The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

ENOCH IN CABBALISTIC LITERATURE 131
had permission to sit when he was recording the merits of Israel';i later
Metatron, and he alone, from among the inhabitants of heaven, will occupy
the second celestial throne. According to the same passage (our No. Ill),
'Aza, 'Aza'el, and Metatron are the special envoys of God.^ We know that
'Aza'el (often dupUcated as KTS7, ^7X^1X7, ^XTTi7, '?Ktt?S7, ^PX^'B^S?, ^KWS), plays
an ambivalent role in theological and magical ideas. He is at one time one of
the two chiefs of the fallen angels and the main instructor in wicked arts and
sciences, at another time one of the good archangels of God.3
The most elaborate angelological speculation is reflected in our No. II
(Montgomery, op. cit., no. 25): the names of the angels are equivalent
to the names of God, in particular Yofi'el and Metatron. These two angels
are found in the Jerusalem Targum (Deut. 34: 6), where the four 'masters
of wisdom', Metatron, Yofi'el, 'Cri'el, and Y^fipp^yah, take charge of the
soul of Moses on his death. According to Sanh. 386 Metatron is identified
with the Angiel of Yahweh mentioned in Exod. 23: 20 ff.: he even bears
the divine name of Yahweh, and it is he who is the Yahweh of Exod. 24: i.
According to II above it is the Greek god Hermes, divine messenger par
excellence^ who is identified with Metatron and with Yah: H*' ]ni3t3''a noann.
This phrase lends itself to an alternative translation in which the name of
mStatron would be an appellative, and not a proper name: 'Hermes (who is)
mitatrdn of God.'
This brings us back to the problem of the etymology of this term. Odeberg
discusses a dozen and more derivations of it, declaring himself to be in favour
of iierd—Qpovos.^ This etymology, however, is definitely to be rejected, since
it in no way satisfies the rules of transcription {dy t3); moreover, it involves
the invention of a Greek compound substantive, iierddpovosy which never
existed and scarcely could exist. The only acceptable etymology from the
linguistic point of view is that already well known by the medieval Cabbalists
themselves and adopted by several modern scholars: ]nDD*'D is a Hebrew
derivative, with the elative -on, from the Latin metator through the Greek
pLrfraTCopy
pLLrdrcop.
The Latin term metator in its original and classical use denotes the person
' Cf. an analogous role of Enoch, *the scribe 3 Sib. ii. 215, Test. Solomon vii. 7, etc.; cf.
of righteousness', in Coptic literature; above, E. Peterson, Rheinisches Museum fiir Philologie,
pp. 103-6. N.F. 75 (1926), p. 394, No. 5 and p. 397,
2 VXTS;i nW2 occurs in the first quad- No. 18, and ZNW 25 (1926), 243; C. D. G.
rant of the Ashm. bowl 1932.620, quoted above Miiller, Die Engellehre der koptischen Kirche,
(No. V); ViTTS? DWl in line 13 of the Ashm. pp. 59-60, 312-13, 285-6, 294-5, 298, 309, etc.
1932.619 (Gordon, loc. cit. (i94i)> P- 279)- * Op. cit., pp. 125 ff.