Metatron "the lesser YHWH" in 3 Enoch

In 3 Enoch, the figure of Metatron is called "the lesser YHWH." P. Alexander, in his translation of 3 Enoch, wrote:

By far the most significant angel in 3 Enoch is Meṭaṭron. Meṭaṭron’s position in the heavenly world is briefly and accurately summed up in the title “The lesser YHWH” (3En 12:5; 48C:7; 48D:1[90]); he is the highest of the archangels and God’s vice-regent (3 En 10:3–6). Like the Holy One himself, he has a throne and presides over a celestial law court (3En 16:1) . . . Meṭaṭron was merged with two other heavenly figures, (1) the archangel Yahoʾel, and (2) translated Enoch. Meṭaṭron bears the name Yahoʾel in 3 Enoch 48D:1(1). From other texts, however, we know of an angel Yahoʾel quite independent of Meṭaṭron (Seper HaRazim 2:38, ed. Margalioth, p. 83; 2:140, ed. Margalioth, p. 89; Maʿaśeh Merkabah 20, ed. Scholem, p. 111, 1. 29; Slavonic LAE 32:1f.; ApMos 43:4; and especially Slavonic ApAb 10). The archangel Yahoʾel probably originated in speculation about the angel in whom God’s name resides, according to Exodus 23:20f. (note in this connection ApAb 10). In 3 Enoch 12:5 and Sanhedrin 38b the angel of Exodus 23:20 is identified as Meṭaṭron. The title “lesser YHWH” (3En 12:5) may have belonged originally to Yahoʾel; it certainly seems to be attested independently of Meṭaṭron in gnostic texts.

Meṭaṭron’s absorption of translated Enoch could only have taken place in circles acquainted with the Palestinian apocalyptic Enoch traditions. The apocalyptic texts do not seem to go so far as to say that Enoch was transformed into an archangel when he was translated into heaven, but some of them speak of his exaltation in language which could be taken to imply this (see esp. 2En 22:8). (P. Alexander, “A New Translation and Introduction,” in The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha [vol. 1; New York; Yale University Press, 1983], 1243, 1244)

Here are the texts that refer to Metatron as “the lesser YHWH”:

3 Enoch 12:1-5

R. Ishmael said: Meṭaṭron, Prince of the Divine Presence, said to me: Out of the love which he had for me, more than for all the denizens of the heights, the Holy One, blessed be he, fashioned for me a majestic robe, in which all kinds of luminaries were set, and he clothed me in it. He fashioned for me a glorious cloak in which brightness, brilliance, splendor, and luster of every kind were fixed, and he wrapped me in it. He fashioned for me a kingly crown in which 49 refulgent stones were placed, each like the sun’s orb,  and its brilliance shone into the four quarters of the heaven of ʿArabot, into the seven heavens, and into the four quarters of the world. He set it upon my head and he called me, “The lesser YHWH” in the presence of his whole household in the height, as it is written, “My name is in him.”

3 Enoch 48C:7

I made honor, majesty, and glory his garment; beauty, pride, and strength, his outer robe, and a kingly crown, 500 times 500 parasangs, his diadem. I bestowed on him some of my majesty, some of my magnificence, some of the splendor of my glory, which is on the throne of glory, and I called him by my name, “The lesser YHWH, Prince of the Divine Presence, knower of secrets.” Every secret I have revealed to him in love, every mystery I have made known to him in uprightness.

3 Enoch 48D.1

(90) lesser YHWH, after the name of his Master, as it is written, “My  name is in him”

In his Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God in Antiquity, Jewish scholar Peter Schäfer noted the following about Metatron:

Nothing remains hidden from Metatron. Like God he knows all secrets, not only those of angels, but also the deepest secrets of humans (3 Enoch 11:2-3):

Before a man thinks in secret,
I see (his thought);
before he acts, I see (his act).
There is nothing in heaven above or deep within the earth
that is concealed from me.

Because God loves Metatron more than all humankind and all the angels in heaven, he clothes him in a majestic robe and crowns him with a kingly crown in which forty-nine refulgent stones (the number forty-nine is evidently taken from the rabbinic literature: Moses received forty-nine of the fifty gates of understanding that were created in the world[b Nedarim 38a], and at the end of days, the light of the sun will be forty-nine times brighter than it is now [Exodus Rabbah 35:21]) are placed, each one shining like the sun, and its brilliance illuminating the four quarters of the world. And then, after he crowned him, God calls him “the lesser/Younger YHWH” (YHWH ha-qatan), giving him his own name, the Tetragrammaton (3 Enoch 12:3-5):

He set it [the crown] upon my head
and he called me the “Lesser/Younger YWY” (28)
in the presence of his whole household in the height,
as it is written:
“My name is in him.” (literally “within him”) (Exod. 23:31)

Metatron is placed at almost an equal level with God; he is the second, “lesser” or “younger” God in heaven, beside the omnipotent creator God. The Bible verse quoted as proof that Metatron carries the same name as god refers to the mysterious angel of the Lord in Exodus 23:20ff.; already in the Bible it is uncertain whether this refers to an angel or in reality God himself. Yet this does not conclude the elevation of Metatron. With his ginger, which he uses as a pen of flame, God writes on Metatron’s crown the letters with which heaven and earth were created. This plainly means that God has revealed all the secrets of creation to him, thus making him a coruler over heaven and earth (3 Enoch 13:1).

Out of the abundant love and great compassion
wherewith the Holy One, blessed be he,
loved and cherished me
more than all the denizens of the heights,
he wrote with his finger,
as with a pen of flame,
upon the crown which was on my head, (the) letters by

which heaven and earth were created; (the) letters by
which seas and rivers were created; (the) letters by
which mountains and hills were created; (the) letters by
which stars and constellations,

lightning, wind, and thunder,
thunderclaps, snow, and hail,
hurricane and tempest were created;
(the) letters by which all the necessities of the world
and all the order of creation were created.

The other angels draw from this the desired conclusion and fall down before Metatron, in fear and trembling (3 Enoch 14:5):

They all fell (prostrate) when they saw me
and could not look at me
because of the majesty,
splendor,
beauty,
brightness,
brilliance,
and radiance
of the glorious crown which was on my head.

Only after this does Enoch-Metatron’s ultimate transformation take place (3 Enoch 15):

When the Holy One, blessed be he,
took me to serve the throne of glory,
the wheels of the chariot
and all the needs of the Shekinah,
at once my flesh turned to flame,
my sinews to blazing fire,
my bones to juniper coals,
the light of my eyes to lightning flashes,
my eyeballs to fiery torches,
the hairs of my head to hot flames,
all my limbs to wrings of burning fire,
and the substance of my body to blazing fire.
On my right—those who cleave flames of fire;
on my left—burning brands;
round about me swept wind, tempest, and storm;
and the roar of earthquake upon earthquake (was) before
and behind me

With this, Enoch’s human existence is finally and completely extinguished; he is transformed into the angel Metatron. His manifestation, however, goes far beyond what we normally associate with angels, resembling more of an apotheosis. His first task is to judge all angels in heaven and assign them their appropriate place in the hierarchy of angels (3 Enoch 16:1).

At first I sat upon a great throne
at the door of the seventh place,
and I judged all the denizens of the heights
of the authority of the Holy One, blessed be he.
I assigned greatness,
royalty,
rank,
sovereignty,
glory,
praise,
diadem,
crown, and honor
to all the princes of kingdoms, (this refers to the domains of angels in heaven)
when I sat in the heavenly court
and the princes of kingdoms stood beside me,
to my right and to my left,
by authority of the Holy One, blessed be he.

Without a doubt, this Enoch-Metatron of the Third Book of Enoch comes closer to a second divine figure next to God than any other figure in a Jewish text of antiquity or late antiquity. Only the designation as a “Lesser God” indicates a certain gradation, but if we translate the Hebrew YHWH ha-qatan as “Younger God,” it is not at all that far from the association of a God-father and God-son as is familiar in full-blown form from Christianity. (Peter Schäfer, Two Gods in Heaven: Jewish Concepts of God in Antiquity [Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2020], 110-13)