Metatron

Metatron is one of the most exalted and mysterious angels in Jewish lore. He is counted among the four great archangels and is often described as the greatest of all angels, second only to God. In some traditions, he is called the Lesser Yahweh, a title that expresses his immense spiritual stature and extraordinary closeness to the Divine.

Metatron is a central figure in Merkabah mysticism, Kabbalah, the Talmud, and later angelological traditions. Few angelic beings are given such a vast range of duties, powers, and cosmic functions. He is heavenly scribe, divine minister, angelic prince, guide of souls, bearer of prayers, guardian of wisdom, and servant of the Throne of Glory.

The Greatest of Angels

Metatron is portrayed as the supreme angelic intermediary between God and creation. He sustains the physical world and carries Jewish prayers through 900 heavens to God.

He stands at the highest level of angelic authority. As Prince of the Divine Presence, he has the rare privilege of serving in the immediate presence of God, within the curtain known as the pargod, which surrounds the Throne of Glory.

This intimate access to the Divine places Metatron above the ordinary angelic hierarchies. He is not merely a messenger; he is a cosmic minister who stands at the threshold between God and the created universe.

Metatron’s Appearance

Metatron’s appearance is overwhelming and almost impossible for the human mind to grasp. He is described as immense in size, a pillar of fire with 36 pairs of wings and countless eyes.

His face is more dazzling than the sun. Flames issue from him and create legions of angels. He is clothed in divine brilliance and surrounded by a splendour that reveals his closeness to the throne of God.

In 3 Enoch, Metatron describes his transformation from flesh into fire:

At once my flesh turned to flame, my sinews to blazing fire, my bones to juniper coals, my eyelashes to lightning flashes, my eyeballs to fiery torches, the hairs of my head to hot flames, all my limbs to wings of burning fire, and the substance of my body to blazing fire.

This fiery description reveals Metatron as a being of total transfiguration. He is no longer human in ordinary form, but a vast angelic presence made of flame, light, wings, and divine power.

Prince of the Divine Presence

Metatron is often called the Prince of the Divine Presence. This title means that he belongs to the highest circle of angels permitted to behold the face of God.

He is also called the Prince of the Countenance, a title that carries similar meaning. These names reveal his role as chief among the angels who stand before the Divine Face.

Metatron does not serve from afar. He ministers close to God’s throne, within the hidden mystery of the heavenly court. His role is one of proximity, authority, and sacred service.

Metatron and the Tree of Life

In Kabbalistic tradition, Metatron stands at the top of the Tree of Life as the Angel of Yahweh. He is also identified with the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.

This identification suggests that Metatron embodies both human and angelic perfection. He is an interface between the earthly and heavenly realms, capable of connecting human consciousness with divine wisdom.

However, his power is linked to human righteousness. The good deeds of people generate spiritual energy that vitalises Metatron. When humanity acts with justice, compassion, devotion, and holiness, Metatron is strengthened. When righteousness fades, he grows weaker and less effective.

This makes Metatron not only a heavenly figure, but also a mirror of human spiritual responsibility.

Metatron and Enoch

According to the Book of Enoch and later mystical traditions, Metatron was originally the human prophet Enoch.

Enoch was so righteous that God took him directly into heaven and transformed him into an angel. As a human being, Enoch had been a scribe. As Metatron, he continues this role on a cosmic scale, becoming the heavenly scribe who records celestial and earthly events.

The Zohar teaches that Enoch was able to become Metatron because the divine spark lost by Adam at the Fall entered into him. Since mortal humanity could not contain this spark of perfection, God raised Enoch into heaven and transformed him into an angelic being.

The Transformation of Enoch

3 Enoch gives a detailed account of Enoch’s transformation into Metatron. God sends the angel Anapiel to bring Enoch to heaven on the wings of the Shekinah.

When Enoch reaches the heavenly heights, the holy angels who attend the throne of God smell his human odour from an immeasurable distance. The Ophanim, Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones, and ministers of consuming fire ask why a human being has been brought into heaven.

God answers that humanity has become corrupt, but Enoch is righteous and worth all the rest of humankind.

Then Enoch is transformed into fire. God places his hand upon him and gives him 1,365,000 blessings. Enoch expands until he reaches the length and breadth of the world. He receives 72 wings, 36 on each side, and each wing is said to cover the whole world.

He is given 365,000 eyes, each like the Great Light. He receives a brilliant robe and a crown of 49 stones, each shining like the orb of the sun into the four quarters of heaven.

There is no splendour, brilliance, brightness, beauty, wisdom, power, virtue, understanding, prudence, life, grace, favour, love, Torah, humility, sustenance, mercy, or reverence that God does not bestow upon him.

The Lesser Yahweh

God names Metatron the Lesser Yahweh before the entire heavenly court and declares, My name is in him.

This is one of the most daring and mysterious titles in angelology. It does not mean that Metatron is equal to God, but that he bears the divine name and serves as God’s supreme representative within the heavenly order.

His authority is so great that some scholars on earth object to his status, fearing that he appears as a second power in heaven. In response, God reduces Metatron’s stature by allowing the angel Anapiel to lash him with a whip of fire.

This episode reveals both Metatron’s tremendous exaltation and the theological tension surrounding his role. He is almost unimaginably high, yet still not God.

Metatron as Heavenly Scribe

As heavenly scribe, Metatron records all events in heaven and on earth. Nothing is hidden from his knowledge. He is given access to divine mysteries, including the thoughts of human beings before they have them.

His scribal role connects him with wisdom, judgement, memory, destiny, and sacred record-keeping. He is the angel of divine documentation, the keeper of heavenly archives, and the witness to the unfolding of creation.

In this role, he continues the work he began as Enoch, but now on a cosmic scale.

Metatron and Israel

Metatron is identified as the representative of God who led the tribes of Israel through the wilderness. He is also one of the angels associated with the mysterious dark angel who wrestles with Jacob.

Some traditions identify him as the angel who stays the hand of Abraham when he is about to sacrifice Isaac. He is also credited with ordering the angelic announcement of the coming of the Flood.

Metatron is therefore deeply woven into the sacred history of Israel. He appears at moments of covenant, crisis, testing, revelation, and divine intervention.

Metatron and the Kabbalah

Metatron is credited in some traditions with giving the wisdom of the Kabbalah to humanity.

As minister of wisdom, he holds the secrets of divine affairs. He is linked with the hidden structure of creation, the mysteries of the Tree of Life, and the passage between the human and angelic worlds.

In Kabbalistic thought, Metatron represents the possibility of ascent. He is the human transformed into angel, the scribe transformed into celestial prince, the righteous soul raised into divine service.

Metatron as Angel of Death

Metatron also serves as God’s Angel of Death. In this role, he instructs Gabriel and Samael which human souls to take at any given moment.

This function does not make him a demonic or evil figure. Rather, it places him within the divine administration of life, death, judgement, and transition.

He stands at the boundary between worlds. He records life, guides souls, and participates in the divine order governing death.

Minister of the Throne

Metatron is minister to the Throne of Glory, upon which God sits. He serves the heavenly Temple as High Priest, a role that is also sometimes ascribed to the archangel Michael.

He is also minister of the guardian angels of the 70 peoples of the world. This gives him authority not only over Israel, but over the spiritual guardianship of all nations.

In Paradise, he teaches children who died prematurely, instructing them in heavenly wisdom. This tender role contrasts with his terrifying fiery majesty and reveals another aspect of his nature: teacher, guide, and guardian of innocent souls.

The Meaning of the Name Metatron

The etymology of the name Metatron is uncertain. The name appears in two forms: Mttrwn and Myttrwn.

It is possible that the name itself was intended to be secret, perhaps emerging from a mystical or glossolalia-like altered state of consciousness. Glossolalia means speaking in tongues and is associated with ecstatic religious experience.

According to the Zohar, the name Metatron is numerically equivalent to Shaddai, one of the names of God. In gematria, both Shaddai and Metatron equal 314. Words and names with the same numerical value are understood to share a mystical connection.

Because of this association, Metatron is sometimes called the shining light of the Shekinah and he whose name is like that of his Master.

Possible Origins of the Name

Several possible explanations have been offered for the name Metatron.

Eleazar of Worms suggested that Metatron comes from the Latin metator, meaning a guide, measurer, or one who prepares the way. This is an appropriate description of Metatron’s role as heavenly guide, cosmic measurer, and divine minister.

Another possible origin is the Greek metaturannos, meaning the one next to the ruler.

A further possibility is the Greek phrase ho meta thronon, meaning the throne next to the divine throne, or the second throne.

Each explanation reflects a different aspect of Metatron’s identity: guide, royal attendant, cosmic measurer, and exalted being enthroned near God.

Metatron as Function and Title

The earliest references to Metatron do not always use the word as a proper name. In some texts, metatron appears to mean a guide or function.

In Sifre Deuteronomy, an early third-century Palestinian work, God’s finger is described as a metatron to Moses, showing him the whole land of Israel.

Genesis Rabbah says that the voice of God was made a metatron over the waters.

These early uses suggest that Metatron may have begun as a title, role, or function before becoming the name of a specific angelic being.

Metatron in 3 Enoch

In 3 Enoch, Metatron serves as the heavenly guide to Rabbi Ishmael.

This text presents one of the richest and most influential portraits of Metatron. It describes his transformation from Enoch, his fiery body, his wings, his eyes, his blessings, his crown, his robe, his authority over angels, and his title as Lesser Yahweh.

3 Enoch is essential for understanding Metatron’s mystical importance. It presents him as the supreme angel of transformation, exaltation, divine knowledge, and heavenly mediation.

Metatron in the Visions of Ezekiel

In the Visions of Ezekiel, a composite work probably dating from the fourth century CE, Metatron is identified with Michael and also with the Dynameis, an order of angels.

This shows the fluidity of angelic identity in mystical literature. Metatron can overlap with other great angelic figures, especially Michael, because both are associated with power, mediation, divine service, and heavenly authority.

Yet Metatron remains distinct in his unique identity as the transformed Enoch and the celestial scribe enthroned near God.

Metatron and Jahoel

Metatron appears to have absorbed characteristics originally ascribed to the angel Jahoel.

Jahoel is another exalted angelic figure associated with the divine name, heavenly guidance, and mediation between God and humanity. The blending of Metatron and Jahoel reflects the way Jewish mystical traditions developed over time, with angelic roles, titles, and attributes sometimes merging or overlapping.

Through this process, Metatron became one of the most complex and powerful angelic beings in the entire tradition.

Metatron’s Many Names

Metatron has numerous alternative names. Different texts list from 70 to more than 100 names.

In 3 Enoch, 93 names are given, reflecting his vast power, many offices, and immense spiritual authority.

These names include:

Yahoel, Yah, Yoppiel, Apapel, Margayel, Geyorel, Tanduel, Tatnadiel, Tatriel, Tabtabiel, Ozahyah, Zahzahyah, Ebed, Zebuliel, Sapsapiel, Sopriel, Paspasiel, Senigron, Sarpupirin, Mitatron, Sigron, Adrigon, Astas, Saqpas, SaqpusMikon, Miton, Ruah, Pisqonit, Atatyah, Asasyah, Zazzazyah, Paspasyah, Mesamyah, Masmasyah, Absannis, Mebargas, Bardas, Mekarkar, Maspad, Tasgas, Tasbas, Metarpits, Paspisahu, Besihi, Itmon, Pisqon, Sapsapyah, Zerah, Zerahyah, Ababyah, Habhabyah, Pepatpalyah, Rakrakyah, Hashasyah, Taptapyah, Tamtamyah, Sahsahyah, Araryah, Alalyah, Zazruyah, Aramyah, Sebar, Suhasyah, Razrazyah, Tahsanyah, Sasrasyah, Sabsebibyah, Qeliqalyah, Hahhahyah, Warwahyah, Zakzakyah, Titrisyah, Sewiryah, Zehapnuryah, Zazayah, Galrazyah, Melakmelapyah, Attaryah, Perisyah, Amqaqyah, Salsalyah, Sabsabyah, Geit, Zeityah, Geityay, Perisperisyah, Sepat, Sepatyah, Hasamyah, Sar, Saryah, Gebir, Geburyah, Gurtaryah, Ziwa Rabba, Naar Neeman, Lesser Yhvh, Rabrakiel, Neamiel, Seganzagel, Prince of Wisdom.

The Mystery of Metatron

Metatron is one of the most magnificent, controversial, and difficult angels in Jewish mysticism. He is human and angelic, servant and prince, scribe and guide, fiery presence and teacher of children.

He stands between heaven and earth, between humanity and divinity, between the hidden name and the revealed world.

His story is the story of transformation: Enoch becomes Metatron, flesh becomes fire, the righteous human becomes the greatest of angels.

Metatron reveals one of the deepest ideas in mystical tradition: that the human soul, when perfected, may ascend beyond ordinary limits and become a vessel of divine light.

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