Metatron

1033 1034 Metatron Word-Faith teachings became instrumental in “Prosperity Theology” (aka the Prosperity Gospel movement), following the faith healing revivals in the 1950s, the rise of televangelism, and neo-Pentecostalism, emphasizing material benefits as a consequence of faith. Exponents typically cite biblical verses in support, particularly Mal 3:10: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” Bibliography: ■ Coleman, S., The Globalisation of Charismatic Christianity (Cambridge 2000). ■ Eddy, M. B., Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston, Mass. 1875). ■ Fillmore, C., Metaphysical Bible Dictionary (Unity Village, Mo. 1931). ■ James, W., The Varieties of Religious Experience (London 1902). ■ Peale, N. V., The Power of Positive Thinking (New York 1952). ■ Unity, “Bible Interpretation” (2019; available at www.unity.org). George D. Chryssides See also / Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich; / Jacobi, Friedrich Heinrich; / Kabbalah; / Kant, Immanuel; / Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm; / Transcendentalism, Transcendentalists Metastasio, Pietro Pietro Metastasio (1698–1782), originally born Trapassi, was an Italian poet, known above all for his twenty-seven librettos for opera seria, the conventional serious opera of the 18th century, often based on mythological or heroic-historical narratives (Strohm: 20–23). He took minor orders while in Rome (in 1714) giving him the title abate. In 1729, he was invited to Vienna by Emperor Charles VI to succeed Apostolo Zeno (another famous poet-author of opera librettos) as Habsburg court poet, a position he took up in 1730 and retained for the rest of his life. During the first decades in Vienna he wrote seven of his eight librettos for oratorios (his first oratorio, for Christmas, was written in Rome and performed at Cardinal Ottoboni’s palace in 1727). His Vienna oratorios were mostly performed in the Hofburgkapelle (the chapel of the Imperial palace; see Smither 1:393), six of them based on biblical stories, whereas one was hagiographic treating St. Helena at Calvary. The subject matters were mostly HB/OT stories such as the death of Abel, the Joseph narrative, the Judith story, Joash, king of Judah, and the sacrifice of Isaac as a figure of Christ as indicated in its title Isacco figura del Redentore (1740, Isaac Figure of the Redeemer). Indeed, In most of his Old Testament librettos Metastasio follows traditional Christian exegesis by interpreting events and personages of the Old Testament as prefiguring those of the New. This is by no means new to the oratorio libretto, for both in Italy and Vienna librettists Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 18 © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2020 had occasionally followed the same tradition in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. (Smither: 3:55, see also Massenkeil: 2:20–21) Finally, one oratorio treats the Passion of Jesus, La Passione di Giesù Cristo (1730). Metastasio’s libretti (both for operas and oratorios, especially from his Vienna period) were extremely successful and were set to music over and over again by composers, even far beyond his own lifetime, well into the 19th century. Typically, Betulia liberata (1734, on the story of Judith) was set by thirty-eight composers between 1734 and 1805, including the young W. A. Mozart (1771), Niccollò Jommelli, and Johann Gottlieb Naumann. His Passion oratorio was set by fifty-three composers between 1730 (Antonio Caldara) and 1812 (Pietro Morlacchi), including also settings by Antonio Salieri (1776) and Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1783). Except for one setting of the Giuseppe riconosciuto (1733) as late as in 1904, settings of Metastasio’s oratorio libretti were infrequent after the second decade of the 19th century (Neville). In the 18th century (and earlier) in general, and thus for Metastasio in particular, oratorios and their librettos had many similarities to operas and their librettos, although oratorios were normally not staged, and mainly devotional and biblical (see Smither: 3:53, and also “Drama VI. Music A. Music Drama,” “Opera” and “Oratorio”). Metastasio belonged to the Arcadian movement throughout his career, heeding its fundamental moral claim: “to render virtue appealing and vice distasteful” (Neville). Such moral aspects are found in Metastasio’s libretti in general. Thus it is not surprising that Mozart’s opera La clemenza di Tito (1791), set to a revision of Metastasio’s libretto (same title, 1743) by Caterino Mazzolà, was able to transmute the princely virtue of clemency into the Christian virtue of forgiveness (see “Grace VII. Music”). Bibliography: ■ Massenkeil, G., Oratorium und Passion, 2 vols. (Laaber 1999). ■ Neville, D., “Metastasio [Trapassi], Pietro (Antonio Domenico Bonaventura),” Grove Music Online (www.oxfordmusiconline.com). ■ Smither, H. E., A History of the Oratorio, 4 vols. (Chapel Hill, N.C. 1977–2000). ■ Strohm, R., Dramma per Musica: Italian Opera Seria of the Eighteenth Century (New Haven, Conn./London 1997). Nils Holger Petersen Metatron I. II. III. IV. V. Judaism New Christian Churches and Movements Literature Visual Arts Film I. Judaism ■ Rabbinic Judaism ■ Medieval Judaism A. Rabbinic Judaism Much debate centers on the meaning of the name Metatron: it may derive from the Greek metathronos, designating one serving beside or behind the divine 1035 Metatron throne or it may relate to the Latin metator, the term for a Roman officer who acts as forerunner (Alexander 1998; Orlov 2005; Miller 2013; Paz 2019). The medieval conception of Metatron as an angel second only to God in status was formed from a complex of traditions about a variety of significant figures from biblical, Second Temple, and later rabbinic lore. These ranged from stories concerning the antediluvian patriarch Enoch found in Gen 5:21– 24, to the angel Iaoel or Yaho’el found in the Apocalypse of Abraham, to rabbinic midrashim on the angel Michael as well as other angels like Akatriel (Orlov 2005 and 2017; Schäfer 2012). All of these traditions coalesced only in the 8th century, probably in Byzantine Palestine, identifying Enoch with Metatron (Paz). The post-rabbinic mystical text 3 Enoch contains the most detailed description of Enoch-Metatron as the angelic viceroy of God. According to one Babylonian rabbinic tradition, it was the angel Metatron who led the Israelites through the desert as described in Exod 23:20–21 (bSan 38b). According to another Babylonian tradition, which references the famous story of the four rabbis who entered the orchard (pardes), Metatron is the only angel who merits having a throne in the heavens, suggesting he has a status almost tantamount to God’s (bHag15a). Scattered references to Metatron appear in other rabbinic midrashim (bAZ 3b, BemR 12:12, BerR 5:4; SifDev 338 is probably a later scribal insertion), Hekhalot texts (see Schäfer 1981: §390, §399), and Targum Pseudo-Jonathan (to Gen 5:24). According to 3 Enoch (ca. 900 CE), the patriarch Enoch was elevated and deified, becoming the highest ranking angel in the heavens, and renamed Metatron, the “Lesser YHWH” (see Schäfer 1981: §15). The physical transformation of Enoch from a human into a massive fiery being is described in great detail in 3 Enoch. As the viceroy of God, EnochMetatron was the divine figure who gave the Torah on Mt. Sinai to Moses and, alongside God, he judges the angels and humanity. The divine and human nature assigned to Metatron as well as his saviorlike qualities were likely Babylonian-Jewish reflections and responses to the messianic figure of Jesus (Schäfer 2012: 143). Bibliography: ■ Alexander, P. S., “From Son of Adam to Second God,” in Biblical Figures Outside the Bible (ed. M. E. Stone/T. A. Bergen; London 1998) 87–122. ■ Miller, M., “Folk-Etymology, and Its Influence on Metatron Traditions,” JSJ 44 (2013) 339–55. ■ Orlov, A. A., The Enoch-Metatron Tradition (Tübingen 2005). ■ Orlov, A. A., Yahoel and ■ Paz, Y., “Metatron is Not Metatron (Tübingen 2017). Enoch: Reevaluating the Evolution of an Archangel,” JSJ 50 (2019) 1–49. ■ Schäfer, P. (ed.), Synopse zur Hekhalot-Literatur (Tübingen 1981). ■ Schäfer, P., The Jewish Jesus (Princeton, N.J. 2012). Mika Ahuvia B. Medieval Judaism The pervasive references to Metatron in the writings of the German Pietists underscore how they were a crucial link between older Jewish mystical tradi- Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 18 © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2020 1036 tions, as found in Hekhalot literature, and the high medieval trends of theosophic and ecstatic mysticism. One such tradition attributes the divine measurements as found in Shiur qomah texts to Metatron (Wolfson 1995). This attribution might be an echo of an older motif concerning the identification of Metatron and Adam (Idel 1987: 156–57), as can be found in Abraham Ibn Ezra (1089–1167) (Wolfson 1990: 93–101; 1995: 65, 78). According to Abraham ben David of Posquières (1125–1198), Metatron is the demiurgical-angel in whose image human beings are created and who appears in prophetic revelations (Wolfson 1995: 64–65). Some German Pietist texts identify Metatron with the Shekhinah (God’s Presence). This identification may be connected to the Pietists’ speculation regarding the Enthroned Cherub (Scholem 1954: 114–15; 1987: 213–16; Abrams). Other Pietist texts identify Metatron with Jacob’s image, portrayed as the throne as well as the Cherub upon which the upper Glory rests (Wolfson 1995: 81–92). Jacob ben Jacob ha-Kohen of Castile also identifies the image of Jacob (or the celestial beast “Israel”) with Metatron, described as the lower glory in the angelic realm that corresponds to the sixth sefirotic emanation, Tiferet (Wolfson 1995: 89). The Metatronic trend, that gradually gained more and more ground within several elite circles in medieval Judaism, was widely influenced by R. Nehemiah ben Solomon, the prophet of Erfurt (13th cent.). In his important Commentary on Seventy Names of Metatron, he elaborates on the permutations of consonants of Yahoel (Idel 2007: 20, 168, 198–99), and the affinities between Yahoel, Metatron, and Jesus (Idel 2007: 212–13; Liebes: 174–77). He also emphasizes the affinity between Metatron and the divine righteous or pillar of the world (Idel 2007: 390, 646–49). R. Nehemiah ben Solomon influenced the ecstatic-prophetic Kabbalah of R. Abraham Abulafia (1240–ca. 1291). Abulafia describes Metatron as the personification of the Messiah and the “Active Intellect” (the highest mystical degree), sometimes embodied in the figure of an old man named “Yehoel” (Idel 1988: 117–18, 128–29; 1989: 39–40). In Midrash ha-Neelam, the earliest layer of the zoharic corpus, Metatron is described as the high priest escorting the souls of the righteous to the higher realms at night (Wolski). In the main strata of zoharic literature, Metatron appears alternatively as: the servant of the Shekhinah (God’s Bride), sometimes even identified with her; as the head of the celestial academy; and as embodied in the narrative figures of the “old man” (sava) and “child/youth” (yanuqa) (Benarroch: 139). In the later zoharic strata, Raya mehemna and Tiqqunei Zohar, Metatron is identified with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; the staff of Moses (which becomes a serpent); 1037 Metatron the sixth and seventh sefirotic emanations, Tiferet and Yesod; the “Lower righteous”; and with the biblical figure of Joseph (Benarroch). Bibliography: ■ Abrams, D., “The Boundaries of Divine Ontology: The Inclusion and Exclusion of Metatron in the Godhead,” HTR 87.3 (1994) 291–321. ■ Benarroch, J. M., “‘The Mystery of (Re)Incarnation and the Fallen Angels’: The Reincarnations of Adam, Enoch, Metatron (Jesus), and Joseph – an Anti-Christian Polemic in the Zohar,” Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures 44.2 (2018) 117–47. ■ Idel, M., “Enoch is Metatron,” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 6 (1987) 151– 70. [Heb.] ■ Idel, M., Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia (Albany, N.Y. 1988). ■ Idel, M., Language, Torah, and Hermeneutics in Abraham Abulafia (Albany, N.Y. 1989). ■ Idel, M., Ben: Sonship and Jewish Mysticism (London/Jerusalem 2007). ■ Liebes, Y., “The Angels of the Shofar and Yeshua Sar haPanim,” Jerusalem Studies in Jewish Thought 6 (1987) 171–96. [Heb.] ■ Scholem, G., Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (New York 1954). ■ Scholem, G., Origins of the Kabbalah (Princeton, N.J. 1987). ■ Wolfson, E. R., “God, the Demiurge, and the Intellect: On the Usage of the Word Kol in Abraham ibn Ezra,” REJ 149 (1990) 77–111. ■ Wolfson, E. R., “Metatron and Shi’ur Qomah in the writings of Haside Ashkenaz,” in Mysticism, Magic and Kabbalah in Ashkenazi Judaism (ed. K. E. Grözinger/J. Dan; Berlin 1995) 60–92. ■ Wolski, N., “Metatron and the Mysteries of the Night in ‘Midrash ha-Neelam’: Jacob ha-Kohen’s ‘Sefer ha-Orah’ and the Transformation of a Motif in the Early Writings of Moses de León (‘Zohar Hadash,’ ‘Lekh Lekha,’ MhN 25c–26a),” Kabbalah 23 (2010) 69–94. Jonatan Benarroch II. New Christian Churches and Movements Present-day interest in Metatron is found within modern kaballistic, neo-Gnostic, esoteric groups and the so-called New Age Movement. The modern interest in angels, although not specifically Metatron, is traceable to Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688– 1722), who studied Kaballah, and whose visions included angels and spirits. Swedenborg was highly regarded by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), whose idea that each individual was “part and particle of God” was appropriated in New Age circles. Helena P. Blavatsky mentions Metatron at several junctures in her writings, and questions the traditional Christian belief that Michael is the king of heaven and leader of angels. The name Metatron, she contends, does not mean “near the throne” but beyond God’s throne, and thus both Jehovah and the Archangel can be described as Metatron, but neither can be equated with God himself. Interest in the Kaballah and in angels has been particularly widespread in the New Age Movement, whose supporters continue to view Metatron as the highest-ranking angel, and the celestial translation of Enoch. However, the Movement’s interpretations of Metatron are freer, often relying on the imagination of individual authors. Edgar Cayce (1877– 1945), the celebrated psychic, regarded Metatron as one of a number of previous incarnations of Jesus; others included Adam, Enoch, and Melchizedek. Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 18 © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2020 1038 For many New Agers, the belief that Enoch, being human, could aspire to an angelic form indicates a continuity between the angelic and the human realm. Angelic succour, and the support of Metatron in particular, can be activated by the performance of good deeds, and those who have led an upright life can expect to obtain angelic form after death. Some New Age literature suggests that Metatron, being close to God’s throne and possibly one of the seven angels of Rev 8:2, provides an important link between the divine and human worlds, and presides over the Akashic Records. Metatron is particularly important for human transformation, for example from childhood to adulthood, for adjusting to new situations, or to make the transition from disease to health. In connection with health, a number of “Metatronic healers” offer their services worldwide, drawing on Metatron’s energy to obtain angelic healing, which involves a transformation of consciousness rather than miraculous cures for physical ailments. Other New Age exponents claim to “channel” Metatron. Some modern-day Essenes regard Enoch as their founder, thus entailing the importance of Metatron, who can guide humans to their “angelic destiny.” Bibliography: ■ Blavatsky, H. P., Isis Unveiled, vol. 2 (New York 1877). ■ Bloom, H., Omens of Millennium (New York 1996). ■ Day, B., “Introduction to the Ancient Essenes and the Modern Essene Church of Christ” (2016; available at www.essene.org). ■ Geldard, R., The Esoteric Emerson (Hudson, N.Y. 1993). ■ Merivale, P., “Metatronic Life” (2019; available at www.metatronic-life.com). George D. Chryssides III. Literature While the figure Metatron features richly in Jewish Merkabah-mystical writings of the middle ages and beyond, its reception in imaginative literature belongs mainly to the modern period. The expansion into imaginative literature begins with modern authors familiar with the Jewish tradition. Thomas Mann, in his novel Joseph und seine Brüder (1943, Joseph and his Brothers), drew on the gnostic and mystical traditions recounted in Micha Josef bin Gorion’s Sagen der Juden (5 vols.; 1919– 27) and Alfred Jeremias’ Die außerbiblische Erlösererwartung (1927). The influence of these works is reflected in the way that Mann’s Joseph, in his great dream, identifies himself with the hermetic vision of Metatron as the celestial man of light into which the biblical Enoch is transformed. Thus, in the dream, Joseph mirrors Metatron in being robed in a garment which symbolizes apotheosis; indeed, God later addresses Joseph precisely as “Metatron” and gives him access to the secret book of knowledge given to Adam (Kenney: 44–46). Around the same time as Mann’s novel appeared, Nelly Sachs wrote her play, Eli, about a young Jewish boy whose flute-playing before his murder by a soldier recalled the blowing of the sho- 1039 Metatron far as an act of redemption harking back to Mt. Sinai. The archangel Michael is sent to avenge the boy’s murder and then, given the boy’s flute (in a nod to Mozart’s opera The Magic Flute), is changed into Metatron and achieves unification with God. In Chaim Potok’s novel The Book of Lights (1981), the main protagonist Gershon Loran is a student of the Kabbalah whose life is shaped by his efforts to grapple both with Luranic texts and with the horror of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. From his studies, Gershon learns that evil and suffering are the preconditions for material reality and that without evil no redemption is possible. But he also comes to see the invention of the atom bomb as a trespass upon the divine secrets embedded in the universe. Finally, identifying himself with Metatron, he finds hope in the contemplation of the aspects of creation which humanity has not defiled. Indicative of the ongoing of tradition of British rationalism (or perhaps just impatience with metaphysics), two novels by English writers treat Metatron in a reductive way. The fantasy novel Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (1990), by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, is a satirical romp through apocalyptic themes in a semi-realistic English setting. The figure Metatron here is God’s scribe. In Philip Pullman’s novel The Amber Spyglass (2000), Metatron plays a major role as the archangel who has seized control of supernatural warfare, taking advantage of a senescent deity. As the emanation of Enoch, the biblical figure who never died and was translated straight into heaven, he reveals to Mrs. Coulter the superiority of human beings who, though transitory, possess some temporary reality. It is his destruction in ch. 31 which is celebrated as the opportunity for human liberation. The victory over Metatron is part of the novel’s quarrel with Milton’s Paradise Lost. Bibliography: ■ Dodds, D., “The Process of Renewal in Nelly Sachs’ Eli,” The German Quarterly 49.1 (1976) 50–58. ■ Kenney, J. M., “Apotheosis and Incarnation Myths in Mann’s Joseph und seine Brüder,” The German Quarterly 56.1 (1983) 39–60. ■ Marovitz, S. E., “‘The Book of Lights’: Jewish Mysticism in the Shadow of the Bomb,” Studies in American Jewish Literature (1981–) 4 (1985) 62–83. ■ Oram, W. A., “Lucretius and Milton in ‘His Dark Materials,’” Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts 23.3 (86) (2012) 418–36. Anthony Swindell IV. Visual Arts Metatron – an angelic figure modelled on the patriarch Enoch (Gen 5:22–23) who appears in a number of early Jewish mystical texts (e.g., 2 En.; 3 En.; cf. Orlov 2014) and Merkavah mystical traditions under a range of titles (Orlov 1998) – is depicted sparingly in visual arts, although examples of tangential visual traditions, including the so-called Metatron pattern, are popular outlets for some new-age religious expression (e.g., Falcao; vanden Eynden). Me- Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 18 © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2020 1040 tatron also appears occasionally as a character in a range of recent comic books, like Mercy Sparx, Lucifer, and Supergirl. These modern depictions are disconnected from direct engagement with Metatron traditions from early Jewish texts, even though EnochMetatron literary traditions that depict a celestial priest or a heavenly scribe persist in ancient and medieval Judaism (Alexander). An interesting example of the reception of Metatron in visual art is located in Mark Podwal’s illustration entitled “Metatron” in Harold Bloom’s Fallen Angels (54). The image is dominated by rainbow-colored feathers or wings (3 En. 9:3), breaking into a blue background from the upper left corner. The blue and violet feathers at the bottom of the constellation reach almost to the lower right corner, nearly covering a wooden boat that rests upon the bottom margin. While no anthropomorphic figure is depicted, the image taps into the heart of the Enoch-Metatron figure at its traditio-historical base: the antediluvian Genesis narrative. The image depicts the sign of the Noahide covenant (Gen 9:12– 17; 3 En. 22C:4–7 ), but it also connects to traditions in the Book of Watchers (1 En. 10–16) in which Enoch intercedes on behalf of the watchers upon whom God has decided to visit judgement from the coming deluge (1 En. 10:2). Enoch-Metatron is privy to the arc of history in his scribal capacity (2 En. 40:1– 3), playing a role in the salvation (or judgement) of his progeny from the deluge. Podwal’s image acknowledges the close relationship between EnochMetatron and Noah, drawing implications from later tradition that Enoch played a key role in interceding with earth-dwellers before the flood. Bibliography: ■ Alexander, P. S., “From Son of Adam to a Second God: Transformations of the Biblical Enoch,” in Biblical Figures Outside the Bible (ed. M. E. Stone/T. A. Bergen; Harrisburg, Pa. 1998) 87–122. ■ Bloom, H., Fallen Angels (London 2007). ■ Eynden, R. vanden, Metatron: Invoking the Angel of God’s Presence (Woodbury, Minn. 2008). ■ Falcao, L. M., The Reawakening of Consciousness (Clovelly, Fish Hoek, South Africa 2008). ■ Orlov, A. A., “Titles of Enoch-Metatron in 2 Enoch,” JSP 18 (1998) 71–86. ■ Orlov, A. A., “Celestial Choirmaster: The Liturgical Role of Enoch-Metatron in 2 Enoch and the Merkabah Tradition,” JSP 14.1 (2014) 2–39. Garrick Allen V. Film Characters explicitly called Metatron appear in film, television, and online visual media and reference specific aspects of the multi-faceted Metatron figure as portrayed in Jewish sources. In contemporary media, Metatron acts as record-keeper, divine scribe (as in bHag 15a), or high-ranking divine intermediary (as in bSan 38b; bAZ 3b) and is portrayed with witty or irreverent contemporary twists. In the US television series Supernatural (creator Eric Kripke, 2005–), Metatron (Curtis Armstrong) appears in several episodes. In Metatron’s first ap- 1041 Methodists pearance in the series (in the episode “The Great Escapist”), he resides in a hotel room filled with books, and collects stories, having retired from any involvement in angelic intervention on earth. He refers to himself as the source of the word and the scribe of God (“I worked in the secretarial pool before God chose me to take down the word”), reminiscent of bHag 15a. In an online short-film by College Humor titled “God’s Diary is Embarrassing” (2012, US), Metatron also appears in the role of an angelic figure involved in record keeping. In the short film, angels make fun of God’s diary (a leather-bound book with the title “Holy Bible” embossed in gold). Metatron’s role as a high-ranking though lesserknown divine intermediary is referenced in Kevin Smith’s Dogma (dir. Kevin Smith, 1999, US), in which Metatron (Alan Rickman) is a sardonic professional who dresses semi-casually in a suit and a hoodie, and introduces himself by proclaiming, “Behold the Metatron, herald of the Almighty and voice of the one true God.” Metatron then explains to Bethany (Linda Fiorentino), whom he tasks with a divine mission, that “Metatron acts as the voice of God.” When Bethany remains skeptical after his fiery appearance in her bedroom, he laments that humans do not tend to know about something unless there is a movie about it. Bibliography: ■ Drumheller, K., “Millennial Dogma: A Fantasy Theme Analysis of the Millennial Generation’s Uses and Gratifications of Religious Content Media,” Journal of Communication & Religion 28.1 (2005) 47–70. ■ Ogren, B., “Mysticism Historicized: Historical Figures and Movements,” in Religion: Secret Religion (ed. A. D. DeConick; New York 2016) 315–29. Frauke Uhlenbruch See also / Angels and Angel-Like Beings; / Enoch, Books of; / Enoch (Son of Jared) Metempsychosis / Reincarnation; / Transmigration of Souls Meteorology / Weather Methegh-Ammah “David took Metheg-ammah out of the hand of the Philistines” (2 Sam 8:1). It is not certain whether Metheg-ammah is indeed a proper noun. The Hebrew expression meteg hāammâ is sometimes translated as “bridle of the mother city,” cf. “David took control of the chief city” (NASB). A parallel passage reads “he took Gath and its villages from the Philistines” (1 Chr 18:1) so that the “mother city” probably refers to Gath. Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception vol. 18 © Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/Boston, 2020 1042 There have been many attempts to make sense of the expression based on the various possible meanings for ammâ (forearm, cubit; canal), e.g., “a large (cubit-long) bridle” (Eißfeldt: 117–18). McCarter is suspicious of such attempts, including the interpretation according to which hāammâ would be “the mother city,” i.e., Gath. While he proposes an emendation miggat hāammâ/hāammātâ “from Gath to Ammah (near Gibeon, see 2 Sam 2:24),” he prefers to follow the LXX which reads τὴν ἀφωρισμένην “what had been marked off,” probably meaning “tribute.” McCarter reverts back to hmgrš and translates it as “the common land” (McCarter: 242–43). Bibliography: ■ Eißfeldt, O., “Israelitisch-philistäische Grenzverschiebungen von David bis auf die Assyrerzeit,” ZDPV 66 (1943) 115–28. ■ McCarter, P. K., II Samuel (AB 9; Garden City, N.Y. 1984). Tuukka Kauhanen Methodists The Methodist tradition is a multi-denominational, worldwide movement. There are around eighty different churches represented in the World Methodist Council. While the largest Methodist denomination is currently The United Methodist Church, there are many others, including Wesleyan Holiness and African-American denominations, and Methodist churches associated with specific countries, such as the Methodist Church in Britain, the Korean Methodist Church, and the Cuban Methodist Church. The Methodist movement arose in the 18th century under the primary leadership of John Wesley. In the preface to his Sermons on Several Occasions, Wesley referred to himself as a homo unius libri – a “man of one book.” While he read broadly, he insisted that no other book could compare to the Bible in importance. Wesley attributed Scripture’s paramount significance to its soteriological function. In other words, he believed that the Bible teaches sinful human beings how to be saved. Faith and salvation, he wrote, are “the substance of all the Bible, the marrow, as it were, of the whole of Scripture” (“The Scripture Way of Salvation,” Outler/Heitzenrater: 2). Wesley understood salvation to consist not simply in eternal life after death, but also in the present reception of the grace of God which pardons human sin and allows us to live as righteous people. In his Complete English Dictionary, he defined a Methodist as “one that lives according to the method laid down in the Bible.” Early Methodists were expected to live in accordance with Methodist teachings on scriptural holiness. Accountability to these teachings was an important part of the movement. Wesley understood Scripture as “a most solid and precious system of divine truth. Every part thereof is worthy of God; and all together are one entire body, wherein is no defect, no excess. It is the