Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Format of Original

17 p.

Publication Date

2008

Publisher

Morcelliana

Source Publication

Henoch

Source ISSN

0393-6805

Abstract

The later Jewish mystical lore often portrays Enoch-Metatron as the
cosmic foundation sustaining the world or even as the pillar linking the
lower and upper worlds.
The current paper argues that the roots of this tradition about the
righteous antediluvian hero as the cosmic foundation of the world can be
detected already in 2 Enoch where Enoch is portrayed as the first fruit of
the future eschatological aeon of the righteous and the link between the
upper and the lower worlds.
Although in 2 Enoch the seventh antediluvian hero is never directly
named as either the foundation or the pillar, his eschatological role and
participation in the eschatological aeon depicts him as the counterpart of
the primordial foundation, the luminous aeon Adoil. In view of the later
offices of Enoch-Metatron in the Hekhalot materials where in his celestial
version the seventh antediluvian hero is portrayed as the sustainer of the
created order, it is possible that in the Slavonic apocalypse one can see the
rudimentary theological unfolding toward understanding Enoch-Metatron
as the eschatological foundation of the world. These intriguing traditions
again point to the formative value of the conceptual developments found in
the Slavonic apocalypse that in many ways serve there as a bridge between
Jewish apocalypticism and early Jewish mysticism.

Comments

Published version. Henoch, Vol. 30, No. 1 (2008): 119-135. Publisher Link. © 2008 Morcelliana. Used with permission.

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