Reimagining Enoch in Sasanian Babylonia in Light of Zoroastrian and Manichaean Traditions

Abstract

The article examines the reception and transmission of traditions about the figure of Enoch/Metatron in Sasanian Babylonia, and particularly the emergence of Metatron speculation in the Babylonian Talmud and 3 Enoch, by reading these traditions in light of Zoroastrian and Manichaean reports of the Iranian hero, Yima. The figure of Enoch/Metatron was reimagined and reconfigured by the Babylonian authors so as to resemble local Yima traditions, though the process of translating and repackaging the figure of Enoch in the image of his Iranian counterpart was not merely a conscious act of comparison, in which an analogy is drawn in an attempt to highlight particular aspects common to both figures; it was an expression of a more comprehensive discourse of identification.Beyond close parallels in the depictions of these figures, the connections between Metatron speculation and the Zoroastrian and Manichaean Yima traditions are supported by an identification of Yima with the son of man implied in two Sogdian fragments of the Manichaean Book of Giants. The syncretic atmosphere that pervaded Sasanian culture in general and the Manichaean identification of Yima with the son of man in particular facilitated, and perhaps reinforced, the refiguring of Enoch/Metatron in the Babylonian Talmud and 3 Enoch in the image of local Yima traditions.

The Babylonian Talmud in its cultural context

“…Among studies that move in this direction, most explore the Talmud and Manichaean sources alongside other materials – primarily Zoroastrian or Syriac Christian. One of the most prolific scholars who has begun actively incorporating Manichaean sources is Yishai Kiel, who has written about Adam and Eve (), Enoch (), and the evil inclination (forthcoming; also note Kiel, ). We also find a number of other scholars who engage with Manichaean materials in a substantive way in their analysis (e.g., Elman, ; Herman, ; Kiperwasser, ).…”