The Books of Enoch, Aramaic Fragments of Qumran Cave 4

ENOCH IN CABBALISTIC LITERATURE 133
called X^^aai SOa^X. The same phrase occurs in Montgomery 27, 5
(X^^ai XOa^K) and in Gordon, Orientaliay x (1941), 273, no. 11, 3
(= Rossell 26) and pi. II: K'?'?^! H'^m D^D^^anX.^ Now, the first epithet can
be applied equally well to Metatron: H^'ST nDK'?a ]nDD*'!!D (No. I above).
The expression is neither the name of an angel (Stiibe), nor 'der da
weilet bei . . .' (Wohlstein), nor 'who-is-in-Yah' (Montgomery), but the
relative pronoun rf* plus the substantive K''3 or n*'3, which is the Latin
borrowing viay well attested in Judaeo-Aramaic texts. Metatron is thus
nuntitis viaey H**!!! riDX^Q, and Hermes 'he who (prepares) the way and
announces (the coming of a Great Lord)', X^^aai
The second epithet, the substantive maMd or Pael participle m'maMdy
'he who speaks, announces, acts as intermediary and intercessor (spokesman)',
occurs in Montgomery 19, 7 (= Rossell 29) and pi. XX: OnilK
nwy\ (soanxi Mo.) xoanxT (s'jnai Mo.) s'paia x^^'^a x n a nw3i
D**^!?! (XDTK Mo.), 'and in the name of the Angelos and in the name of the
Lord who speaks (and) repays, (the Lord) Hermes, and in the name of the
Presence and of the Youth'. The last two names recall the Talmudic designations
of Metatron: 'Angel/Prince of the Presence' and 'Youth', ni73 (and
in the phrase 1S73n ptt^S, 'Abode of the Youth'), the latter in Num.
Rabba 12, 15. Just as Metatron is linked with *Aza and 'Aza'el, so Hermes
appears in the company of 'A^a'el-'A^i'el (or *A^u*el) in Montgomery 7, 8
(= Rossell 22) and in the parallel text published by D. W. Myhrman.^
On the other hand, the same Judaeo-Babylonian incantation bowls present
the figure of Enoch as a purely human person. He is a famous doctor,
founder of the 'School of Enoch', and a redoubtable magician who pronounced
terrible curses, shortly before the flood, against his contemporaries
('his wicked brothers'), against the wicked angels, and against Mount
Hermon. 3
The evidence which has just been discussed allows us to establish a certain
chronological sequence, relative and absolute, in the beliefs relating to
Metatron:
I. The term metator-iindrcop could scarcely have been taken over from
Greek into Mishnaic Hebrew and Judaeo-Aramaic before the Byzantine
period; for it was mainly in the fifth to sixth centuries that Latin borrowings,
1 CANK Gordon; for this orthography 0'»)DTK1 HDl^VA VITOS? VXOS? DWai.
of Hermes cf. OOtt'lK in Rossell 20, 6.
For other references to Hermes in the magical
2 Hilprecht Anniversary Vol,, 1909, pp. 342- texts, see Montgomery, pp. 123-4.
51 (omission of ^TKOy and orthography O^^TH): 3 See below, pp. 335-8.