Attribute
of the Divine Seat
As one may recall in the passage from Hagiga
Bavli, Metatron’s possession of the seat in heaven served as a pivotal point in
the story, as it became the main stumbling block for the infamous visionary.
The angel’s sitting there, without a doubt, is read as the crucial attribute of
the deity that would grant Metatron a divine status. Such an attribution, in
its turn, rests on the ancient theophanic tradition rooted in biblical
accounts, in which the deity was repeatedly depicted as the one who possesses
the seat in heaven. Already in prophetic literature, this portrayal of the
besited Glory of God constituted the conceptual center of the ocularcentric
ideology.
In Metatron lore, this portentous
theophanic marker of the Kavod ideology might even be “embedded” in the angel’s
name, which some scholars derive from the Greek word for “throne” (θρόnος,).
Thus, reflecting on various etymologies of the name “Metatron,” Daniel Boyarin
notices that “what is decisive ... is the strong association of the figure with
a throne, the throne, or a second throne, on which he sits, either alongside of
YHWH or even as his appointed regent in place of YHWH ... This strong and
crucial association of the figure with the throne and the frightening heresy of
Two Powers in Heaven as associated with sitting on the throne makes the
otherwise philologically plausible derivation from μετά and θρόnος, entirely likely, if not quite
provable.”
Boyarin’s suggestion here is not
entirely novel, but rather an affirmation of one of the most popular
etymological options. For a long time the scholarly community has entertained
the possibility that the name of the angel may represent the merging of the two
Greek words, μετά and θρόnος, which in combination, μεταθρόnος, can be understood to mean “one who
serves behind the throne,” or “one who occupies the throne next to the throne
of Glory.” This hypothesis has been supported by a number of scholars, but was
rejected by Scholem, who argued that “there is no such word as Metathronios in
Greek and it is extremely unlikely that Jews should have produced or invented
such a Greek phrase.” He noted that in the Talmudic literature the word θρόnος is
never used in place of its Hebrew equivalent, and therefore an etymology based
on the combination of the Greek μετά and θρόnος has
no merit. Yet, other scholars suggested that the name may be derived from the
Greek word, σύnθροnος, in the sense of “co-occupant of the divine throne.” Hugo
Odeberg criticizes this etymology, arguing that “there is not a single instance
in any known Jewish source of Metatron being represented as the co-occupant of
the divine throne.” Saul Lieberman, however, in his reexamination of the
etymologies of the name, provides some new reasons for accepting this option. Peter
Schafer, following Lieberman’s insights, affirms the plausibility of the
derivation of the great angel’s name from the Greek word for “throne.” He
observes that “most probable is the etymology of Lieberman: Metatron = Greek
metatronos = metathronos = synthronos; i. e. the small ‘minor god,’ whose
throne is beside that of the great ‘main God.’” (Andrei A. Orlov, Yahoel and
Metatron: Aural Apocalypticism and the origins of Early Jewish Mysticism [Texts
and Studies in Ancient Judaism 169; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2017], 164-65)
Another important feature that the “Lesser
YHWH” shares with the deity is the attribute of the celestial seat, an
important symbol of authority. The Aramaic incantation bowl labels Metatron as איסרא
רבא דכורסיה – the Great Prince of God’s throne. (C. Gordon, “Aramaic Magical
Bowls in the Istanbul and Baghdad Museums,” Archiv Orientalni 6 (1934) 319–334
at 328.) He is the one who is allowed to sit in heaven, a privilege denied to
angels. In the Aher story this attribute becomes the main feature that signals to
the infamous visionary Metatron’s “divine” status. (Ibid., 159)
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