11. From the Human Enoch to the Lesser God Metatron

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Judaism that has a long tradition history of the antediluvian patriarch Enoch. It begins with an enigmatic passage in the Hebrew Bible and leads via the First and Second Books of Enoch and the rabbinic exegesis of Genesis 5:21–24 then ultimately to the Third Book of Enoch, where Enoch is transformed into the highest angel Metatron. The chapter points out Enoch's sole appearance in the Hebrew Bible that is limited to the two genealogies of the patriarchs in Genesis 4 and 5. In the second genealogy in Genesis 5, Enoch is the sixth patriarch after Adam. It explains the meaning of the odd phrasing that Enoch walked with God or took his path with God and the enigmatic sentence “he was no more because God took him.”