Andrei Orlov, «Moses’ Heavenly Counterpart in the Book of Jubilees and the
Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian», Vol. 88 (2007) 153-173
The paper provides conceptual background for the idea of the angel of the presence as the heavenly counterpart of Moses in the Book of Jubilees and the Exagoge of Ezekiel the Tragedian. The identity of the celestial scribe in the form
of the angel of the presence found in the Book of Jubilees and some other Second Temple materials might further our understanding of the enigmatic process of
mystical and literary emulation of the exemplary figure, the cryptic mechanics of which often remains beyond the grasp of our post/modern sensibilities. It is possible that in the traditions of heavenly counterparts where the two characters
of the story, one of which is represented by a biblical exemplar, become eventually unified and acquire a single identity, we are able to draw nearer to the very heart of the pseudepigraphical enterprise. In this respect, it does not appear to be coincidental that these transformational accounts dealing with the heavenly doubles of their adepts are permeated with the aesthetics of penmanship and the
imagery of the literary enterprise. In the course of these mystical and literary metamorphoses, the heavenly figure surrenders his scribal seat, the library of the celestial books and even personal writing tools to the other, earthly identity who now becomes the new guardian of the literary tradition.
156 Andrei Orlov
but as seated upon the throne of glory (13). Fossum argues that this
second tradition is original (14). Christopher Rowland offers a similar
view in proposing to see Jacob’s image as “identical with the form of
God on the throne of glory (Ezek 1.26f.)†(15).
2. The Enoch Traditions
Scholars have previously noted that Enochic materials were also
cognizant of the traditions about the heavenly double of a seer. Thus,
the idea about the heavenly counterpart of the visionary appears to be
present in one of the booklets of 1 (Ethiopic) Enoch. It has been
previously observed (16) that the Similitudes seem to entertain the idea
of the heavenly twin of a visionary when it identifies Enoch with the
Son of Man (17). Students of the Enochic traditions have been long
puzzled by the idea that the son of man, who in the previous chapters
of the Similitudes is distinguished from Enoch, becomes suddenly
identified in 1 Enoch 71 with the patriarch. James VanderKam
suggests that this puzzle can be explained by the Jewish notion,
(13) J. FOSSUM, The Image of the Invisible God. Essays on the Influence of
Jewish Mysticism on Early Christology (NTOA 30; Fribourg – Göttingen 1995)
140-141.
(14) Fossum offers additional support for this idea by indicating that the
Hebrew forms of the loan word from the Greek eijkwvn, used in the Targums and
GenR 68,12, are synonymous with µlx and twmd. He further suggests that “ˆynwqya
or anqwyd can thus be seen to denote a bodily form, even that of God, that is the
divine Gloryâ€. FOSSUM, The Image of the Invisible God, 142.
(15) C. ROWLAND, “John 1.51, Jewish Apocalyptic and Targumic Traditionâ€,
NTS 30 (1984) 504.
(16) See J. VANDERKAM, “Righteous One, Messiah, Chosen One, and Son of
Man in 1 Enoch 37-71â€, The Messiah. Developments in Earliest Judaism and
Christianity. The First Princeton Symposium on Judaism and Christian Origins
(eds. J.H. CHARLESWORTH ET AL.) (Minneapolis 1992) 182-183; M. KNIBB,
“Messianism in the Pseudepigrapha in the Light of the Scrollsâ€, Dead Sea
Discoveries 2 (1995) 177-180; FOSSUM, The Image of the Invisible God, 144-145;
C.H.T. FLETCHER-LOUIS, Luke-Acts: Angels, Christology and Soteriology
(WUNT II, 94; Tubingen 1997) 151.
(17) It is important to note that in the Similitudes, the son of man is depicted
as seated on the throne of glory. See 1 Enoch 62,5, 1 Enoch 69,29. J. Fossum
observes that “in the ‘Similitudes’ the ‘Elect One’ or ‘Son of Man’ who identified
as the patriarch Enoch, is enthroned upon the ‘throne of glory.’ If ‘glory’ does not
qualify the throne but its occupant, Enoch is actually identified with the Glory of
Godâ€. Fossum further concludes that “the ‘Similitudes of Enoch’ present an early
parallel to the targumic description of Jacob being seated upon the ‘throne of
glory’â€. FOSSUM, The Image of the Invisible God, 145.
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