The Metatron is an angelic being who appeared in Kevin Smith’s 1999 religious fantasy movie Dogma. He was portrayed by actor Alan Rickman.
“Behold the Metatron! Herald of the Almighty and voice of the one true God!”
Dogma
Metatron, the Voice of God, appears to Bethany Sloane and tasks her with preventing Loki and Bartleby’s return. Bethany resists the mission, as she lost her faith in God due to her infertility and resultant divorce.
Bethany learns she was chosen for the mission because she is the last relative of Jesus Christ. The group ponders who orchestrated the angels’ plan, and Metatron explains that God goes to Earth in human form every now and again to play skee ball, and has gone missing; someone knew enough to incapacitate God but leaving Him alive in a mortal form, and thus be unable to return to Heaven.
Bethany removes the life support, allowing God to escape while inadvertently killing Bethany. In the form of a woman, God manifests at the church before a remorseful Bartleby, and kills him with the power of Her voice. Silent Bob shows up with Bethany’s blood-stained corpse. God resurrects Bethany and conceives a child inside her. The heavenly beings return to Heaven, leaving Bethany, Jay and Bob to reflect on events.
Description
Manifesting on Earth as a man in his late middle years, the Metatron dressed in a snappy dark red suit but wore a black hoodie underneath. He possessed a pair of expansive feathered wings but usually chose to hide them when in public. As God’s voice caused mortal creatures’ heads to explode through its sheer power, the Metatron acted as His spoken voice when communicating with humankind. Due to a prohibition handed down by God, the Metatron, along with all of the other angels in heaven, was forbidden to consume alcohol, although he showed a fondness for the taste of tequila, as seen when he washed his mouth with the liquid before spitting it back into an unused glass.
History
After God went missing whilst on one of His regular sabbaticals amongst the mortal masses, the Metatron became aware of a plot by the demon Azrael which, if successful, would result in the ending of all of existence. Unable to combat this threat himself as the bureaucracy of Heaven was deadlocked without the Leadership of the Almighty, he assembled a ragtag group (including the last descendant of Jesus Christ Bethany Sloane, the “prophets” Jay and Silent Bob, the Muse Serendipity, and Rufus, the Thirteenth Apostle who had been left out of the Bible) to act in his stead.
Tracking down the exiled angels Bartleby and Loki who were the unwitting agents in Azrael’s scheme, the mismatched saviours managed to thwart the demon by releasing God from His imprisonment in a human body, thereby saving all of Creation.
Trivia
At one point in the film, the Metatron revealed that it was he who had been forced to tell a young Jesus Christ that he was destined to die at the hands of Roman executioners in order for the Christian faith to take hold in the human race. He furthermore stated that if it had been in his power to change the boy’s fate, then he would have.
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