The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

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ENOCH IN CABBALISTIC
LITERATURE
The Hebrew Enoch or 3 Enoch are the conventional titles given to a cabbalistic
compilation, written in Mishnaic Hebrew, the most complete text of
which is preserved in a Bodleian manuscript under the title: *]13n nSO
^nj ]niD '?ii}3W 'Book of Enoch by R. Ishma^'el (ben Elisha*),
the high priest'. ^ It is not at all certain that this manuscript is a reproduction
of an earlier archetype; all that one can say is that at the beginning of the
sixteenth century a German Jewish copyist gave the title 'Book of Enoch'
to a heterogeneous compilation. Various elements of this compilation appear
in other manuscripts and editions, where they have various titles, e.g.
'Teachings C'pnS) of R. Ishma^el'^ or 'Ascension of Metatron' and 'Names
of Metatron';3 other parts are found in the 'Book of the heavenly palaces
(ni^D^'H SDO) of Tanna R. Ishma^'el the high priest' and in the 'Alphabet
of R. 'Aqiba'.
The contents of MS. Oppenheim 556 are as follows:
1. Introduction (chapters 1-2).
2. Enoch-Metatron piece (chapters 3-16), together with a fragment of the
Ascension of Moses (chapter 153).
3. Angelological section (chapters 17-22A and 25-28. 6), in which three
angelological systems are distinguished.
4. Section on the Judgement (chapters 28. 7-33. 2).
5. Celestial QMussah (chapters 35, 36, 38-40).
6. Section on Merkabah, 'divine chariot', and on the heavenly regions
(chapters 22B and c, 23, 24, 33. 3-5, 34, 37).
7. Section on Metatron who shows the secrets of the heavens to R.
Ishma^el: mystic or cosmic 'letters' (chapter 41); polar opposites
kept in balance by divine Names (chapter 42); the Pargod of the
Throne on which are represented all the events of the past, present,
and future (chapter 45); constellations and planets (chapter 46);
' Bodl. MS. Oppenheim 556, ff. 314', i- careful edition supersedes A. Jellinek's edition,
333', 7, copied in German Hebraic cursive by Bet Midrasch, v (1873), 170-90 (chapters 1-15,
Yishaq ^''pKIl in 1511 (the first part of this 23-48A), which reproduces a rather poor text,
manuscript, ff. 3o6''-307^ was finished on * Bodl. MS. Michael 175, ff. iS"", 1-25^ 8
2 Elul 5271 = 1511). Edited by H. Odeberg, (chapters 3-24 of Odeberg's edition and other
3 Enoch or the Hebrew Book of Enoch, Cambridge texts).
1928, with introduction (pp. i-x and 1-192), ^ Bodl. MS. Michael 256, ff. 25', 1-28^ 17
text and critical apparatus (pp. trans- and 29'', i-44S 21 (cf. chapters 3-12 and 15).
lation and commentary (pp. 1-179). This very