The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

I30
INTRODUCTION
*Ye are bound and sealed by the name of Metatron the great prince who is
in charge over all the chiefs of the Service, and by the name of Y^hi*el the
great prince, who is keeping at distance ... by His name by the Reed Sea.^^
In lines 11-13 Gordon reads: pm . . . H M F X} X^D^X . . . ^7X7 XD'?^ XIHT
fjIDT
n^a2?3 .... I did not see clearly his N^aB?2.
VI. i3Dca> •'ANM X M N^OX npn^AI X M XNO pnDD^aT N^MAINA
F S ^ N ]NMS7I ]^B?nm ]N^I2? tt?^2D X I M ^ XHB^^A
. . . *by the talisman of Metatron the great prince, who is called the great
healer of mercies, sweeping away evil things, who vanquishes devils and
demons and black-arts and mighty spells'.^
At the end of line 5, Gordon reads and translates: XNI&X(?) ''D*13?a *that bless the
season( ?)'.
The role of Metatron in the popular beliefs of Babylonian Jews was thus
very elevated. He is the archangel, *the great prince'par excellence: 'the great
prince of the throne of God' (III), 'the great prince who presides over all the
chiefs of the Service' (V), 'the great prince of the whole world' (IV), 'the great
prince who is called the great healer of mercy' (VI). This title corresponds
to the name 'the prince of the presence', U'lQTl ^2?, which Metatron has
in Tanhuma, parasah wa^ethanan 6, and is found again unaltered as X*12?
X3T or else 'the great prince who is above all the princes' in medieval mystical
and apocalyptical writings, in particular in SVur Qomd.
Metatron appears, in text I, in his role as the chief of the seven archangels
who preside over heaven and earth; as a great healer he is linked with Raphael
who, by his name {rafa* 'to heal'), is the prince of all heaUngs (IV). These
archangels participate in an outstanding degree in the essential power of
God who is 'the master of healings'. This aspect of the activity of God and the
angels, rather neglected in Jewish medieval theories, is linked with the great
fashion for healing gods during the period of the Later Roman Empire,
followed by the popularity of healing saints in the Byzantine period.
The special connection of Metatron with the divine throne (III) recalls
the idea described in Hag. 15A, where Metatron is the heavenly scribe 'who
' My reading on the original, the bowl of ^ Gordon, Orientalia, xx(i95i), 306-9, and
the Ashmolean Museum, No. 1932.620, fourth facs. at pp. 312-13 (private collection in
quadrant; cf. Gordon, Orientalia, x (19^1), Teheran); = Rossell, pp. 78-9 no. 3.
280.