Parshat Bereshit5 min read

Enoch Walked With God and Became Metatron

Two angels stood over Enoch while he slept and called him by name. They did not come to bury him. By morning the house had no master.

Curated by Arthur · Told by Maggid ·
Table of Contents
  1. The Sons He Forbade to Search
  2. The World Going the Other Way
  3. The House Built of Fire
  4. Flesh Turned to Coals
  5. The Sage Who Saw a Second Throne

Enoch woke because someone had used his name. He was three hundred and sixty-five, alone in the house, and a distress he could not place had already been sitting on his chest. Two figures stood at the head of the bed. Taller than any man. Faces like the sun. Eyes like living fire. Flame at the mouth. Wings brighter than gold.

Enoch Walked With God and Became Metatron Click for full size

His spirit failed. "Have courage," they said. "The eternal God has sent us. Today you will ascend with us into heaven."

Every name in the fifth chapter of Genesis dies on the page. He lived, he fathered, he died. Adam. Seth. Jared. The sentence holds until Enoch, and then it breaks. "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him" (Genesis 5:24). Eight words in the Hebrew. Silence where the burial should be.

The word for took is laqach. It is a seizing. He got up from the bed while his legs still worked. He summoned his sons. He told them the dreams of three hundred years, warned them to walk in righteousness, and forbade anyone to search for him. Then the angels lifted him. Morning found the bed empty. The house had no master.

The World Going the Other Way

The earth he left was already splitting. Two hundred Watchers had bound themselves by oath on Mount Hermon and come down. Their leader was Shemhazai, with Azael beside him. They had told God that human beings were a mistake. God let them descend to prove they could do better in flesh. They failed the moment they saw the daughters of men.

One woman beat them. Estirah refused Shemhazai unless he taught her the Ineffable Name. Then she spoke the Name herself and rose out of his reach. God set her among the stars, the brightest of the Pleiades. The Watchers who stayed below took wives and fathered giants. Heyya and Aheyya each ate a thousand camels, a thousand horses, and a thousand oxen in a day. Blood filled the ground. Angels who went down were ruined by the descent. The man going up was about to be remade.

The House Built of Fire

A thick mist drew him upward. Winds carried him past the last familiar hill. He came to a wall of crystal ringed with tongues of fire and passed through it into a house whose ceiling ran with stars, cherubim of fire at the gates. Inside that house stood a greater one, built of fire itself, hot and cold at once in a way no body could hold.

A throne of crystal. Wheels alive with flame. On it sat One whose robe shone whiter than snow, whose face no eye could keep. Rivers of fire poured from beneath the throne. Enoch fell on his face. The voice called him righteous and named the office: witness and scribe. Go-between for heaven and earth for as long as the generations last.

Flesh Turned to Coals

The Aramaic translators would not leave the eight words alone. He ascended to the firmament by the Word before the Lord, and his name was called Metatron the Great Saphra, the Great Scribe. Prince of the Countenance. Nearest the Throne. Keeper of the ledgers, so that no kindness and no cruelty is lost before the books are opened.

His flesh turned to flame. Sinews to fire. Bones to glowing coals. Eyes to torches, lashes to lightning, limbs to wings. Seventy-two names. Knowledge of what is above and what is below. The man who had walked with God on dirt paths was given a form that could stand the walking.

The Sage Who Saw a Second Throne

That throne nearly broke a great mind. Four sages climbed toward the chariot. One died. One went mad. Only Rabbi Akiva came out in peace. The fourth was Elisha ben Abuyah, a master of Torah. He reached the door of the seventh palace and stopped.

An enormous figure sat on a throne of its own at the edge of the chariot's light. Sat. In that court, only God sits. Elisha looked at the seated one and let a thought set like cement: perhaps there are two powers here. The thought unmade him. What he had seen was not a rival god. It was the man from the genealogy, the seventh from Adam, the one Genesis never buried. Enoch walked with God, and he was not, and what he became sits close enough to the Throne that a sage could confuse the scribe with the King.

EnochMetatronAngelsFallen AngelsTransformationGenesisApocryphaAscensionHeavenMysticism
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From the tradition

Sources

7 sources

The texts behind this telling. Some cards carry a translation of the source; others are our own retelling of it, and each card says which. Every card links out to the original.

2 Enoch 1-22 Enoch

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Book of the Secrets of Enoch, trans. W. R. Morfill, ed. R. H. Charles (1896) · Public Domain

Enoch was three hundred and sixty-five years old when the visitation came.

He was alone in his house. Resting on his bed. Asleep. And in that sleep, a terrible distress seized his heart, a weeping he could not explain, a dread without name or shape. Something was about to happen that no living man had ever experienced.

Then two figures appeared at the head of his bed.

They were enormous, taller than any human who had ever walked the earth. Their faces blazed like the sun. Their eyes burned like living fire. Flames poured from their lips. Their garments shimmered purple, shifting and singing with colors that had no earthly name. Their wings gleamed brighter than gold. Their hands were white as snow.

They called him by name.

Enoch woke. He saw them clearly, two radiant beings standing before him. And terror seized him. His face changed. His body trembled. But the angels spoke with steady voices:

"Have courage, Enoch. Do not fear. The eternal God has sent us to you. Today you will ascend with us into heaven."

They gave him instructions: tell your sons everything. Tell your household. Let no one search for you until the Lord returns you to them. Then go.

Enoch obeyed immediately. He rose from his bed, went to the doors of his house, and summoned his sons, Methuselah, Regim, and Gaidad. And told them everything the angels had said. The marvels. The command. The departure.

Then he turned to his children one last time.

"Listen to me. I do not know where I am going, or what will happen to me. But I tell you this: turn not from God. Do not worship the vain things that did not make heaven and earth, for those things will perish, and all who worship them. Let the Lord make your hearts steady in the fear of Him. And let no one come looking for me until the Lord brings me back."

The Hebrew Bible records only a single cryptic line about Enoch's fate: "Enoch walked with God, and he was no more, for God took him" (Genesis 5:24). But 2 Enoch, also called the Slavonic Apocalypse of Enoch, tears open that silence and reveals what happened next. Where God took him. What he saw there. And why he was chosen above all other men on earth to witness the architecture of heaven itself.

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1 Enoch 14:8-25, 40:1-101 Enoch

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Book of Enoch, trans. R. H. Charles, in The Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha of the Old Testament, vol. 2 (1913) · Public Domain

Enoch, as we learn from 1 Enoch, wasn't just any man. He was righteous, a figure of immense importance in Jewish tradition. And he was granted something extraordinary: a journey to the heavens. Picture this: a thick mist descends, drawing him in. The stars themselves, along with flashes of lightning, seem to beckon him forward. Then, the winds sweep him up, carrying him higher and higher, beyond the familiar world and into the celestial realms.

What does he see? First, he approaches a crystal wall, shimmering and alive with tongues of fire. He passes through this fiery barrier and finds himself before a crystal house, its very foundations built of these luminous stones. Fire dances around its walls, and the entrances blaze with an intense heat. The ceiling shimmers like the night sky, a pathway of stars and lightning, guarded by fiery cherubim – powerful angelic beings.

Enoch, in this vision, enters the house. Can you imagine the sensation? It's both intensely hot and shockingly cold, a paradox that defies earthly understanding. Overwhelmed, trembling, he falls to his face. But the visions continue.

He sees a second house, even grander than the first. This one is built entirely of flames, its splendor beyond description. The floor and ceiling are fire, and a fiery portal stands open, inviting him in. And there, in the heart of it all, is a throne, lofty and radiant as crystal. Beneath it flow streams of flaming fire, and the wheels of the throne – yes, wheels – shine with the brilliance of the sun.

This is a key element. The vision of God's throne as a chariot, with wheels, places this squarely within the tradition of Merkavah (chariot) mysticism, an early form of Jewish mystical thought. The Merkavah tradition, as explored in texts like the Zohar, focuses on ecstatic visions of God's throne-chariot.

But the most awe-inspiring sight is yet to come. Seated on the throne is the very glory of God. His garment is described as whiter than any snow, and His light is brighter than the sun, the moon, and the stars combined. A flaming fire surrounds Him, and a great fire stands before Him. The intensity is so overwhelming that none can draw near. It's a vision of unimaginable power and majesty, a glimpse into the heart of the Divine. As 1 Enoch 14:8-25 and 40:1-10 recount, it’s an experience that leaves Enoch utterly humbled and transformed.

What does this vision mean for us? It’s a reminder of the sheer, overwhelming power and mystery of the Divine. It's an invitation to contemplate the unseen realms, to seek a connection with something far greater than ourselves. It's evidence of the enduring power of visionary experience, and the profound impact it can have on those who are chosen to witness it. And perhaps, in our own way, we can all strive to glimpse a bit of that divine light.

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3 Enoch 16:1-53 Enoch

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.3 Enoch, or The Hebrew Book of Enoch, trans. Hugo Odeberg (1928) · PD-US-pre-1929

Four sages entered Paradise, and only Rabbi Akiva came out whole.

One of the most famous of these accounts involves four prominent sages who, according to the Talmud (Hagigah 14b), "entered Paradise" – a term that has come to mean engaging in mystical ascent. Of these four, only one, Rabbi Akiva, entered and left in peace. Others were scarred by the experience.

One of those others was Elisha ben Abuyah.

Elisha was no ordinary man. He was a renowned scholar, a brilliant mind. But his journey took a dark turn. The Talmud hints at his eventual heresy, calling him "Aher" – "the Other One." What went wrong?

Well, the story goes that Elisha ascended on high, seeking to gaze upon the Merkavah – the Divine Chariot, the very throne-chariot of God described in the Book of Ezekiel.

He made it far, too. According to the account in Tree of Souls (Howard Schwartz), he reached the door of the seventh palace – the highest level of Heaven. And there, he saw something that shattered his faith.

He came into the presence of the angel Metatron.

Now, Metatron is a fascinating figure in Jewish mysticism. Often described as the "lesser YHWH," he is one of the highest-ranking angels, the celestial scribe, the very voice of God. He's a powerful, awe-inspiring being.

But here's the thing: Elisha saw Metatron seated upon a high and lofty throne, wearing a crown. All the princes of the kingdom – the other angels – stood beside him, to his right and to his left. And from his throne, Metatron ruled over all the other heavenly beings.

This is where it all fell apart for Elisha. Why? Because in his eyes, this looked like two powers in Heaven! It smacked of duality, of a second divine being alongside God. This was a complete violation of the core Jewish principle of monotheism – the absolute oneness and uniqueness of God.

As we find in Legends of the Jews (Ginzberg), this vision led Elisha to declare, "There are two powers in Heaven!" This blasphemous thought, born of his mystical experience, led to his downfall, his becoming Aher, the heretic. He could not reconcile what he saw with his understanding of God.

Think about the weight of that moment. He sought to understand the Divine, and the vision he received instead destroyed his belief.

A reminder that even the most learned and devout can be led astray by their own interpretations, by their inability to reconcile the mysteries of the universe with the foundations of their faith. The journey to understand God is fraught with peril, and perhaps, some questions are best left unasked.

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Targum Jonathan on Genesis 5Targum Jonathan

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel, trans. J. W. Etheridge, London, 1862 · Public Domain

(Genesis 5:24) is one of the most mysterious verses in the Torah. "Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him." That is all the Hebrew says. No explanation of where he went or what happened. The Targum Jonathan reveals the answer. Enoch "was withdrawn, and he ascended to the firmament by the Word before the Lord, and his name was called Metatron the Great Saphra."

This is extraordinary. The Targum identifies Enoch, a human being listed in a genealogy, as Metatron, the most powerful angel in Jewish mystical tradition, the one who sits on a throne beside God's own in some Kabbalistic texts, the "Prince of the Countenance" who governs all the other angels. The title "Great Saphra" (Great Scribe) connects to the tradition that Metatron serves as the heavenly scribe, recording the deeds of all humanity. One verse in a dry genealogy becomes the origin story of the highest angel in the heavenly court.

The rest of Genesis 5 is a list of lifespans, and most translations render it as-is. But the Targum makes one critical editorial intervention about Cain. When describing the birth of Seth, it says Seth "had the likeness of his image and of his similitude," meaning he looked like Adam. Then the Targum explains why this matters. "Before had Hava born Kain, who was not like to him," meaning Cain did not resemble Adam at all. "And Kain was cast out; neither is his seed genealogized in the book of the genealogy of Adam." Cain's entire bloodline is deliberately erased from the record of humanity. Seth replaces him not just as a son but as the only legitimate continuation of Adam's image.

The chapter also notes that in the generation of Enosh, Adam's grandson, humanity "began to err, and to make themselves idols, and surnamed their idols by the name of the Word of the Lord." Idolatry did not begin with foreign nations. It began in Adam's own family, three generations in, with people attaching God's sacred Name to false images. The Targum turns a genealogy into a story of lineage, erasure, angelic transformation, and the first corruption of worship.

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The Midrash of Philo 24:1The Midrash of Philo

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Works of Philo Judaeus, trans. C. D. Yonge, London, H. G. Bohn, 1854-1890 · Public Domain

The Midrash of Philo asks: What is the meaning of "He was not found because God translated him"? (Genesis 5:24).

The source line is the question on Enoch's taking. It does not name Metatron or narrate a heavenly enthronement.

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Jubilees 4:15, 5:1-3, 5:5-7Book of Jubilees

Translation of the source text.Wikisource 2019 · Public Domain

And it came to pass when the children of men began to multiply on the face of the earth and daughters were born unto them,

that the angels of God saw them on a certain year of this jubilee, that they were beautiful to look upon; and they took themselves wives of all whom they chose, and they bare unto them sons and they were giants.

And lawlessness increased on the earth and all flesh corrupted its way, alike men and cattle and beasts and birds and everything that walketh on the earth

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Chronicles of Jerahmeel XXVChronicles of Jerahmeel (Gaster, 1899)

Retold in our words. Read the original at the link below.The Chronicles of Jerahmeel, trans. Moses Gaster (1899) · Public Domain

Two angels told God not to create humanity. When the generation of the flood proved them right, Shemhazai and Azael stood before God and reminded Him: "Did we not say, 'Do not create man'?" God answered with a challenge. "If you lived on earth, the evil inclination would sway you just as it sways humans. And you would be even more stubborn." The angels insisted. "Let us descend, and You will see how we sanctify Your name." According to the Chronicles of Jerahmeel, a 12th-century Hebrew chronicle translated by Moses Gaster in 1899, God let them go.

They failed immediately. The moment Shemhazai and Azael beheld the daughters of men, they could not restrain themselves. But one woman outsmarted them. A girl named Estirah refused Shemhazai unless he taught her the Ineffable Name of God. He did. She spoke the Name and ascended straight to heaven. God said, "Since she has departed from sin, set her among the stars." She became the brightest star in the Pleiades.

After that humiliation, both angels took wives and fathered children. Shemhazai's sons, Heyya and Aheyya, were giants, each consumed a thousand camels, a thousand horses, and a thousand oxen daily. Azael became chief over all cosmetics and ornaments used to entice men to sin. When God sent Metatron to warn Shemhazai that a flood was coming, Shemhazai wept for his children.

His sons dreamed prophetic dreams. One saw a great stone tablet covered in writing, and an angel descended to erase everything except one line with four words. The other saw a garden of trees, and an angel chopped them all down except one tree with three branches. Shemhazai interpreted both: the world would be destroyed, leaving only one man and his three sons. He comforted his children with a strange promise, their names would live forever, because whenever people lift heavy burdens, they groan "Heyya! Aheyya!" Shemhazai himself repented and hung suspended between heaven and earth, head downward, too ashamed to face God. Azael never repented. He became the Azazel of the Day of Atonement, the one onto whom Israel's sins were cast.

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