8:3: Much incense was given to him.
Incense = prayer in Rev 5:8. — Numbers Rabbah 13 (171B): In that time
(when Joseph was sold) Reuben was penitent and put on sackcloth and fasted and
prayed before God that he might forgive him the sin because of his act with
Bilhah. And the prayer is compared with incense; as it says, “May my prayer
stand before you as an incense offering” (Ps 141:2).
8:4: The smoke of the incense rose up from the hand of the angel
before God.
The angels appear as bearers of the human prayers in, for example, 3
Bar. 11: “A violent noise arose like thunder. I (Baruch) said, ‘O, Lord, what
sort of noise is this?’ And he said to me, ‘At this very moment the angel
prince Michael is going down to receive the prayers of human beings.’ ” ‖
See Tob 12:15 at § Rev 8:2, n. a. ‖ 1
Enoch 99:3: “In those days (before the end time) prepare yourselves, you
righteous, to raise your prayers of remembrance, and you will present them to
the angels as testimony, so that they may present the misdeed of the sinners to
the Most High as a remembrance.” ‖ See b. Šabb. 12B = b. Soṭah 33A at § 1 Cor
13:1 A, n. d. ‖ Exodus Rabbah 21
(83C): R. Phineas (ca. 360) said in the name of R. Meir (ca. 150) and R.
Jeremiah (ca. 325) in the name of R. Hiyya b. Abba (ca. 280), “In the hour that
the Israelites pray, you do not find that they all pray at once, but rather
each synagogue prays for itself in particular: the one synagogue first and then
another. When all the synagogues have completed all the prayers, though, the
angel who is appointed over prayers takes all the prayers that they have prayed
in all the synagogues, and makes from them crowns and set them on God’s head;
as it says, ‘You who hear prayer, your adornment’ (so Midr. Ps. 65:3). And עדיך (in the base text = ‘to you’) means
nothing but ‘crown’; as it says, ‘You will put them all on like a jewel
(crown)’ (Isa 49:18). Likewise it says, ‘Israel, by which I am adorned’ (Isa
49:3). For God is crowned with the prayers of Israel, as it says, ‘A splendid
crown on your head’ (Ezek 16:12).” — Parallels are found in Midr. Ps. 19 § 7
(84A); 88 § 2 (190B). (Hermann L. Strack and Paul Billerbeck, A
Commentary on the New Testament from the Talmud and Midrash, ed. Jacob N.
Cerone, 4 vols. [trans. Andrew Bowden and Joseph Longarino; Bellingham, Wash.:
Lexham Press, 2021], 3:945-46)
