Angel

ANGEL

The original word, both in Hebrew and Greek, means messenger, and is so translated, Mat 11:10 Luk 7:24 . It is often applied to an ordinary messenger, Job 1:14 1Sa 11:3 Luk 9:52 ; to prophets, Isa 42:19 Hag 1:13 ; to priests, Ecc 5:6 Mal 2:7 ; and even to inanimate objects, Psa 78:49 104:4 2Co 12:7 . Under the general sense of messenger, the term, angel is properly applied also to Christ, as the great Angel or Messenger of the covenant, Mal 3:1, and to the ministers of his gospel, the overseers or angels of the churches, Jer 2:1,8,12, etc. In 1Co 11:10, the best interpreters understand by the term “angels” the holy angels, who were present in an especial sense in the Christian assemblies; and from reverence to them it was proper that the women should have power (veils, as a sign of their being in subjection to a higher power) on their heads. See under VEIL.But generally in the Bible the word is applied to a race of intelligent beings, of a higher order than man, who surround the Deity, and whom he employs as his messengers or agents in administering the affairs of the world, and in promoting the welfare of individuals, as well as of the whole human race,Mat 1:20 22:30 Mal 7:30 . Whether pure spirits, or having spiritual bodies, they have no bodily organization like ours, and are not distinguished in sex, Mat 22:30 . They were doubtless created long before our present world was made, Job 38:7 .The Bible represents them as exceedingly numerous, Dan 7:10 Mat 26:53 Luk 2:13 Heb 12:22,23 ; as remarkable for strength, Psa 103:20 2Pe 2:11 Jer 5:2 18:21 19:17; and for activity, Jdg 13:20 Isa 6:2-6 Dan 9:21-23 Mat 13:49 26:53 Mal 27:23 Jer 8:13 . They appear to be of divers orders, Isa 6:2-6 Eze 10:1 Col 1:16 Jer 12:7 . Their name indicates their agency in the dispensations of Providence towards man, and the Bible abounds in narratives of events in which they have borne a visible part. Yet in this employment they act as the mere instruments of God, and in fulfilment of his commands, Psa 91:11 103:20 Heb 1:14 . We are not therefore to put trust in them, pay them adoration, or pray in their name, Jer 19:10 22:8,9. Though Scripture does not warrant us to believe that each individual has his particular guardian angel, it teaches very explicitly that the angels minister to every Christian, Mat 18:10 Luk 16:22 Heb 1:14 . They are intensely concerned in the salvation of men, Luk 2:10-12 15:7,10 1Pe 1:12 ; and will share with saints the blessedness of heaven forever, Heb 12:22 .Those angels “who kept not their first estate,” but fell and rebelled against God, are called the angels of Satan or the devil, Mat 25:41 Jer 12:9 . These are represented as being “cast down to hell, and reserved unto judgment,” 2Pe 2:4 . See SYNAGOGUE, ARCHANGEL.

Fuente: American Tract Society Bible Dictionary

ANGEL

A spiritual intelligent substance, the first in rank and dignity among created beings. The word angel is Greek, and signifies a messenger. The Hebrew word signifies the same. Angels, therefore in the proper signification of the word, do not import the nature of any being, but only the office to which they are appointed especially by way of message or intercourse between God and his creatures.

Hence the word is used differently in various parts of the scripture, and signifies,

1.Human messengers, or agents for other, 2Sa 2:5. “David sent Messengers (Heb. angels) to Jabesh Gilead, Pro 13:17. Mar 1:2. Jam 2:25.

2.Officers of the churches, whether prophets or ordinary ministers, Hag 1:13. Rev 1:20.

3.Jesus Christ, Mal 3:1. Isa 63:9.

4.Some add the dispensations of God’s providence, either beneficial or calamitous, Gen 24:7. Psa 34:7. Act 12:23. 1Sa 14:14; but I must confess, that, though I do not at all see the impropriety of considering the providences of God as his angels or messengers for good or for evil, yet the passages generally adduced under this head do not prove to me that the providences of God are meant in distinction from created angels.

5.Created intelligences, both good and bad, Heb 1:14. Jude

6.the subject of the present article.

As to the time when the angels were created, much has been said by the learned. Some wonder that Moses, in his account of the creation, should pass over this in silence. Others suppose that he did this because of the proneness of the Gentile world, and even the Jews, to idolatry; but a better reason has been assigned by others, viz. that this first history was purposely and principally written for information concerning the visible world; the invisible, of which we know but in part, being reserved for a better life. Some think that the idea of God’s not creating them before this world was made, is very contracted. To suppose, say they, that no creatures whatever, neither angels nor other worlds, had been created previous to the creation of our world, is to suppose that a Being of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, had remained totally inactive from all eternity, and had permitted the infinity of space to continue a perfect vacuum till within these 6000 years; that such an idea only tends to discredit revelation, instead of serving it.

On the other hand it is alleged, that they must have been created within the six days; because it is said, that within this space God made heaven and earth, and all things that are therein. It is, however, a needless speculation, and we dare not indulge a spirit of conjecture. It is our happiness to know that they are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister to them who are heirs of salvation. As to the nature of these beings, we are told that they are spirits; but whether pure spirits divested of all matter, or united to some thin bodies, or corporeal vehicles, has been a controversy of long standing: the more general opinion is, that they are substances entirely spiritual, though they can at any time assume bodies, and appear in human shape, Gen 18:19 : Gen 32:1-32 : Mat 28:1-20 : Luk 1:1-80 : &c. The scriptures represent them as endued with extraordinary wisdom and power, 2Sa 14:20. Psa 103:20; holy and regular in their inclinations; zealous in their employ, and completely happy in their minds, Job 38:7. Heb 1:7. Mat 18:10. Their number seems to be great, Psa 68:17. Heb 12:22; and perhaps have distinct orders, Col 1:16-17. 1Pe 3:22. 1Th 4:16. Dan 10:13. They are delighted with the grand scheme of redemption, and the conversion of sinners to God, Luk 2:12. 1Pe 1:12. Luk 15:10.

They not only worship God, and execute his commands at large, but are attendant on the saints of God while here below, Psa 91:1-16;11:12. Heb 1:13. Luk 16:22. Some conjecture that every good man has his particular guardian angel, Mat 18:10. Act 12:15; but this is easier to be supposed than to be proved; nor is it a matter on consequence to know. “What need we dispute, ” says Henry, “whether every particular saint has a guardian angel, when we are sure he has a guard of angels about him?” They will gather the elect in the last day, attend the final judgment, Mat 25:31. Rev 14:18. Mat 13:39, and live for ever in the world of glory, Luk 20:36. Although the angels were originally created perfect, yet they were mutable: some of them sinned, and kept not their first estate; and so, of the most blessed and glorious, became the most vile and miserable of all God’s creatures. They were expelled the regions of light, and with heaven lost their heavenly disposition, and fell into a settled rancour against God, and malice against men. What their offence was is difficult to determine, the scripture being silent about it.

Some think envy, others unbelief; but most suppose it was pride. As to the time of their fall, we are certain it could not be before the sixth day of the creation, because on that day it is said, “God saw every thing that he had mad, and behold it was very good;” but that it was not long after, is very probable, as it must have preceded the fall of our first parents. The number of the fallen angels seems to be great, and, like the holy angels, perhaps have various orders among them, Mat 12:24. Eph 2:2. Eph 6:12. Col 2:15. Rev 12:7. Their constant employ is not only doing evil themselves, but endeavoring by all arts to seduce and pervert mankind, 1Pe 5:8. Job 1:6. It is supposed they will be restrained during the millennium, Rev 20:2, but afterwards again, for a short time, deceive the nations, Rev 20:8, and then be finally punished, Mat 25:41.

The authors who have written on this subject have been very numerous; we shall only refer to a few: Reynolds’s Enquiry into the State and Economy of the Angelical World; Doddridge’s Lect. p.10. lect. 210. to 214; Milton’s Paradise Lost; Bp. Newton’s Works, vol. 3: p. 538, 568; Shepherd of Angels; Gilpin on Temptations; Casmanni Angelographia; Gill and Ridgeley’s Bodies of Divinity.

Fuente: Theological Dictionary

angel

(Greek: angelos, messenger)

A pure spirit, created by God, called angel because some are employed by God as messengers to man. “Pure spirit” means that the angelic nature is entirely spiritual, that an angel has no body and is dependent in no way, either for its existence or its operations, on matter. The angels were created at or near the time when the material world came into existence, and were placed by God in a state of probation or trial. Many of them sinned by pride and were cast into Hell forever; these are called devils, demons , or fallen angels. Those who remained faithful were rewarded with eternal happiness in the vision of God; and the term “angel” used without modification is generally applied only to these.

From Scripture, we know that the angels constitute a vast multitude, beyond the power of man to imagine or conceive. They differ, too, in perfection of nature and of grace. According to this diversity of perfection, they are classified in three hierarchies, each hierarchy having three orders making, in all, nine choirs, in the following descending order:

Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones

Dominations, Virtues, Powers

Principalities, Archangels, Angels

It should be noted that the term “angel,” while applicable to all, is also used as a distinctive name for the lowest choir, from which the guardian angels are usually selected.

Devotion to the angels can be traced to the earliest ages of the Church. We venerate their excellence and petition their ministrations. The month of October is specially dedicated to them and the feast of all the angels is celebrated in common, with that of Michael, 29 September. There are also feast -days for Raphael and Gabriel who, with Michael, are the only angels mentioned by name in Scripture.

As an emblem in art, an angel is associated with

Gabriel the Archangel Michael the Archangel Raphel the Archangel Saint Angelus of Jerusalem Carmelite with an angel bringing him three crowns

Saint Matthew the Evangelist man with an angel whispering in his ear as he writes

Saint Roch

man being healed by an angel

Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary

Angel

(Latin angelus; Greek aggelos; from the Hebrew for “one going” or “one sent”; messenger). The word is used in Hebrew to denote indifferently either a divine or human messenger. The Septuagint renders it by aggelos which also has both significations. The Latin version, however, distinguishes the divine or spirit-messenger from the human, rendering the original in the one case by angelus and in the other by legatus or more generally by nuntius. In a few passages the Latin version is misleading, the word angelus being used where nuntius would have better expressed the meaning, e.g. Isaiah 18:2; 33:3, 6.

It is with the spirit-messenger alone that we are here concerned. We have to discuss

the meaning of the term in the Bible, the offices of the angels, the names assigned to the angels, the distinction between good and evil spirits, the divisions of the angelic choirs, the question of angelic appearances, and the development of the scriptural idea of angels.

The angels are represented throughout the Bible as a body of spiritual beings intermediate between God and men: “You have made him (man) a little less than the angels” (Psalm 8:6). They, equally with man, are created beings; “praise ye Him, all His angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts . . . for He spoke and they were made. He commanded and they were created” (Psalm 148:2, 5; Colossians 1:16-17). That the angels were created was laid down in the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). The decree “Firmiter” against the Albigenses declared both the fact that they were created and that men were created after them. This decree was repeated by the Vatican Council, “Dei Filius”. We mention it here because the words: “He that liveth for ever created all things together” (Ecclesiasticus 18:1) have been held to prove a simultaneous creation of all things; but it is generally conceded that “together” (simul) may here mean “equally”, in the sense that all things were “alike” created. They are spirits; the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews says: “Are they not all ministering spirits, sent to minister to them who shall receive the inheritance of salvation?” (Heb. i, 14).

Attendants at God’s throne

It is as messengers that they most often figure in the Bible, but, as St. Augustine, and after him St. Gregory, expresses it: angelus est nomen officii (“angel is the name of the office”) and expresses neither their essential nature nor their essential function, viz.: that of attendants upon God’s throne in that court of heaven of which Daniel has left us a vivid picture:

I behold till thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days sat: His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like clean wool: His throne like flames of fire: the wheels of it like a burning fire. A swift stream of fire issued forth from before Him: thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him: the judgment sat and the books were opened. (Daniel 7:9-10; cf. also Psalm 96:7; Psalm 102:20; Isaiah 6, etc.)

This function of the angelic host is expressed by the word “assistance” (Job 1:6; 2:1), and our Lord refers to it as their perpetual occupation (Matthew 18:10). More than once we are told of seven angels whose special function it is thus to “stand before God’s throne” (Tobit 12:15; Revelation 8:2-5). The same thought may be intended by “the angel of His presence” (Isaiah 63:9) an expression which also occurs in the pseudo-epigraphical “Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs”.

God’s messengers to mankind

But these glimpses of life beyond the veil are only occasional. The angels of the Bible generally appear in the role of God’s messengers to mankind. They are His instruments by whom He communicates His will to men, and in Jacob’s vision they are depicted as ascending and descending the ladder which stretches from earth to heaven while the Eternal Father gazes upon the wanderer below. It was an angel who found Agar in the wilderness (Genesis 16); angels drew Lot out of Sodom; an angel announces to Gideon that he is to save his people; an angel foretells the birth of Samson (Judges 13), and the angel Gabriel instructs Daniel (Dan., viii, 16), though he is not called an angel in either of these passages, but “the man Gabriel” (9:21). The same heavenly spirit announced the birth of St. John the Baptist and the Incarnation of the Redeemer, while tradition ascribes to him both the message to the shepherds (Luke 2:9), and the most glorious mission of all, that of strengthening the King of Angels in His Agony (Luke 22:43). The spiritual nature of the angels is manifested very clearly in the account which Zacharias gives of the revelations bestowed upon him by the ministry of an angel. The prophet depicts the angel as speaking “in him”. He seems to imply that he was conscious of an interior voice which was not that of God but of His messenger. The Massoretic text, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate all agree in thus describing the communications made by the angel to the prophet. It is a pity that the “Revised Version” should, in apparent defiance of the above-named texts, obscure this trait by persistently giving the rendering: “the angel that talked with me: instead of “within me” (cf. Zechariah 1:9, 13, 14; 2:3; 4:5; 5:10).

Such appearances of angels generally last only so long as the delivery of their message requires, but frequently their mission is prolonged, and they are represented as the constituted guardians of the nations at some particular crisis, e.g. during the Exodus (Exodus 14:19; Baruch 6:6). Similarly it is the common view of the Fathers that by “the prince of the Kingdom of the Persians” (Dan., x, 13; x, 21) we are to understand the angel to whom was entrusted the spiritual care of that kingdom, and we may perhaps see in the “man of Macedonia” who appeared to St. Paul at Troas, the guardian angel of that country (Acts 16:9). The Septuagint (Deuteronomy 32:8), has preserved for us a fragment of information on this head, though it is difficult to gauge its exact meaning: “When the Most High divided the nations, when He scattered the children of Adam, He established the bounds of the nations according to the number of the angels of God”. How large a part the ministry of angels played, not merely in Hebrew theology, but in the religious ideas of other nations as well, appears from the expression “like to an angel of God”. It is three times used of David (2 Samuel 14:17, 20; 14:27) and once by Achis of Geth (1 Samuel 29:9). It is even applied by Esther to Assuerus (Esther 15:16), and St. Stephen’s face is said to have looked “like the face of an angel” as he stood before the Sanhedrin (Acts 6:15).

Personal guardians

Throughout the Bible we find it repeatedly implied that each individual soul has its tutelary angel. Thus Abraham, when sending his steward to seek a wife for Isaac, says: “He will send His angel before thee” (Genesis 24:7). The words of the ninetieth Psalm which the devil quoted to our Lord (Matthew 4:6) are well known, and Judith accounts for her heroic deed by saying: “As the Lord liveth, His angel hath been my keeper” (xiii, 20). These passages and many like them (Genesis 16:6-32; Hosea 12:4; 1 Kings 19:5; Acts 12:7; Psalm 33:8), though they will not of themselves demonstrate the doctrine that every individual has his appointed guardian angel, receive their complement in our Saviour’s words: “See that you despise not on of these little ones; for I say to you that their angels in Heaven always see the face of My Father Who is in Heaven” (Matthew 18:10), words which illustrate the remark of St. Augustine: “What lies hidden in the Old Testament, is made manifest in the New”. Indeed, the book of Tobias seems intended to teach this truth more than any other, and St. Jerome in his commentary on the above words of our Lord says: “The dignity of a soul is so great, that each has a guardian angel from its birth.” The general doctrine that the angels are our appointed guardians is considered to be a point of faith, but that each individual member of the human race has his own individual guardian angel is not of faith (de fide); the view has, however, such strong support from the Doctors of the Church that it would be rash to deny it (cf. St. Jerome, supra). Peter the Lombard (Sentences, lib. II, dist. xi) was inclined to think that one angel had charge of several individual human beings. St. Bernard’s beautiful homilies (11-14) on the ninetieth Psalm breathe the spirit of the Church without however deciding the question. The Bible represents the angels not only as our guardians, but also as actually interceding for us. “The angel Raphael (Tob., xii, 12) says: “I offered thy prayer to the Lord” (cf. Job, v, 1 (Septuagint), and 33:23 (Vulgate); Apocalypse 8:4). The Catholic cult of the angels is thus thoroughly scriptural. Perhaps the earliest explicit declaration of it is to be found in St. Ambrose’s words: “We should pray to the angels who are given to us as guardians” (De Viduis, ix); (cf. St. Aug., Contra Faustum, xx, 21). An undue cult of angels was reprobated by St. Paul (Colossians 2:18), and that such a tendency long remained in the same district is evidenced by Canon 35 of the Synod of Laodicea.

As Divine Agents Governing The World

The foregoing passages, especially those relating to the angels who have charge of various districts, enable us to understand the practically unanimous view of the Fathers that it is the angels who put into execution God’s law regarding the physical world. The Semitic belief in genii and in spirits which cause good or evil is well known, and traces of it are to be found in the Bible. Thus the pestilence which devastated Israel for David’s sin in numbering the people is attributed to an angel whom David is said to have actually seen (2 Samuel 24:15-17), and more explicitly, I Par., xxi, 14-18). Even the wind rustling in the tree-tops was regarded as an angel (2 Samuel 5:23, 24; 1 Chronicles 14:14, 15). This is more explicitly stated with regard to the pool of Probatica (John 5:1-4), though these is some doubt about the text; in that passage the disturbance of the water is said to be due to the periodic visits of an angel. The Semites clearly felt that all the orderly harmony of the universe, as well as interruptions of that harmony, were due to God as their originator, but were carried out by His ministers. This view is strongly marked in the “Book of Jubilees” where the heavenly host of good and evil angels is every interfering in the material universe. Maimonides (Directorium Perplexorum, iv and vi) is quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theol., I:1:3) as holding that the Bible frequently terms the powers of nature angels, since they manifest the omnipotence of God (cf. St. Jerome, In Mich., vi, 1, 2; P. L., iv, col. 1206).

Hierarchical organization

Though the angels who appear in the earlier works of the Old Testament are strangely impersonal and are overshadowed by the importance of the message they bring or the work they do, there are not wanting hints regarding the existence of certain ranks in the heavenly army.

After Adam’s fall Paradise is guarded against our First Parents by cherubim who are clearly God’s ministers, though nothing is said of their nature. Only once again do the cherubim figure in the Bible, viz., in Ezechiel’s marvellous vision, where they are described at great length (Ezekiel 1), and are actually called cherub in Ezechiel, x. The Ark was guarded by two cherubim, but we are left to conjecture what they were like. It has been suggested with great probability that we have their counterpart in the winged bulls and lions guarding the Assyrian palaces, and also in the strange winged men with hawks’ heads who are depicted on the walls of some of their buildings. The seraphim appear only in the vision of Isaias, vi, 6.

Mention has already been made of the mystic seven who stand before God, and we seem to have in them an indication of an inner cordon that surrounds the throne. The term archangel occurs only in St. Jude and I Thess., iv, 15; but St. Paul has furnished us with two other lists of names of the heavenly cohorts. He tells us (Ephesians 1:21) that Christ is raised up “above all principality, and power, and virtue, and dominion”; and, writing to the Colossians (i, 16), he says: “In Him were all things created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations, or principalities or powers.” It is to be noted that he uses two of these names of the powers of darkness when (ii, 15) he talks of Christ as “despoiling the principalities and powers . . . triumphing over them in Himself”. And it is not a little remarkable that only two verses later he warns his readers not to be seduced into any “religion of angels”. He seems to put his seal upon a certain lawful angelology, and at the same time to warn them against indulging superstition on the subject. We have a hint of such excesses in the Book of Enoch, wherein, as already stated, the angels play a quite disproportionate part. Similarly Josephus tells us (Be. Jud., II, viii, 7) that the Essenes had to take a vow to preserve the names of the angels.

We have already seen how (Daniel 10:12-21) various districts are allotted to various angels who are termed their princes, and the same feature reappears still more markedly in the Apocalyptic “angels of the seven churches”, though it is impossible to decide what is the precise signification of the term. These seven Angels of the Churches are generally regarded as being the Bishops occupying these sees. St. Gregory Nazianzen in his address to the Bishops at Constantinople twice terms them “Angels”, in the language of the Apocalypse.

The treatise “De Coelesti Hierarchia”, which is ascribed to St. Denis the Areopagite, and which exercised so strong an influence upon the Scholastics, treats at great length of the hierarchies and orders of the angels. It is generally conceded that this work was not due to St. Denis, but must date some centuries later. Though the doctrine it contains regarding the choirs of angels has been received in the Church with extraordinary unanimity, no proposition touching the angelic hierarchies is binding on our faith. The following passages from St. Gregory the Great (Hom. 34, In Evang.) will give us a clear idea of the view of the Church’s doctors on the point:

We know on the authority of Scripture that there are nine orders of angels, viz., Angels, Archangels, Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Dominations, Throne, Cherubim and Seraphim. That there are Angels and Archangels nearly every page of the Bible tell us, and the books of the Prophets talk of Cherubim and Seraphim. St. Paul, too, writing to the Ephesians enumerates four orders when he says: ‘above all Principality, and Power, and Virtue, and Domination’; and again, writing to the Colossians he says: ‘whether Thrones, or Dominations, or Principalities, or Powers’. If we now join these two lists together we have five Orders, and adding Angels and Archangels, Cherubim and Seraphim, we find nine Orders of Angels.

St. Thomas (Summa Theologica I:108), following St. Denis (De Coelesti Hierarchia, vi, vii), divides the angels into three hierarchies each of which contains three orders. Their proximity to the Supreme Being serves as the basis of this division. In the first hierarchy he places the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; in the second, the Dominations, Virtues, and Powers; in the third, the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. The only Scriptural names furnished of individual angels are Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel, names which signify their respective attributes. Apocryphal Jewish books, such as the Book of Enoch, supply those of Uriel and Jeremiel, while many are found in other apocryphal sources, like those Milton names in “Paradise Lost”. (On superstitious use of such names, see above).

The number of angels

The number of the angels is frequently stated as prodigious (Daniel 7:10; Apocalypse 5:11; Psalm 67:18; Matthew 26:53). From the use of the word host (sabaoth) as a synonym for the heavenly army it is hard to resist the impression that the term “Lord of Hosts” refers to God’s Supreme command of the angelic multitude (cf. Deuteronomy 33:2; 32:43; Septuagint). The Fathers see a reference to the relative numbers of men and angels in the parable of the hundred sheep (Luke 15:1-3), though this may seem fanciful. The Scholastics, again, following the treatise “De Coelesti Hierarchia” of St. Denis, regard the preponderance of numbers as a necessary perfection of the angelic host (cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., I:1:3).

The evil angels

The distinction of good and bad angels constantly appears in the Bible, but it is instructive to note that there is no sign of any dualism or conflict between two equal principles, one good and the other evil. The conflict depicted is rather that waged on earth between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the Evil One, but the latter’s inferiority is always supposed. The existence, then, of this inferior, and therefore created, spirit, has to be explained.

The gradual development of Hebrew consciousness on this point is very clearly marked in the inspired writings. The account of the fall of our First Parents (Genesis 3) is couched in such terms that it is impossible to see in it anything more than the acknowledgment of the existence of a principle of evil who was jealous of the human race. The statement (Genesis 6:1) that the “sons of God” married the daughters of men is explained of the fall of the angels, in Enoch, vi-xi, and codices, D, E F, and A of the Septuagint read frequently, for “sons of God”, oi aggeloi tou theou. Unfortunately, codices B and C are defective in Ge., vi, but it is probably that they, too, read oi aggeloi in this passage, for they constantly so render the expression “sons of God”; cf. Job, i, 6; ii, 1; xxxviii, 7; but on the other hand, see Ps., ii, 1; lxxxviii, & (Septuagint). Philo, in commenting on the passage in his treatise “Quod Deus sit immutabilis”, i, follows the Septuagint. For Philo’s doctrine of Angels, cf. “De Vita Mosis”, iii, 2, “De Somniis”, VI: “De Incorrupta Manna”, i; “De Sacrificis”, ii; “De Lege Allegorica”, I, 12; III, 73; and for the view of Gen., vi, 1, cf. St. Justin, Apol., ii 5. It should moreover be noted that the Hebrew word nephilim rendered gigantes, in 6:4, may mean “fallen ones”. The Fathers generally refer it to the sons of Seth, the chosen stock. In I K., xix, 9, an evil spirit is said to possess Saul, though this is probably a metaphorical expression; more explicit is III B., xxii, 19-23, where a spirit is depicted as appearing in the midst of the heavenly army and offering, at the Lord’s invitation, to be a lying spirit in the mouth of Achab’s false prophets. We might, with Scholastics, explain this is malum poenae, which is actually caused by God owing to man’s fault. A truer exegesis would, however, dwell on the purely imaginative tone of the whole episode; it is not so much the mould in which the message is cast as the actual tenor of that message which is meant to occupy our attention.

The picture afforded us in Job, i and ii, is equally imaginative; but Satan, perhaps the earliest individualization of the fallen Angel, is presented as an intruder who is jealous of Job. He is clearly an inferior being to the Deity and can only touch Job with God’s permission. How theologic thought advanced as the sum of revelation grew appears from a comparison of II K, xxiv, 1, with I Paral., xxi, 1. Whereas in the former passage David’s sin was said to be due to “the wrath of the Lord” which “stirred up David”, in the latter we read that “Satan moved David to number Israel”. In Job. iv, 18, we seem to find a definite declaration of the fall: “In His angels He found wickedness.” The Septuagint of Job contains some instructive passages regarding avenging angels in whom we are perhaps to see fallen spirits, thus xxxiii, 23: “If a thousand death-dealing angels should be (against him) not one of them shall wound him”; and xxxvi, 14: “If their souls should perish in their youth (through rashness) yet their life shall be wounded by the angels”; and xxi, 15: “The riches unjustly accumulated shall be vomited up, an angel shall drag him out of his house;” cf. Prov., xvii, 11; Ps., xxxiv, 5, 6; lxxvii, 49, and especially, Ecclesiasticus, xxxix, 33, a text which, as far as can be gathered from the present state of the manuscript, was in the Hebrew original. In some of these passages, it is true, the angels may be regarded as avengers of God’s justice without therefore being evil spirits. In Zach., iii, 1-3, Satan is called the adversary who pleads before the Lord against Jesus the High Priest. Isaias, xiv, and Ezech., xxviii, are for the Fathers the loci classici regarding the fall of Satan (cf. Tertull., adv. Marc., II, x); and Our Lord Himself has given colour to this view by using the imagery of the latter passage when saying to His Apostles: “I saw Satan like lightning falling from heaven” (Luke 10:18). In New Testament times the idea of the two spiritual kingdoms is clearly established. The devil is a fallen angel who in his fall has drawn multitudes of the heavenly host in his train. Our Lord terms him “the Prince of this world” (John xiv, 30); he is the tempter of the human race and tries to involve them in his fall (Matthew 25:41; 2 Peter 2:4; Ephesians 6:12; 2 Corinthians 11:14; 12:7). Christian imagery of the devil as the dragon is mainly derived from the Apocalypse (ix, 11-15; xii, 7-9), where he is termed “the angel of the bottomless pit”, “the dragon”, “the old serpent”, etc., and is represented as having actually been in combat with Archangel Michael. The similarity between scenes such as these and the early Babylonian accounts of the struggle between Merodach and the dragon Tiamat is very striking. Whether we are to trace its origin to vague reminiscences of the mighty saurians which once people the earth is a moot question, but the curious reader may consult Bousett, “The Anti-Christ Legend” (tr. by Keane, London, 1896). The translator has prefixed to it an interesting discussion on the origin of the Babylonian Dragon-Myth.

The Term “Angel” In The Septuagint

We have had occasion to mention the Septuagint version more than once, and it may not be amiss to indicate a few passages where it is our only source of information regarding the angels. The best known passage is Is., ix, 6, where the Septuagint gives the name of the Messias, as “the Angel of great Counsel”. We have already drawn attention to Job, xx, 15, where the Septuagint reads “Angel” instead of “God”, and to xxxvi, 14, where there seems to be question of evil angels. In ix 7, Septuagint (B) adds: “He is the Hebrew (v, 19) say of “Behemoth”: “He is the beginning of the ways of God, he that made him shall make his sword to approach him:, the Septuagint reads: “He is the beginning of God’s creation, made for His Angels to mock at”, and exactly the same remark is made about “Leviathan”, xli, 24. We have already seen that the Septuagint generally renders the term “sons of God” by “angels”, but in Deut., xxxii, 43, the Septuagint has an addition in which both terms appear: “Rejoice in Him all ye heavens, and adore Him all ye angels of God; rejoice ye nations with His people, and magnify Him all ye Sons of God.” Nor does the Septuagint merely give us these additional references to angels; it sometimes enables us to correct difficult passages concerning them in the Vulgate and Massoretic text. Thus the difficult Elim of MT in Job, xli, 17, which the Vulgate renders by “angels”, becomes “wild beasts” in the Septuagint version. The early ideas as to the personality of the various angelic appearances are, as we have seen, remarkably vague. At first the angels are regarded in quite an impersonal way (Genesis 16:7). They are God’s vice-regents and are often identified with the Author of their message (Genesis 48:15-16). But while we read of “the Angels of God” meeting Jacob (Genesis 32:1) we at other times read of one who is termed “the Angel of God” par excellence, e.g. Gen., xxxi, 11. It is true that, owing to the Hebrew idiom, this may mean no more than “an angel of God”, and the Septuagint renders it with or without the article at will; yet the three visitors at Mambre seem to have been of different ranks, though St. Paul (Hebrews 13:2) regarded them all as equally angels; as the story in Ge., xiii, develops, the speaker is always “the Lord”. Thus in the account of the Angel of the Lord who visited Gideon (Judges 6), the visitor is alternately spoken of as “the Angel of the Lord” and as “the Lord”. Similarly, in Judges, xiii, the Angel of the Lord appears, and both Manue and his wife exclaim: “We shall certainly die because we have seen God.” This want of clearness is particularly apparent in the various accounts of the Angel of Exodus. In Judges, vi, just now referred to, the Septuagint is very careful to render the Hebrew “Lord” by “the Angel of the Lord”; but in the story of the Exodus it is the Lord who goes before them in the pillar of a cloud (Exodus 13:21), and the Septuagint makes no change (cf. also Num., xiv, 14, and Neh., ix, 7-20. Yet in Exod., xiv, 19, their guide is termed “the Angel of God”. When we turn to Exod., xxxiii, where God is angry with His people for worshipping the golden calf, it is hard not to feel that it is God Himself who has hitherto been their guide, but who now refuses to accompany them any longer. God offers an angel instead, but at Moses’s petition He says (14) “My face shall go before thee”, which the Septuagint reads by autos though the following verse shows that this rendering is clearly impossible, for Moses objects: “If Thou Thyself dost not go before us, bring us not out of this place.” But what does God mean by “my face”? Is it possible that some angel of specially high rank is intended, as in Is., lxiii, 9 (cf. Tobias, xii, 15)? May not this be what is meant by “the angel of God” (cf. Numbers 20:16)?

That a process of evolution in theological thought accompanied the gradual unfolding of God’s revelation need hardly be said, but it is especially marked in the various views entertained regarding the person of the Giver of the Law. The Massoretic text as well as the Vulgate of Exod., iii and xix-xx clearly represent the Supreme Being as appearing to Moses in the bush and on Mount Sinai; but the Septuagint version, while agreeing that it was God Himself who gave the Law, yet makes it “the angel of the Lord” who appeared in the bush. By New Testament times the Septuagint view has prevailed, and it is now not merely in the bush that the angel of the Lord, and not God Himself appears, but the angel is also the Giver of the Law (cf. Galatians 3:19; Hebrews 2:2; Acts 7:30). The person of “the angel of the Lord” finds a counterpart in the personification of Wisdom in the Sapiential books and in at least one passage (Zechariah 3:1) it seems to stand for that “Son of Man” whom Daniel (vii, 13) saw brought before “the Ancient of Days”. Zacharias says: “And the Lord showed me Jesus the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan stood on His right hand to be His adversary”. Tertullian regards many of these passages as preludes to the Incarnation; as the Word of God adumbrating the sublime character in which He is one day to reveal Himself to men (cf. adv, Prax., xvi; adv. Marc., II, 27; III, 9: I, 10, 21, 22). It is possible, then, that in these confused views we can trace vague gropings after certain dogmatic truths regarding the Trinity, reminiscences perhaps of the early revelation of which the Protevangelium in Ge., iii is but a relic. The earlier Fathers, going by the letter of the text, maintained that it was actually God Himself who appeared. he who appeared was called God and acted as God. It was not unnatural then for Tertullian, as we have already seen, to regard such manifestations in the light of preludes to the Incarnation, and most of the Eastern Fathers followed the same line of thought. It was held as recently as 1851 by Vandenbroeck, “Dissertatio Theologica de Theophaniis sub Veteri Testamento” (Louvain).

But the great Latins, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Gregory the Great, held the opposite view, and the Scholastics as a body followed them. St. Augustine (Sermo vii, de Scripturis, P. G. V) when treating of the burning bush (Exodus 3) says: “That the same person who spoke to Moses should be deemed both the Lord and an angel of the Lord, is very hard to understand. It is a question which forbids any rash assertions but rather demands careful investigation . . . Some maintain that he is called both the Lord and the angel of the Lord because he was Christ, indeed the prophet (Isaiah 9:6, Septuagint Version) clearly styles Christ the ‘Angel of great Counsel.'” The saint proceeds to show that such a view is tenable though we must be careful not to fall into Arianism in stating it. He points out, however, that if we hold that it was an angel who appeared, we must explain how he came to be called “the Lord,” and he proceeds to show how this might be: “Elsewhere in the Bible when a prophet speaks it is yet said to be the Lord who speaks, not of course because the prophet is the Lord but because the Lord is in the prophet; and so in the same way when the Lord condescends to speak through the mouth of a prophet or an angel, it is the same as when he speaks by a prophet or apostle, and the angel is correctly termed an angel if we consider him himself, but equally correctly is he termed ‘the Lord’ because God dwells in him.” He concludes: “It is the name of the indweller, not of the temple.” And a little further on: “It seems to me that we shall most correctly say that our forefathers recognized the Lord in the angel,” and he adduces the authority of the New Testament writers who clearly so understood it and yet sometimes allowed the same confusion of terms (cf. Hebrews 2:2, and Acts 7:31-33). The saint discusses the same question even more elaborately, “In Heptateuchum,” lib. vii, 54, P. G. III, 558. As an instance of how convinced some of the Fathers were in holding the opposite view, we may note Theodoret’s words (In Exod.): “The whole passage (Exodus 3) shows that it was God who appeared to him. But (Moses) called Him an angel in order to let us know that it was not God the Father whom he saw — for whose angel could the Father be? — but the Only-begotten Son, the Angel of great Counsel” (cf. Eusebius, Hist. Eccles., I, ii, 7; St. Irenaeus, Haer., iii, 6). But the view propounded by the Latin Fathers was destined to live in the Church, and the Scholastics reduced it to a system (cf. St. Thomas, Quaest., Disp., De Potentia, vi, 8, ad 3am); and for a very good exposition of both sides of the question, cf. “Revue biblique,” 1894, 232-247.

Angels In Babylonian Literature

The Bible has shown us that a belief in angels, or spirits intermediate between God and man, is a characteristic of the Semitic people. It is therefore interesting to trace this belief in the Semites of Babylonia. According to Sayce (The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, Gifford Lectures, 1901), the engrafting of Semitic beliefs on the earliest Sumerian religion of Babylonia is marked by the entrance of angels or sukallin in their theosophy. Thus we find an interesting parallel to “the angels of the Lord” in Nebo, “the minister of Merodach” (ibid., 355). He is also termed the “angel” or interpreter of the will or Merodach (ibid., 456), and Sayce accepts Hommel’s statement that it can be shown from the Minean inscriptions that primitive Semitic religion consisted of moon and star worship, the moon-god Athtar and an “angel” god standing at the head of the pantheon (ibid., 315). The Biblical conflict between the kingdoms of good and evil finds its parallel in the “spirits of heaven” or the Igigi–who constituted the “host” of which Ninip was the champion (and from who he received the title of “chief of the angels”) and the “spirits of the earth”, or Annuna-Ki, who dwelt in Hades (ibid. 355). The Babylonian sukalli corresponded to the spirit-messengers of the Bible; they declared their Lord’s will and executed his behests (ibid., 361). Some of them appear to have been more than messengers; they were the interpreters and vicegerents of the supreme deity, thus Nebo is “the prophet of Borsippa”. These angels are even termed “the sons” of the deity whose vicegerents they are; thus Ninip, at one time the messenger of En-lil, is transformed into his son just as Merodach becomes the son of Ea (ibid., 496). The Babylonian accounts of the Creation and the Flood do not contrast very favourably with the Biblical accounts, and the same must be said of the chaotic hierarchies of gods and angels which modern research has revealed. perhaps we are justified in seeing all forms of religion vestiges of a primitive nature-worship which has at times succeeded in debasing the purer revelation, and which, where that primitive revelation has not received successive increments as among the Hebrews, results in an abundant crop of weeds.

Thus the Bible certainly sanctions the idea of certain angels being in charge of special districts (cf. Dan., x, and above). This belief persists in a debased form in the Arab notion of Genii, or Jinns, who haunt particular spots. A reference to it is perhaps to be found in Gen., xxxii, 1,2: “Jacob also went on the journey he had begun: and the angels of God met him: And when he saw then he said: These are the camps of God, and he called the name of that place Mahanaim, that is, ‘Camps.’ ” Recent explorations in the Arab district about Petra have revealed certain precincts marked off with stones as the abiding-laces of angels, and the nomad tribes frequent them for prayer and sacrifice. These places bear a name which corresponds exactly with the “Mahanaim” of the above passage in Genesis (cf. Lagrange, Religions Semitques, 184, and Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, 445). Jacob’s vision at Bethel (Genesis 28:12) may perhaps come under the same category. Suffice it to say that not everything in the Bible is revelation, and that the object of the inspired writings is not merely to tell us new truths but also to make clearer certain truths taught us by nature. The modern view, which tends to regard everything Babylonian as absolutely primitive and which seems to think that because critics affix a late date to the Biblical writings the religion therein contained must also be late, may be seen in Haag, “Theologie Biblique” (339). This writer sees in the Biblical angels only primitive deities debased into demi-gods by the triumphant progress of Monotheism.

Angels in the Zend-Avesta

Attempts have also been made to trace a connection between the angels of the Bible and the “great archangels” or “Amesha-Spentas” of the Zend-Avesta. That the Persian domination and the Babylonian captivity exerted a large influence upon the Hebrew conception of the angels is acknowledged in the Talmud of Jerusalem, Rosch Haschanna, 56, where it is said that the names of the angels were introduced from Babylon. It is, however, by no means clear that the angelic beings who figure so largely in the pages of the Avesta are to be referred to the older Persian Neo-Zoroastrianism of the Sassanides. If this be the case, as Darmesteter holds, we should rather reverse the position and attribute the Zoroastrian angels to the influence of the Bible and of Philo. Stress has been laid upon the similarity between the Biblical “seven who stand before God” and the seven Amesha-Spentas of the Zend-Avesta. But it must be noted that these latter are really six, the number seven is only obtained by counting “their father, Ahura-Mazda,” among them as their chief. Moreover, these Zoroastrian archangels are more abstract that concrete; they are not individuals charged with weighty missions as in the Bible.

Angels in the New Testament

Hitherto we have dwelt almost exclusively on the angels of the Old Testament, whose visits and messages have been by no means rare; but when we come to the New Testament their name appears on every page and the number of references to them equals those in the Old Dispensation. It is their privilege to announce the Zachary and Mary the dawn of Redemption, and to the shepherds its actual accomplishment. Our Lord in His discourses talks of them as one who actually saw them, and who, whilst “conversing amongst men”, was yet receiving the silent unseen adoration of the hosts of heaven. He describes their life in heaven (Matthew 22:30; Luke 20:36); He tell us how they form a bodyguard round Him and at a word from Him would avenge Him on His enemies (Matthew 26:53); it is the privilege of one of them to assist Him in His Agony and sweat of Blood. More than once He speaks of them as auxiliaries and witnesses at the final judgment (Matthew 16:27), which indeed they will prepare (ibid., xiii, 39-49); and lastly, they are the joyous witnesses of His triumphant Resurrection (ibid., xxviii, 2). It is easy for skeptical minds to see in these angelic hosts the mere play of Hebrew fancy and the rank growth of superstition, but do not the records of the angels who figure in the Bible supply a most natural and harmonious progression? In the opening page of the sacred story of the Jewish nation is chose out from amongst others as the depositary of God’s promise; as the people from whose stock He would one day raise up a Redeemer. The angels appear in the course of this chosen people’s history, now as God’s messengers, now as that people’s guides; at one time they are the bestowers of God’s law, at another they actually prefigure the Redeemer Whose divine purpose they are helping to mature. They converse with His prophets, with David and Elias, with Daniel and Zacharias; they slay the hosts camped against Israel, they serve as guides to God’s servants, and the last prophet, Malachi, bears a name of peculiar significance; “the Angel of Jehovah.” He seems to sum up in his very name the previous “ministry by the hands of angels”, as though God would thus recall the old-time glories of the Exodus and Sinai. The Septuagint, indeed, seems not to know his name as that of an individual prophet and its rendering of the opening verse of his prophecy is peculiarly solemn: “The burden of the Word of the Lord of Israel by the hand of His angel; lay it up in your hearts.” All this loving ministry on the part of the angels is solely for the sake of the Saviour, on Whose face they desire to look. Hence when the fullness of time was arrived it is they who bring the glad message, and sing “Gloria in excelsis Deo.” They guide the newborn King of Angels in His hurried flight into Egypt, and minister to Him in the desert. His second coming and the dire events that must precede that, are revealed to His chosen servant in the island of Patmos, It is a question of revelation again, and consequently its ministers and messengers of old appear once more in the sacred story and the record of God’s revealing love ends fittingly almost as it had begun: “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches” (Revelation 22:16). It is easy for the student to trace the influence of surrounding nations and of other religions in the Biblical account of the angels. Indeed it is needful and instructive to do so, but it would be wrong to shut our eyes to the higher line of development which we have shown and which brings out so strikingly the marvellous unity and harmony of the whole divine story of the Bible. (See also ANGELS IN EARLY CHRISTIAN ART.)

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In addition to works mentioned above, see St. Thomas, Summa Theol., I, QQ. 50-54 and 106-114; Suarez De Angelis, lib. i-iv.

HUGH POPE Transcribed by Jim Holden

The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume ICopyright © 1907 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, March 1, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia

Angel

(, used in the Sept. and New Test. for the Hebrew , malak’), a word signifying both in Hebrew and Greek a, messenger (q.v.), and therefore used to denote whatever God employs to execute his purposes, or to manifest his presence or his power; hence often with the addition of , Jehovah, or , Elohim. In later books the word , kedoshim’, holy ones, is used as an equivalent term. In some passages it occurs in the sense of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14; 1Sa 11:3; Luk 7:4; Luk 9:52); in others it is applied to prophets (Isa 43:19; Hag 1:13; Mal 3:1-18); to priests (Ecc 5:5; Mal 2:7); to ministers of the New Testament (Revelations 1:20). It is also applied to impersonal agents; as to the pillar of cloud (Exo 14:19); to the pestilence (2Sa 24:16-17; 2Ki 19:30); to the winds (who maketh the winds his angels,

Psa 104:4): so likewise plagues generally are called evil angels (Psa 78:49), and Paul calls his thorn in the flesh an angel of Satan (2Co 12:7).

But this name is more eminently and distinctly applied to certain spiritual beings or heavenly intelligences, employed by God as the ministers of his will, and usually distinguished as angels of God or angels of Jehovah. In this case the name has respect to their official capacity as messengers, and not to their nature or condition. The term spirit, on the other hand (in Greek , in Hebrew ), has reference to the nature of angels, and characterizes them as incorporeal and invisible essences. When, therefore, the ancient Jews called angels spirits, they did not mean to deny that they were endued with bodies. When they affirmed that angels were incorporeal, they used the term in the sense in which it was understood by the ancients; that is, free from the impurities of gross matter. This distinction between a natural body and a spiritual body is indicated by Paul (1Co 15:44); and we may, with sufficient safety, assume that angels are spiritual bodies, rather than pure spirits in the modern acceptation of the word. (See Ode, De Angelis, Tr. ad Rh. 1739.)

It is disputed whether the term Elohim (q..v.) is ever applied to angels; but in Psa 8:5; Psa 97:7, the word is rendered by angels in the Sept. and other ancient versions; and both these texts are so cited in Heb 1:6; Heb 2:7, that they are called Sons of God. But there are many passages in which the expression, the angel of God, the angel of Jehovah, is certainly used for a manifestation of God himself. This is especially the case in the earlier books of the Old itestament, and may be seen at once by a comparison of Gen 22:11 with Gen 22:12, and of Exo 3:2 with Exo 3:6 and Exo 3:14, where He who is called the angel of God in one verse is called God, and even Jehovah, in those that follow, and accepts the worship due to God alone (contrast Revelations 19:10; 21:9). See also Gen 16:7; Gen 16:13; Gen 21:11; Gen 21:13; Gen 48:15-16; Num 22:22; Num 22:32; Num 22:35; and comp. Isa 63:9 with Exo 33:14, etc., etc. The same expression, it seems, is used by Paul in speaking to heathens (see Act 27:23; comp. with Act 23:11). More remarkably, the word Elohim is applied in Psa 82:6, to those who judge in God’s name.

It is to be observed also that, side by side with these expressions, we read of God’s being manifested in the form of man; e.g. to Abraham at Mamre (Gen 18:2; Gen 18:22; comp. Gen 19:1); to Jacob at Penuel (Gen 32:24; Gen 32:30); to Joshua at Gilgal (Jos 5:13; Jos 5:15), etc. It is hardly to be doubted that both sets of passages refer to the same kind of manifestation of the Divine Presence. This being the case, since we know that no man hath seen God (the Father) at any time, and that the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him (Joh 1:18), the inevitable inference is that by the Angel of the Lord in such passages is meant He who is from the beginning, the Word, i.e. the Manifester or Revealer of God. These appearances are evidently foreshadowings of the incarnation (q.v.). By these God the Son manifested himself from time to time in that human nature which he united to the Godhead forever in the virgin’s womb. SEE JEHOVAH.

This conclusion is corroborated by the fact that the phrases used as equivalent to the word angels in Scripture, viz., the sons of God, or even in poetry, the gods (Elohim), the holy ones, etc., are names which, in their full and proper sense, are applicable only to the Lord Jesus Christ. As He is the Son of God, so also is He the angel or messenger of the Lord. Accordingly, it is to his incarnation that all angelic ministration is distinctly referred, as to a central truth, by which alone its nature and meaning can be understood (comp. Joh 1:51, with Gen 28:11-17, especially Gen 28:13). (See an anon. work, Angels, Cherubim, and Gods, Lond. 1861.) SEE LOGOS.

I. Their Existence and Orders. In the Scriptures we have frequent notices of spiritual intelligences existing in another state of being, and constituting a celestial family or hierarchy, over which Jehovah presides. The Bible does not, however, treat of this matter professedly and as a doctrine of religion, but merely adverts to it incidentally as a fact, without furnishing any details to gratify curiosity. The practice of the Jews of referring to the agency of angels every manifestation of the greatness and power of God has led some to contend that angels have no real existence, but are mere personifications of unknown powers of nature; and we are reminded that, in like manner, among the Gentiles, whatever was wonderful, or strange, or unaccountable, was referred by them to the agency of some one of their gods. It may be admitted that the passages in which angels are described as speaking and delivering messages might be interpreted of forcible or apparently supernatural suggestions to the mind, but they are sometimes represented as performing acts which are wholly inconsistent with this notion (Gen 16:7; Gen 16:12; Jdg 13:1-21; Mat 28:2-4); and other passages (e.g. Mat 22:30; Heb 1:4 sq.) would be without force or meaning if angels had no real existence. (See Winer’s Zeitschr. 1827, 2.)

That these superior beings are very numerous is evident from the following expressions: Dan 7:10, thousands of thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand; Mat 26:53, more than twelve legions of angels; Luk 2:13, multitude of the heavenly host; Heb 12:22-23, myriads of angels. It is probable, from the nature of the case, that among so great a multitude there may be different grades and classes, and even natures ascending from man toward God, and forming a chain of being to fill up the vast space between the Creator and man, the lowest of his intellectual, creatures. Accordingly, the Scripture describes angels as existing in a society composed of members of unequal dignity, power, and excellence, and as having chiefs and rulers. It is admitted that this idea is not clearly expressed in the books composed before the Babylonish captivity; but it is developed in the books written during the exile and afterward, especially in the writings of Daniel and Zechariah. In Zec 1:11, an angel of the highest order (see Keil, Comment. ad loc.) appears in contrast with angels of an inferior class, whom he employs as his messengers and agents.(comp. 3, 4). In Dan 10:13, the appellation one of the chief princes ( ), and in Dan 12:1, the great prince ( ), are given to Michael. The Grecian Jews rendered this appellation by the term , archangel (q.v.), which occurs in the New Test. (Jud 1:9; 1Th 4:16). The names of several of them even are given. SEE GABRIEL, SEE MICHAEL, etc. The opinion, therefore, that there were various orders of angels was not peculiar to the Jews, but was held by Christians in the time of the apostles, and is mentioned by the apostles themselves. The distinct divisions of the angels, according to their rank in the heavenly hierarchy, however, which we find in the writings of the later Jews, were almost or wholly unknown in the apostolical period. The appellations , , , , , are, indeed, applied in Eph 1:21; Col 1:16, and elsewhere, to the angels; not, however, to them exclusively, or with the intention of denoting their particular classes; but to them in common with all beings possessed of might and power, visible as well as invisible, on earth as well as in heaven. (See Henke’s Magaz. 1795, 3; 1796, 6.) SEE PRINCIPALITY.

II. Their Nature. They are termed spirits (as in Heb 1:14), although this word is applied more commonly not so much to themselves as to their power dwelling in man (1Sa 18:10; Mat 8:16, etc. etc.). The word is the same as that used of the soul of man when separate from the body (Mat 14:26; Luk 24:37; Luk 24:39; 1Pe 3:19); but, since it properly expresses only that supersensuous and rational element of man’s nature, which is in him the image of God (see Joh 4:24), and by which he has communion with God (Rom 8:16); and since, also, we are told that there is a spiritual body as well as a natural () body (1Co 15:44), it does not assert that the angelic nature is incorporeal. The contrary seems expressly implied by the words in which our Lord declares that, after the Resurrection, men shall be like the angels () (Luk 20:36); because (as is elsewhere said, Php 3:21) their bodies, as well as their spirits, shall have been made entirely like His. It may also be noticed that the glorious appearance ascribed to the angels in Scripture (as in Dan 10:6) is the same as that which shone out in our Lord’s Transfiguration, and in which John saw Him clothed in heaven (Revelations 1:14-16); and moreover, that whenever angels have been made manifest to man, it has always been in human form (as in Gen 18:1-33; Gen 19:1-38; Luk 24:4; Act 1:10, etc. etc.). The very fact that the titles sons of God (Job 1:6; Job 38:7; Dan 3:25, comp. with 28), and gods (Psa 8:5; Psa 97:7), applied to them, are also given to men (see Luk 3:38; Psa 82:6, and comp. our Lord’s application of this last passage in Joh 10:34-37), points in the same way to a difference only of degree and an identity of kind between the human end the angelic nature. The angels are therefore revealed to us as beings; such as man might be and will be when the power of sin and death is removed, partaking in their measure of the attributes of God, Truth, Purity, and Love, because always beholding His face (Mat 18:10), and therefore being made like Him (1Jn 3:2). This, of course, implies finiteness, and therefore (in the strict sense) imperfection of nature, and constant progress, both moral and intellectual, through all eternity. Such imperfection, contrasted with the infinity of God, is expressly ascribed to them in Job 4:18; Mat 24:36; 1Pe 1:12; and it is this which emphatically points them out to us as creatures, fellow-servants of man, and therefore incapable of usurping the place of gods. This finiteness of nature implies capacity of temptation (see Butler’s Anal. pt. i, c. 5), and accordingly we hear of fallen angels. Of the nature of their temptation and the circumstances of their fall we know absolutely nothing. All that is certain is, that they left their first estate ( ), and that they are now angels of the devil (Mat 25:41; Revelations 12:7, 9), partaking therefore of the falsehood, uncleanness, and hatred, which are his peculiar characteristics (Joh 8:44). All that can be conjectured must be based on the analogy of man’s own temptation and fall. On the other hand, the title especially assigned to the angels of God, that of the holy ones (see Dan 4:13; Dan 4:23; Dan 8:13; Mat 25:31), is precisely the one which is given to those men who are renewed in Christ’s image, but which belongs to them in actuality and in perfection only hereafter. (Comp. Heb 2:10; Heb 5:9; Heb 12:23.). Its use evidently implies that the angelic probation is over, and their crown of glory won.

In the Scriptures angels appear with bodies, and in the human form; and no intimation is anywhere given that these bodies are not real, or that they are only assumed for the time and then laid aside. It was manifest, indeed, to the ancients that the matter of these bodies was not like that of their own, inasmuch as angels could make themselves visible and vanish again from their sight. But this experience would suggest no doubt of the reality of their bodies; it would only intimate that they were not composed of gross matter. After his resurrection, Jesus often appeared to his disciples, and vanished again before them t yet they never doubted that they saw the same body which had been crucified, although they must have perceived that it had undergone an important change. The fact that angels always appeared in the human form does not, indeed, prove that they really have this form, but that the ancient Jews believed so. That which is not pure spirit must have some form or other; and angels may have the human form, but other forms are possible. SEE CHERUB.

The question as to the food of angels has been very much discussed. If they do eat, we can know nothing of their actual food; for the manna is manifestly called angels’ food (Psa 78:25; Wis 16:20) merely by way of expressing its excellence. The only real question, therefore, is whether they feed at all or not. We sometimes find angels, in their terrene manifestations, eating and drinking (Gen 18:8; Gen 19:3); but in Jdg 13:15-16, the angel who appeared to Manoah declined, in a very pointed manner, to accept his hospitality. The manner in which the Jews obviated the apparent discrepancy, and the sense in which they understood such passages, appear from the apocryphal book of Tobit (12:19), where the angel is made to say, It seems to you, indeed, as though I did eat and drink with you; but I use invisible food which no man can see. This intimates that they were supposed to simulate when they appeared to partake of man’s food, but that yet they had food of their own, proper to their natures. Milton, who was deeply read in the angelic literature, derides these questions (Par. Lost, 5, 433-439). But if angels do not need food; if their spiritual bodies are inherently incapable of waste or death, it seems not likely that they gratuitously perform an act designed, in all its known relations, to promote growth, to repair waste, and to sustain existence.

The passage already referred to in Mat 22:30, teaches by implication that there is no distinction of sex among the angels. The Scripture never makes mention of female angels. The Gentiles had their male and female divinities, who were the parents of other gods, and Gesenius (Thes. Heb. s.v. , 12) insists that the sons of God spoken of in Gen 6:2, as the progenitors of the giants, were angels. But in the Scriptures the angels are all males; and they appear to be so represented, not to mark any distinction of sex, but because the masculine is the more honorable gender. Angels are never described with marks of age, but sometimes with those of youth (Mar 16:5). The constant absence of the features of age indicates the continual vigor and freshness of immortality. The angels never die (Luk 20:36). But no being besides God himself has essential immortality (1Ti 6:16); every other being, therefore, is mortal in itself, and can be immortal only by the will of God. Angels, consequently, are not eternal, but had a beginning. As Moses gives no account of the creation of angels in his description of the origin of the world, although the circumstance would have been too important for omission had it then taken place, there is no doubt that they were called into being before, probably very long before the acts of creation which it was the object of Moses to relate. SEE SONS OF GOD. That they are of superhuman intelligence is implied in Mar 13:32 : But of that day and hour knoweth no man, not even the angels in heaven. That their power is great may be gathered from such expressions as mighty angels (2Th 1:7); angels, powerful in strength (Psa 103:20); angels who are greater [than man] in power and might. The moral perfection of angels is shown by such phrases as holy angels (Luk 9:26); the elect angels (1Ti 5:21). Their felicity is beyond question in itself, but is evinced by the passage (Luk 20:36) in which the blessed in the future world are said to be , , like unto the angels, and sons of God. (See Timpson, Angels of God, Lond. 1837.)

III. Their Functions. Of their office in heaven we have, of course, only vague prophetic glimpses (as in 1Ki 22:19; Isa 6:1-3; Dan 7:9-10; Revelations 6:11, etc.), which show us nothing but a never-ceasing adoration, proceeding from the vision of God. Their office toward man is far more fully described to us. (See Whately, Angels, Lond. 1851, Phil. 1856.)

1. They are represented as being, in the widest sense, agents of God’s providence, natural and supernatural, to the body and to the soul. Thus the operations of nature are spoken of, as under angelic guidance fulfilling the will of God. Not only is this the case in poetical passages, such as Psa 104:4 (commented upon in Heb 1:7), where the powers of air, and fire are referred to them, but in the simplest prose history, as where the pestilences which slew the firstborn (Exo 12:23; Heb 11:28), the disobedient people in the wilderness (1Co 10:10), the Israelites in the days of David (2Sa 24:16; 1Ch 21:16), and the army of Sennacherib (2Ki 19:35), as also the plague which cut off Herod (Act 12:23), are plainly spoken of as the work of the Angel of the Lord. Nor can the mysterious declarations of the Apocalypse, by far the most numerous of all, be resolved by honest interpretation into mere poetical imagery. (See especially Revelations 8 and 9.) It is evident that angelic agency, like that of man, does not exclude the action of secondary, or (what are called) natural causes, or interfere with the directness and universality of the providence of God. The personifications of poetry and legends of mythology are obscure witnesses of its truth, which, however, can rest only on the revelations of Scripture itself. 2. More particularly, however, angels are spoken of as ministers of what is commonly called the supernatural, or, perhaps, more correctly, the spiritual providence of God; as agents in the great scheme of the spiritual redemption and sanctification of man, of which the Bible is the record. The representations of them are different in different books of Scripture, in the Old Testament and in the New; but the reasons of the differences are to be found in the differences of scope attributable to the books themselves. As different parts of God’s providence are brought out, so also arise different views of His angelic ministers.

(1.) In the Book of Job, which deals with Natural Religion, they are spoken of but vaguely, as surrounding God’s throne above, and rejoicing in the completion of His creative work (Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Job 38:7). No direct and visible appearance to man is even hinted at. (See Rawson, Holy Angels, N.Y. 1858.)

(2.) In the Book of Genesis there is no notice of angelic appearances till after the call of Abraham. Then, as the book is the history of the chosen family, so the angels mingle with and watch over its family life, entertained by Abraham and by Lot (Gen 18:1-33; Gen 19:1-38), guiding Abraham’s servant to Padan-Aram (Gen 24:7; Gen 24:40), seen by the fugitive Jacob at Bethel (Gen 28:12), and welcoming his return at Mahanaim (Gen 32:1). Their ministry hallows domestic life, in its trials and its blessings alike, and is closer, more familiar, and less awful than in after times. (Contrast Gen 18:1-33 with Jdg 6:21-22; Jdg 13:16; Jdg 13:22.)

(3.) In the subsequent history, that of a chosen nation, the angels are represented more as ministers of wrath and mercy, messengers of a King, than as common children of the One Father. It is, moreover, to be observed that the records of their appearance belong especially to two periods, that of the judges and that of the captivity, which were transition periods in Israelitish history, the former destitute of direct revelation or prophetic guidance, the latter one of special trial and unusual contact with heathenism. During the lives of Moses and Joshua there is no record of the appearance of created angels, and only obscure references to angels at all. In the Book of Judges angels appear to rebuke idolatry (Jdg 2:1-4), to call Gideon (Jdg 6:11, etc.), and consecrate Samson (Jdg 13:3, etc.) to the work of deliverance.

(4.) The prophetic office begins with Samuel, and immediately angelic guidance is withheld, except when needed by the prophets themselves (1Ki 19:5; 2Ki 6:17). During the prophetic and kingly period angels are spoken of only (as noticed above) as ministers of God in the operations of nature. But in the captivity, when the Jews were in the presence of foreign nations, each claiming its tutelary deity, then to the prophets Daniel and Zechariah angels are revealed in a fresh light, as watching, not only over Jerusalem, but also over, heathen kingdoms, under the providence, and to work out the designs, of the Lord. (See Zechariah passim, and Dan 4:13; Dan 4:23; Dan 10:10; Dan 10:13; Dan 10:20-21, etc.) In the whole period they, as truly as the prophets and kings, are God’s ministers, watching over the national life of the subjects of the Great King. (See Heigel, De angelofoederis, Jen. 1660.)

(5.) The Incarnation marks a new epoch of angelic ministration. The Angel of Jehovah, the Lord of all created angels, having now descended from heaven to earth, it was natural that His servants should continue to do Him service here. Whether to predict and glorify His birth itself (Mat 1:20; Luk 1:2), to minister to Him after His temptation and agony (Mat 4:11; Luk 22:43), or to declare His resurrection and triumphant ascension (Mat 28:2; Joh 20:12; Act 1:10-11), they seem now to be indeed ascending and descending on the Son of Man, almost as though transferring to earth the ministrations of heaven. It is clearly seen that whatever was done by them for men in earlier days was but typical of and flowing from their service to Him. (See Psa 91:11; comp. Mat 4:6.)

(6.) The New Testament is the history of the Church of Christ, every member of which is united to Him. Accordingly, the angels are revealed now as ministering spirits to each individual member of Christ for his spiritual guidance and aid (Heb 1:14). The records of their visible appearance are but unfrequent (Act 5:19; Act 8:26; Act 10:3; Act 12:7; Act 27:23); yet their presence and their aid are referred to familiarly, almost as things of course, ever after the Incarnation. They are spoken of as watching over Christ’s little ones (Mat 18:10), as rejoicing over a penitent sinner (Luk 15:10), as present in the worship of Christians (1Co 11:10), and (perhaps) bringing their prayers before God (Revelations 8:3, 4), and as bearing the souls of the redeemed into paradise (Luk 16:22). In one word, they are Christ’s ministers of grace now, as they shall be of judgment hereafter (Mat 13:39; Mat 13:41; Mat 13:49; Mat 16:27; Mat 24:31, etc.). By what method they act we cannot know of ourselves, nor are we told, perhaps lest we should worship them instead of Him, whose servants they are (see Col 2:18; Revelations 22:9); but, of course, their agency, like that of human ministers, depends for its efficacy on the aid of the Holy Spirit.

The ministry of angels, therefore, a doctrine implied in their very name, is evident, from certain actions which are ascribed wholly to them (Mat 13:41; Mat 13:49; Mat 24:31; Luk 16:22), and from the scriptural narratives of other events, in the accomplishment of which they acted a visible part (Luk 1:11; Luk 1:26; Luk 2:9 sq.; Act 5:19-20; Act 10:3; Act 10:19; Act 12:7; Act 27:23), principally in the guidance of the destinies of man. In those cases also in which the agency is concealed from our view we may admit the probability of its existence, because we are told that God sends them forth to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation (Heb 1:14; also Psa 34:8; Psa 91:1-16; Mat 18:10). But the angels, when employed for our welfare, do not act independently, but as the instruments of God, and by His command (Psa 103:20; Psa 104:4; Heb 1:13-14): not unto them, therefore, are our confidence and adoration due, but only to him (Rev 19:10; Rev 22:9) whom the angels themselves reverently worship. (See Mostyn, Ministry of Angels, Lond. 1841.)

3. Guardian Angels. It was a favorite opinion of the Christian fathers that every individual is under the care of a particular angel, who is assigned to him as a guardian. SEE GUARDIAN ANGEL. They spoke also of two angels, the one good, the other evil, whom they conceived to be attendant on each individual: the good angel prompting to all good, and averting ill, and the evil angel prompting to all ill, and averting good (Hermas, 2, 6). SEE ABADDON. The Jews (excepting the Sadducees) entertained this belief, as do the Moslems. The heathen held it in a modified form the Greeks having their tutelary damon (q.v.), and the Romans their genius. There is, however, nothing to support this notion in the Bible. The passages (Psa 34:7; Mat 18:10) usually referred to in support of it have assuredly no such meaning. The former, divested of its poetical shape, simply denotes that God employs the ministry of angels to deliver his people from affliction and danger; and the celebrated passage in Matthew cannot well mean any thing more than that the infant children of believers, or, if preferable, the least among the disciples of Christ, whom the ministers of the Church might be disposed to neglect from their apparent insignificance, are in such estimation elsewhere that the angels do not think it below their dignity to minister to them. SEE SATAN. IV. Literature. For the Jewish speculations on Angelology, see Eisenmeriger, Entdecktes Judenthum, 2, 370 sq.; the Christian views on the subject may be found in Storr and Flatt’s Lehrbuch der Chr. Dogmatik, 48; Scriptural views respecting them are given in the American Biblical Repository, 12, 356-368; in the Bibliotheca Sacra, 1, 766 sq.; 2, 108 sq.; on the ministry of angels, see Journal Sac. Lit. January, 1852, p. 283 sq.; on their existence and character, ib. October, 1853, p. 122 sq. Special treatises are the following, among others: Loers, De angelorunm corporib. et natura (Tuisc. 1719, F. a. Rh. 1731); Goede, Demonstrationes de existentia corporum angelicor. (Hal. 1744); Hoffmann, Num angeli boni corpora hominum interdum obsideant (Viteb. 1760); Schulthess, Engelwelt, Engelgesetz u. Engeldienst (Zur. 1833); Cotta, Doctrince de Angelis historia (Tub. 1765); Damitz, De lapsu angelorum (Viteb. 1693); Wernsdorf, De commercio angelor. c. filiabus hominum (Viteb. 1742); Schmid, Enarratio de lapsu demonum (Viteb. 1775); Maior, De natura et cultu angelor. (Jen. 1653); Merheim, Hist. angelor. spec. (Viteb. 1792); Seiler, Erroner doctrinae de angelis (Erlang. 1797); Driessen, Angelor. corpa (Gron. 1740); Beyer, De Angelis (Hal. 1698); Carhov’s ed. of Abarbanel, De creatione angelorum (in Lat. Lpz. 1740); Mather, Angelography (Bost. 1696); Ambrose, Ministration of and Communion with Angels (in Works, p. 873); Camfield, Discourse of Angels (Lond. 1678); Lawrence, Communion and Warre with Angels (s. 1. 1646); Casman, Angelographia (Freft. 1597); Herrenschmidt, Theatrum angelorum (Jen. 1629); Clotz, Angelographia (Rost. 1636); Dorsche, Singularium angelicorum septenarius (Argent. 1645); Museus, Angelogia apostolica (Jen. 1664); Schmid, Senarius angelicus (Helmst. 1695); Meier, De archangelis (Hamb. 1695); Oporin, Lehre von den Engeln (ib.; 1735); Strodimann, Gute Engel (Guelph. 1744); Reuter, Reich des Teufels (Lemg. 1715); Nicolai, De gradibus nequitice diabolice (Magd. 1750); Herrera, De angelis (Salam. 1595); Grasse, Biblioth. magica (Lpz. 1843). SEE SPIRIT.

On the worship of angels, as practiced in the Roman Church, treatises exist in Latin by the following authors: AEpinus (Rost. 1757); Bechmann (Jen. 1661); Clotz (Rost. 1636); Osiander (Tubing. 1670); Pfeffinger (Argent. 1708, Helmst. 1731); Reusch (Helmnst. 1739); Schultze (Lips. 1703); Quistorp (Gryph. 1770); Thomasius, in his Dissert. p. 89-103; Wildvogel (Jen. 1692); Willisch (Lips. 1723). SEE INVOCATION.

Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature

Angel

a word signifying, both in the Hebrew and Greek, a “messenger,” and hence employed to denote any agent God sends forth to execute his purposes. It is used of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14: 1 Sam. 11:3; Luke 7:24; 9:52), of prophets (Isa. 42:19; Hag. 1:13), of priests (Mal. 2:7), and ministers of the New Testament (Rev. 1:20).

It is also applied to such impersonal agents as the pestilence (2 Sam. 24:16, 17; 2 Kings 19:35), the wind (Ps. 104:4).

But its distinctive application is to certain heavenly intelligences whom God employs in carrying on his government of the world. The name does not denote their nature but their office as messengers. The appearances to Abraham at Mamre (Gen. 18:2, 22. Comp. 19:1), to Jacob at Peniel (Gen. 32:24, 30), to Joshua at Gilgal (Josh. 5:13, 15), of the Angel of the Lord, were doubtless manifestations of the Divine presence, “foreshadowings of the incarnation,” revelations before the “fulness of the time” of the Son of God.

(1.) The existence and orders of angelic beings can only be discovered from the Scriptures. Although the Bible does not treat of this subject specially, yet there are numerous incidental details that furnish us with ample information. Their personal existence is plainly implied in such passages as Gen. 16:7, 10, 11; Judg. 13:1-21; Matt. 28:2-5; Heb. 1:4, etc.

These superior beings are very numerous. “Thousand thousands,” etc. (Dan. 7:10; Matt. 26:53; Luke 2:13; Heb. 12:22, 23). They are also spoken of as of different ranks in dignity and power (Zech. 1:9, 11; Dan. 10:13; 12:1; 1 Thess. 4:16; Jude 1:9; Eph. 1:21; Col. 1:16).

(2.) As to their nature, they are spirits (Heb. 1:14), like the soul of man, but not incorporeal. Such expressions as “like the angels” (Luke 20:36), and the fact that whenever angels appeared to man it was always in a human form (Gen. 18:2; 19:1, 10; Luke 24:4; Acts 1:10), and the titles that are applied to them (“sons of God,” Job 1:6; 38:7; Dan. 3:25; comp. 28) and to men (Luke 3:38), See m all to indicate some resemblance between them and the human race. Imperfection is ascribed to them as creatures (Job 4:18; Matt. 24:36; 1 Pet. 1:12). As finite creatures they may fall under temptation; and accordingly we read of “fallen angels.” Of the cause and manner of their “fall” we are wholly ignorant. We know only that “they left their first estate” (Matt. 25:41; Rev. 12:7, 9), and that they are “reserved unto judgement” (2 Pet. 2:4). When the manna is called “angels’ food,” this is merely to denote its excellence (Ps. 78:25). Angels never die (Luke 20:36). They are possessed of superhuman intelligence and power (Mark 13:32; 2 Thess. 1:7; Ps. 103:20). They are called “holy” (Luke 9:26), “elect” (1 Tim. 5:21). The redeemed in glory are “like unto the angels” (Luke 20:36). They are not to be worshipped (Col. 2:18; Rev. 19:10).

(3.) Their functions are manifold. (a) In the widest sense they are agents of God’s providence (Ex. 12:23; Ps. 104:4; Heb. 11:28; 1 Cor. 10:10; 2 Sam. 24:16; 1 Chr. 21:16; 2 Kings 19:35; Acts 12:23). (b) They are specially God’s agents in carrying on his great work of redemption. There is no notice of angelic appearances to man till after the call of Abraham. From that time onward there are frequent references to their ministry on earth (Gen. 18; 19; 24:7, 40; 28:12; 32:1). They appear to rebuke idolatry (Judg. 2:1-4), to call Gideon (Judg. 6:11, 12), and to consecrate Samson (13:3). In the days of the prophets, from Samuel downward, the angels appear only in their behalf (1 Kings 19:5; 2 Kings 6:17; Zech. 1-6; Dan. 4:13, 23; 10:10, 13, 20, 21).

The Incarnation introduces a new era in the ministrations of angels. They come with their Lord to earth to do him service while here. They predict his advent (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:26-38), minister to him after his temptation and agony (Matt. 4:11; Luke 22:43), and declare his resurrection and ascension (Matt. 28:2-8; John 20:12, 13; Acts 1:10, 11). They are now ministering spirits to the people of God (Heb. 1:14; Ps. 34:7; 91:11; Matt. 18:10; Acts 5:19; 8:26; 10:3; 12:7; 27:23). They rejoice over a penitent sinner (Luke 15:10). They bear the souls of the redeemed to paradise (Luke 16:22); and they will be the ministers of judgement hereafter on the great day (Matt. 13:39, 41, 49; 16:27; 24:31). The passages (Ps. 34:7, Matt. 18:10) usually referred to in support of the idea that every individual has a particular guardian angel have no such meaning. They merely indicate that God employs the ministry of angels to deliver his people from affliction and danger, and that the angels do not think it below their dignity to minister even to children and to the least among Christ’s disciples.

The “angel of his presence” (Isa. 63:9. Comp. Ex. 23:20, 21; 32:34; 33:2; Num. 20:16) is probably rightly interpreted of the Messiah as the guide of his people. Others have supposed the expression to refer to Gabriel (Luke 1:19).

Fuente: Easton’s Bible Dictionary

Angel

ANGEL

1. Old Testament.That in the OT the existence of angels is taken for granted, and that therefore no account of their origin is given, is to be explained by the fact that belief in them is based upon an earlier Animism,* [Note: This view is supported by the various names in the OT for angels, and their varied functions (see below).] such as is common to all races in the pre-polytheistic stage of culture. The whole material for the development of Israelite angelology was at hand ready to be used. It must therefore not cause surprise if we find that in its earlier stages the differentiation between Jahweh and angels should be one of degree rather than of kind (see Angel of the Lord). This is clearly brought out in the earliest of the Biblical documents (J [Note: Jahwist.] ), e.g. in Gen 18:1-33; here Jahweh is one of three who are represented as companions, Jahweh taking the leading position, though equal honour is shown to all; that the two men with Jahweh are angels is directly asserted in Gen 19:1, where we are told that they went to Sodom, after it had been said in Gen 18:33 that Jahweh went his way. Moreover, Jahwehs original identity with an angel, according to the early Hebrew conception, is distinctly seen by comparing, for example, such a passage as Exo 3:2 with Exo 3:4; in the former it is the angel of the Lord who appears in the burning bush, in the latter it is God; there is, furthermore, direct identification in Gen 16:10; Gen 16:13; Gen 21:17 ff. In the earliest document in which angels are mentioned (J [Note: Jahwist.] ) they appear only by twos or threes, in the later document (E [Note: Elohist.] ) they appear in greater numbers (Gen 28:12; Gen 32:1-2); this is just what is to be expected, for J [Note: Jahwist.] , the earlier document, represents Jahweh in a less exalted form, who Himself comes down to earth, and personally carries out His purposes; by degrees, however, more exalted conceptions of Him obtain, especially as the conception of His characteristic of holiness becomes realized, so that His presence among men comes to appear incongruous and unfitting, and His activity is delegated to His messengers or angels (see Angel of the Lord).

(a) The English word angel is too specific for the Hebrew (malakh) for which it is the usual equivalent; for in the Hebrew it is used in reference to men (e.g. Gen 32:4 (3), Deu 2:26, Jdg 6:35, Isa 33:7, Mal 1:1), as well as to superhuman beings. Besides the word malakh there are several other expressions used for what would come under the category of angels, viz.: sons of God (bene elohim),* [Note: Cf. the analogous expression sons of the prophets (ben nebm).] Gen 6:2; Gen 6:4; sons of the mighty (bene elim), Psa 89:7 (8), Psa 29:1; mighty ones (gibborim), JL 4:11 (Joe 3:11 EV [Note: English Version.] ); the holy ones (qedoshim), Zec 14:5; keepers (shmerim), Isa 62:6; watchers (irim), Dan 4:14 (17). There are also the three expressions: the host of Jahweh (zeba Jahweh), Jos 5:14; the host of the height (zeba marom), Isa 24:21; the host of heaven (zeba shamaim), Deu 17:3 (see also Cherubim, Seraphim).

(b) Angels are represented as appearing in human form, and as having many human characteristics: they speak like men (1Ki 19:5); they eat (Gen 18:8); they fight (Gen 32:1, JL 4:11, (Joe 3:11), cf. 2Sa 5:24); they possess wisdom, with which that of men is compared (2Sa 14:17; 2Sa 14:20); they have imperfections (Job 4:18). On the other hand, they can become Invisible (2Ki 6:17, Psa 104:4), and they can fly, if, as appears to be the case, seraphim are to be included under the category of angels (Isa 6:8).

(c) The functions of angels may be briefly summarized thus: they guide men, e.g. an angel guides the children of Israel on their way to the promised land (Exo 23:20 ff., see below), and it is by the guidance of an angel that Abrahams servant goes in quest of a wife for Isaac (Gen 24:7; Gen 24:40); in Job 33:23 an angel guides a man in what is right; [Note: The word used in this passage is not the usual one for angel, though its sense of messenger (mlz) is the same as that of malkh.] they are more especially the guides of the prophets (1Ki 13:18; 1Ki 19:5 ff., 2Ki 1:3; 2Ki 1:15, Zec 1:9); they bring evil and destruction upon men (2Sa 24:16-17, 2Ki 19:35, Psa 35:6; Psa 78:49, Job 33:22; in Pro 16:14 the wrath of a king is likened to angels of death); on the other hand, they are the protectors of men (Psa 34:8, (7), Psa 91:11), and save them from destruction (Gen 19:15 ff.); their power is superhuman (2Ki 6:17, [Note: Though not specifically stated, angels are obviously referred to here.] cf. Zec 12:8); they report to God what is going on upon the earth (Job 1:6; Job 2:1), for which purpose they are represented as riding on horseback (Zec 1:8-10, cf. Psa 18:11 (10), Isa 19:1 [Note: Cf. the Walkre in Teutonic mythology.] ); their chief duty above is that of praising God (Gen 28:12, Psa 103:20). Angelic beings seem to be referred to as watchmen in Isa 62:6 and Dan 4:14 (17). An early mythological element regarding angels is perhaps re-echoed in such passages as Jdg 5:20, Isa 40:25-26, and elsewhere.

(d) In Ezekiel, angels, under this designation, are never mentioned, though the angelology of this book ehows considerable development; other names are given to them, but their main function, viz. messengers of God, is the same as in the earlier books; for example, in Eze 2:2 it is a spirit, instead of an angel, who acts as an intermediary being, see, too, Eze 3:12 ff., Eze 11:5 ff.; in Eze 8:1 ff., Eze 40:1 a vision is attributed to the hand of the Lord; in Eze 40:3 ff., it is a man of a supernatural kind who instructs the prophet; and again, in Eze 9:5 ff., men, though clearly not of human kind (see Eze 9:11), destroy the wicked in Jerusalem. In Ezk., as well as in Zec., angels take up a very definite position of intermediate beings between God and man, one of their chief functions being that of interpreting visions which Divine action creates in the mind of men; in both these books angels are called men, and in both the earlier idea of the Angel of the Lord has its counterpart in the prominent position taken up by some particular angel who is the interpreter of visions. In Zec. different orders of angels are for the first time mentioned (Eze 2:3-4, Eze 3:1-6, Eze 4:1). In Daniel there is a further development; the angels are termed watchers (Dan 4:13; Dan 4:17), and princes (Dan 10:13); they have names, e.g. Michael (Dan 10:13, Eze 12:1), Gabriel (Dan 8:16), and there are special angels (princes) who fight for special nations (Dan 10:20-21). As in Zec. so in Daniel there are different orders among the angels, but in the latter book the different categories are more fully developed.

In the attitude taken up in these later books we may see the link between the earlier belief and its development in post-Biblical Jewish literature. The main factors which contributed to this development were, firstly, Babylon; during the Captivity, Babylonian influence upon the Jews asserted itself in this as well as in other respects; according to Jewish tradition the names of the angels came from Babylon. Secondly, Persian influence was of a marked character in post-exilic times; the Zoroastrian belief that Ormuzd had a host of pure angels of light who surrounded him and fulfilled his commands, was a ready-made development of the Jewish belief, handed down from much earlier times, that angels were the messengers of Jahweh. Later still, a certain amount of Greek influence was also exercised upon Jewish angelology.

2. The Apocrypha.Some of the characteristics of angels here are identical with some of those found in the OT, viz.: they appear in human form (2Es 1:40), they speak like men (To 2Es 5:6 ff.), they guide men (2Es 5:21), they bring destruction upon men (1Ma 7:41-42); on the other hand, they heal men (Tob 3:17), their power is superhuman (Tob 12:19, Bel 34ff., Three 26), and they praise God (2Es 8:21, Three 37). The angelology of the Apocrypha is, however, far more closely allied to that of Ezk., Zec., and Daniel than the angelology of these to that of the rest of the OT; this will be clearly seen by enumerating briefly the main characteristics of angels as portrayed in the Apocrypha.

In 2 Esdras an angel frequently appears as an instructor of heavenly things; thus in 2Es 10:28 an angel causes Esdras to fall into a trance in order to receive instruction in spiritual matters; in 2Es 2:42, after an angel has instructed Esdras, the latter is commanded to tell others what he had learned; sometimes an angel is identified with God, e.g. in 2Es 5:40-41, 2Es 7:3, but usually there is very distinct differentiation; sometimes the angel seems almost to be the alter ego of Esdras, arguing with himself (cf. 2Es 5:21-22, 2Es 12:3 ff.). In Tob 12:6-15 there are some important details,here an angel instructs in manner of life, but more striking is the teaching that he brings to remembrance before God the prayers of the faithful, and that he superintends the burial of the dead;* [Note: Cf., in Egyptian belief, the similar functions of Isis and Nephthys.] he has a name, Raphael, [Note: Names of angels occur also in 2 Esdras, viz.: Jeremiel (2Es 4:36), Phaltiel (2Es 5:16), and Uriel (2Es 10:28).] and is one of the seven holy angels (archangels) who present the prayers of the saints, and who go constantly in and out before the presence of God; that there are ranks among the angels is thus taught here more categorically than in the later Biblical books. Further, the idea of guardian-angels is characteristic of the Apocrypha; that individuals have their guardian-angels is clearly implied in To Tob 5:21, that armies have such is taught in 2Ma 11:6; 2Ma 15:23, while in 2Ma 3:25 ff. occurs a Jewish counterpart of the Roman legend of Castor and Pollux; there is possibly, in Sir 17:17, an indication that nations also have their guardian-angels;* [Note: Cf. this idea in the case of the Angel of the Lord (which see.)] if so, it would be the lineal descendant of the early Israelite belief in national gods. The dealings of angels with men are of a very varied character, for besides the details already enumerated, we have these further points: in Bar 6:3 ff. an angel is to be the means whereby the Israelites in Babylon shall be helped to withstand the temptation to worship the false gods of the land; in To Bar 6:7; Bar 6:16-17 an angel describes a method whereby an evil spirit may be driven away; in Bar 6:8 an angel gives a remedy for healing blindness; in Bel 34ff. an angel takes the prophet Habakkuk by the hair and carries him from Judah to Babylonia, in order that he may share his dinner with Daniel in the lions den; and, once more, in Three 26, 27 an angel smites the flame of the furnace into which the three heroes had been cast, and makes a cool wind to blow in its place (cf. Dan 3:23 ff.).

It will thus be seen that the activities of angels are, according to the Apocrypha, of a very varied character. One further important fact remains to be noted: they are almost invariably the benefactors of man, their power far transcends that of man, sometimes an angel is identified with God, yet in spite of this, with one possible exception, 2Ma 4:10-13, no worship is ever offered to them; this is true also of the OT, excepting when an angel is identified with Jahweh; in the NT there is at least one case of the worship of an angel, Rev 22:8-9, cf. Col 2:18. The angelology of the Apocrypha is expanded to an almost unlimited extent in later Jewish writings, more especially in the Book of Enoch, in the Targums, and in the Talmud; but with these we are not concerned here.

3. New Testament.(a) In the Gospels it is necessary to differentiate between what is said by Christ Himself on the subject and what is narrated by the Evangelists. Christs teaching regarding angels may be summed up thus: Their dwelling-place is in heaven (Mat 18:10, Luk 12:8-9, Joh 1:51); they are superior to men, but in the world to come the righteous shall be on an equality with them (Luk 20:36); they carry away the souls of the righteous to a place of rest (Luk 16:22); they are (as seems to be implied) of neither sex (Mat 22:30); they are very numerous (Mat 26:53); they will appear with Christ at His second coming [it is in connexion with this that most of Christs references to angels are made Mat 13:39; Mat 16:27; Mat 24:31; Mat 25:31, Mar 8:38, Luk 9:26, cf. Joh 1:51]; there are bad as well as good angels (Mat 25:41), though it is usually of the latter that mention is made; they are limited in knowledge (Mat 24:36); there are guardian-angels of children (Mat 18:10); they rejoice at the triumph of good (Luk 15:10). Turning to the Evangelists, we find that the main function of angels is to deliver Gods messages to men (e.g. Mat 1:20; Mat 2:10; Mat 28:5, Luk 1:28; Luk 24:23). On only one occasion are angels brought into direct contact with Christ (Mat 4:11, with the parallel passage Mar 1:13), and it is noteworthy that in the corresponding verse in the Third Gospel (Luk 4:13) there is no mention of angels. Thus the main differences between Christs teaching on angels and that which went before are that they are not active among men, their abode and their work are rather in the realms above; they are not the intermediaries between God and men, for it is either Christ Himself, or the Holy Spirit, who speaks directly to men; much emphasis is laid on their presence with Christ at His second coming. On the other hand, the earlier belief is reflected in the Gospel angelophanles, which are a marked characteristic of the Nativity and Resurrection narratives; though here, too, a distinct and significant difference is found in that the angel is always clearly differentiated from God.

(b) In the Acts there seems to be a return to the earlier beliefs, angelic appearances to men being frequently mentioned (Act 5:19; Act 7:30; Act 11:13; Act 12:8; etc.); their activity in the affairs of men is in somewhat startling contrast with the silence of Christ on the subject. It is possible that most of the references in the Acts will permit of an explanation in the direction of the angelical appearances being subjective visions (e.g. Act 8:26, Act 10:3, Act 27:23-24); but such occurrences as are recorded in Act 5:19-20, Act 12:7 (both belonging to the Petrine ministry) would require a different explanation; while that mentioned in Act 12:23 would seem to be the popular explanation of an event which could easily be accounted for now in other ways. The mention, in Act 12:15, of what is called St. Peters angel gives some insight into the current popular views concerning angels; it seems clear that a distinction was made between an angel and a spirit (Act 23:8-9).

(c) In the Pauline Epistles the origin of angels is stated to be their creation by Christ (Col 1:16); as in the Acts, they are concerned with the affairs of men (1Co 4:9; 1Co 11:10, Rom 8:38, 1Ti 5:21); at the same time St. Paul emphasizes the teaching of Christ that God speaks to men directly, and not through the intermediacy of angels (Gal 1:12, cf. Act 9:5); in Col 2:18 a warning against the worshipping of angels is uttered, with which compare the worshipping of demons in 1Co 10:21; in accordance with Christs teaching St. Paul speaks of the presence of angels at the Second Coming (2Th 1:7).

(d) In the Ep. to the Hebrews the standpoint, as would be expected, is that of the OT, while in the Apocalypse the angelology is that common to other apocalyptic literature (cf. also the archangel of Jud 1:9).

W. O. E. Oesterley.

Fuente: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible

Angel

An order of beings with whom we are but little acquainted; and yet, in whose ministry the heirs of salvation are much concerned. (Heb 1:14) In Scripture we meet with many accounts of them. The Lord Jesus Christ himself is called the Angel or Messenger of the covenant. And his servants are called by the same name. But then, it should always be remembered, that these names, to both the Lord and his people, are wholly meant as messengers; for it is a sweet as well as an important truth, that Christ is no angel; “for verily he took not on him the nature of angels.” (Heb 2:16) So that as God, he is no angel; neither as man. I conceive, that it is highly important always to keep the remembrance of this alive in the mind. And that his people are no angels, they need not be told, for they are sinners; and they know themselves to be redeemed sinners, redeemed from among men. In the upper, brighter world, it is said that they shall be as the angels: that is, in glory and in happiness. But still men, and not angels, united to their glorious Head as the members of his mystical body to all eternity. (Exo 23:20; Zec 1:12; Mal 3:1; Mat 22:30 and Mat 25:41; Rev 2:1).

Fuente: The Poor Mans Concordance and Dictionary to the Sacred Scriptures

Angel

anjel (, mal’akh; Septuagint and New Testament, , aggelos):

I.Definition and Scripture Terms

II.Angels in Old Testament

1.Nature, Appearances and Functions

2.The Angelic Host

3.The Angel of the Theophany

III.Angels in New Testament

1.Appearances

2.The Teaching of Jesus about Angels

3.Other New Testament References

IV.Development of the Doctrine

V.The Reality of Angels

Literature

I. Definition and Scripture Terms

The word angel is applied in Scripture to an order of supernatural or heavenly beings whose business it is to act as God’s messengers to men, and as agents who carry out His will. Both in Hebrew and Greek the word is applied to human messengers (1Ki 19:2; Luk 7:24); in Hebrew it is used in the singular to denote a Divine messenger, and in the plural for human messengers, although there are exceptions to both usages. It is applied to the prophet Haggai (Hag 1:13), to the priest (Mal 2:7), and to the messenger who is to prepare the way of the Lord (Mal 3:1). Other Hebrew words and phrases applied to angels are bene ha-‘elohm (Gen 6:2, Gen 6:4; Job 1:6; Job 2:1) and bene ‘elm (Psa 29:1; Psa 89:6), i.e. sons of the ‘elohm or ‘elm; this means, according to a common Hebrew usage, members of the class called ‘elohm or ‘elm, the heavenly powers. It seems doubtful whether the word ‘elohm, standing by itself, is ever used to describe angels, although Septuagint so translates it in a few passages. The most notable instance is Psa 8:5; where the Revised Version (British and American) gives, Thou hast made him but little lower than God, with the English Revised Version, margin reading of the angels for God (compare Heb 2:7, Heb 2:9); kedhoshm holy ones (Psa 89:5, Psa 89:7), a name suggesting the fact that they belong to God; r, rm, watcher, watchers (Dan 4:13, Dan 4:17, Dan 4:23). Other expressions are used to designate angels collectively: sodh, council (Psa 89:7), where the reference may be to an inner group of exalted angels; edhah and kahal, congregation (Psa 82:1; Psa 89:5); and finally cabha’, cebha’oth, host, hosts, as in the familiar phrase the God of hosts.

In New Testament the word aggelos, when it refers to a Divine messenger, is frequently accompanied by some phrase which makes this meaning clear, e.g. the angels of heaven (Mat 24:36). Angels belong to the heavenly host (Luk 2:13). In reference to their nature they are called spirits (Heb 1:14). Paul evidently referred to the ordered ranks of supra-mundane beings in a group of words that are found in various combinations, namely, archa, principalities, exousai, powers, thronoi, thrones, kuriotetes, dominions, and dunameis, also translated powers. The first four are apparently used in a good sense in Col 1:16, where it is said that all these beings were created through Christ and unto Him; in most of the other passages in which words from this group occur, they seem to represent evil powers. We are told that our wrestling is against them (Eph 6:12), and that Christ triumphs over the principalities and powers (Col 2:15; compare Rom 8:38; 1Co 15:24). In two passages the word archaggelos, archangel or chief angel, occurs: the voice of the archangel (1Th 4:16), and Michael the archangel (Jud 1:9).

II. Angels in Old Testament

1. Nature, Appearances and Functions

Everywhere in the Old Testament the existence of angels is assumed. The creation of angels is referred to in Psa 148:2, Psa 148:5 (compare Col 1:16). They were present at the creation of the world, and were so filled with wonder and gladness that they shouted for joy (Job 38:7). Of their nature we are told nothing. In general they are simply regarded as embodiments of their mission. Though presumably the holiest of created beings, they are charged by God with folly (Job 4:18), and we are told that he putteth no trust in his holy ones (Job 15:15). References to the fall of the angels are only found in the obscure and probably corrupt passage Gen 6:1-4, and in the interdependent passages 2Pe 2:4 and Jud 1:6, which draw their inspiration from the Apocryphal book of Enoch. Demons are mentioned (see DEMONS); and although Satan appears among the sons of God (Job 1:6; Job 2:1), there is a growing tendency in later writers to attribute to him a malignity that is all his own (see SATAN).

As to their outward appearance, it is evident that they bore the human form, and could at times be mistaken for men (Eze 9:2; Gen 18:2, Gen 18:16). There is no hint that they ever appeared in female form. The conception of angels as winged beings, so familiar in Christian art, finds no support in Scripture (except, perhaps Dan 9:21; Rev 14:6, where angels are represented as flying). The cherubim and seraphim (see CHERUB; SERAPHIM) are represented as winged (Exo 25:20; Isa 6:2); winged also are the symbolic living creatures of Ezek (Eze 1:6; compare Rev 4:8).

As above stated, angels are messengers and instruments of the Divine will. As a rule they exercise no influence in the physical sphere. In several instances, however, they are represented as destroying angels: two angels are commissioned to destroy Sodom (Gen 19:13); when David numbers the people, an angel destroys them by pestilence (2Sa 24:16); it is by an angel that the Assyrian army is destroyed (2Ki 19:35); and Ezekiel hears six angels receiving the command to destroy those who were sinful in Jerusalem (Eze 9:1, Eze 9:5, Eze 9:7). In this connection should be noted the expression angels of evil, i.e. angels that bring evil upon men from God and execute His judgments (Psa 78:49; compare 1Sa 16:14). Angels appear to Jacob in dreams (Gen 28:12; Gen 31:11). The angel who meets Balaam is visible first to the ass, and not to the rider (Nu 22ff). Angels interpret God’s will, showing man what is right for him (Job 33:23). The idea of angels as caring for men also appears (Psa 91:11 f), although the modern conception of the possession by each man of a special guardian angel is not found in Old Testament.

2. The Angelic Host

The phrase the host of heaven is applied to the stars, which were sometimes worshipped by idolatrous Jews (Jer 33:22; 2Ki 21:3; Zep 1:5); the name is applied to the company of angels because of their countless numbers (compare Dan 7:10) and their glory. They are represented as standing on the right and left hand of Yahweh (1Ki 22:19). Hence God, who is over them all, is continually called throughout Old Testament the God of hosts, Yahweh of hosts, Yahweh God of hosts; and once the prince of the host (Dan 8:11). One of the principal functions of the heavenly host is to be ever praising the name of the Lord (Psa 103:21; Psa 148:1 f). In this host there are certain figures that stand out prominently, and some of them are named. The angel who appears to Joshua calls himself prince of the host of Yahweh (Jos 5:14 f). The glorious angel who interprets to Daniel the vision which he saw in the third year of Cyrus (Dan 10:5), like the angel who interprets the vision in the first year of Belshazzar (Dan 7:16), is not named; but other visions of the same prophet were explained to him by the angel Gabriel, who is called the man Gabriel, and is described as speaking with a man’s voice (Dan 9:21; Dan 8:15 f). In Daniel we find occasional reference made to princes: the prince of Persia, the prince of Greece (Dan 10:20). These are angels to whom is entrusted the charge of, and possibly the rule over, certain peoples. Most notable among them is Michael, described as one of the chief princes, the great prince who standeth for the children of thy people, and, more briefly, your prince (Dan 10:13; Dan 12:1; Dan 10:21); Michael is therefore regarded as the patron-angel of the Jews. In Apocrypha Raphael, Uriel and Jeremiel are also named. Of Raphael it is said (Tobit 12:15) that he is one of the seven holy angels who present the prayers of the saints to God (compare Rev 8:2, the seven angels that stand before God). It is possible that this group of seven is referred to in the above-quoted phrase, one of the chief princes. Some (notably Kosters) have maintained that the expressions the sons of the ‘elohm, God’s council and congregation, refer to the ancient gods of the heathen, now degraded and wholly subordinated to Yahweh. This rather daring speculation has little support in Scripture; but we find traces of a belief that the patron-angels of the nations have failed in establishing righteousness within their allotted sphere on earth, and that they will accordingly be punished by Yahweh their over-Lord (Isa 24:21 f; Psa 82:1-8; compare Psa 58:1 f the Revised Version, margin; compare Jud 1:6).

3. The Angel of the Theophany

This angel is spoken of as the angel of Yahweh, and the angel of the presence (or face) of Yahweh. The following passages contain references to this angel: Gen 16:7 – the angel and Hagar; Gen 18 – Abraham intercedes with the angel for Sodom; Gen 22:11 – the angel interposes to prevent the sacrifice of Isaac; Gen 24:7, Gen 24:40 – Abraham sends Eliezer and promises the angel’s protection; Gen 31:11 – the angel who appears to Jacob says I am the God of Beth-el; Gen 32:24 – Jacob wrestles with the angel and says, I have seen God face to face; Gen 48:15 f – Jacob speaks of God and the angel as identical; Ex 3 (compare Act 7:30) – the angel appears to Moses in the burning bush; Exo 13:21; Exo 14:19 (compare Num 20:16) – God or the angel leads Israel out of Egypt; Exo 23:20 – the people are commanded to obey the angel; Ex 32:34 through 33:17 (compare Isa 63:9) – Moses pleads for the presence of God with His people; Josh 5:13 through 6:2 – the angel appears to Joshua; Jdg 2:1-5 – the angel speaks to the people; Jdg 6:11 – the angel appears to Gideon.

A study of these passages shows that while the angel and Yahweh are at times distinguished from each other, they are with equal frequency, and in the same passages, merged into each other. How is this to be explained? It is obvious that these apparitions cannot be the Almighty Himself, whom no man hath seen, or can see. In seeking the explanation, special attention should be paid to two of the passages above cited. In Exo 23:20 God promises to send an angel before His people to lead them to the promised land; they are commanded to obey him and not to provoke him for he will not pardon your transgression: for my name is in him. Thus the angel can forgive sin, which only God can do, because God’s name, i.e. His character and thus His authority, are in the angel. Further, in the passage Ex 32:34 through 33:17 Moses intercedes for the people after their first breach of the covenant; God responds by promising, Behold mine angel shall go before thee; and immediately after God says, I will not go up in the midst of thee. In answer to further pleading, God says, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest. Here a clear distinction is made between an ordinary angel, and the angel who carries with him God’s presence. The conclusion may be summed up in the words of Davidson in his Old Testament Theology: In particular providences one may trace the presence of Yahweh in influence and operation; in ordinary angelic appearances one may discover Yahweh present on some side of His being, in some attribute of His character; in the angel of the Lord He is fully present as the covenant God of His people, to redeem them. The question still remains, Who is theophanic angel? To this many answers have been given, of which the following may be mentioned: (1) This angel is simply an angel with a special commission; (2) He may be a momentary descent of God into visibility; (3) He may be the Logos, a kind of temporary preincarnation of the second person of the Trinity. Each has its difficulties, but the last is certainly the most tempting to the mind. Yet it must be remembered that at best these are only conjectures that touch on a great mystery. It is certain that from the beginning God used angels in human form, with human voices, in order to communicate with man; and the appearances of the angel of the Lord, with his special redemptive relation to God’s people, show the working of that Divine mode of self-revelation which culminated in the coming of the Saviour, and are thus a fore-shadowing of, and a preparation for, the full revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Further than this, it is not safe to go.

III. Angels in New Testament

1. Appearances

Nothing is related of angels in New Testament which is inconsistent with the teaching of Old Testament on the subject. Just as they are specially active in the beginning of Old Testament history, when God’s people is being born, so they appear frequently in connection with the birth of Jesus, and again when a new order of things begins with the resurrection. An angel appears three times in dreams to Joseph (Mat 1:20; Mat 2:13, Mat 2:19). The angel Gabriel appears to Zacharias, and then to Mary in the annunciation (Lk 1). An angel announces to the shepherds the birth of Jesus, and is joined by a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God in celestial song (Luk 2:8). When Jesus is tempted, and again during the agony at Gethsemane, angels appear to Him to strengthen His soul (Mat 4:11; Luk 22:43). The verse which tells how an angel came down to trouble the pool (Joh 5:4) is now omitted from the text as not being genuine. An angel descends to roll away the stone from the tomb of Jesus (Mat 28:2); angels are seen there by certain women (Luk 24:23) and (two) by Mary Magdalene (Joh 20:12). An angel releases the apostles from prison, directs Philip, appears to Peter in a dream, frees him from prison, smites Herod with sickness, appears to Paul in a dream (Act 5:19; Act 8:26; Act 10:3; Act 12:7; Act 12:23; Act 27:23). Once they appear clothed in white; they are so dazzling in appearance as to terrify beholders; hence they begin their message with the words Fear not (Mat 28:2-5).

2. The Teaching of Jesus About Angels

It is quite certain that our Lord accepted the main teachings of Old Testament about angels, as well as the later Jewish belief in good and bad angels. He speaks of the angels in heaven (Mat 22:30), and of the devil and his angels (Mat 25:41). According to our Lord the angels of God are holy (Mar 8:38); they have no sex or sensuous desires (Mat 22:30); they have high intelligence, but they know not the time of the Second Coming (Mat 24:36); they carry (in a parable) the soul of Lazarus to Abraham’s bosom (Luk 16:22); they could have been summoned to the aid of our Lord, had He so desired (Mat 26:53); they will accompany Him at the Second Coming (Mat 25:31) and separate the righteous from the wicked (Mat 13:41, Mat 13:49). They watch with sympathetic eyes the fortunes of men, rejoicing in the repentance of a sinner (Luk 15:10; compare 1Pe 1:12; Eph 3:10; 1Co 4:9); and they will hear the Son of Man confessing or denying those who have confessed or denied Him before men (Luk 12:8 f). The angels of the presence of God, who do not appear to correspond to our conception of guardian angels, are specially interested in God’s little ones (Mat 18:10). Finally, the existence of angels is implied in the Lord’s Prayer in the petition, Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth (Mat 6:10).

3. Other New Testament References

Paul refers to the ranks of angels (principalities, powers etc.) only in order to emphasize the complete supremacy of Jesus Christ. He teaches that angels will be judged by the saints (1Co 6:3). He attacks the incipient Gnosticism of Asia Minor by forbidding the, worship of angels (Col 2:18). He speaks of God’s angels as elect, because they are included in the counsels of Divine love (1Ti 5:21). When Paul commands the women to keep their heads covered in church because of the angels (1Co 11:10) he probably means that the angels, who watch all human affairs with deep interest, would be pained to see any infraction of the laws of modesty. In Heb 1:14 angels are (described as ministering spirits engaged in the service of the saints. Peter also emphasizes the supremacy of our Lord over all angelic beings (1Pe 3:22). The references to angels in 2 Peter and Jude are colored by contact with Apocrypha literature. In Revelation, where the references are obviously symbolic, there is very frequent mention of angels. The angels of the seven churches (Rev 1:20) are the guardian angels or the personifications of these churches. The worship of angels is also forbidden (Rev 22:8 f). Specially interesting is the mention of elemental angels – the angel of the waters (Rev 16:5), and the angel that hath power over fire (Rev 14:18; compare Rev 7:1; Rev 19:17). Reference is also made to the angel of the bottomless pit, who is called ABADDON or APOLLYON (which see), evidently an evil angel (Rev 9:11 the King James Version, the Revised Version (British and American) abyss). In Rev 12:7 we are told that there was war between Michael with his angels and the dragon with his angels.

IV. Development of the Doctrine

In the childhood of the race it was easy to believe in God, and He was very near to the soul. In Paradise there is no thought of angels; it is God Himself who walks in the garden. A little later the thought of angels appears, but, God has not gone away, and as the angel of Yahweh He appears to His people and redeems them. In these early times the Jews believed that there were multitudes of angels, not yet divided in thought into good and bad; these had no names or personal characteristics, but were simply embodied messages. Till the time of the captivity the Jewish angelology shows little development. During that dark period they came into close contact with a polytheistic people, only to be more deeply confirmed in their monotheism thereby. They also became acquainted with the purer faith of the Persians, and in all probability viewed the tenets of Zoroastrianism with a more favorable eye, because of the great kindness of Cyrus to their nation. There are few direct traces of Zoroastrianism in the later angelology of the Old Testament. It is not even certain that the number seven as applied to the highest group of angels is Persian in its origin; the number seven was not wholly disregarded by the Jews. One result of the contact was that the idea of a hierarchy of the angels was more fully developed. The conception in Dan of angels as watchers, and the idea of patron-princes or angel-guardians of nations may be set down to Persian influence. It is probable that contact with the Persians helped the Jews to develop ideas already latent in their minds. According to Jewish tradition, the names of the angels came from Babylon. By this time the consciousness of sin had grown more intense in the Jewish mind, and God had receded to an immeasurable distance; the angels helped to fill the gap between God and man.

The more elaborate conceptions of Daniel and Zechariah are further developed in Apocrypha, especially in 2 Esdras, Tobit and 2 Macc.

In the New Testament we find that there is little further development; and by the Spirit of God its writers were saved from the absurdly puerile teachings of contemporary Rabbinism. We find that the Sadducees, as contrasted with the Pharisees, did not believe in angels or spirits (Act 23:8). We may conclude that the Sadducees, with their materialistic standpoint, and denial of the resurrection, regarded angels merely as symbolical expressions of God’s actions. It is noteworthy in this connection that the great priestly document (Priestly Code, P) makes no mention of angels. The Book of Revelation naturally shows a close kinship to the books of Ezekiel and Daniel.

Regarding the rabbinical developments of angelology, some beautiful, some extravagant, some grotesque, but all fanciful, it is not necessary here to speak. The Essenes held an esoteric doctrine of angels, in which most scholars find the germ of the Gnostic eons.

V. The Reality of Angels

A belief in angels, if not indispensable to the faith of a Christian, has its place there. In such a belief there is nothing unnatural or contrary to reason. Indeed, the warm welcome which human nature has always given to this thought, is an argument in its favor. Why should there not be such an order of beings, if God so willed it? For the Christian the whole question turns on the weight to be attached to the words of our Lord. All are agreed that He teaches the existence, reality, and activity of angelic beings. Was He in error because of His human limitations? That is a conclusion which it is very hard for the Christian to draw, and we may set it aside. Did He then adjust His teaching to popular belief, knowing that what He said was not true? This explanation would seem to impute deliberate untruth to our Lord, and must equally be set aside. So we find ourselves restricted to the conclusion that we have the guaranty of Christ’s word for the existence of angels; for most Christians that will settle the question.

The visible activity of angels has come to an end, because their mediating work is done; Christ has founded the kingdom of the Spirit, and God’s Spirit speaks directly to the spirit of man. This new and living way has been opened up to us by Jesus Christ, upon whom faith can yet behold the angels of God ascending and descending. Still they watch the lot of man, and rejoice in his salvation; still they join in the praise and adoration of God, the Lord of hosts, still can they be regarded as ministering spirits sent forth to do service for the sake of them that shall inherit salvation.

Literature

All Old Testament and New Testament theologies contain discussions. Among the older books Oehler’s Old Testament Theology and Hengstenberg’s Christology of Old Testament (for angel of Yahweh) and among modern ones Davidson’s Old Testament Theology are specially valuable. The ablest supporter of theory that the sons of the Elohim are degraded gods is Kosters. Het onstaan der Angelologie onder Israel, TT 1876. See also articles on Angel in HDB (by Davidson), EB, DCG, Jewish Encyclopedia, RE (by Cremer). Cremer’s Biblico-Theological New Testament Lexicon should be consulted under the word aggelos. For Jewish beliefs see also Edersheim’s Life and Times of Jesus, II, Appendix xiii. On the Pauline angelology see Everling, Die paulinische Angelologie. On the general subject see Godet, Biblical Studies; Mozley, The Word, chapter lix, and Latham, A Service of Angels.

Fuente: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

Angel (1)

A Celestial Spirit.

– Called Angel of the Lord

Mat 1:20; Mat 1:24; Mat 2:13; Mat 2:19; Mat 28:2; Luk 1:11; Act 5:19; Act 7:30; Act 7:35; Act 8:26; Act 12:7; Act 12:23

– Called Morning Stars

Job 38:7

– Called Hosts

Gen 2:1; Gen 32:2; Jos 5:14; 1Ch 12:22; Psa 33:6; Psa 103:21; Luk 2:13

– Called Principalities, Powers

Eph 3:10; Col 1:16

– Created

Gen 2:1; Neh 9:6; Col 1:16

– Of different orders

Isa 6:2; 1Th 4:16; 1Pe 3:22; Jud 1:9; Rev 12:7

– Immortal

Luk 20:36

– Worship God

Neh 9:6; Phi 2:9-11; Heb 1:6

– Not to be worshiped

Col 2:18; Rev 19:10; Rev 22:8-9

– Do not marry

Mat 22:30; Mar 12:25; Luk 20:35

– Are obedient

Psa 103:20; Mat 6:10; Luk 11:2; 1Pe 3:22; 2Pe 2:11; Jud 1:6

– Have knowledge of, and interest in, earthly affairs

Mat 24:36; Luk 9:31; Luk 15:7; Luk 15:10; 1Ti 5:21; 1Pe 1:12

– Men called angels

2Sa 19:27

– Are examples of meekness

2Pe 2:11; Jud 1:9

– Are:

b Wise

2Sa 14:17; 2Sa 14:20

b Mighty

Psa 103:20; 2Pe 2:11

b Holy

Mat 25:31; Mar 8:38

b Elect

1Ti 5:21

b Innumerable

Deu 33:2; 2Ki 6:17; Job 25:3; Psa 68:17; Heb 12:22; Jud 1:14

– Aspects of

Jdg 13:6; Isa 6:2; Dan 10:6; Mat 28:3

Functions of:

– Functions of:

Gen 3:24

– Law given by

Act 7:53; Gal 3:19; Heb 2:2

– Medium of revelation to prophets

2Ki 1:15; Dan 4:13-17; Dan 8:19; Dan 9:21-27; Dan 10:10-20; Zec 1:9-11; Act 8:26; Act 23:9; Gal 3:19; Heb 2:2; Rev 1:1; Rev 5:2-14; Rev 7:1-3; Rev 7:11-17; Rev 8:2-13; Rev 9; Rev 22:6; Rev 22:16

– Remonstrates with Balaam

Num 22:22-27

– Announces the birth of:

b Samson

Jud 1:13

b John the Baptist

Luk 1:11-20

b Jesus

Mat 1:20-21; Luk 1:28-38; Luk 2:7-15

– Warns Joseph to escape to Egypt

Mat 2:13

– Minister to Jesus after the temptation

Mat 4:11; Mar 1:13; Joh 1:51

– Ministers to Jesus during his passion

Luk 22:43

– Present at the tomb of Jesus

Mat 28:2-6

– Present at the ascension

Act 1:11

– Will be with Christ at his second coming

Mat 25:31; Mar 8:38; 2Th 1:7; Jud 1:14-15

– Will be with Christ at the judgment

Mat 13:39; Mat 13:41; Mat 13:49; Mat 16:27; Mat 24:31; Mat 25:31; Mar 13:27

Ministrant to the righteous

Gen 16:7; Gen 24:7; Gen 24:40; Exo 32:34; Exo 23:20; Exo 23:23; Exo 33:2; Num 20:16; 1Ki 19:5-8; 2Ch 18:18; Psa 34:7; Psa 68:17; 2Ki 6:17; Psa 91:11-12; Mat 4:6; Luk 4:10-11; Psa 104:4; Ecc 5:6; Isa 63:9; Dan 6:22; Dan 7:10; Luk 16:22; Joh 1:51; Joh 5:4; Act 5:19-20; Act 10:3-6; Act 12:7-10; Heb 1:7; Heb 1:14; Heb 13:2

Execute judgments upon the wicked

Gen 19:1-25; 2Sa 24:16-17; 1Ch 21:15-16; 2Ki 19:35; 2Ch 32:21; Isa 37:36; Psa 35:5-6; Psa 78:49; Mat 13:41-42; Mat 13:49-50; Act 12:23; Act 27:23-24; Jud 1:14-15; Rev 7:1-2; Rev 9:15; Rev 15:1

Unclassified scriptures relating to

Num 22:35; Deu 33:2; Job 4:15-19; Job 38:7; Psa 68:17; 2Ki 6:17; Psa 103:20-21; Psa 104:4; Heb 1:7; Psa 148:2; Isa 6:2; Isa 6:5-7; Eze 1:4-25; Eze 10; Dan 4:13; Dan 4:17; Dan 8:13-14; Dan 9:21-23; Zec 1:12-14; Zec 6:5; Mat 4:6; Mat 4:11; Mar 1:13; Mat 13:41-42; Mat 18:10; Mat 24:31; Mat 24:36; Mat 25:31; Mat 26:53; Luk 9:30-31; Mat 17:3; Mar 9:4; Luk 12:8-9; Mar 8:38; Luk 15:10; Luk 15:7; Joh 1:51; Act 7:53; Act 8:26; Gal 3:19; Eph 1:20-21; Eph 3:10; Col 1:16; Col 2:10; 2Th 1:7; 1Ti 3:16; 1Ti 5:21; Heb 1:4-5; Heb 1:13; Heb 2:2; Heb 2:5; Heb 2:7; Psa 8:5; Heb 2:16; Heb 12:22; Heb 13:2; 1Pe 1:12; 1Pe 3:22; 2Pe 2:11; Rev 4:8-11; Rev 5:9-11; Rev 7:9-10; Rev 10:1-6; Rev 14:10; Rev 18:1-3; Rev 19:10; Rev 22:8-9

Appearances of:

– To Abraham

Gen 18:2; Gen 22:11-18

– To Hagar, in the wilderness

Gen 16:7

– To Lot in Sodom

Gen 19:1-17

– To Jacob, in his various visions

Gen 28:12

– To Moses

Exo 3:2

– To the Israelites

Exo 14:19; Jdg 2:1-4

– To Balaam

Num 22:31

– To Joshua, »the captain of the Lord’s host«

Jos 5:15

– To Gideon

Jdg 6:11-22

– To Manoah

Jdg 13:6; Jdg 13:15-20

– To David, at the threshing floor of Araunah

2Sa 24:16-17; 1Ch 21:15-16

– To Elijah

1Ki 19:5

– To Elisha, while he lay under the juniper tree

2Ki 6:16-17

– To Daniel, in the lion’s den

Dan 6:22; Dan 8:16; Dan 9:21; Dan 10:5-10; Dan 10:16; Dan 10:18; Dan 12:5-7

– To Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, in the fiery furnace

Dan 3:25; Dan 3:28

– To Zechariah, in a vision

Zec 2:3; Zec 3:1-2; Zec 4:1

– To Joseph, in a dream

Mat 1:20; Mat 2:13; Mat 2:19

– At the transfiguration of Jesus

Mat 17:3; Luk 9:30-31

– To Mary, concerning Jesus

Luk 1:26-38

– To Zacharias

Luk 1:11-20; Luk 1:26-38

– To the shepherds

Luk 2:9-11; Luk 2:13-14

– To Jesus, after his temptation

Mat 4:11

– In Gethsemane

Luk 22:43

– At the sepulcher

Mat 28:2-5; Mar 16:5-7; Luk 24:23; Joh 20:12

– At the ascension

Act 1:10-11

– To Peter and John, while in prison

Act 5:19

– To Philip

Act 8:26

– To Cornelius, in a dream

Act 10:3; Act 10:30-32

– To Peter, in prison

Act 12:7-11

– To Paul, on the way to Damascus

Act 27:23

– To John, in Patmos

Rev 1:1; Rev 5:2; Rev 7:11; Rev 10:9; Rev 11:1; Rev 17:7; Rev 19:10; Rev 22:8

Fallen

Job 4:18; Mat 25:41; 2Pe 2:4; Jud 1:6; Rev 12:9

Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible

Angel (2)

One of the Holy Trinity.

– Called Angel of God

Exo 14:19; Jdg 13:6; 1Sa 29:9; 2Sa 14:17; 2Sa 14:20; 2Sa 19:27; Act 27:23; Gal 4:14

– Called Angel of the Lord

Gen 16:7; Gen 16:9; Gen 22:11; Exo 3:2; Num 22:23; Num 22:25; Num 22:27; Num 22:32; Num 22:35; Jdg 2:1; Jdg 6:11-12; Jdg 6:21-22; Jdg 13:3; Jdg 13:6; Jdg 13:9; Jdg 13:13-21; 2Sa 24:16; 1Ki 19:7; 2Ki 1:3; 2Ki 1:15; 2Ki 19:35; 1Ch 21:15; 1Ch 21:18; Psa 34:7; Psa 35:5-6; Zec 1:11-12; Zec 3:5; Zec 12:8

– Called Angel of His Presence

Isa 63:9

Fuente: Nave’s Topical Bible

Angel

Angel. Gen 24:7. The word for angel, both in the Greek and Hebrew languages, signifies a messenger, and in this sense is often applied to men. 2Sa 2:5; Luk 7:24; Luk 9:52. When the term is used, as it denotes the office they sustain as the agents by whom God makes known his will and executes his government. Our knowledge of such beings is derived wholly from revelation, and that rather incidentally. We know, from their residence and employment, that they must possess knowledge and purity far beyond our present conceptions, and the titles applied to them denote the exalted place they hold among created intelligences. Christ did not come to the rescue of angels, but of men. Comp. Heb 2:16. The angels are represented as ministering spirits sent forth to do service to the heirs or salvation. Heb 1:14 They appear at every important stage in the history of revelation, especially at the birth of Christ, Luk 2:9-13; in his agony in Gethsemane, Luk 22:43; at his resurrection, Mat 28:2; Mar 16:5; Luk 24:4, and at the final judgment, Mat 13:41. Of their appearance and employment we may form some idea from the following passages, viz., Gen 16:7-11. Compare Gen 18:2; Gen 19:1, with Heb 13:2; Jdg 13:6; Eze 10:1-22; Dan 3:28; Dan 6:22; Mat 4:11; Mat 18:10; Mat 28:2-7; Luk 1:19; Luk 16:22; Luk 22:43; Act 6:15; Act 12:7; Heb 1:14; Heb 2:16; 2Th 1:7; Rev 10:1-2; Rev 10:6. Of their number some idea may be inferred from 1Ki 22:19; Psa 68:17; Dan 7:10; Mat 26:53; Luk 2:9-14; 1Co 4:9; Heb 12:22. Of their strength we may judge from Psa 103:20; 2Pe 2:11; Rev 5:2; Rev 18:21; Rev 19:17. And we learn their inconceivable activity from Jdg 13:20; Isa 6:2-6; Mat 13:49; Mat 26:53; Act 27:23; Rev 8:12-13; but the R. V. reads “eagle” in verse 13. There is also an order of evil spirits ministering to the will of the prince of darkness, and both active and powerful in their opposition to God. Mat 25:41. Though Scripture does not warrant us to affirm that each individual has his particular guardian angel, it teaches very explicitly that angels minister to every Christian. Mat 18:10; Psa 91:11-12; Luk 15:10; Act 12:15; Heb 1:14. They are the companions of the saved. Heb 12:22-23; Rev 5:11. They are to sustain an important office in the future and final administration of God’s government on earth. Mat 13:39; Mat 25:31-33; 1Th 4:16. But they are not proper objects of adoration. Col 2:18; Rev 19:10. Angel of his Presence, Isa 63:9, by some is supposed to denote the highest angel in heaven, as Gabriel, who stands “in the presence of God,” Luk 1:19; but others believe it refers to the incarnate Word-Angel of the Lord, Gen 16:7, is considered, by some, one of the common titles of Christ in the Old Testament. Exo 23:20. Compare Act 7:30-32; Act 7:37-38. Angel of the church. Rev 2:1. The only true interpretation of this phrase is the one which makes the angels the rulers and teachers of the congregation, so called because they were the ambassadors of God to the churches, and on them devolved the pastoral care and government.

Fuente: People’s Dictionary of the Bible

Angel

“a messenger” (from angello, “to deliver a message”), sent whether by God or by man or by Satan, “is also used of a guardian or representative in Rev 1:20, cp. Mat 18:10; Act 12:15 (where it is better understood as = ‘ghost’), superior to man, Heb 2:7; Psa 8:5, belonging to Heaven, Mat 24:36; Mar 12:25, and to God, Luk 12:8, and engaged in His service, Psa 103:20. “Angels” are spirits, Heb 1:14, i.e., they have not material bodies as men have; they are either human in form, or can assume the human form when necessary, cp. Luk 24:4, with Luk 24:23, Act 10:3 with Act 10:30.

“They are called ‘holy’ in Mar 8:38, and ‘elect,’ 1Ti 5:21, in contrast with some of their original number, Mat 25:41, who ‘sinned,’ 2Pe 2:4, ‘left their proper habitation,’ Jud 1:6, oiketerion, a word which occurs again, in the NT, only in 2Co 5:2. Angels are always spoken of in the masculine gender, the feminine form of the word does not occur.”* [* From Notes on Thessalonians, by Hogg and Vine, p. 229.]

Note: Isangelos, “equal to the angels,” occurs in Luk 20:36.

Fuente: Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words

Angel

a spiritual, intelligent substance, the first in rank and dignity among created beings The word angel, , is not properly a denomination of nature but of office; denoting as much as nuncius, messenger, a person employed to carry one’s orders, or declare his will. Thus it is St. Paul represents angels, Heb 1:14, where he calls them ministering spirits; and yet custom has prevailed so much, that angel is now commonly taken for the denomination of a particular order of spiritual beings, of great understanding and power, superior to the souls or spirits of men. Some of these are spoken of in Scripture in such a manner as plainly to signify that they are real beings, of a spiritual nature, of high power, perfection, dignity, and happiness. Others of them are distinguished as not having kept their first station, Jud 1:6. These are represented as evil spirits, enemies of God, and intent on mischief. The devil as the head of them, and they as his angels, are represented as the rulers of the darkness of this world, or spiritual wickednesses, or wicked spirits, , Eph 6:12; which may not be unfitly rendered, the spiritual managers of opposition to the kingdom of God.

The existence of angels is supposed in all religions, though it is incapable of being proved a priori. Indeed, the ancient Sadducees are represented as denying all spirits; and yet the Samaritans, and Caraites, who are reputed Sadducees, openly allowed them: witness Abusaid, the author of an Arabic version of the Pentateuch; and Aaron, a Caraite Jew, in his comment on the Pentateuch; both extant in manuscript in the king of France’s library. In the Alcoran we find frequent mention of angels. The Mussulmen believe them of different orders or degrees, and to be destined for different employments both in heaven and on earth. They attribute exceedingly great power to the angel Gabriel, as that he is able to descend in the space of an hour from heaven to earth; to overturn a mountain with a single feather of his wing, &c. The angel Asrael, they suppose, is appointed to take the souls of such as die; and another angel, named Esraphil, they tell us, stands with a trumpet ready in his mouth to proclaim the day of judgment.

The Heathen philosophers and poets were also agreed as to the existence of intelligent beings, superior to man; as is shown by St. Cyprian in his treatise of the vanity of idols; from the testimonies of Plato, Socrates, Trismegistus, &c. They were acknowledged under different appellations; the Greeks calling them daemons, and the Romans genii, or lares. Epicurus seems to have been the only one among the old philosophers who absolutely rejected them.

Authors are not so unanimous about the nature as about the existence of angels. Clemens Alexandrinus believed they had bodies; which was also the opinion of Origen, Caesarius, Tertullian, and several others. Athanasius, St. Basil, St. Gregory Nicene, St. Cyril, St. Chrysostom, &c, held them to be mere spirits. It has been the more current opinion, especially in later times, that they are substances entirely spiritual, who can, at any time, assume bodies, and appear in human or other shapes. Ecclesiastical writers make a hierarchy of nine orders of angels. Others have distributed angels into nine orders, according to the names by which they are called in Scripture, and reduced these orders into three hierarchies; to the first of which belong seraphim, cherubim, and thrones; to the second, dominions, virtues, and powers; and to the third, principalities, archangels, and angels. The Jews reckon four orders or companies of angels, each headed by an archangel; the first order being that of Michael; the second, of Gabriel; the third, of Uriel; and the fourth, of Raphael. Following the Scripture account, we shall find mention made of different orders of these superior beings; for such a distinction of orders seems intimated in the names given to different classes. Thus we have thrones, dominions, principalities, or princedoms, powers, authorities, living ones, cherubim and seraphim. That some of these titles may indicate the same class of angels is probable; but that they all should be but different appellations of one common and equal order is improbable. We learn also from Scripture, that they dwell in the immediate presence of God; that they excel in strength; that they are immortal; and that they are the agents through which God very often accomplishes his special purposes of judgment and mercy. Nothing is more frequent in Scripture than the missions and appearances of good and bad angels, whom God employed to declare his will; to correct, teach, reprove, and comfort. God gave the law to Moses, and appeared to the old patriarchs, by the mediation of angels, who represented him, and spoke in his name, Act 7:30; Act 7:35; Gal 3:19; Heb 13:2.

Though the Jews, in general, believed the existence of angels, there was a sect among them, namely, the Sadducees, who denied the existence of all spirits whatever, God only excepted, Act 23:8. Before the Babylonish captivity, the Hebrews seem not to have known the names of any angel. The Talmudists say they brought the names of angels from Babylon. Tobit, who is thought to have resided in Nineveh some time before the captivity, mentions the angel Raphael, Tob 3:17; Tob 11:2; Tob 11:7; and Daniel, who lived at Babylon some time after Tobit, has taught us the names of Michael and Gabriel, Dan 8:16; Dan 9:21; Dan 10:21. In the New Testament, we find only the two latter mentioned by name.

There are various opinions as to the time when the angels were created. Some think this took place when our heavens and the earth were made. For this opinion, however, there is no just foundation in the Mosaic account. Others think that angels existed long before the formation of our solar system; and Scripture seems to favour this opinion, Job 38:4; Job 38:7, where God says, Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? and all the sons of God shouted for joy. Though it be a universal opinion that angels are of a spiritual and incorporeal nature, yet some of the fathers, misled by a passage in Gen 6:2, where it is said, The sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair, and they took them wives of all which they chose, imagined them to be corporeal, and capable of sensual pleasures. But, without noticing all the wild reveries which have been propagated by bold or ignorant persons, let it suffice to observe, that by the sons of God we are evidently to understand the descendants of Seth, who, for the great piety wherein they continued for some time, were so called; and that the daughters of men were the progeny of wicked Cain As to the doctrine of tutelary or guarding angels, presiding over the affairs of empires, nations, provinces, and particular persons, though received by the later Jews, it appears to be wholly Pagan in its origin, and to have no countenance in the Scriptures. The passages in Daniel brought to favour this notion are capable of a much better explanation; and when our Lord declares that the angels of little children do always behold the face of God, he either speaks of children as being the objects of the general ministry of angels, or, still more probably, by angels he there means the disembodied spirits of children; for that the Jews called disembodied spirits by the name of angels, appears from Act 12:15.

On this question of guardian angels, Bishop Horsley observes: That the holy angels are often employed by God in his government of this sublunary world, is indeed to be clearly proved by holy writ. That they have power over the matter of the universe, analogous to the powers over it which men possess, greater in extent, but still limited, is a thing which might reasonably be supposed, if it were not declared. But it seems to be confirmed by many passages of holy writ; from which it seems also evident that they are occasionally, for certain specific purposes, commissioned to exercise those powers to a prescribed extent. What the evil angels possessed before their fall the like powers, which they are still occasionally permitted to exercise for the punishment of wicked nations, seems also evident. That they have a power over the human sensory, which they are occasionally permitted to exercise, and by means of which they may inflict diseases, suggest evil thoughts, and be the instruments of temptation, must also be admitted. But all this amounts not to any thing of a discretional authority placed in the hands of tutelar angels, or to an authority to advise the Lord God with respect to the measures of his government. Confidently I deny that a single text is to be found in holy writ, which, rightly understood, gives the least countenance to the abominable doctrine of such a participation of the holy angels in God’s government of the world. In what manner then, it may be asked, are the holy angels made at all subservient to the purposes of God’s government? This question is answered by St. Paul in his Epistle to the Hebrews, in the last verse of the first chapter; and this is the only passage in the whole Bible in which we have any thing explicit upon the office and employment of angels: Are they not all,’ saith he, ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them that shall be heirs of salvation?’ They are all, however high in rank and order, nothing more than ministering spirits,’ or, literally, serving spirits;’ not invested with authority of their own, but sent forth,’ occasionally sent forth, to do such service as may be required of them, for them that shall be heirs of salvation.’

The exact number of angels is no where mentioned in Scripture; but it is always represented as very great. Dan 7:10, says of the Ancient of Days, A fiery stream came from before him; thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. Jesus Christ says, that his heavenly Father could have given him more than twelve legions of angels, that is, more than seventy-two thousand, Mat 26:53; and the Psalmist declares, that the chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels, Psa 68:17. These are all intended not to express any exact number, but indefinitely a very large one.

Though all the angels were created alike good, yet Jude informs us, verse Jud 1:6, that some of them kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, and these God hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. Speculations on the cause and occasion of their fall are all vain and trifling. Milton is to be read on this subject, as on others, not as a divine, but as a poet. All we know, is, that they are not in their first estate, or in their original place; that this was their own fault, for they left their own habitation; that they are in chains, yet with liberty to tempt; and that they are reserved to the general judgment.

Dr. Prideaux observes, that the minister of the synagogue, who officiated in offering the public prayers, being the mouth of the congregation, delegated by them, as their representative, messenger, or angel, to address God in prayer for them, was in Hebrew called sheliack-zibbor, that is, the angel of the church; and that from hence the chief ministers of the seven churches of Asia are in the Revelation, by a name borrowed from the synagogue, called angels of those churches.

Fuente: Biblical and Theological Dictionary

Angel

Gen 16:7 (b) This heavenly person probably was the Holy Spirit of GOD because He is the Lord of the harvest. Some think that this person was the Lord JESUS. Since the Holy Spirit is the Lord of the harvest, it seems that this person must be the Spirit, because the passage refers to the harvest of lives that was to follow in Hagar’s experience. It certainly is one of the Persons of the Godhead, because He said in verse 10 “I will multiply thy seed.” In Gen 16:13 she calls Him Lord. This indicates clearly that He was one of the persons of the Trinity. The name that she gave to this Lord was EI-Shaddai which means “The God of the Breast,” or “The God who is enough.”

Gen 22:11 (c) This person was probably a genuine angel out of Heaven. He lays no claim to deity, and does not affirm his authority to do anything. The message in verse Gen 22:16 of this chapter evidently is a quotation of the GOD of Heaven, and is not a message from the angel. Some, however, think that the angel in verse Gen 22:15 is one of the persons of the Godhead, and that He Himself was making the statement found in verse Gen 22:16.

Gen 24:40 (b) Here the angel is undoubtedly the Holy Spirit who leads the child of GOD in the ways of the Lord and brings about His desire in the world. This would seem to be confirmed by the statement in verse Gen 24:7 of this chapter.

Gen 48:16 (a) This portion brings before us the three Persons of the Trinity. The first mention of GOD in verse Gen 48:15 refers to the Father. The second mention of GOD probably refers to the Holy Spirit. The third mention in which we read “The angel which redeemed” must be the Lord JESUS. The Jews in Old Testament days were Trinitarians. They all believed that there were three persons in the Godhead. Not until several centuries after CHRIST did the Jews become Unitarians. Most Jews have always believed that GOD had a Son who was to be the Messiah. They did not believe, however, that JESUS was that Son.

Jdg 5:23 (b) This angel undoubtedly was the Holy Spirit. His message was in reference to the failure of the inhabitants of Meraz to come to the help of Barak when Israel was fighting the Canaanites. We must remember that the Holy Spirit curses as well as blesses. We find this truth in Isa 40:7, as well as in other places.

Act 8:26 (b) This one was probably the Holy Spirit who directed Philip as to his new place of service. Philip had just conducted a great campaign which was most successful, but now the Spirit took him away from that work to deal with one man down on the road to Gaza. Verse Act 8:29 indicates clearly that it was the Holy Spirit who was directing Philip in all his service and ministry. We would expect Him to do so because He is the Lord of the harvest.

Act 10:7 (a) The angel who spoke to Cornelius was the Holy Spirit. Verse Act 10:30 reveals that this one was in the form of a man, looked like a man, had the shape of a man, and wore the clothing of a man. The angel in verse 7 who was the man in verse 30 is identified in verse Act 10:19 as the Holy Spirit. As the Lord of the harvest He told the seeking sinner Cornelius to send for the evangelist Peter. The Spirit came to Peter who wanted to be used of GOD and told him where to go to find a troubled soul. The Spirit said to Peter “Behold, three men seek thee; go down with them doubting nothing, for I sent them.” The Holy Spirit Himself identifies the man in bright clothing as being Himself. The Spirit of GOD has a human form, as do the other two persons of the Trinity. He was seen plainly and rather frequently in both the days of the Old Testament and the New.

2Co 11:14 (a) The passage clearly states that Satan, the Devil, is an angel of light. He takes the place of being a very good and holy person. He is called a minister of righteousness. His business is to get people to be good in order to be saved. He leads men to devise and design many kinds of religion to keep sinners away from the Saviour. He leads women to invent religions of an aesthetic character which presents beautiful phraseology, and sweet, lovely ideas, all of which is intended to keep the hearts and lives of the people away from JESUS CHRIST and His saving power. He never suggests that anyone will be saved by getting drunk, or gambling, or living wickedly. He knows very well that this philosophy would not appeal to the human mind. He therefore sets about to arrange a religion of good works and self-righteousness as a substitute for the Person and work of the Lord JESUS. We should be on the watch for every religion that exalts man’s goodness, and detracts from the personal glory of CHRIST JESUS.

Heb 13:2 (b) The angels referred to in this passage possibly may be the Lord JESUS and the Holy Spirit. They must have been the ones who came to visit Abraham and afterwards went to Sodom. They accepted the worship of Abraham and therefore they seemed to be two persons of the Trinity. It is not at all clear who the third person was. He might have been one of the archangels or another angel. Some think that all three Persons of the Trinity were there.

Rev 1:20 (b) This word is probably the title given to the leader or the shepherd or the pastor of each of the seven churches mentioned in chapters 2 and 3. The messages were sent to these seven men who in turn were to instruct the church concerning GOD’s Word. It seems as though the leader is held responsible to obtain special messages from GOD for the people that compose the flock.

Fuente: Wilson’s Dictionary of Bible Types