Metatron is the name of an angel found only in Jewish literature. Elisha b. Abuyah, seeing this angel in the heavens, believed there were "two powers" or divinities (Hag. 15a). When God wept over the destruction of the Temple, Metatron fell on his face and said: "I will weep; but weep not Thou." God answered and said: "If thou wilt not suffer Me to weep, I will go whither thou canst not come, and there will I lament" (Lam. R., Introduction, section 24; comp. Jer. xiii. 17).
Metatron bears the Tetragrammaton; for Exodus xxiii. 21 says, "My name is in him." Yet he may not be worshiped; for the same passage says, "Exchange Me not for him" (dialogue between a heretic and a Babylonian teacher, in Sanh. 38b; Targ. Yer. to Ex. xxiv. 1 has Michael instead of Metatron).
Moses begs Metatron to intercede with God for him, that he may not die; but the angel answers: "It is useless; for I heard the words behind the veil, 'Thy prayer will not be answered'" (both editions of Tan., Wa'ethanan, 6). When God sorrowed for the death of Moses, Metatron fell down before Him and consoled Him (Grunhut, "Likkutim," v. 105a), and when Moses died, this angel with three others, "the princes of wisdom," cared for him (Targ. Yer. to Deut. xxxiv. 6).
The early commentators with good reason identified the prince of the world (Hul. 60a; Zeb. 16b; Sanh. 94a) with Metatron. God instructs children in the Torah during the last quarter of the day; Metatron, during the first three-quarters ('Ab. Zarah 3b). It was this angel who caused Shamhazai to say before the Flood, "God will destroy the world" (Yalk. i., section 44). He is, moreover, Enoch, the great scribe (Targ. Yer. to Gen. v. 24; in Hag. 15a he is likewise represented as a scribe).
In later mystical works, Metatron is called the "prince of the presence" and "prince of the ministering angels." He is the "mighty scribe," the lord of all the heavenly hosts, of all treasures, and of secrets, and bears the lesser divine name.
The Zohar defines his nature exactly by declaring that he is little lower than God (after Psalm viii. 6). He is identical in all respects with Enoch; the "Hekalot," in which he is the chief personage, is called also "The Book of Enoch" ("Enoch whose name is Metatron").
In the Apocrypha likewise Enoch appears as the heavenly scribe (Book of Jubilees, iv. 23; II Enoch liii. 2), although elsewhere he is called Michael, while Targ. Yer. to Ex. xxiv. 1 substitutes the name of Michael for Metatron. In the Hebrew writings Metatron fills the role of Enoch in the Apocrypha in bearing witness to the sins of mankind. Since both sources represent him as a youth, it may be assumed that the first versions of the Hebrew mystical works, though they received their present form in the geonic period, originated in antiquity, so that the conception of Metatron must likewise date from an early period.
The views regarding the source of this conception differ widely. The name "Metatron," which occurs only in Hebrew writings, is in itself striking. The derivation from the Latin "metator" (meaning "guide") is doubtless correct, for Enoch also is represented as a guide in the apocryphal work which bears his name; and the Hebrew Book of Enoch says: "He is the most excellent of all the heavenly host, and the guide [Metatron] to all the treasuries of my [God]."
Mysticism prefers obscurity, and intentionally chooses a foreign word instead of the well-known name of Enoch. Kohut identifies Metatron with the Zoroastrian Mithra; but probably only a few traits were borrowed from the latter. The ancients had already noticed that the numerical value of the letters in the word "Metatron" corresponded with those of the word "Shaddai" (= 314), and "Metatron" is also said to mean "palace" ("metatrion"), and to be connected with the divine name ("place"), etc.
In medieval mysticism Metatron plays the same role as in antiquity and in the period of the Geonim, thus furnishing a further proof of the tenacity and stability of mystic and superstitious conceptions.