The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

ENOCH IN CABBALISTIC LITERATURE 127
direct dependence of 3 Enoch upon a non-Jewish writing, to the extent
obtaining here' (p. 63) is certainly gratuitous and contrary to the established
facts. Furthermore, it seems to me highly likely that the Book of the Secrets
of Enoch could have been carried as far as Germany and France by learned
Jewish merchants in its Slavonic version—and not in the original Greek
text (which was not widely circulated)—from the towns of Ruthenia, particularly
Kiev (or from other Cyrillo-Methodian centres in Poland or Bohemia
or even in the Balkans).
Moreover, recent research into the origins of the Cabbala in Western
Europe, in particular the work of G. G. Scholem, definitely excludes a date
earlier than the twelfth century for the greater part of the theological and
mystical theories contained in the Hebrew Enoch. Thus it was between the
twelfth and the fifteenth centuries that the majority of the cabbalistic texts
found in MS. Bodl. 0pp. 556 were elaborated, put down in writing, and
gradually collected together. The text, dating from the beginning of the
sixteenth century, with the title 'Book of Enoch' was only one element in this
collection, which itself formed part of a bigger compilation known by the
name of Ma'aii Merkabah or by other names again, which contained Hikaloty
SVur Qomdy Revelations of Moses, etc.
The dating of Talmudic, Midrashic, and cabbalistic elements belonging to
larger collections is a very delicate task, in which subjective preconceptions
are liable to mislead if it is based only on arguments of internal literary and
ideological criticism; one can easily be out by several centuries, if not by
a thousand years or more. Therefore, in order to date any ideas or literary
works, in terms of relative or absolute chronology, one must, if possible,
look for criteria external to this literature itself. We are in the privileged
position of being able to do this where theories about the angel Metatron
are concerned. According to the writings incorporated into the Hebrew
Enoch Metatron is an almost divine being, an intermediary between God
and creation, and he is identified with the patriarch Enoch who was lifted
up to heaven.
This identification already appears in the Targum of Jonathan (Gen. 5:
24):i DnK n''^ ns7 •'mn^'? xni ^^'^ mp xt3B;ipa n^pi ^^nnn
Km Knso ]nt3t3^a rvw xnpi mp na^aa ^isy^b p'^oi rianx, 'And
Enoch served in the truth before the Lord; and behold, he was not with
the sojourners of the earth; for he was withdrawn, and he ascended to
the firmament by the Word before the Lord, and his name was called
^ Ed. Ginsburger, p. 11.