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Enoch or Jesus? The Quest of the Historical Metatron — Transcript

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0:04well Christianity as we know includes
0:10two components a penchant for
0:13suffering and faithfulness so those of
0:17you who've been here for the last two
0:19and they're here for the third are a
0:21good Christians in one of them in one of
0:26those two categories so Enoch or Jesus
0:36the quest of the historical method wrote
0:38and that read has remarked for Gershom
0:43Scholem the combination of apocalyptic
0:46with theosophy and cosmogony in one anak
0:50was quote by itself sufficient to prove
0:54the essential continuity of thought and
0:56quote that linked early Jewish
0:59apocalyptic with later Merkava mysticism
1:02is still in that reader meaning here
1:04however recent advances in scholarship
1:07she writes prompted by Peter Schaffer's
1:091981 publication of the hallowed corpus
1:12have thrown doubt upon Shalom's theory
1:15that the two traditions evidence a quote
1:18religious movement of a distinctive
1:20character end quote with an unbroken
1:23development from the anonymous
1:25conventicle z' of the old apocalyptic
1:28s-- to the Merkava speculation of the
1:31Mishnah teachers to the macabre
1:34mysticism of late and post Talmudic
1:37times
1:38end quote if shown if Shalom's approach
1:42could be deemed the first quest of the
1:44historical Metatron and Schafer's the
1:47second question i have been trying to
1:50stake out a different path a third quest
1:54i'm not sure what an unbroken
1:56development means or is supposed to mean
1:59but surely it ought not to mean that
2:02nothing changed between 1 & 2 & 3 anak
2:04nor did Shalom intended to mean that on
2:08the one hand i wish to assert the
2:10essential correctness of Shalom's
2:12intuition while modifying it to read
2:15that the combination of cosmogony even
2:18meteorology and theosophy in 1 & 2 Enoch
2:22and in the Talmudic apocalypse of Bob
2:25Lisa Giga as shown
2:26in last night's lecture does be speak a
2:30diatonic connection of one sort or
2:33another but quite certain between these
2:35two corpora and moreover the further
2:39connections between the Talmudic
2:41material and at least some of the
2:43Merkava texts testified to further
2:46continuity at the same time however I
2:49categorically deny that the necessary
2:53upshot of such diachronic connectivity
2:56is either a distinct religious movement
3:00or unbroken development all development
3:04in the history of human cultures is
3:06broken fragmentary reconstructive
3:10bricolage and this is no exception the
3:15most crucial part of my argument is that
3:17the second chapter of hagigah which we
3:19have been reading throughout these
3:20lectures contains virtually an
3:23apocalyptic anthology of the rabbis one
3:26that both suppresses as does the Mishnah
3:29and at the same time reveals and adds up
3:32to matically to evidence for lively
3:34apocalyptic speculation at the time of
3:37the rabbis and even among them in
3:40addition to the cosmic cosmic garnet I
3:43guess and meteorological matters that we
3:46have looked at until now there is of
3:48course the Asaf expectant in this text
3:51as well in a Giga 14a we read all the
3:56text should be on on the papers one
4:01verse Daniel 7:9 says his garment was
4:05like white snow and the hair of his head
4:07like the wool of sheep and one verse
4:10says his hair is curls as black as a
4:13raven this is no difficulty one is in
4:17court literally sitting ie in court
4:22judging court and the other is at war
4:27for the master has said there is no one
4:31more appropriate for judgment than an
4:33elder and there was no one more
4:34appropriate for war than a youth one
4:38verse says his
4:39throne was flames of fire and one verse
4:43says until Thrones were set up and one
4:46Ancient of Days sat right so the
4:48contradiction here is between one throne
4:50or two Thrones this is no difficulty one
4:54was for him and one for David ie there
4:58were two Thrones one for the Ancient of
5:01Days the Lord the Father we might call
5:04him and one for David as we have learned
5:08in a brighter one for him and one for
5:10David the words of Rabbi Akiva Robbie OC
5:14the Glee lien said to him Akiva how long
5:17will you make the divine presence the
5:18Shema profane rather one for judgment
5:22and one for mercy did he Robbie Akiva
5:27accept it from him from Robbie OC or did
5:30he not accept it from him coming here
5:32one for judgment and one for mercy the
5:35words of Rabbi Akiva right so clearly
5:36Rabbi Akiva repented of his theological
5:43error of thinking that the two Thrones
5:47are one for the Lord and one for David
5:52said Tim Rabbi Eleazar Ben Azaria Akiva
5:55what are you doing with Haggadah desist
5:59from your words and go back to laws of
6:01purity and impurity literally skin
6:03diseases diseases and tent impurities
6:06any time that Rabbi Akiva
6:09makes so bold is to make some sort of a
6:12theological comment and not a halakha
6:13comment somebody says to what do you
6:15what are you talking about you go back
6:17to your to your specialty you know you
6:19you know about purity and impurity and
6:22not theology rather one for the throne
6:26and one for the footstool the throne to
6:29sit upon the footstool to rest his feet
6:31as it says the heaven is my throne and
6:34the earth my footstool in this text we
6:37find thematize the apparent
6:39contradiction between God being
6:41portrayed as a wise elder and being
6:43portrayed as a youth full of vigor and
6:45passion to different contradictions are
6:49cited the second one which is the one
6:51that concerns us here
6:53it's quite explicitly the contradiction
6:55between the notion of one God and the
6:58representation so it seems in Daniel of
7:01two divine figures the second one like a
7:05son of man who is seated on a second
7:08throne Daniel 7:13 the crucial but
7:13dangerous proof text is pretentiously
7:15not cited explicitly but only obliquely
7:18through the reference to cursive on
7:20Thrones in the plural the Tanner incited
7:26in the Bob we both read Daniel 7 in the
7:28same way the second throne is for a
7:32second figure dis FEMA whom rabbi akiva
7:37identifies as David on rabbi yosef
7:41reading of rabbi akiva statement we have
7:44here then apparently both by night Aryan
7:46by night arianism right two divine
7:50figures I think you mean the Ancient of
7:54Days and the one like a son of man who
7:56is David sitting on the second throne
7:58and a theosis right David the human
8:02become divine which ladder raises rather
8:06Yossi stander it is highly unlikely
8:10Patchi Allan Segal closely that we are
8:14dealing here with a genuine tradition
8:16about robbing a Kiva from early in the
8:18second century this on general
8:20methodological grounds there may be some
8:23indication however that the Beretta was
8:26not at any rate produced for this
8:28context and may even be there for a
8:31Palestinian source it can be seen that
8:35it does not quite fit its context in the
8:37Bodley since the anonymous voice in the
8:40tone with the stahma the redactor we
8:43might say actually asserts the position
8:46raffia Kiva's that the Bharata appears
8:49to reject so that there is a disconnect
8:52between the stars quotation of rabbi
8:54akiva a support for its view and then
8:57seemingly noting that he abandoned it
9:00this at least suggests the possibility
9:02that the brighter is an earlier and thus
9:05spinny and possibly Palestinian source
9:09let me go through my reading of the
9:11passage a bit more slowly now although
9:14as I have suggested the text and other
9:18rabbinic texts carefully gingerly avoids
9:22actually citing the son of man passage
9:25in these very Daniel verses it is on
9:28these verses that they indeed rely the
9:31portrayed rabbi akiva spoink is that one
9:35of the two thrones was for the Ancient
9:37of Days and one for David thus the one
9:42like a son of man the crux is his
9:46identification of David the Messiah as
9:48the Son of man who sits at God's right
9:51hand thus suggesting not only a divine
9:54figure but one who is incarnate in a
9:56human being as well are you the Messiah
10:00I am and you shall see the Son of man
10:03sitting on the right hand of power and
10:05coming in the clouds of heaven I don't
10:08think I need to give the chapter and
10:10verse for that in this crowd anyway
10:13hence his objectors taunt until when
10:17will you make the divine presence
10:18profane that is implied that the Son of
10:21man has become incarnate in the human
10:24figure of the Davidic Messiah or perhaps
10:27that the human David has been divinized
10:29through his presence on the second
10:31throne either way rabbi Akiba seems at
10:35any rate - rabbi OC to be projecting a
10:38divine human son of man who will be the
10:41Messiah his contemporary rabbi you'll
10:45see the Galilean strenuously objects -
10:48rabbi akiva dangerous interpretation and
10:51gives the verse a mode list
10:53interpretation well I think a certain
10:58degree of caution is in order this
11:00reading is not shall we say entirely
11:02provable notwithstanding it seems the
11:06most plausible and compelling way to
11:07understand this text on this reading
11:11Rubbia Kiva's interpretation grows out
11:13of precisely the same kind of conflation
11:17of Messiah son of
11:19even with the redeeming Divine Son of
11:21man of Daniel seven that we find in mark
11:24producing similar Christological results
11:28supporting this interpretation at least
11:31in the Babylonian Talmud we read the
11:34following passage in Sanhedrin 98 a
11:38rabbi Alexandre said rabbi Yeshua the
11:41son of LaVey raised the contradiction it
11:45is written and behold with the clouds of
11:47heaven there came one like a son of man
11:49and it is written pour and riding on a
11:53donkey if they Israel are righteous with
11:57the clouds of heaven if they are not
12:00righteous poor and riding on a donkey
12:03right so if anyone doubts that the
12:07rabbi's gave a Messianic reading to
12:09Daniel 7 here is the proof right the one
12:14like a son of man here is not Israel but
12:19the Messiah it couldn't be clearer it is
12:24clear that Daniel 7 had been given a
12:26messianic reading and that there was
12:29tension felt between the Messiah of
12:30Daniel 7 and the Messiah of Zechariah 9
12:34between the Messiah as a divine figure
12:36in the Messiah as a humiliated human
12:38being expressed in good rabbinic fashion
12:42as a contradiction between vs. resolved
12:45in a totally topical fashion in the text
12:48the tension and the potential it bears
12:50for an incarnation already is
12:52nonetheless there it is this tension I
12:56think that motivates the controversy
12:58between the figures of Rabbi Akiva and
13:00Rabbi Yosef in the Haghighi
13:01texts as well of course the tone would
13:05itself must record that Rabbi Akiva
13:08changed his mind in order for him to
13:11remain Orthodox the son and Orthodox of
13:15course is a squiggly fingers the Son of
13:19Man aka to sovereignties in heaven is
13:24thus not foreign even at the very heart
13:27of the rabbinic enterprise even a figure
13:32like Robbie
13:33eva has to be educated as to the
13:36heretical nature of his position
13:38suggesting once again that any absolute
13:40difference between mystical circles that
13:42embrace such theological notions and
13:45rabbinic circles that have always as it
13:48were rejected such quote/unquote malign
13:51influence has to be withdrawn once and
13:54for all this is what the editors of the
13:57Talmud would want us to believe but a
14:00different reality is easy to perceive
14:02behind their very efforts to convince
14:05rabbinic judaism kua orthodoxy is formed
14:09precisely out of the rejection of ideas
14:12about the Godhead that were once widely
14:14held injury and that rejection is
14:18dramatized in our text of rabbi Akiba 'z
14:20re-education Schaffer more or less
14:25accepts and agrees with my reading of
14:27the Talmud here we differ with respect
14:30to the textual background to the
14:32Talmudic text for Schaffer it is to be
14:35explained as a late ancient Babylonian
14:38response to Christianity the issue is
14:42then it seems not so so much
14:44methodological as Schaffer wishes to
14:47present it as hermeneutical the
14:50consequences are however not
14:52insignificant at all the stakes here are
14:55nothing less than a picture of the
14:57history of relations between the
14:58religious genealogy of late ancient Jews
15:01and Christians according to Schafer's
15:05approach the babylonian passage is
15:07completely severed from any previous
15:10rabbinic tradition it is only thus that
15:14Schaffer can conclude the jury did not
15:17continue into the rabbinic Age some of
15:20its ancient apocalyptic strands which
15:23occur also in the Gospels and thus later
15:25Christian thought but instead that the
15:28Babylonian Jews were profoundly impacted
15:31and imitated the Christianity of their
15:33time once again the issue is not
15:36methodological or theoretical but
15:39empirical above in these very lectures I
15:42have alluded to a powerful example of
15:44lain ancient Christian
15:46intercourse with Babylonian rabbinic
15:47judaism in principle but it is a far cry
15:50from that to the Gospel reading
15:52Babylonian rabbis of Schaeffer I turn
15:56now to the locale within the tal Merrik
15:58tradition that I take to be the clearest
16:00case for such diachronic connections
16:02namely Metatron the Rabanne the rabbinic
16:06or so I claimed successor to the son of
16:10man right so just to to give a quick
16:14summary up to this point what I'm
16:17suggesting is of course a profound
16:20connection between Jewish traditions and
16:26the Gospels but I'm suggesting that that
16:30profound tradition then splits into two
16:34branches one that identifies Jesus of
16:38Nazareth is the son of man and one that
16:41continues along the paths of identifying
16:44Enoch with the son of man and it
16:48develops that direction into a medieval
16:52Judaism after all if we think about it
16:56those two traditions had to be at
16:58loggerheads from the beginning because
17:04if Enoch is the son of man that Jesus
17:06can't be the son of man right so either
17:09Enoch or Jesus so once the gospel
17:12traditions settle from mark on on Jesus
17:17as the Son of man then the
17:19identification of Enoch with the Son of
17:21Man that we find in the similitudes of
17:24Enoch is a different tradition right is
17:29that clear winner what I'm suggesting so
17:31then we have two lines of development
17:33but from the same historical origin of
17:37the notion that there are two divine
17:40figures the Ancient of Days and the son
17:45of men in what follows I'm going to
17:48reread this famous Tamarack passage in
17:51ways that partly draw on what I've
17:52written in the past
17:53and partly overturn it to read some new
17:56conclusions about its historical
17:58meanings the biggest innovation here
18:01visibly my previous work on this text is
18:03that in this final edition of my
18:06thoughts on these matters bleah neder
18:08that is I don't actually vow that these
18:11are my final thoughts but I hope and
18:13aspire that they will be I will read it
18:17as integrally integrally related to the
18:19whole town wooded context to what I have
18:21styled the Talmudic apocalypse yesterday
18:24in the passage we have just looked at we
18:27see I maintain a dramatic effort to
18:30suppress a certain important aspect of
18:32apocalyptic texts from Enoch to
18:34Revelation namely the presence of a
18:37second or junior divinity once known as
18:40the son of man alongside of the father
18:43on a second throne typically moreover
18:46this second divine person is in some
18:49shape or form a transformed human being
18:51it is not hard nor unprecedented to see
18:55here in their most general forms the
18:58religious notions that give rise to
18:59Trinity and incarnation by presenting in
19:04this text as it were the re-education of
19:06Rabbi Akiva on these questions David the
19:09Messiah on a second throne the very idea
19:12the talmud is indeed engaged their act
19:15of clamping down on such thoughts
19:19the next story can be seen as part and
19:21parcel of such efforts of suppression as
19:23well but it needs more careful and
19:26contextual reading than I have given it
19:28before the reading offered here subtly
19:32different from previous ones will
19:34further support my thesis that the
19:36material in the second chapter of kaga
19:38especially in the bobbly is a somewhat
19:42tortious tortuous and certainly
19:44fragmentary rabbinic apocalypse
19:59given the close connections between the
20:01Talmudic apocalypse and hagigah and the
20:04earlier enoch literature exposed in the
20:06previous lecture an old question needs
20:10to be asked to MU namely the question of
20:13the relation between a famous passage
20:14and it's very near but also distinct
20:17parallel in 3 enoch a famous Talmudic
20:19passage the babylonian talmud has a very
20:24famous and remarkable narrative of the
20:27ascent that was me regretting using the
20:29word famous twice in two sentences and
20:33remarkable narrative of the ascension of
20:35a certain Elisha bana bouya nicknamed a
20:38higher to heaven whereupon he makes a
20:42fateful mistake misidentifies Metatron
20:44as a god and suffers terrible
20:47consequences Schaefer has made it
20:50compelling a point about this narrative
20:52in which the highest angel potentially
20:55identified with or confused with the
20:57second divine person namely Metatron
20:59appears it can only be explained as he
21:02shows on the basis of traditions such as
21:06those found in the book 3 Enoch in which
21:09Enoch is transformed into Metatron
21:12explicitly Alexander has further pointed
21:16out that Metatron's
21:18Peter Alexander has further pointed out
21:21that Metatron's absorption of translated
21:24enoch could only have taken place in
21:26circles acquainted with the Palestinian
21:29apocalyptic enoch traditions Schaefer
21:33however declines any possibility of
21:35seeing connections between the early
21:37Enoch apocalypse is 1 & 2 enoch in which
21:41such an apotheosis takes place for Enoch
21:43and the much later Hebrew text known as
21:47safer hakalo
21:48or 3 Enoch he consequently ends up
21:52asserting as the only possible
21:54explanation direct Christian influence
21:56on the Talmud in late antiquity ie that
21:59Metatron is produced in the Byzantine
22:01era out of whole Christian cloth as an
22:04imitation of Christ other scholars have
22:09taken note
22:09of the importance of to Slavonic Enoch
22:12and understanding the development of the
22:15later Metatron materials a line of
22:18investigation that Schafer has seen
22:20largely to ignore the crucial point is
22:24to envision a connection between the
22:27transformation of Enoch into the Son of
22:29Man in 1 enoch 71 Enochs angelic
22:33transformation in - enoch 22 and the
22:37transformation of enoch into the
22:39Archangel Metatron in Seyfried hello 3
22:42Enoch right so I'm suggesting a
22:45historical I'm not only i but following
22:49Orloff and alexander suggesting a
22:53historical trajectory in which the human
22:56inna becomes the son of man in 1 in X 71
23:00is transformed into an angel into Enoch
23:0422 and in 3 Enoch actually becomes
23:09Metatron easily an archangel or the
23:14second divine figure we need not I
23:17propose imagine anything quite so retic
23:19radical as an all-out incursion of
23:22Christian Christology all of a sudden
23:24into Byzantine era Babylonian Jewish
23:26texts although I would never deny and
23:29will actively actively advance below the
23:31possibility or even probability of such
23:33intercourse as at least a partial
23:35explanation for historical changes
23:37within the traditions why not after all
23:40thus to take one example while already
23:43in classical rabbinic literature God is
23:45frequently described as having a pimalia
23:48a Familia there is no reason to doubt
23:52that within the Merkabah texts the
23:55descriptions of the pimalia draw on
23:57images of the Byzantine Court in the
24:03text of Thomond Huggy go we find the
24:05story of elisha ben abayas apostasy this
24:08famous heretic upon seeing a vision of
24:10the glorious being named Metatron
24:12sitting in heaven sitting in heaven
24:14wondered if perhaps there are two
24:16sovereignties in heaven the arch heresy
24:20of the town would notoriously we find an
24:23all
24:23identical but significantly different
24:26parallel to this text in safe rights
24:28alone please follow along because I'm
24:30not going to read the right column I'll
24:33only read the Talmudic column and you'll
24:39see the differences as we go along our
24:43rabbis have taught for went into the par
24:46days and who are they Ben Isaiah and Ben
24:50Zoma a hare and Rabbi Akiva a hare
24:54chopped down the shoots Rabi Akiva came
24:57out safely
24:58right so bad things happened to three of
25:00them but Rabi Akiva came out safely a
25:04hare had chopped down the shoots
25:06whatever that means we'll see right away
25:07I can't chop down the shoots of him the
25:13verse says do not let your mouth cause
25:15your flesh to sin what does this mean
25:18he saw that Metatron had been given
25:21permission to sit and write the good
25:24deeds of Israel he said but it is taught
25:28that on high there will be no sitting no
25:30conflict no back and no tiredness
25:33perhaps God forbid there are two powers
25:36to sovereigntist a result they don't
25:41Metatron out and whipped him with sixty
25:43whips of fire they said to him what is
25:46the reason that when you saw him you did
25:47not get up before him Metatron was given
25:51permission to erase the good deeds of a
25:53hare a voice came out from heaven and
25:56said return o backsliding ones except
26:00for a hare in other words a fire has
26:02committed the sin against the Holy
26:03Spirit against from which there can be
26:07no repentance no forgiveness he said
26:11since that man has that he that is a
26:13hare since said since that man referring
26:16to himself has been driven out of that
26:20world let him go out and enjoy himself
26:22in this world he went out to evil
26:25culture he went and found a prostitute
26:28and solicited her she said aren't you
26:31elisha ben abulia
26:32he went and uprooted a radish on the
26:35side
26:35and gave it to her she said he is an
26:39other a hair right explaining why he is
26:43called a fair man
26:45famous rabbi comes and solicits the
26:49prostitute she said but aren't you the
26:50famous rabbi so he goes and proves he's
26:52not by violating the Sabbath so she says
26:55oh I must have confused him with
26:57somebody else
27:01although the tumba detects its
27:03relationship to three Enoch haven't been
27:06interpreted quite a few times in recent
27:08scholarship and even very recently there
27:11is still it seems more to be said
27:15rejecting earlier attempts to argue
27:17direct dependence of one of the versions
27:20on the other as well as claims for very
27:23different meanings for the two versions
27:25I shall claim that it is unlikely that
27:28one was copied from the other and
27:30perhaps more surprisingly that they both
27:33add up ideologically to the same thing
27:36despite vast literary and other
27:38differences between them it is crucial
27:42to observe that it is the sitting of
27:45Metatron that precipitates the crisis
27:47for elisha in both texts he saw that
27:50Metatron had been given permission to
27:53sit and write the good deeds of Israel
27:57most commentators do not I think take
28:00sufficient measure of the significance
28:02of this detail and indeed it has been
28:05partially obscured within the textual
28:07transmission of the Talmud itself in the
28:11hakalo the three Enoch version of the
28:13story as well met to turn himself
28:16emphasizes that he was seated on a
28:18throne and judging on the authority of
28:21the Holy One I think it highly likely
28:24that this statement of authority to sit
28:27is a market allusion to the very
28:29enthronement scene in Daniel 7 which has
28:33been the pumping heart of the tradition
28:36the one like a son of man who is seated
28:39on a throne and awarded shulton in
28:43Aramaic Greek ik socia
28:49Hebrew resuits a hair's confusion is
28:54occasioned precisely by this illusion
28:57which he gets to is it possible that the
29:00interpretation of those verses from
29:03Daniel so current in Israel and lately
29:07declared heretical is true perhaps there
29:11are indeed two sovereignties today we
29:14salute a father and son in heaven the
29:19cause of our theological confusion as we
29:22have it in the Textus Receptus of the
29:24bobbly is however very puzzling on the
29:27one hand it is clear that it is the fact
29:29that Metatron sitting that causes our
29:31hair to fall into error but on the other
29:34hand his own speech about this seems
29:36incoherent or nearly so as he remarks
29:38that but it is taught that on high there
29:41will be no standing no sitting no
29:43jealousy no conflict no back and no
29:45tiredness how is the rest of this list
29:49other than the sitting itself to be
29:51connected with Metatron seated posture
29:54and what in this long list caused a hair
29:57to consider the possibility of two
29:59sovereignties in heaven on the one hand
30:03there are indications at least in most
30:05witnesses that the sitting evoked
30:07thoughts of competition between God and
30:09Metatron but directly contradicting that
30:12is the suggestion that Metatron sat
30:15because he was tired which would
30:18certainly suggest his mortality not as
30:20divinity the list is in short in Co yank
30:23and self contradictory if we understand
30:26it to be the cause of affairs error
30:30Philip Alexander suggests that the list
30:33has been imported from another text
30:35which is not extant in which it is
30:38asserted that God and the angels are
30:40without body parts or passions in rather
30:42platonic fashion it defined the heavenly
30:45world as the negation of all that we
30:47know and experience here on earth we can
30:53build a bit further on this crucial
30:55insight muhammara cher Seco who was I
31:00think once
31:02present in this university for several
31:04years I in fact be here if I'm not
31:08mistaken remarked of this list that it
31:11is hermeneutic in character each of the
31:15elements in the list refers to a verse
31:17thus for standing we find numbers 12 5
31:20where the verse reads and the Lord came
31:23down on a column of cloud and stood in
31:25front of the tenth or for another
31:27striking example in the verse job tweet
31:3125 2 he makes peace in his heaven is
31:34taken to mean that there's conflict and
31:37competition Taco Ruth in heaven by the
31:40early Madras using in this case exactly
31:43the same word as that which our text
31:45denies similarly we can find verses that
31:49suggest employer actually impute
31:51jealously tiredness and sitting of
31:54course the crux back is now neatly
31:57solved as well referring to the back of
32:00God that Moses allegedly saw the text
32:03denies the literal existence of that as
32:06well
32:06our statement comes therefore my main
32:10man Adia novella fugu to indicate that
32:13these are all metaphorical and not
32:15literal statements and no more the
32:18original point of the statement was
32:20simply that God has no body and there's
32:23none of these characteristics that seem
32:25implied by the biblical text however
32:28this statement which was implanted in
32:33the Talmudic text is completely at odds
32:37with the rest of the Tom Wanek narrative
32:39which is precisely and exclusively about
32:42sitting engendering confusion with God
32:46not about a godhead who ought to be
32:49disembodied right in other words what a
32:54that might have been a little bit dense
32:56for hearing so let me quickly gloss it
33:03the three Enoch text says only that God
33:07sat him on the throne and gay and gave
33:12him permission to judge and then when
33:14Elisha came up there
33:15so I'm sitting and judging and said oh
33:16my god there's a second divinity the
33:20Talmudic text in reconstructing
33:23essentially says exactly the same thing
33:25but in order to as it were camouflaged
33:30that another midrashic statement denying
33:36any physical attributes to God was
33:38imported and put into the text causing
33:42the text to be incoherent but actually
33:45disguising the fact that it was the
33:47sinning the second divinity that was or
33:50the imagination of the second divinity
33:53that was disturbing and confusing to
33:55Alicia and made him think that there are
33:57two divine figures the issue on this
34:01reconstructed on this reconstruction is
34:03precisely the sitting and the specter
34:06that that called up was precisely two
34:09sovereigns in heaven that Thea
34:11leguminous that was so closely connected
34:13with the double throne of Daniel seven
34:15as well as the theological develop
34:18developments of that within the world
34:20that surrounded the rabbi's into a
34:22doctrine of two divine persons
34:24wherever such developments had taken
34:26place or were still taking place there
34:30is another support for this conclusion
34:32as well the word translated permission
34:35would be much better translated as
34:37authority power or sovereignty as it is
34:41the same word reshoot that appears in
34:44that very heretical thought of our hairs
34:46perhaps god forbid there are two
34:48sovereigns stay with you yoke and indeed
34:52bears close comparison with Greek
34:54exclusion to far better I think to
34:58translate to sovereignties in heaven the
35:01same word that is used to indicate the
35:03authority or sovereignty given Metatron
35:05to sit and write the virtues of Israel
35:07resuit is used to indicate the name of
35:11the alleged heresy to ritual I suggest
35:15therefore that it was the combination of
35:17sitting suggesting enthronement an
35:20authority or sovereignty to sit and
35:22judge that is represented as both a
35:25hair's mistake bringing the Talmud
35:28very very and crucially close to the
35:32three Enoch version in which it is the
35:35fact of Metatron's enthronement which
35:38leads to the idea of two sovereignties
35:40both versions three Enochs and the
35:43Talmud says I interpret it go back to
35:45Daniel 7:13 and the Talmudic reshoot is
35:49the equivalent in Hebrew of the Schulten
35:52awarded the one like a son of math there
35:54where the Septuagint gives of course EXO
35:57Xia when a when a hair saw that
36:01sovereignty had been awarded to Metatron
36:04to sit it is no wonder that he concluded
36:08forgive me even tentatively that there
36:12are two sovereignties in heaven namely
36:17precisely God and that one like a son of
36:20man to whom sovereignty Sultan had been
36:24awarded in Daniel whether called
36:27Metatron or David Enoch or Jesus the
36:29second divine figure is the son of man
36:33locating this quote/unquote heretical
36:36interpretation right at the heart of the
36:38rabbinic Academy and indeed among some
36:41of its leading figures strongly supports
36:44the hypothesis offered above that these
36:47views had been current in the very
36:49Jewish circles from which the rabbi's
36:51emerged and the views were eventually
36:53anathematized by them and driven
37:00following them Alexander's insight that
37:02the phrase but it is taught that on high
37:05there will be no standing no sitting no
37:07jealousy no competition no backhand no
37:09tiredness is an import into the text
37:12from another context entirely albeit a
37:15very early import the weak explanation
37:18for Alicia's error given by the Talmud
37:21can be understood as part of the very
37:23process of camouflage of the real reason
37:27for Alicia's confusion which is
37:29identical to that of three Enoch in the
37:33version and three Enoch it is the
37:35sitting on a throne and with it the
37:37imputation of sovereignty that so
37:39discomfort
37:40selecia that he becomes a hair the other
37:44one the one who is other to himself this
37:49is the case in the Talmud version as
37:51well if we remove the imported words
37:55from the text and reconstruct a
37:57proto-tool Matic version which would
37:59then read he saw that Metatron had been
38:03given sovereignty reshoot to sit and
38:06write the good deeds of Israel perhaps
38:09God forbid there are two sovereignties
38:11in other words I reconstruct in the
38:14ground of the Talmudic text something
38:17that is almost identical to the three
38:18Enoch text this reconstruction would
38:22make absolutely clear the good reason
38:24for Alicia's error if my reconstruction
38:27and interpretation bear weight then
38:29there is very little almost no
38:31ideological difference between the text
38:34and the Talmud and in three enoch the
38:36sitting is indeed the crux as it invokes
38:39the Daniel 7 passage together with
38:42psalms 110:1
38:45eg as in mark 14 62 with the son of man
38:50sitting at the right hand of God or
38:53aloft moreover has compellingly shown
38:55that the motif of Enoch sitting in
38:58heaven comes out very clearly in to
39:01Enoch the inscription to Metatron in the
39:04Talmudic text of both judicial and
39:06scribal rolls precisely those given to
39:09the son of man as early as the
39:11similitudes of enoch strongly supports
39:13this connection as well the sitting is
39:19indeed the crux
39:20as it invokes the tante Daniel 7 passage
39:23just as I have just said the description
39:28to the Talmudic text cannot in my view
39:36be isolated or insulated from the Enoch
39:40tradition as represented in 3 Enoch it
39:43is engaged in a massive struggle as it
39:46itself seems to understand with such
39:48highly ancient and well rooted elements
39:51of Jewish philosophy
39:52as the second throne and a second divine
39:55personal absorbs the translated emic it
39:59is simply then not the case that the
40:01so-called so the but graphic literature
40:03had no legs in later judaism and was
40:06only preserved within christian circles
40:09this is the major point of my argument
40:11here throughout without denying the
40:14probable interchange between jews and
40:16christians in such matters and indeed
40:19supporting its strongly below i would
40:22propose that these apocalyptic
40:23traditions remain vital among jews
40:26without making any absolutely clear
40:29distinction between the rabbis and other
40:31jews on this point imagining that
40:35alongside of other developments within
40:37late ancient jewish culture
40:38various forms of apocalyptic writing
40:41also continued and develop new forms
40:44interacting in differing ways with other
40:46streams of rabbinic and para rabbinic
40:48tradition including those that sought to
40:51suppress those apocalyptic traditions
40:53and so within the same text the talmud
40:56you're getting almost a battle between
41:02revealing and concealing of the
41:05apocalyptic material the three enoch
41:08text is at least as at much pains to
41:11clarify that Metatron devotion does not
41:14constitute a theological assertion of
41:16two power powers as the bobbly is
41:19accordingly part a much of the scholarly
41:22tradition there is no great ideological
41:25gap between these two parallel versions
41:27neither denies the significance of
41:30Metatron and both assert that to see in
41:34him a divinity is a grave error there is
41:40in my view in both texts a nexus of
41:43concern about the import and possible
41:45miss reading of daniel 7 9 13 which
41:49connects that text the talmud in
41:51multiple ways with other texts including
41:54ancient poustinia apocalyptic sources
41:56such as the parables of enoch and to
41:59enoch usually assume that only
42:05Christians
42:06read the one like a son of man as a
42:08divine figure and that Jews universally
42:12accept the interpretation that it's a
42:15symbol for Israel what I'm suggesting is
42:18that the picture is considerably more
42:20complex that there were Jews as we saw
42:24explicitly in that Talmudic passage that
42:27read the one like a son of man as a
42:29divine Messiah figure and other Jews who
42:34accepted that this is a Enoch or
42:40Metatron but then denied that Enoch
42:44Metatron is actually divine so it almost
42:49parallels what we might call late
42:53ancient Christological controversies in
42:56a sense
42:57to sum up according to my reconstruction
42:59that takes very like the one in three
43:01Enoch underlies the Talmud's version as
43:03well Metatron had been given route to
43:07sit and write and Elisha concluded quite
43:09plausibly that there are stay ratio to
43:12sovereignties because supposedly only
43:16the divine king may sit on a throne in
43:18heaven just as by the way only a king of
43:21the house of David may sit in the
43:23earthly temple right so think if anybody
43:26sitting down there we would assume that
43:27they were the king in order to further
43:30suppress any such possibility the bobbly
43:33imported the Platonic madrasa text about
43:36sitting and standing and necks and
43:38tiredness and that's obliterated the
43:40throne
43:41thus distorting the text and rendering a
43:44hair's response a barely intelligible
43:46reaction to a contradiction between a
43:48tradition that angels don't sit and
43:50Metatron sitting it is not clear in any
43:54case how this contradiction about the
43:56postures of angels would lead a hare to
43:59conclude or even speculate that there
44:02are two powers in heaven whereas finding
44:05Metatron on a godly throne with
44:07sovereignty surely would do that I wish
44:14not to reassess my former position that
44:16the Talmudic text is in some way
44:18dependent
44:19on the version in three Enoch this
44:22reassessment will moreover conduct us to
44:25the conclusions that I draw and the
44:27hypothesis that I offer in this lecture
44:30series right so we're on the down stream
44:34the down stretches at work I are the
44:38home stretch
44:38until now the question of the relation
44:41of the version of the narrative in the
44:42Talmud to the narrative and three Enoch
44:45has been discussed in terms of who came
44:48first and who copied from whom having
44:51myself taken a position on the question
44:52put in those terms I propose now to
44:55reform and reformulate the question in
44:58new as I no longer believe in direct
45:01dependence in either direction the most
45:04important point is that there is no
45:07conflict between the two versions of the
45:09text when they are interpreted in the
45:11fashion proposed here nor is the story
45:16in its three Enoch Version in tension
45:18with or a corrective of the context in
45:21the Talmud the comparison with the
45:25fourth century Church Fathers afforded
45:27by kiss stir well sorry I skipped all
45:30the kissters stuff so the bottom line is
45:33that both of these versions of the story
45:34of Elisha seemed clearly to go back to
45:37an earlier version which contained the
45:39common elements of the narrative found
45:42in both the extant versions and from
45:45which each of the current versions was
45:47developed independently the general
45:57suggestion that even the relatively late
45:59three Enoch preserves important
46:02connections with earlier Park elliptic
46:04is now supported by an important
46:07argument in an argument in a recent
46:10article by Menachem kissed her on these
46:13subjects while Kistner disagrees with me
46:16in many details of interpretation on
46:18this point our position seems
46:20synergistic histor demonstrates
46:23impressive connections between specific
46:25languages in the three enoch tradition
46:28and in both the apocalypse of abraham
46:31and the ascension of Isaiah very very
46:33specific formulations and linguistic
46:38forms there for supporting strongly the
46:44connection between three Enoch in the
46:47fifth sixth or maybe even 7th century
46:50and texts like the apocalypse of Abraham
46:53the Ascension of Isaiah from Late
46:55Antiquity okay last section de bunda
46:59Yara des jungen Metatron's there is no
47:04doubt that Metatron himself is the
47:06historical product of various
47:08developments within Jewish tradition as
47:10shown by Alexander in a pioneering paper
47:13Metatron seems clearly to be the
47:15conflation of at least three figures
47:17from earlier Jewish traditions Enoch the
47:21lesser yow right yahuwah cotton and
47:25Michael met the tongue there is further
47:29proof for Alexander's contention that
47:31Michael is identified with Metatron in
47:33the 5th 6th century the visions of
47:36Ezekiel we find the following paragraph
47:39what is there in the rule and you
47:42remember that Seville is one of the
47:44seven heavens I think it's the fourth
47:46robertlevi said in the name of rabbi
47:48Shama bar-abba who said in the name of
47:50rabbi yohanan the prince dwells nowhere
47:53but in the rule and what is his name
47:56chemos is his name rabbi Isaac said
48:00Murata is his name Robbie Indian a bar
48:03sison said B's booth is his name rabbi
48:07tongue home the elder said attack yeah
48:09is his name
48:10Eleazar not whadya said Metatron like
48:15the name of the power Alexander
48:18correctly observes that the prince here
48:20identified with Metatron is the art
48:23Angel Michael much identified with the
48:25Son of Man in earlier texts as well
48:28Metatron wherever his name comes from is
48:31a link in a chain of tradition about
48:33Michael that goes back at least to the
48:35Book of Daniel we can add another proof
48:38to this contention in the Talmudic
48:41passage of the seven heavens discussed
48:43in the previous lecture here
48:44it is precisely and explicitly the Great
48:47Prince Mike Michael Michael Michael
48:51who was identified as presiding over the
48:54third heaven zaboo right just as here we
48:58found Michael it is clear that in the
49:03Talmudic text Michael is the heavenly
49:05high priest just as Metatron is in three
49:08Enoch Metatron is clearly an avatar of
49:11Michael there is accordingly little or
49:15no reason to adopt or even entertain
49:17Schafer's position that Metatron is an
49:21entirely babylonian product or envious
49:24mimesis of Christology sometimes reading
49:31the scholarly literature on Metatron I
49:33feel like I am observed observing the
49:36blind pundits with their proverbial
49:38elephant the one grasping the trunk
49:42thought that an elephant was a snake the
49:44one grasping the leg that I thought
49:46thought that it was a tree and the one
49:48grasping the tail thought an elephant is
49:51a rope scholars of Byzantine
49:54Christianity see only Byzantine
49:56Christian elements here and latterly
49:58scholars of middle Persian have located
50:01Metatron's origins in Zoroastrian
50:04figures namely Yemen
50:06like those pundits so I claim they may
50:09all be right many other scholars even
50:12those relatively close to Schafer's
50:14general opinions in these matters
50:15nonetheless maintained that there were
50:18diachronic connections between 1 & 2
50:20Enoch and 3 Enoch now if it be granted
50:26that there are intimate diachronic
50:28connections between 1 & 2 Enoch and 3
50:30Enoch it seems far more plausible to
50:33ascribe the transformation of Enoch into
50:36Metatron in the last text to a
50:39continuation of themes from the earlier
50:41ones surely far superior a hypothesis
50:45the one that has Metatron invented de
50:48novo since we have little reason to
50:51believe and surely no evidence that one
50:53in - Enoch passed in the Jews from
50:55Christian circles that had preserved
50:57them
50:58we might as well assume that at least
51:00these traditions if not these texts had
51:03circulated among Jews as well as among
51:06Ethiopian Slavonic and perhaps Coptic
51:08Christians this conclusion is well
51:11supported by the evidence adduced here
51:13for close affiliations between the
51:15Talmudic apocalypse of hagigah and the
51:18cosmo meteora logical material from one
51:21Enoch and - Enoch the Tanner aim were
51:25not the only Jews between the Second
51:27Temple and the Byzantine period that's
51:29what we have to remember throne only
51:31rabbis very close to the view being
51:35promulgated here indeed anticipating it
51:38is the following statement once again by
51:40in that read the older scholarly model
51:43of an unbroken continuity between 1 and
51:453 Enoch must be replaced with the image
51:48of an ongoing process of redaction and
51:51accretion of material by which the
51:53hallowed traditions in the three enoch
51:55tradition were continually reshaped
51:58through the integration of both early
52:00anarchic and rabbinic traditions by a
52:03variety of different hands on the other
52:06hand the possible role of the Byzantine
52:09Kronig refers from the transmission of
52:11early anarchic materials to the to some
52:15of these circles may help to explain how
52:17one Enoch may have influenced parts of
52:19three Enoch in a manner that was
52:22historically distinct from the
52:24development of under Enoch themes within
52:27later mystical traditions with further
52:30analysis of individual units between
52:32within the three Enoch macro forms we
52:36may hopefully begin to formulate a more
52:38nuanced image of the complex
52:40relationship between the earlier Jewish
52:43duralee Jewish apocalypsis and the hey
52:45hello literature end quote
52:47it is indeed a distinct possibility that
52:50Byzantine Jews knew about one anak from
52:53the chronograph is equally as plausible
52:56that the text circulated among Greek
52:58speaking Jews in the same environments
53:00as those very Kronig refers in either
53:03case a far cry indeed from either Sholem
53:07secret conventicle x' or Schafer's
53:09imitation of
53:11much of our understanding of the
53:13historical relations between Jewish and
53:15Christian communities from late
53:16antiquity and into the Byzantine era
53:19depends on the ever growing complexity
53:22with which we approach the task of that
53:26which I have styled the quest of the
53:28historical Metatron equally nuanced as
53:32the view of read is Ron ANBU stands in
53:34each case the vertical silo created by
53:39internalist interpretations of the
53:41Jewish mystical tradition no matter how
53:44dialectical has begun to give way to a
53:47horizontal orientation in the study of
53:49Jewish history rather than seek the
53:52roots of Jewish mystical and magical
53:53discourses within a hermetically sealed
53:55Jewish culture and documenting their
53:58linear even teleological development
54:00through successive stages of Judaism
54:02many scholars are increasingly taking up
54:05the challenge of tracing the
54:07criss-crossing roots ro Utes of
54:10conceptual and material exchange at and
54:13across the boundaries of religious
54:15community and tradition end quote
54:18Schafer's model of a unitary and
54:21essential Judaism and Christianity which
54:24then may influence each other is just a
54:28silo like as anything showroom ever
54:30produced just with two silos next to
54:33each other one occasionally spilling
54:35over into the other or I'm thinking of
54:39cartoons that I must have seen as a
54:42child of you know - embattled cities
54:46next to each other completely enclosed
54:49in walls and everyone so while somebody
54:51throws a stone from one over the wall in
54:54into the other another way of stating
54:57this would be that according to both
54:59Salomon Schaffer and without the slit on
55:01this Judaism and Christianity are much
55:03more distinct and bound identities than
55:06in the more nuanced and complex models
55:08offered by such scholars as Bustan and
55:11read in this communique my purpose will
55:14have been served
55:15if I have sex successfully added to the
55:18complex ingredients of de bricolage
55:21ongoing traditions and memories of
55:23tradition
55:24that tie the head hello text back
55:26historically two forms of life thinking
55:29experience in writing that extend to the
55:33Second Temple apocalyptic as well and
55:35thus to the sources of both later
55:38Judaism and Christianity Metatron is
55:42neither the father of Jesus nor his son
55:45but if you can stand this metaphor the
55:48scion of a parallel branch of the family
55:51lineage

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