Husserl and the Talmud on Metatron as a Phenomenal Object

What is it about?

This chapter argues that while the academic opinion has usually been that the three Metatron passages in the Talmud represent something of a damage-limitation exercise, using the established figure of Metatron in order to argue against the ‘heretical’ theological positions of Christianity, Gnosticism and even the Hekhalot literature, the texts may present a significantly more complex picture than this. With a close textual analysis of the manuscript traditions, and the interpretive system of Edmund Husserl, this chapter argues for a substantially more sophisticated theological position whereby the three passages use Metatron to demonstrate an epistemological – or intentional – principle central to the naming of God.

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