuries older than 3 Enoch. ## Passages Quoted on This Page ### 3 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch) 4 R. H. Charles, 1917. > [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) 12 R. H. Charles, 1917. > [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. ### Exodus 23:21 King James Version. > Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. ### 3 Enoch (Hebrew Enoch) 16 R. H. Charles, 1917. > [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!” ### Genesis 5:24 King James Version. > And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him. ### Jude 1:14 King James Version. > And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, ## Sources Numbered to match the HTML References list. Item 1 is `#ref-1` under `#references`. Scripture links to the King James Version on this site. 1. [Hugo Odeberg, 3 Enoch, or the Hebrew Book of Enoch, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1928](https://archive.org/details/3enochorhebrewbo00unse) (Public domain in the United States. The full translation is hosted at /non-canonical/3-enoch.) 2. [Peter Kirby, “3 Enoch”, earlyjewishwritings.com](http://earlyjewishwritings.com/3enoch.html) (Quotes James Charlesworth, The Pseudepigrapha and Modern Research, p. 106, and P. Alexander, The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, vol. 1, pp. 228–229.) 3. [Joseph Jacobs and Ludwig Blau, “Meṭaṭron”, Jewish Encyclopedia, 1906](https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10736-metatron) 4. [Babylonian Talmud, Chagigah 15a, 15a:5–6](https://www.sefaria.org/Chagigah.15a.5?lang=bi) (Paraphrased here, not quoted.) 5. [Book of Genesis, 5:24](https://apologetics.wiki/bible/genesis/5/24). King James Version 6. [Josephus, Against Apion, 1.8, trans. William Whiston](https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2849/2849-h/2849-h.htm) 7. [Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 14b, 14b](https://www.sefaria.org/Bava_Batra.14b.12?lang=bi) (Paraphrased here, not quoted. The baraita gives the order of the Prophets and the Writings.) 8. [Catechism of the Catholic Church, 120](https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__PR.HTM) 9. [Westminster Confession of Faith, 1.2–3](https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/westminster-confession-faith) 10. [Orthodox Church in America, “Canon of Scripture”, Questions and Answers](https://www.oca.org/questions/scripture/canon-of-scripture) (A clergy question-and-answer on the OCA website, not a synodal definition.) 11. [Synod of Jerusalem, Confession of Dositheus, 1672, in Philip Schaff, The Creeds of Christendom, vol. 1](https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds1.v.vii.html) ## See Also - [History of the Book of Enoch: Qumran, Jude, and the Ethiopian Bible](https://apologetics.wiki/non-canonical/history-of-the-book-of-enoch) — How 1 Enoch is dated from Qumran, why Jude quotes 1 Enoch 1:9, Augustine on City of God 15.23, and how Ethiopian and Fetha Negest lists treat the book. - [What Is the Book of Enoch and Why Isn’t It in the Bible?](https://apologetics.wiki/non-canonical/what-is-the-book-of-enoch) — What the Book of Enoch is: five Jewish works under Enoch’s name, their main themes, and who wrote them—plus links to the full text and history. - [How Was the Bible Canon Decided?](https://apologetics.wiki/non-canonical/how-was-the-bible-canon-decided) — Josephus counts twenty-two books. Athanasius, Jerome, Hippo and Carthage, Trent, Westminster, Article VI, and the Orthodox lists do not agree. Nicaea’s canons contain no book list. - [The Lost Gospels: Thomas, Peter, Judas, and Mary](https://apologetics.wiki/non-canonical/the-lost-gospels) — Irenaeus argues for four Gospels. He names a Gospel of Judas. Hippolytus and Eusebius name Thomas. Serapion stopped the Gospel of Peter. Saying 114 of Thomas speaks of making Mary male. - [When Was the Gospel of Thomas Written?](https://apologetics.wiki/non-canonical/when-was-the-gospel-of-thomas-written) — Greek copies of the Gospel of Thomas are dated after 200 and in the mid third century, and the Coptic copy shortly before 350. Those dates are of manuscripts. They do not fix the year the book was composed.