TheThird Book of Enoch (Hebrew:ספר חנוך לר׳ ישמעאל כ׳׳ג), also known asThe Book of the Palaces,The Book of Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest andThe Elevation of Metatron, and abbreviated as3 Enoch)[1] is aJewish apocryphal book.
Modern scholars describe this book aspseudepigraphal, as it says it is written by "Rabbi Ishmael" who became a "high priest" after visions of ascension to Heaven.[2] This has been taken as referring toRabbi Ishmael, a third-generationTanna and a leading figure ofMerkabah mysticism. However, he could not have been aHigh Priest of Israel, as he was born after theSiege of Jerusalem and associated destruction of theSecond Temple in 70 CE. An alternative attribution would be the earlier TannaIshmael ben Elisha, who lived through the Siege of Jerusalem.[citation needed] Although 3 Enoch contains severalGreek andLatin words, the book appears to have been originally written inHebrew.[2]
Though 3 Enoch purports to have been written in the 2nd century, it was probably composed in or nearBabylon,[2] and its final redaction was likely completed in the 5th or 6th century.[3] The oldest printed text of 3 Enoch appears to be the Derus Pirqe Hekalot. It covers 3:1–12:5 and 15:1–2, and it is dated byArthur Ernest Cowley to around 1650. The name "3 Enoch" was coined by Hugo Odeberg for his first critical edition of 1928.[1]
The nameSefer Hekhalot (Hekhalot meaning palaces or temples), along with its proposed author, places this book as a member ofHekhalot literature, a genre which overlaps with the Merkabah or "Chariot" literature. Although 3 Enoch does not contain Merkabahhymns, it contains many of the concepts found in other Merkabah texts.[4] It also has a unique layout[5] andadjuration.[6] All these facts make 3 Enoch unique not just among Merkabah writings, but also within the genre of Enochian literature.[7] Several indications suggest that the writers of 3 Enoch were familiar with the content of1 Enoch (anapocalyptic text dating to theSecond Temple period).
Some points that appear in 1 Enoch and 3 Enoch are:
The main themes running through 3 Enoch are the ascension of Enoch into Heaven and his transformation into the angel Metatron.
This Enoch, whose flesh was turned to flame, his veins to fire, his eye-lashes to flashes of lightning, his eye-balls to flaming torches, and whom God placed on a throne next to the throne of glory, received after this heavenly transformation the name Metatron.
— Gershom Scholem (1941),Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism, p. 67.
3 Enoch is not included in thebiblical canon of any denomination ofJudaism orChristianity.
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