We read the following in 3 Baruch (1st-3rd
century AD), as translated by H.E. Gaylord, Jr.:
11 1 And the angel of power
took me and led me to the fifth heaven.
2 And he showed me large
gates, and names of men were written (on them), and they were closed. And I
said, “Lord, will these gates open so that we can enter through them?” And the
angel said to me, “It is not possible to enter through them until Michael, the
holder of the keys of the kingdom, comes.” And the angel said to me, “Wait and
you will see the glory of God.”
3 And while we were
waiting, there was a noise from the highest heaven like triple thunder. And I
Baruch said, “Lord, what is this noise?”
4 And he said to me,
“Michael is descending to accept the prayers of men.”
5 And then a voice came,
saying that the gates should open, and they opened. And there was a great
noise, greater than the first.
6 And Michael came, and
the angel who was with me met him and bowed to him.
7 And I saw him holding a
very large receptacle, and its depth was that from heaven to earth, and its
width that from east to west.
8 And I said, “Lord, what
is Michael holding?”
9 And he said to me,
“This is where the prayers of men go.” (James H. Charlesworth, The Old
Testament Pseudepigrapha, Volume 1: Apocalyptic Literature and Testaments
[New York: Yale University Press, 1983], 674)
In a footnote for verse 4, Gaylord noted:
These he apparently
offers on the altar of the heavenly temple, which is mentioned in TLevi 5:1 and
elsewhere. See also b.Ḥag 12b: “In it (the fourth heaven) is Jerusalem and the
temple and an altar constructed and Michael, the great commander, stands and
offers sacrifices on it.” On the rabbinic sources for this idea, see V.
Aptowitzer, “The Heavenly Temple in the Agada,” Tarbiz 2 (1931) 137–53, 257–77. TLevi 3:6 mentions “a reasonable
and bloodless offering.” On prayer and good deeds as the proper sacrifice at
Qumran, cf. CD-A XI 20-21., 1QS IX 4-5. Cf. also the words of R. Johanan ben
Zakkai in ARN A ch. 4.
This is an important text as it (1)
presents a very high theology of Michael (cf. D&C 78 in the Latter-day
Saint tradition) and (2) shows that Michael (and other angels) carry prayers to
God, but these prayers are directed to God, not to or through Michael
et al, contra the common eisegesis of Rev 5:8 and 8:3-4 (cf. Rev 15:7; 16:1
where the living creatures give the angels bowls full of the wrath of God--they
were hardly the recipients of such wrath!). On this, see Jewish
Traditions of Angels Bringing Prayers to God.
