Is Metatron a Converted Christian?

Abstract

In this article, I wish to propose a third way of thinking about the roots and routes of Jewish binitarianism in Late Antiquity, including among the Rabbis and in rabbinic literature. Instead of one extreme view that posits lines of unbroken continuity between Second Temple apocalyptic and Hekhalot literature, or another, recently articulated one by Peter Schäfer, according to whom binitarian speculation about Metatron is entirely the product of a response to Christianity, I propose a third way, to wit that while there is nearly incontrovertible evidence for the interchange of Christian and Jewish circles in Late Antiquity, some of which I offer here, there is also good evidence for the circulation of such traditions among Jews through the rabbinic period independently of such contacts. We should imagine the development of these motifs in the Hekhalot literature (and the Talmud) via a process of “bricolage” deployed and redeployed in different particular historical contexts.