ANGELS

Angels

1. The scope of this article.-The passages in the apostolic writings in which angels are mentioned or referred to will be examined; some of them are ambiguous and have been interpreted in various ways. The doctrine of the OT and of the apocryphal period on the subject has been so fully dealt with in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) that it is unnecessary to do more than refer incidentally to it here; and the angelology of the Gospels has been treated at length in Dict. of Christ and the Gospels (see Literature below). But the other NT writings have not been so fully examined, and it is the object of this article to consider them particularly. Of these the Apocalypse, as might be expected from the subject, calls for special attention; no book of the OT or the NT is so full of references to the angels, and it is the more remarkable that the other Johannine writings have so few. The Fourth Gospel refers to angels only thrice (Joh 1:51; Joh 12:29; Joh 20:12; Joh 5:4 is a gloss [see below, 5 (b)]), and the three Epistles not at all. There are frequent references to the subject in Hebrews, and occasional ones in the Pauline and Petrine Epistles and in Jude.

2. The literal meaning of .- = messenger, is found only once in the NT outside the Gospels: in Jam 2:25, it is used of Joshuas spies (in Jos 6:25 [Septuagint ], which is referred to, we read ). In the Gospels is used of John Baptist in Mat 11:10, Mar 1:2, Luk 7:27 (from Mal 3:1 but not from Septuagint , which, however, also has ), of Johns messengers in Luk 7:24, and of Jesus messengers to a Samaritan village in Luk 9:52. In Php 2:25, 2Co 8:23 is translated messenger.

3. The angels as heavenly beings.-From the earliest times the Israelites had been taught to believe in angels, but after the Captivity the doctrine greatly developed. Yet some of the Jews rejected all belief in them, and this sharply divided the Pharisees from the Sadducees, who said that there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; the Pharisees confessed both (Act 23:8).

Angels are creatures, as the Jews had always taught (Thackeray, Relation of St. Paul to Jewish Thought, p. 150). They were created in, through, and unto Christ (Col 1:16), who is the beginning as well as the end of all things (cf. 1Co 8:6). They are not inferior deities, but fellow-servants () with man (Rev 19:10; Rev 22:9). Therefore they may not be worshipped (ib.); the worship of angels was one of the grave errors at Colossae (Col 2:18). So idolatry is described as a worshipping of demons (Rev 9:20).

Much emphasis is laid, lest it should be thought that angels were of the some degree as our Lord, on the fact that Jesus is immeasurably higher than they; as in Heb 1:4 ff. (no angel is called the Son; angels worship the Firstborn), Heb 1:13 (no angel set at the right hand of God), Heb 2:5 (the world to come is not made subject to angels, but to man-v. 8f. shows that the Representative Man is meant, who condescended to be, in His Incarnation, made a little lower than the angels). In 1Pe 3:22 angels and authorities and powers are made subject to the ascended Christ; and so in Eph 1:21. In Col 2:15 (an obscure verse), we may understand either that our Lord, putting off His body, made a show of the principalities and the powers, triumphing over them in the cross (so the Latin Fathers); or, with the Greeks, that He, having stripped off and put away the principalities, made a show of them, etc.-i.e. that He repelled their assaults. Here the evil angels are spoken of. But the complete subjection of the powers of evil to Jesus will not take place till the end of the world (1Co 15:23 ff.).

Angels are spirits (Heb 1:7; Heb 1:14); cf. Rev 16:14, spirits of demons. In Act 23:8 f. they seem to be differentiated from spirits (no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit what if a spirit hath spoken to him or an angel?). But this is not so. The angel is the species, the spirit the genus (Alford). All angels are spirits, though all spirits are not angels. In Act 23:8 the Pharisees are said to confess both, i.e. both the resurrection and angel-spirits; only two categories are intended. We must also remember that in Act 23:9 non-Christian Jews are speaking.

But, though they are spirits, angels are not omnipresent or omniscient, for these are attributes of Deity. For their limited knowledge cf. Eph 3:10 (whether good or bad angels are there spoken of); it is implied in 1Pe 1:12 (the angels desire to look into the mysteries of the gospel) and in 1Co 2:6 ff., if rulers of this world are the evil angels (see Demon). It is explicitly stated in Mat 24:36, Mar 13:32. The limitation of the angels knowledge is also stated in Ethiopic Enoch, xvi. 3 (2nd cent. b.c.?), where the angels who fell in Gen 6:2 (so sons of God are interpreted) are said not to have had the hidden things yet revealed to them, though they knew worthless mysteries, which they recounted to the women (ed. Charles, 1893, p. 86f.). In the Secrets of Enoch. (Slavonic), xxiv. 3 (1st cent. a.d.?), God says that He had not told His secrets even to His angels. Ignatius says that the virginity and child-bearing of Mary and the death of the Lord were hidden from () the ruler of this age (Eph. 19; for this idea in the Fathers see Lightfoots note).

The good angels are angels of light, as opposed to the powers of darkness (2Co 11:14; contrast Eph 6:12); so, when the angel came to St. Peter in the prison, a light shone in the cell (Act 12:7). The name seraph perhaps means the burning one, though the etymology is doubtful; cf. also Psa 104:4.

They neither marry nor are given in marriage; and so in the resurrection life there is no marrying, for men will be as angels in heaven (Mat 22:30, Mar 12:25), equal to angels (, Luk 20:36). Some have thought that they have a sort of counterpart of bodies, described in 1Co 15:40 as celestial bodies (Meyer, Alford), though this is perhaps improbable; St. Pauls words may refer to the heavenly bodies in the modern sense (Robertson-Plummer), or to the post-resurrection human bodies (cf. 1Co 15:48); not to good men as opposed to bad (Chrysostom and others of the Fathers).

They are numberless (Rev 5:11 [from Dan 7:14], Heb 12:22, myriads; in the latter passage they are perhaps described as a festal assembly [Revised Version margin, ]).

The unfallen angels are holy (Rev 14:10, Mar 8:38, Luk 9:26, and some Manuscripts of Mat 25:31; so perhaps 1Th 3:13, Jud 1:14 [see below, 5 (a)]; cf. Zec 14:5 all the holy ones). This is the meaning of elect angels in 1Ti 5:21 -not angels chosen to guard the Ephesian Church; they are mentioned here because they will accompany our Lord to judgment or (Grimm) because they are chosen by God to rule.

4. Ranks of the angels.-There was a great tendency in later Jewish writings to elaborate the angelic hierarchy. In Isa 6:2; Isa 6:6 we had read of seraphim; in Ezekiel 10 of cherubim. But in Eth. Enoch, lxi. 10 (these chapters are of the 1st cent. b.c.?), the host of the heavens, and all the holy ones above, the cherubim, seraphim, and ophanim (= wheels; cf. Eze 1:15), angels of power, angels of principalities, are mentioned (cf. lxxi. 7); in the Secrets of Enoch (20) we read of archangels, incorporeal powers, lordships, principalities, powers, cherubim, seraphim, ten troops. The genealogies of 1Ti 1:4 and Tit 3:9 are thought by some to refer to such speculations. St. Paul shows some impatience at the Colossian fondness for elaborating these divisions; yet in the NT we find traces of ranks of angels. In Jud 1:9 the archangel (Michael) is mentioned; so in 1Th 4:16, where Michael is doubtless meant. In Romans, Colossians, and Ephesians no organized hierarchy is mentioned; and sometimes the reference seems to be to the whole angelic band, sometimes to the evil angels, when principalities, powers, dominions, thrones are referred to (Col 1:16 , , , ; Col 2:10; Col 2:15 , ; Eph 1:21 , , , ; Eph 3:10; Eph 6:12 , ; Rom 8:38 , , ; 1Co 15:24 , , ). In the passages in Col. and Eph. St. Paul takes the ideas current in Asia Minor as to the ranks of the angels, but does not himself enunciate any doctrine; indeed, in Eph 1:21 he adds, and every name that is named [, i.e. reverenced] both in this age and in that which is to come. Some have thought that he refers to earthly powers; but, though these may perhaps in some cases be included, there can be little doubt that he is speaking primarily of angelic powers, good and bad. Whatever powers there may be, Christ is Lord of all, far above them all. In Eph 3:10 only evil angelic powers are referred to-they are in the heavenly sphere ( ); and so in Eph 6:12, where they are contrasted with flesh and blood (see also below). With these passages we may compare 1Pe 3:22 angels and authorities and powers; and possibly 2Pe 2:10 f., where the lordship (Revised Version dominion), glories (dignities), and angels are thought by some to refer to ranks of angels; if so, the highest rank is angels, who are greater in might and power than the glories. The cherubim of the ark (Exo 25:18) are mentioned in Heb 9:5.

The Christian Fathers and the heretical teachers greatly elaborated the angelic hierarchy; of these perhaps the writer who had most influence was pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (de Cl. Hier. vi.-ix., c. [Note: . circa, about.] a.d. 500), who divided the heavenly host into three divisions, with three subdivisions in each: (1) thrones, cherubim, seraphim; (2) powers (), lordships (), mights (); (3) angels, archangels, principalities (). On the analogy of this list, the Syriac-speaking Churches divided the Christian ministry into three classes, each with three sub-classes. For other divisions of angels in post-apostolic times see Lightfoots note on Col 1:16.

Very few names of angels occur in the NT. Of the holy angels only Gabriel (Luk 1:19; Luk 1:26) and Michael (Jud 1:9, Rev 12:7) are named (from Dan 8:16; Dan 9:21; Dan 10:13; Dan 10:21; Dan 12:1). We also have the proper names Satan (thirty-one one times, nineteen outside the Gospels), Beelzebub (Gospels only, six times), and Belial or Beliar (2Co 6:15). See Devil, Belial. In the Apocrypha we have Raphael in Tob 12:15, Uriel in 2 Ezr 4:1; 5:20; 10:28, and Jeremiel in 2Es 4:36 (the last book perhaps is to be dated c. [Note: . circa, about.] a.d. 90). Many other names are found in Jewish writings; see D. Stone, Outlines of Chr. Dogma, London, 1900, p. 38; Edersheim, Life and Times, Appendix xiii.; Eth. Enoch, 20 (Uriel, Rafael, Raguel, Michael, Saraqael, Gabriel; the Gr. fragment [Charles, p. 356f.] has Sariel for Saraqael, and adds Remiel [= Jeremiel]).

5. Function of the angels.-The NT represents the angels as having a double activity, towards God and towards man. Both these aspects are found in Heb 1:14 (see below), as in Isa 6:1-7, where the seraphim worship before God, and one of them is sent to the prophet, and in Luk 1:19, where Gabriel is said to stand in the presence of God, and to be sent to Zacharias.

(a) Towards God.-The angels are liturgic spirits ( , Heb 1:14; cf. Dan 7:10 [Theodotion; the version in our Gr. OT] for , ministered unto him; the Chigi Septuagint has ); their ministry is an ordered one, before the throne of God: the whole host of His angels minister () unto His will, standing by Him (Clem. Rom. Cor. 34; cf. the 4th cent. Ignatian interpolator, Philad. 9, the liturgic powers of God). They worship God in heaven (Rev 5:11 f.; Rev 7:11; Rev 8:1-4; cf. Job 1:6; Job 2:1), and on earth (Luk 2:13 f.); they worship the Firstborn when He is brought into the world (Heb 1:6), and are witnesses of the Incarnation (1Ti 3:16 seen of angels-but Grimm interprets here as the apostles, witnesses of the risen Christ, and Swete thinks the reference is to the Agony in Gethsemane [Ascended Christ, 1910, p. 24]). To this heavenly worship there seems to be a reference in 1Co 13:1 tongues of angels. In Jewish thought there were angels of the presence, the highest order of the hierarchy, who stood before the face of God, within the veil (Edersheim, Life and Times, i. 122; Tob 12:15; Eth. Enoch, 40). There may be a reference to these in Rev 1:4 the seven spirits which are before his throne (Swete interprets this of the sevenfold working of the Holy Spirit); Rev 8:2 the seven angels which stand before God (cf. Rev 8:4); Mat 18:10 in heaven [the little ones] angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven; and in Luk 1:19 (see above).

They will attend on the Son at the Last Judgment (1Th 4:16, 2Th 1:7, Rev 3:5); and this seems to be the most probable reference in 1Th 3:13 with all his saints (or holy ones- ) and in Jud 1:14 with ten thousands of his holy ones (or with his holy myriads, ), where the words are quoted from Enoch, i. 9, the text of the latter in the Gizeh Greek fragment being (sic) . The words in Jude are certainly to be understood of the angels, and this makes the similar interpretation of 1Th 3:13 more likely. But Milligan (Com. in loc.) thinks that the latter reference is to just men made perfect, who are said to judge, or to be brought with Jesus at the Judgment (1Th 4:14, Mat 19:28, Luk 22:30; cf. Wis 3:8; for 1Co 6:3 see 7 below). No doubt the saints will rule with Christ (Rev 2:26 f.; Rev 20:4 etc.); but, as all men will themselves be judged (Rom 14:10, 2Co 5:10), the interpretation of the above passages as implying that the saints will themselves be judges at the Last Day is somewhat doubtful. The attendance of the angels on the Great Judge is mentioned in all four Gospels (Mat 13:41; Mat 16:27; Mat 24:31; Mat 25:31, Mar 8:38; Mar 13:27, Luk 9:26; Luk 12:8 f., and Joh 1:51 [where the reference is to Gen 28:12]).

(b) Towards man.-The angels do service () to man as heirs of salvation (Heb 1:14). They ministered to our Lord on earth, in His human nature, after the Temptation in the wilderness (Mat 4:11, Mar 1:13, not in || Lk.), and at Gethsemane (Luk 22:43 : this may not be part of the Third Gospel, but is certainly part of a 1st cent. tradition; it could not have been invented by the scribes [see Westcott-Hort, NT in Greek, ii. Appendix , p. 67]. The present writer has argued for its being older than Lk., and reflecting the same stage of thought as Mk. [Dict. of Christ and the Gospels ii. 124b]). In Mat 26:53 Jesus says that angels would have ministered to Him, had He so willed, when Judas betrayed Him.

The angels are spectators of our lives: 1Co 4:9 a spectacle () to angels; 1Ti 5:21 in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels; 1Pe 1:12, the angels look into-glance at, or perhaps pore over (see Bigg, Com. in loc.)-the Church and its Gospel; they rejoice over the sinners repentance (Luk 15:10).

They are messengers to man. This is the office of angels which is most prominent in the NT; see Act 7:35; Act 7:38 (Moses) Act 8:26 (Philip) Act 10:3; Act 10:7; Act 10:22; Act 10:30 (Peter, Cornelius) Act 11:13 (Peter) Act 12:7-11 (Peter in prison) Act 23:9 (Paul) Act 27:23 (Paul on his voyage), Heb 13:2 (reference to Abraham, Genesis 18), and frequently in Rev. (e.g. Gen 1:1; Gen 22:6). St. Paul alludes to this work of the angels in Gal 1:8, which suggests that they must be proved, as spirits must be (1Co 12:10, 1Jn 4:1, etc.; see Demon, 2), to see whether they are true or false, and in Gal 4:14, where there is a climax: as an angel of God, nay, as one who is higher than the angels, as Christ Jesus himself. For this function in the Gospels see Mat 1:20; Mat 2:13; Mat 2:19; Mat 28:2-5, Mar 16:5-7, Luk 1:11; Luk 1:13; Luk 1:19; Luk 1:26; Luk 1:30; Luk 1:35; Luk 2:9 f., Luk 2:21; Luk 24:4; Luk 24:23, Joh 12:29; Joh 20:12; here we note that the angel of the Lord in the NT is not the same as the angel of Jahweh in the OT: it merely means an angel sent by God. This office of the angels does not exclude the Divine message coming directly to man (Act 9:5; Act 22:8; Act 26:14, Gal 1:12).

They are helpers of our worship. They offer the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar (Rev 8:3 f.). Their presence at Christian worship is a reason for decorum and reverence (1Co 11:10 : a woman should be veiled in the assembly of the faithful because of the angels; this seems to be the meaning, not because of the clergy who are present, as Ambrose, Ephraim Syrus, Primasius, nor because of the evil angels, with a reference to Gen 6:1 f., as Tertullian [de Virg. Vel. 7; cf. 17], nor yet because the angels do so, i.e. veil themselves before their Superior [Isa 6:2]; see Robertson-Plummer, Com. in loc.). For the presence of angels at worship cf. Psa 138:1 Septuagint and Vulgate , Tob 12:12; Tob 12:15, Three 37.

They fight for man against evil, under Michael (Jud 1:9, Rev 12:7 f., Rev 19:14; Rev 19:19; Rev 20:1-3); they are armies (, Rev 19:14) and a host (, Luk 2:13; not in Heb 12:22 Revised Version where is translated innumerable hosts). They are the armies sent out by the King in the Parable of the Marriage of the Kings Son (Mat 22:7).

They were the mediators of the Law (Act 7:53, Gal 3:19, Heb 2:2); i.e. they assisted at the giving of the Law. St. Paul and the writer of Hebrews argue from this the superiority of the Gospel as being given without the interposition of created beings (Lightfoot on Galatians 3). The presence of angels is not mentioned in Exodus 19, but cf. Deu 33:2, Psa 68:7; it was emphasized by the Jews as extolling the Law (see Thackeray, op. cit. p. 162), and this is perhaps the meaning in Act 7:53.

At death the angels carry the faithful departed to Abrahams bosom (Luk 16:22). This was a common Jewish belief (Dict. of Christ and the Gospels i. 57a).

At the Judgment they will be the reapers of the harvest (Rev 14:17-19, Mat 13:39; Mat 13:49).

They are messengers of punishment (Act 12:23 [Herod], Rev 14:10), and of judgment (Rev 8:6 ff; Rev 19:11-14; cf. the pouring out of the bowls, Rev 16:1-17, and the seven angels having seven plagues, Rev 15:1). In 1Co 10:10 the destroyer () is not Satan, bat the angel sent by God to smite the people (the reference is to Numbers 16, where no angel is mentioned; but cf. Exo 12:23, 2Sa 24:16). Satan is sometimes called the destroyer (, Rev 9:11), but is not used elsewhere in the Bible (see Robertson-Plummer on 1Co 10:10).

They intervene on earth to help man: an angel of the Lord releases the apostles (Act 5:19) and Peter (Act 12:7); and, according to an ancient gloss, probably African, originating before the time of Tertullian, who quotes it (de Bapt. 5), an angel of the Lord also troubled the water of Bethesda (Joh 5:4). (Tertullian applies this text to Christian baptism, over which he says an angel presides.) Generally, the angels guard men from evil. This leads us to the question of guardian angels. It is an ancient idea that each human being, or even every creature animate and inanimate, has allotted to it one or more special angelic guards. This idea is to some extent confirmed by the words of our Lord about the angels of the little ones in Mat 18:10. It was a popular belief that these guardians took the form of the person guarded, and the people assembled in the house of Mary the mother of Mark thought that Peter, when escaped from prison, was his angel (Act 12:15). This Jewish conception was long retained by the Christians. Tertullian thought that the soul had a figure, a certain corporeity, an inner man: different from the outer, but yet one in the twofold condition (de Anima, 9); this is not quite the same idea, but we find it more clearly in the 4th cent. Church Order, the Testament of our Lord (i. 40), where all men have figures of their souls, which stand before the Father of Light, and which in the case of the wicked perish and are carried to darkness to dwell. Similarly there are angels of fire (Rev 14:18), of water (Rev 16:3 ff.; cf. Rev 7:1 f. and Joh 5:4), of winds (Rev 7:1; cf. Psa 104:4), of countries (Dan 10:13-20; cf. Sir 17:17); and the angel of the abyss, Abaddon (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ) or Apollyon (Rev 9:11; cf. Rev 20:1). For Rabbinical ideas see Thackeray, op. cit. p. 168, and Edersheim, op. cit. Appendix xiii.

6. Angels of the Churches.-In Rev 1:20; Rev 2:1; Rev 2:8; Rev 2:12; Rev 2:18; Rev 3:1; Rev 3:7; Rev 3:14 the Seven Churches are said each to have an angel. These angels represent the Churches; what is said to them is said to the Churches (Rev 3:22; cf. Rev 1:4); things done by the Churches are said to be done by them. Various interpretations have been offered. (a) They are said to be angels as in the rest of the book. The strongest arguments for this view are the writers usage elsewhere, and the mention of Jezebel (Rev 2:20 : thy wife in some Manuscripts ), which is clearly symbolic. The difficulty is the sin ascribed to these angels, as in any case a good angel must, if this interpretation be taken, be meant; if so, the meaning must be that the angels bear the sins of the Churches as representing and guarding them. (b) They are thought to be earthly representatives of the Churches, either delegates to Patmos or the bishop or presbyters of the Churches. This view accords better with the later than with the earlier date assigned to Rev., with the time of Domitian than with that of Nero. (c) They are thought to be ideal personifications of the Churches. On the whole the first view seems to be the most probable. Compare and contrast the following article.

7. Fallen angels.-In the NT both good and evil angels are mentioned; but when the word angel occurs alone, a good angel is to be understood unless the context requires otherwise, though perhaps 1Co 6:3 is an exception (see below). The fall is mentioned in Jud 1:6, 2Pe 2:4; and probably in 1Ti 3:6, where it is ascribed to pride (see Devil, 2). The Incarnation was not intended to help the angels. Jesus did not take hold of, to help, the angels (or, as Authorized Version , did not take hold of their nature); see Westcott on Heb 2:16. Yet in Col 1:20 God is said to reconcile through (the death of) Christ all things to Himself-the whole universe material and spiritual (Lightfoot); but it was not by delivering them from death (Alford): the fallen angels are not saved by Christs death. According to some interpretations, St. Paul says that angels will be judged by men (1Co 6:3). Robertson-Plummer interpret this verse, tentatively, as meaning that, as Christ judges, i.e. rules over, angels, so will saints, who share in that rule; but, if the Last Judgment is intended, then fallen angels must be meant here, for good angels, not having fallen, cannot be judged. For 1Th 3:13 see above, 5 (a). In the end Satan is bound, and Babylon falls (Revelation 18, 20); nothing is said of his angels, but the inference is that his angels fall with him, and this is expressly said in Mat 25:41. See further, Adversary, Air, Belial, Demon, Devil.

Metaphorically the stake in the flesh is called an angel (messenger) of Satan (2Co 12:7). See article Paul.

8. Comparison of apostolic and other teaching

(a) Comparison with that of our Lord.-Oesterley (Hastings Single-vol. Dictionary of the Bible , 32) contrasts Jesus teaching with that of the Evangelists and other NT writers, and says that our Lord taught that the abode and work of the angels are in heaven, not here below, while His disciples taught (as the Jews did) that they are active on earth. On the other hand, Marshall (Dict. of Christ and the Gospels i. 54a) maintains the complete identity of teaching between Jesus and the Evangelists. To the present writer the latter view seems to be the right one. It is true that in our Lords words the work of angels on earth is not prominent. But in Joh 1:51 (our Lord is speaking) the order ascending and descending shows that the angels are already on earth, though we see them not (Westcott, Com. in loc.). The account of the angelic ministry at the Temptation, like that of the Temptation itself, could by its very nature have come only from our Lords own lips. Moreover, in Jesus, teaching, the angels come to the earth to fetch Lazarus soul (Luk 16:22) and to reap the Harvest (Mat 13:39; Mat 13:49).

(b) Comparison with the doctrine of false teachers.-In Colossians we find an elaborate angelology, taught by professing Christians whom St. Paul attacks. Their heresy was partly Jewish, partly Gnostic, though some think that two different sects are meant. The Gnostic element shows itself in the tendency to put angels as intermediaries between God and man, and to make angels emanations from God with an elaborate hierarchy of powers, dominions, etc. Against such teaching St. Paul asserts that Christ is the only mediator (Col 1:15-22; Col 2:9-15), and forbids the worship of angels because it denies this. In the unique mediation of our Lord lies the significance of the repeated phrases in the Lord, unto the Lord (Col 3:18; Col 3:20; Col 3:23). Jesus is the one , or beginning (Col 1:18; cf. Rev 3:14), of creation, as against the idea, of angelic intermediaries when the world was made (see Lightfoots essay on the Colossian heresy [Col., p. 71ff.]). Perhaps also in the assertion of the unique mediation of Christ lies the significance of the rhetorical passage in which St. Paul says that no heavenly powers, good or bad, can separate us from the love of God (Rom 8:38). Passages in Eph. (above, 4) seem to show that the Colossian heresy was known also on the Asian seaboard.

A later stage of angelological error is found at the end of the 1st cent. in Cerinthus teaching, which resembled that of the Colossian heretics. Cerinthus (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ) taught that the world was not made by God, but by an angel, or by a series of powers or angels, who were ignorant of God; the Mosaic Law was given by them (cf. above, 5 (b)). Cerinthus is the link between the Gnosticism at Colossae and the developed Gnosticism of the 2nd century (for his doctrine see Irenaeus, Haer. i. 26; Hippolytus, Refut. vii. 21, x. 17). He claimed to have had angelic visions, and was a millenarian of the grossest sort (Caius in Eusebius, HE [Note: E Historia Ecclesiastica (Eusebius, etc.).] iii. 28). See also Lightfoot, op. cit., p. 106ff.

Speculations such as those attacked by St. Paul found a congenial soil in Asia and Phrygia. Even in the 4th cent. at the Council held at the Phrygian Laodicea (circa, about a.d. 380), Christians are forbidden to leave the Church of God and invoke () angels (can. 35; see Hefele, Councils, Eng. translation , iii. 317). It is the proper jealousy for the One Mediator, on the other hand, which has led many moderns to reject the doctrine of the existence of angels altogether. But both heavenly and earthly beings can help man without being mediators, as we see when one man helps another by intercessory prayer. The NT teaching about angelic helpers, so potent an antidote to materialism, in no way asserts that we are to pray to God through the angels, or contradicts the doctrine that Christ is the only Mediator between God and man.

(c) Comparison with current Jewish teaching and that of the later Rabbis.-The apostolic teaching is quite free from the wild speculations of Jewish angelology. (For differences between it and current Jewish ideas see Edersheim, op. cit., i. 142 and Appendix xiii.) Of Jewish speculations the most elaborate were those of the Essenes (q.v. [Note: quod vide, which see.] ), which had a decided Gnostic tinge. This Jewish sect had an esoteric doctrine of angels, and its members were not allowed to divulge their names to outsiders (Jos. Bellum Judaicum (Josephus) ii. viii. 1; Lightfoot, Col., p. 87; Edersheim, i. 330f.). A few Jewish speculations may be mentioned. It was thought that new angels were always being created-an idea derived from a wresting of Lam 3:23 (Thackeray, op. cit. p. 150). The angels taught Noah medicine (Book of Jubilees, 10). The righteous will become angels (Eth. Enoch, li. 4). An angel troubled the waters of Bethesda for healing (gloss in Joh 5:4). An elaborate hierarchical system and numerous names were invented for them (above, 4). Contrasted with these ideas, we have in the NT a wise reserve, which refuses to go beyond the things which are written.

One Jewish speculation must he noticed more fully. The Rabbis taught that none of the angels was absolutely good, that they opposed the creation of man and were jealous of him (Edersheim, ii. 754). Thackeray (p. 151f.) considers that St. Paul also makes them all antagonistic to God. If so, he contradicts the teaching both of our Lord and of the other NT writers (above, 3). But this view, based on St. Pauls language about principalities, powers, etc., and on the idea that all the angels are the enemies who must be put under Christs feet (1Co 15:25), appears to be untenable. St. Paul, while affirming that some powers are evil, does not say that they all are so. See above, 4.

9. Nature of NT angelophanies.-It is unprofitable to ask whether angels took material bodies when they appeared to men or whether they merely seemed to do so. At any rate, they took the form of men to the mind, though in some cases there was something about them that produced wonder or fear (Luk 1:12, Mat 28:4, etc.). The accounts of the angels who were seen after the Resurrection vary. In Mat 28:2 the angel who rolled away the stone was like lightning, his raiment white as snow. In Mar 16:5 we read only of a, young man in a white robe. In Luk 24:4 there are two men in dazzling apparel (cf. Luk 24:23 vision of angels). In Joh 20:12 there are two angels in white, sitting. In Act 1:10 there are two men in white apparel. To Cornelius the angel was a man in bright apparel (Act 10:30). Stephens face was filled with superhuman glory, as it had been the face of an angel (Act 6:15; so we reflect, as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord, 2Co 3:18). For an argument that the appearance of the angels was objective see Plummer on Luk 1:11; but this is largely a matter of definition. At the death of Herod (Act 12:23) no appearance of an angel is necessarily intended.

10. The immediate successors of the apostles.-Angelology was a favourite topic of the time; but, the literature of the sub-apostolic period being very scanty, the references are few. For Clement of Rome see above, 5 (a). Ignatius says that the knowledge of angelic mysteries was given to martyrs (Trall. 5): heavenly things and the dispositions () of angels, and musterings of rulers ( ), seen and unseen (cf. Col 1:16). The dispositions would be in the seven heavens. The , rulers, would be St. Pauls i.e. angels (Lightfoot, Ign. ii. 165). In Smyrn. 6 it is said that the angels, if they believe not in the blood of Christ, are judged; this seems to imply that their probation is not yet ended. Sea also above, 3. Papias (quoted by Andreas of Caesarea, in Apoc., ch. 34, serm. 12; Lightfoot-Harmer, Apostol. Fathers, p. 521) says that to some of the angels God gave dominion over the arrangement () of the universe but their array () came to naught, for the great dragon, the old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceiveth the whole earth, was cast down, yea, was cast down to the earth, and his angels (quotation from Rev 12:9). Papias seems to date the fall of the angels after the creation of the world. Hermas (for his possibly early date see Salmon, Introd. to NT, xxvi.) describes the building of the tower [the Church] upon the waters by six young men (cf. Mar 16:5), while countless other men bring the stones; and the former are said to be the holy angels of God, who were created first of all; the latter are also holy angels, but the six are superior to them (Vis. iii. 1, 2, 4). In the Martyrdom of Polycarp, 2, martyrs are said to become angels after death (see above, 8). In the Epistle to Diognetus, 7, God is said to have sent to men a minister () or angel or ruler (). Justin interprets Psa 24:7; Psa 24:9 [Septuagint ] as addressed to the rulers appointed by God in the heavens (Dial. 36). To angels was committed the care of man and of all things under heaven, but they transgressed through the love of women (Apol. ii. 5, referring to Gen 6:1 ff.). Angels, like men, have free will (Dial. 141).

Literature.-A. Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah9, London, 1897, i. 142, ii. 748 (Appendix, xiii.), etc.; H. St. J. Thackeray, The Relation of St. Paul to Contemporary Jewish Thought, do. 1900; A. B. Davidson in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) , article Angel (almost entirely for OT); W. Fairweather in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) , vol. v., article Development of Doctrine in the Apocryphal Period, iii.; J. T. Marshall in Dict. of Christ and the Gospels , article Angels; and the Commentaries, esp. H. B. Swete, Apocalypse of St. John, London, 1906; B. F. Westcott, Hebrews 3, do. 1906; G. Milligan, Thessalonians, do. 1908; J. B. Lightfoot, Colossians and Philemon, do. 1900 (1st ed. 1875); A. Robertson and A Plummer, 1 Corinthians, Edinburgh, 1911.

A. J. Maclean.

Fuente: Dictionary of the Apostolic Church

Angels

(“messengers”.) Often with “of God” or “Jehovah” added. Sometimes called the “holy ones,” “saints.” The “Angel of God” often means the Divide Word, “the Image of the invisible God,” God Himself manifested (Col 1:15; Gen 22:11-12; Gen 16:7; Gen 16:13; Gen 31:11; Gen 31:13; Gen 48:15-16; Gen 33:14; compare Isa 63:9; Exo 3:2; Exo 3:6; Exo 3:14; Exo 23:20-22; Act 27:23-24, compare Act 23:11; Num 22:22-32-35); accepting as His due the worship which angels reject as mere creatures (Rev 19:10; Rev 22:9); this manifestation was as man, an anticipation of the incarnation (Joh 1:18; Gen 18:2; Gen 18:22; Gen 19:1; Gen 32:24; Gen 32:30; Jos 5:13; Jos 5:15).

“Angel,” “Son of God,” “Gods” (Elohim), “Holy One,” in the fullest sense, are names of the divine Word alone. His incarnation is the center by reference to which all angelic ministration is best understood. Compare Joh 1:51, Greek (aparti), “from this time forth ye shall see heaven open” (heretofore shut, against man by sin: Heb 9:8; Heb 10:19-20) “and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man,” as the antitypical Jacob’s ladder, the center of communication between men and God, the redeemed and the angelic world; Jesus’ miracles, of which mention immediately follows (John 2), are firstfruit of this newly opened communion of earth and heaven (Gen 28:12-17). Secondarily, God’s created messengers; as Israel (Isa 42:19), Haggai (Hag 1:13), John (Mal 3:1; Mal 2:7), the priesthood, ministers (Ecc 5:6), the rulers or angels of the Christian churches (Rev 1:20), as Elohim, “gods” is applied to judges (Psa 82:6); compare Jesus’ application, Joh 10:34-37.

As to the nature of “angels” in the limited sense, they are “spirits” (Heb 1:7; Heb 1:14), of wind-like velocity, subtle nature, capable of close communion with God; sharers in His truth, purity, and love, since they ever behold His face (Mat 18:10), even as the redeemed shall (1Jo 3:2); not necessarily incorporeal; Luk 20:36 (compare Phi 3:21), 1Co 15:44, seemingly but not certainly imply their having bodies. Their glorious appearance (Dan 10:6), like our Lord’s when transfigured and afterward as the ascended Savior (Rev 1:14-16), and their human form (Luk 24:4; Act 1:10), favor the same view. Close kindred of nature between angels and men is implied in both being alike called “sons of God” (Job 1:6; Job 38:7; Dan 3:25; Dan 3:28) and “gods” (Elohim) (Psa 8:5; Hebrew Elohim “angels,” Psa 97:7; Luk 3:38).

Finite, but ever progressing in the participation of God’s infinite perfection (Job 4:18; Mat 24:36; 1Pe 1:12). Our fellow servants, “sent forth unto ministry for the sake of them who shall be heirs of salvation” (Heb 1:14), i.e., on ministrations appointed by God and Christ for the good of them who shall be heirs of salvation. Worship and service are their twofold function; priests in the heavenly temple (Isa 6:1-3; 1Ki 22:19; Dan 7:9-10; Rev 5:11), and sent forth thence on God’s missions of love and justice. As finite, and having liberty, they were capable of temptation. Some “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation” (2Pe 2:4; Jud 1:6). “The elect angels” fell not; they take part, by act and sympathy, in our affairs, and shall witness the Judgment (Luk 15:10; 1Co 4:9).

The fallen are not yet actually confined in the bottomless pit, but are doomed to it, “reserved unto judgment,” and though seeming free, and ranging in our air, under the prince of the powers of the air (Eph 2:2), are really in “chains of darkness” already, able only to hurt to the length of their chain. Satan is their prince, a liar, murderer, slanderer; and such are they (Joh 8:44). The probation of the elect angels is over; their crown is won, they are the “holy ones” now (Dan 8:13), under the blessed necessity of sinning no more. “Watchers” of men, jealous for God’s honor (Dan 4:13; Dan 4:23). Bad angels are permitted to try believers now, as Job; good angels are God’s ministers of vengeance on the bad (Rev 12:8-9; Rev 20:1-2). Such shall the saints be at last, “equal to the angels,” holy, made perfect, judges of angels and the world, ministering mediators of blessing to subject creatures (Heb 12:23; 1Co 6:2-3; Rev 5:10).

In the natural world angels minister, as in directing wind and flame (according to one translation of Psa 104:4; Heb 1:7): “the angel of Jehovah” wrought in the plague on the Egyptian firstborn (Exo 12:23; Heb 11:28), and on the rebels in the wilderness (1Co 10:10), on Israel under David (2Sa 24:16; 1Ch 21:16), on Sennacherib’s army (2Ki 19:35), on Herod (Act 12:23). An angel troubled the pool of Bethesda (the Alex. manuscript supports the verse, the Sin. and the Vat. manuscripts reject it), giving it a healing power, as in our mineral springs (Joh 5:4): They act, in an unknown way, in and through “nature’s laws.” In the spiritual world too: by their ministration the Sinaitic law was given, “ordained by angels” (Gal 3:19), “spoken” by them (Heb 2:2), by their “disposition” or appointment (Act 7:53; compare Deu 33:2; Psa 68:17).

From the first creation of our world they took the liveliest interest in the earth (Job 38:7). When man fell by evil angels, with beautiful propriety it was ordered that other angels, holy and unfallen, should minister for God in His reparation of the evil caused to man by their fallen fellow spirits. They rescued at Jehovah’s command righteous Lot from doomed Sodom, Jacob from his murderous brother (Genesis 19; 32). “Manna” is called “angels’ food,” “the grain of heaven”; not that angels eat it, but it came from above whence angels come, and through their ministry (Psa 78:25). When Elisha was in Dothan, surrounded by Syrian hosts, and his servant cried, “Alas! how shall we do?” the Lord opened his eyes to see the mount full of chariots and horses of fire round about (2Ki 6:15; 2Ki 6:17, compare Psa 94:7). By God’s angel Daniel was saved in the lions’ den (Dan 6:22); compare Dan 3:28 as to the fiery furnace.

Michael (whom some questionably identify with the Son of God) is represented as Israel’s champion against Israel’s (the literal and the spiritual) accuser, Satan (Dan 12:1, compare Rev 12:7-10). Daniel 10 unfolds the mysterious truth that there are angel princes in the spirit world, answering to the God-opposed leaders of kingdoms in the political world, the prince of Persia and the prince of Grecia standing in antagonism to Michael. In patriarchal times their ministry is more familiar, and less awful, than in after times. Compare Gen 24:7; Gen 24:40 (the angelic guidance of Abraham’s servant in choosing a wife for Isaac, and encouraging Jacob in his loneliness at Bethel on first leaving home, Genesis 28) with Jdg 6:21-22; Jdg 13:16; Jdg 13:22. They appear, like the prophets and kings in subsequent times, in the character of God’s ministers, carrying out God’s purposes in relation to Israel and the pagan world powers (Zechariah 1; 2; 3; 4, etc.).

When the Lord of angels became flesh, they ministered before and at His birth (Luke 1; 2; Mat 1:20), after the temptation (Mat 4:11), in the agony of Gethsemane (Luk 22:43), at His resurrection and ascension (Mat 28:2; Luk 24:4; Joh 20:12; Act 1:10-11). Their previous and subsequent ministrations to men (Act 5:19; Act 8:26; Act 10:3; Act 12:7, Peter’s deliverance, Act 27:23) all hinge on their intimate connection with and ministry to Him, redeemed man’s divine Head (Psa 91:11; Mat 4:6), Hence they are the guardians of Christ’s little ones, not thinking it beneath their dignity to minister to them (Mat 18:10); not attached singly to single individuals, but all or one ready at God’s bidding to minister to each. (In Acts 12, the remark, “it is his Peter’s angel,” receives no countenance from Peter or the inspired writer of Acts, Luke; but is the uninspired guess of those in Mary’s house.)

Rejoice over each recovered penitent (Luk 15:10); are present in Christian congregations (1Co 11:10); exercising some function in presenting the saints’ prayers, incensed by Christ’s merits, the one Mediator, before God (Rev 8:3; Rev 5:8); not to be prayed to, which is thrice forbidden (Rev 19:10; Rev 22:9; Col 2:18): when we send an offering to the King, the King’s messenger durst not appropriate the King’s exclusive due. Ministers of grace now, and at the dying hour carrying the believer’s soul to paradise (Luk 16:22), but ministers of judgment, and gathering the elect, in the great day (Mat 13:39; Mat 13:41; Mat 13:49; Mat 16:27; Mat 24:31). Their number is counted by myriad’s (Heb 12:22; Greek “to myriads, namely the festal assembly of angels”) (Deu 33:2; Psa 68:17; Dan 7:10; Jud 1:14).

There are various ranks, thrones, principalities, powers in the angelic kingdom of light, as there are also in Satan’s kingdom of darkness (Eph 1:22; Eph 6:12; Col 1:16; Dan 10:13; Dan 12:1; Rom 8:38). (See SERAPHIM; CHERUBIM; MICHAEL; GABRIEL.) Some conjecture that angels had originally natural bodies, which have been developed into spiritual bodies, as the saints’ bodies shall (1Co 15:40-46); for they in Scripture accept material food (Genesis 18) and appear in human form, and never dwell in men’s bodies as the demons, who, naked and homeless, seek human bodies as their habitation (see Luk 20:36, “equal unto the angels”: Phi 3:20-21).

Many of the momentous issues of life are seen often to hinge upon seemingly slight incidents. Doubtless, besides the material instruments and visible agents, the invisible angels work in a marvelous way, under God’s providence, guiding events at the crisis so as to carry out the foreordained end. They “desire to look into” the mysteries of redemption, and they learn “by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph 3:10; 1Pe 1:12). The saints (the living creatures and 24 elders) occupy the inner circle, the angels the outer circle, round the throne of the Lamb (Rev 5:11).

Fuente: Fausset’s Bible Dictionary

ANGELS

Angels are Gods servants and messengers in the heavenly and spiritual realm, where they find true satisfaction in the unceasing worship and service of God. They were created before humans, they belong to a higher order than humans, and their number is countless (Psa 103:20; Psa 148:2; Isa 6:2-3; Dan 7:10; Luk 12:8-9; Luk 15:10; Col 1:16; Heb 12:22; Rev 4:8; Rev 5:11-12; Rev 7:11).

Good and bad angels

At some time before the creation of humans, some of the angels, under the leadership of one who became known as Satan, rebelled against God and so fell from their original sinless state (2Pe 2:4; Jud 1:6). As a result there are good angels and evil angels. Christ has angels and so has Satan (Job 4:18; Mat 25:31; Mat 25:41; Jud 1:9; Rev 12:7-9).

Both good and bad angels are under Gods sovereign rule, the difference between them being that the good angels are obedient and the evil angels rebellious. Even the chief of the evil angels, Satan, is no more than a created being under the authority of God. Satan and the evil angels who follow him can do their evil work only within the limits that God allows (Job 1:12; Job 2:6; see SATAN).

Because of the high position that angels have as Gods heavenly servants, the Bible speaks of them as holy ones, as stars, and even as sons of God. Again these expressions may apply to good angels and bad angels (Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Job 5:1; Job 15:15; Job 38:7; Psa 89:5; Psa 89:7; Rev 9:1; Rev 12:3-4; Rev 12:9). (The remainder of this article will be concerned only with good angels. For further discussion on evil angels see DEMONS.)

Dealings with humankind

Angels have many functions in relation to humankind, but above all they are Gods messengers (Gen 19:1; Gen 28:12; Exo 3:2; Num 22:22; Jdg 2:1-4; Jdg 6:11; 2Sa 24:16; 1Ki 13:18; 1Ki 19:5; Mat 1:20; Mat 2:19; Mat 13:41; Mat 16:27; Luk 1:26-31; Act 10:3-4; Gal 3:19; e.g. see GABRIEL). In many of the earlier Old Testament references, the angel (or messenger) of God appears to be almost the same as God himself. This is possibly because the angel is so closely identified with God as his messenger that when he speaks God speaks. The angels temporary physical appearance is Gods temporary physical appearance (cf. Gen 16:7-13; Gen 21:17-18; Gen 22:15-17; Exo 3:2-6).

To the godly, an angel may be a guide (Gen 24:7; Gen 24:40; Exo 14:19; Act 8:26; Act 27:23), a protector (Psa 34:7; Psa 91:11; Dan 6:22; Dan 10:13; Dan 10:21; Mat 18:10), a deliverer (Isa 63:9; Dan 3:28; Mat 26:53; Act 5:19), an interpreter of visions (Dan 8:16; Zec 1:8-14; Rev 1:1; Rev 22:6) and, in fact, a sympathetic helper in all circumstances (Mar 1:13; Luk 22:43; Heb 1:13-14). Yet to the ungodly, angels may be Gods messengers of judgment (Mat 13:39; Mat 13:41; Mat 25:31-32; Act 12:23; 2Th 1:7-8).

There are various categories of angels (Gen 3:24; Isa 6:2; Eze 10:3; Col 1:16; 1Th 4:16; Jud 1:9; see MICHAEL). Angels themselves do not have a physical form and do not reproduce their kind as humans do (Mat 22:30). When God sends them as his messengers to humans, he may give them a form similar to that of humans, though they are usually sufficiently different to create a feeling of great awe (Jdg 13:15-20; Mat 28:2-3; Luk 2:9; Luk 24:4; Joh 20:12; Act 1:10; Act 6:15).

Cherubim are spirit beings of one of the higher angelic orders. They usually feature as guardians of Gods throne and protectors of his interests (Gen 3:24; Exo 25:17-22; Psa 80:1; Eze 1:4-14; Ezekiel 10; cf. Rev 4:6-11; see CHERUBIM).

Great though angelic beings are, human beings should not worship them (Col 2:18; Rev 19:10; Rev 22:8-9). Jesus Christ is the one whom people should worship; for he is God, and therefore far above angels (Heb 1:5-13; Eph 1:20-21; Col 2:10; Rev 5:11-14). Those who through faith are united with Christ will thereby share Christs dominion in the age to come, and this will involve them in judgment of angels (Heb 2:5-9; 1Co 6:3).

Fuente: Bridgeway Bible Dictionary

Angels

ANGELS.The statements as to angels which meet us in the Gospels are in most respects the same as are found in the Jewish literature of the period, both Biblical and extra-Biblical. In the main, Christ and His Apostles appropriated the Angelology of current Judaismbut not without critical selection. It would be difficult to point to a time when the Jews, as a people, did not believe in angels; yet there were exceptions. Possibly it was the exuberance of the belief that produced in some minds a reaction. At all events, it is a fact that the portion of the OT known to criticism as the Priests Code is silent on the subject of angels; and it is also noteworthy that the Sadducees, who were the descendants of the high-priestly families, protested in the time of our Lord against some, if not all, of the popular notions respecting angels (Act 23:8).

It is probable that belief in angels is originally a corollary from the conception of God as King. A lone kinga king without a courtis almost a contradiction in terms. And inasmuch as the recognition of God as King is the earliest and most prevalent of Israels conceptions of God, we naturally expect the belief in angels, as Gods court, serving Him in His palace and discharging the function of messengers, to be ancient and pervasive. We have then, doubtless, a very primitive conception of angels in the words of Micaiah to Ahab, in 1Ki 22:19 I saw Jahweh sitting on his throne, and all the host of heaven standing by him, on his right hand and on his left. A second and quite distinct feature of the Angelology of the OT is found in the appearances of one who is called the Angel of Jahwehwho is described as undistinguishable from man in appearance, and yet claims to speak and act in the name of Jahweh Himself (Gen 18:2; Gen 18:16-17; Gen 32:24; Gen 32:30, Jdg 13:3; Jdg 13:6; Jdg 13:22). It is noteworthy as a feature of OT criticism, that, as P [Note: Priestly Narrative.] is silent as to angels, so the appearances of an angel as a manlike manifestation of God and not a mere messenger, are confined to those portions of the OT which, on quite other grounds, are assigned to JE [Note: E Jewish Encyclopedia.] . Thirdly, when the Jews came to have more exalted views of God, and of the incompatibility between Divinity and humanity, spirit and matter, good and evil, and, in consequence, conceived of God as aloof from the world and incapable of immediate contact and intercourse with sinful mortals, the doctrine of angels received more attention than ever before. The same influences which led the Persians to frame such an elaborate system of Angelology, led the Jews, during and after the Exile, to frame a similar system, or in some respects to borrow from the Persian system; to believe in gradations among the angelic hosts; to give names to those who were of high rank, and to assign to each of these some definite kind of work to do among men, or some province on the earth to administer as satrap under the King of Heaven (see art. Zoroastrianism in vol. iv. of Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible ).

In the Gospels there are clear indications of the first and third of these phases of belief. The second is of interest to the NT student as a preparatory discipline in the direction of Christology: and as such has no further importance for us at present. Ewald has said (OT and NT Theology, p. 79) that in Christianity there is no denial of the existence of angels, but a return to the simpler colouring of the early narratives. So far as simplicity of narrative is concerned, there is certainly a close resemblance between the angel-incidents of St. Luke and Acts on the one hand, and of Genesis on the other; but in the NT the angel never identifies himself with Jahweh as is done in Genesis; and there are in the NT some phases of Angelology which belong, not to the early narratives, but to post-exilic conceptions.

We wish now, with the help of Jewish literature, more or less contemporary, to make a systematic presentation of those beliefs as to angels which are found in the discourses and narratives of the four Gospels. It might be supposed that we should find it helpful to keep apart the utterances of our Lord from the descriptions of the Evangelists; but, in fact, there is such complete unity of conception underlying both discourses and narratives, that no useful purpose can be served by treating them separately.

i. Angels in Heaven.1. They form an army or host. Luk 2:13 There was with the angel (who appeared to the shepherds) a multitude of the heavenly host (). Our Lord carries the military metaphor even further when He speaks of more than 12 legions of angels (Mat 26:53). Oriental hyperbole was fully employed in expressing the magnitude of the heavenly army. Rev 5:11 speaks of myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands; and Heb 12:22 speaks of the myriads of angelsboth in probable allusion to Dan 7:10. In Job 25:3 also the question is asked: Is there any number of his armies? Similarly the Pal. [Note: Palestine, Palestinian.] Targ. [Note: Targum.] to Exo 12:12 tells of 90,000 myriads of destroying angels; and in Deu 34:5 the same Targum speaks of the glory of the Shekinah being revealed to the dying Moses, with 2000 myriads of angels and 42,000 chariots; as 2Ki 6:17 tells of a mountain full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

2. They form a court. Heaven is Gods throne (Mat 5:34; Mat 23:22), and there also the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of his glory (Mat 19:28). The angels, as courtiers, stand in vast multitudes before the throne (Rev 5:11; Rev 7:11). As in earthly courts there are gradations of rank and dignity, so in heaven. It is St. Paul who speaks most explicitly of the principalities and powers in the heavenly places (Eph 3:10), and of Christs being exalted far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion (Eph 1:21); and evidently Paul regarded them as actually existent and intelligent forces (Robinson, in loco); but the same conception presents itself in the Gospels in the reference to archangels, who were four, or in some authors seven, in number: Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, and Uriel being those most frequently mentioned. In Luk 1:19 the angel who appears to Zacharias says: I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; as in Tob 12:15 the angel says to Tobit: I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints and go in before the glory of the Holy One. Even in the OT the angels are spoken of as forming a council: e.g. in Psa 89:7, where God is said to be very terrible in the council of the holy ones, and in Psa 82:1 where He is said to judge amidst the Elohm. This idea was a great favourite with later Jews, who maintained that God does nothing without consulting the family above (Sanhedrin, 38b). To the same circle of ideas belong the words of the Lord Jesus: Every one that shall confess me before men, him will the Son of Man confess before the angels of God; but he that denieth me in the presence of men shall be denied in the presence of the angels of God (Luk 12:8-9). Evidently the angels are interested spectators of mens behaviour, responsive to their victories and defeats, their sins and struggles; and we are here taught that to be denied before such a vast responsive assembly intensifies the remorse of the apostate, as to be confessed before them intensifies the joy of those who are faithful unto death. Again, in many courts, and particularly in that of the Persians, there were secretaries or scribes, whose business it was to keep a book of records (Est 6:1), in which the names and deeds of those who had deserved well of the king were honourably recorded. The metaphor of heaven as a palace and court is so far kept up, that the Jews often spoke of books in heaven in which mens deeds are recorded. Not only do we read in Slavonic Enoch 19:5 of angels who are over the souls of men, and who write down all their works and their lives before the face of the Lord; and in the Apocalypse of John, where symbolism abounds, of books being opened, and of the dead being judged according to what was written in the books: but even in an Epistle of St. Paul we read of those whose names are in the book of life (Php 4:3), and in Heb 12:23, of the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven; and precisely in accord with the above our Lord bade His disciples rejoice, because their names are written in heaven, i.e. enrolled for honour (Luk 10:20).

3. They form a choir in the heavenly temple. The description of heaven in the Apocalypse is quite as much that of a temple as a palace. Heaven contains its altar (Rev 8:5; Rev 9:13), its censers (Rev 5:8, Rev 8:3), its musicians (Rev 5:8, Rev 15:2), and its singers (Rev 5:9, Rev 14:3, Rev 15:3). In extra-Biblical literature the veil is often mentioned, concealing the abode of God in the Most Holy Place, within which the archangels are permitted to enter (Tob 12:12; Tob 12:15, Enoch 40:2). The only reference in the Gospels under this head is the song of the angels, described in Luk 2:13 f. It is possible, in spite of the reading of some very ancient Greek MSS [Note: SS Manuscripts.] (* ABD), that this song, like that of the seraphim in Isa 6:2, is a triple antiphonal one

Glory to God in the highest [heaven],

Peace on earth,

Among men [Divine] good pleasure.

4. They are sons of God. In this respect the saints who are raised again are equal to the angels (Luk 20:36). They are sons of God by creation and by obedience (Job 1:6; Job 2:1; Job 38:7). They do not owe their existence to the ordinary process of filiation, but to an immediate act of creation (Godet, OT Studies, 7); thus resembling in their origin the bodily nature of those who are sons of the resurrection. Hence we find that they are frequently described as holy (Mat 25:31, Mar 8:38, Luk 9:26, Job 5:1; Job 15:15, Dan 8:13), and by implication we learn that angels obey Gods will in heaven, since we are taught by our Lord to pray that Gods holy will may be done on earth as it is in heaven (Mat 6:10, cf. Psa 103:20).

5. They are free from sensuous feelings. This is taught in Mat 22:30 In the resurrection they neither marry [as men] nor are given in marriage [as women], but are as the angels of God in heaven. These words were spoken by our Lord in response to the doubts of the Sadducees on the subject of the resurrection. Christs reply is in effect this: The source of your error is that you do not fully recognize the power of God. You seem to think that God can make only one kind of body, with one sort of functions, and dependent on one means of life. In that way you limit unduly the power of God. In that age (Luk 20:35), when they rise from the dead (Mar 12:25), men do not eat and drink (Rom 14:17). Not being mortal, they are not dependent on food for nourishment, nor have they, by nature, sensuous appetites, but are (equal to the angels). Thus skilfully did Jesus give a double-edged reply to the teachings of the Sadducees (Act 23:8). While answering their objection against the resurrection, He affirms that those who are accounted worthy to attain to that , and the resurrection from the dead are equal to the angelsthus plainly disclosing His belief in angels and setting it over against their disbelief. As to the spiritual nature of angels, Philo speaks of them as (incorporeal and happy souls); and again, as bodiless souls, not mixtures of rational and irrational natures as ours are, but having the irrational nature cut out, wholly intelligent throughout, pure-thoughts (, elsewhere ) like a monad (Drummonds Philo, 145147; cf. Philos Confusion of Tongues, p. 8, Allegory, iii. 62). The Rabbis interpreted Dan 7:10 to teach that the nature of the angels is fire. They are nourished by the radiance which streams from the presence of God. They need no material nourishment, and their nature is not responsive to bodily pleasures (Weber, Jud. Theol.2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] 167; Pesikta, 57a; Exodus R. 32). They are also said to be spiritual beings (Lev. R. 24), without sensuous requirements (Yoma, 74b), without hatred, envy, or jealousy (Chag. 14). The Jewish legends which interpret Gen 6:4 as teaching a commingling of angels with women, so as to produce mighty men, men of renown, seem at variance with the above belief as to the immunity of celestial intelligences from all passion. It is true that Jud 1:6 and Enoch 15:37 both speak of the angels as having first left their habitation in heaven; but the fact that they were deemed capable of sexual intercourse implies a much coarser conception of the angelic nature than is taught in the words of our Lord, of Philo, and of the Talmud.

6. They have extensive, and yet limited, knowledge. This is clearly taught in one utterance of Christs, recorded in Mat 24:36 || Mar 13:32 Of that day and hour knoweth no man, not even the angels of heaven. The implications clearly are (1) that angels know most things, far better than men; but (2) that there are some things, including the day of the Second Advent, which they do not know. Both these propositions admit of copious illustration from Jewish literature. First, as to their extensive knowledge. There are numerous intimations of the scientific skill of the angels, their acquaintance with the events of human lives, and their prescience of future events. The Book of Jubilees, a pre-Christian work extensively read, affirms (Jubilees 1:27) that Moses was taught by Gabriel concerning Creation and the things narrated in Genesis; that angels taught Noah herbal remedies (Jubilees 10:12), and brought to Jacob seven tablets recording the history of his posterity (Jubilees 32:21). In Enoch 8:1 Azazel is said to have taught men metallurgy and other sciences; as Prometheus was said to have taught the Greeks. In Tob 12:12 the angel assures Tobit that he was familiar with all the events of his troublous days: as in 2Sa 14:17; 2Sa 14:20 the woman of Tekoa flatters Joah that he was as wise as an angel of God to know all things that are in the earth. But this knowledge has its limits. Angels were supposed to understand no language but Hebrew (Chagigah, 16a). In 2Es 4:52, in revealing eschatological events, the angel gives the tokens of the coming end, but confesses his ignorance as to whether Esdras will be alive at the time. The Midrash on Psa 25:14 affirms that nothing is hidden from the angels; but according to Sanhedrin, 99a, and other Talmudic passages, they know not the time of Israels redemption. In 1Pe 1:12 we are told that the angels desire (but in vain) to look into some of the NT mysteries; and in Slav. Enoch 24:3, 40:2, Enoch tells his children that not even the angels know the secrets which he discloses to them.

7. They take a deep interest in the salvation of men. We gather this from the evident joy with which angels announced the advent of the Messiah to the shepherds at Bethlehem. The angel who brought the tidings of great joy (Luk 2:10) clearly felt the joy himself; and the song which the heavenly host sang in praise to God was the outcome of joyous hearts. Even more explicitly is this taught in Luk 15:10 There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. The word seems here to mean in the midst of, among. Joy is manifest on every countenance. Even if the joy intended be the joy of God, which breaks forth in presence of the angels (Godet, in loco), still the implication would be that the heart of the angelic throng is en rapport with the heart of the happy God. On this point the words of the angel are instructive which are recorded in Rev 22:10 I am a fellow-servant with thee and with thy brethren the prophets, and with them that keep the words of this book. The interpreting angel confesses to unity of service with the Church, and in so doing implies a oneness of sympathy and love with the saints. So also when, in 1Pe 1:12, we read that the angels desire to look into the marvels of redemption, there is, as Dr. Hort says, a glimpse of the fellowship of angels with prophets and evangelists, and implicitly with the suffering Christians to whom St. Peter wrote. The same deep interest in the progress of the Church appears in Eph 3:10, where we are taught that one great purpose which moved God to enter on the work of human salvation was, that through the Church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and powers in heavenly places. The Church on earth is the arena on which the attributes of God are displayed for the admiration and adoration of the family in heaven (Eph 3:15).

ii. Angels as Visitants to Earth.1. To convey messages from God to man.(a) In dreams. It is a peculiarity of the Gospel of the Infancy, as recorded by St. Matthew, that the appearances of the angels are in dreams to Joseph, bidding him acknowledge Mary as his wife (Mat 1:20), take the young child and His mother to Egypt (Mat 2:13), and return to Palestine on the death of Herod (Mat 2:19). The only OT parallel to this is Gen 31:11, where Jacob tells his wives that the angel of God spake to him in a dream.

(b) In other instances the message of the angel is brought in full, wakeful consciousness. It was while Zacharias was ministering at the altar of incense in the Holy Place that an angel who called himself Gabriel appeared, foretelling the birth of John (Luk 1:11). It was while the shepherds were keeping watch over their flock that the angel stood near them and directed them to the babe in Bethlehem (Luk 2:9; Luk 2:11); and it is narrated by the three Synoptists that it was through angelic agency that the disciples were informed of the Resurrection. St. Matthew narrates that it was an angel who had descended from heaven (Mat 28:2), that spoke to the women at the tomb (Mat 28:5; Mat 28:7). St. Mark speaks of a young man arrayed in a white robe (Mar 16:5), and St. Luke of two men in dazzling apparel (Luk 24:4), who assured the women that Christ was risen. The author of the Fourth Gospel is silent as to angelic appearances at the Resurrection, but he bears testimony to the popular belief in angelic voices (Joh 12:29). When a voice came from heaven, saying, I have glorified and will again glorify (my name), the Evangelist records: Some of the people said, An angel spake to him.

We reserve for special consideration the sacredly mysterious interview of the angel Gabriel with the Virgin Mary (Luk 1:26-38). The salutation of the angel was: Hail, thou favoured one! The Lord is with thee. When she was perplexed at the saying, the angel announced: Thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bear a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. This Son is further described as Son of the Most High and He to whom the Lord God will give the throne of his father David. Then, in reply to the Virgins further doubts and perplexities, the angel vouchsafes the dread explanation, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power () of the Most High shall overshadow thee. No word from God shall be devoid of power. The full consideration of these words will be fittingly considered under Annunciation (which see). On us it seems to devolve to speak of the view which arose very early in Jewish Christian circles, and which regarded the angel as not merely the messenger, but the cause of the conception. It was a general belief among the Jews that a spoken word has causal efficacy. This lay at the root of the belief in the potency of spells and charms. And if every spoken word is mighty, the words of God are almighty. The expression No word from () God shall be devoid of power (Luk 1:37) was accordingly interpreted to mean that the message brought from God through the angel had causal efficacy: the Divine word spoken by the angel caused the conception. In the Protevangelium of James (11:2) the angel is recorded to have said: Thou shalt conceive from His word ( ), and the same expression occurs in the Arabic Gospel of the Infancy. This is the origin of the curious doctrine of the ancient Church, that the Virgin conceived through the ear. The word of the angel, which was a Divine message, reached the Virgin through the ear. The ear was thus believed to be the channel through which the Divine potency was operative. Even Augustine says: Virgo per aurem impregnabatur. As bearing on this subject, we may note that in the Ascension of Isaiah the angel Gabriel is called the angel of the Holy Spirit (3:18, 7:23, 9:36). In pseudo-Matthew (c. 10), Joseph says: Why do ye mislead me to believe that an angel of the Lord hath made her pregnant? and in the Protevangelium of James the Virgin explains her condition to Joseph in these words: The case is the same as it was with Adam whom God created. He said, Let him be; and he was.

2. Angels as performing physical actions. This is an ancient representation of which the OT furnishes many instances: Psa 91:11 f. (cited Mat 4:8, Luk 4:10 f.), angels shall bear thee up on their hands; in Dan 6:22 angels shut the lions mouths; in Psa 34:7 angels encamp round about them that fear God; so in Apocrypha (Bel 36, Three 26). It is therefore precisely in accord with Jewish modes of thought that we read in Mat 28:2 There was a great earthquake: for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled away the stone; and in Mar 1:13 He was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him (cf. Mat 4:11).

3. As performing psychical actions. When Jesus was in the garden, and being in an agony prayed more earnestly, we are told that there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him (Luk 22:43).* [Note: On the question of the genuineness of this passage see the Notes on Select Readings in Westcott and Horts NT in Greek.] So in Dan 10:17 f. Daniel records that there was no strength in him, and no breath left in him, and an angel touched him and strengthened him. The Hebrews drew no distinction between the physical and the psychical. It was in their regard just as easy for these spiritual existences to roll away a stone as to infuse vigour into the system, and give power to the enfeebled nerves and will.

4. Angels are deputed to guard the righteous from danger. In Gen 24:7 Abraham prays for his servant: May God send his angel before thee; and Jacob saw angels ascending and descending over him in his sleep (Gen 28:12). In the time of Christ it was a Jewish belief not merely that angels are sent to guide and guard men, but also that every man has his own guardian spirit, or, as others teach, two guardians. In the Talmudic treatise Berakhoth (60b), when a man goes into an unclean place, he prays his guardian angels to wait outside till be returns. In Pal. [Note: Palestine, Palestinian.] Targum to Gen 33:10 Jacob says to Esau, I have seen thy face as if I saw the face of thy angel; on Gen 48:16 the same Targum reads: May the angel whom thou hast assigned to me bless the lads. Similarly the Sohar to Exodus (p. 190) says: From the 13th year of a man and onwards, God assigns to every man two angels, one on the right hand and one on the left; and the Testament of Joseph (circa (about) 6) names the angel of Abraham as the guardian of Joseph. It is here more than elsewhere that we seem to recognize the influence of Persia on Jewish beliefs.

The question now occurs, What connexion is there between the above and Mat 18:10 See that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you, that their angels in heaven continually behold the face of my Father who is in heaven? It is evident that their angels means angels that watch over them. But did our Lord refer to the angels of the presence or to individual guardian angels? The former is more probable for two reasons(1) It was not part of the Jewish creed that any angels behold the face of God except the archangels; (2) the guardian spirits accompanying men on earth could hardly at the same time be said to be in heaven continually beholding the face of the Father who is in heaven. The allusion probably is, then, to the angels of the presence, and especially to Michael the guardian of the pious and the helpless. It must be admitted that in Act 12:15 we seem to have the popular Jewish notion in all its later development. When many brethren were met in the house of Mary, mother of John Mark, and were unable to believe that Peter had really been delivered, they said to Rhoda, first, Thou art mad, and then, It is his angel. This, if pushed to its apparent implications, seems to contain an allusion to a notion which occurs in some Jewish writings, that heaven is a counterpart of earth, and every man has his double in the celestial sphere; or at all events the guardian angel is like him whom he guards. It is quite likely, however, that on the lips of the disciples these words might be merely an allusion to a popular conception, without carrying with them any literal belief.

5. Angels visit wrath on the adversaries of the righteous. This is implied in Christs words: See that ye despise not one of these little ones (Mat 18:10). The word implies beware! and the teaching clearly is that angels are capable of punishing any who injure those whom it is their business to guard. The OT contains instances of their punitive abilities. It was an angel of the Lord who smote 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians (2Ki 19:35), and who destroyed the children of Israel till, when he came to Jerusalem, the Lord said to him, It is enough (2Sa 24:16); and Psa 35:5 f. presents a picture calculated to inspire terror in every breast: Let them be as chaff before the wind, the angel of the Lord driving them on. Let their way be dark and slippery, the angel of the Lord pursuing them. It is very noteworthy that the Lord Jesus, even in His hour of intensest agony, drew comfort from the thought of angelic help. It was a real comfort to Him that the angels were at His control, if He needed them. The military band led by Judas could not arrest or injure Him unless He voluntarily submitted Himself to them. He had authority to lay down His life; and when the struggle was over, and the resolve retaken that the path of the cross was the path of duty, he conveyed to the Eleven the fact of His self-surrender by saying of Peter, who had impetuously used the sword in his Lords defence, Thinkest thou that I cannot now beseech the Father, and he would even now send me more than twelve legions of angels? (Mat 26:53). We note here that the prayer is not to be addressed to angels. There are very few instances of Jews praying to angels. The Rabbis discouraged it. Every pious Jew would, as Jesus did, pray to God that He would send angelic ministry; as in 2Ma 15:23, where Judas is said to have prayed: O sovereign Lord, send a good angel before us to bring terror and trembling.

6. Angels render aid at death. Luk 16:22 Lazarus was carried away by the angels into Abrahams bosom. We come here upon a widespread belief among Jews and Jewish Christiansthat angels convey the souls of the righteous to Paradise. Michael is usually the one entrusted with this duty. If he has a companion, it is Gabriel. The Gospel of Nieodemus records that when Jesus descended into Hades and released the righteous dead from captivity, He delivered Adam and all the righteous to the archangel Michael, and all the saints followed Michael; and he led them all into the glorious gate of Paradise: among them being the penitent thief. The History of Joseph the Carpenter records that Michael and Gabriel drew out the soul of Joseph and wrapped it in a silken napkin, and amid the songs of angels took him to his good Father, even to the dwelling-place of the just. In the Testament of Abraham we have a similar account of the death of Abraham. The Ascension of Isaiah (7:25) affirms that those who love the Most High and His Beloved will ascend to heaven by the Angel of the Holy Spirit.

7. Angels are to be the ministrants of Christ at His Second Advent. The reapers in the great Harvest are angels; and they separate the tares from the wheat (Mat 13:39). The Son of Man will send forth his angels to gather out all that offend (Mat 13:41). He shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him (Mat 25:31). He shall send forth his angels with the great sound of a trumpet to gather the elect (Mat 24:31; cf. 1Th 4:17, 2Th 1:7).

8. To complete our survey, we must add one word as to the appearance of angels when men were conscious of their presence. It is taken for granted that there needs to be a preparation of vision before man can recognize their presence. As Balaam was unaware that the angel confronted him until the Lord opened his eyes (Num 22:31), and as Elisha prayed that God would open the eyes of his servant (2Ki 6:17), so when the risen Jesus appeared to Saul of Tarsus, those who travelled with him saw no man (Act 9:7). (a) Angels had a manlike appearance. As Abraham and Manoahs wife mistook them for men (Gen 18:16, Jdg 13:6), so, in describing the Resurrection, St. Mark says that the women saw a young man (Mar 16:5), and St. Luke that two men stood by them (Luk 24:4).(b) Their appearance was usually with brilliant light or glory. When the angel appeared to the shepherds, the glory of the Lord shone round about them (Luk 2:9), and when the Son of Man cometh, He will come in the glory of the holy angels (Luk 9:26). So in Tob 3:16, Cod. B reads: The prayer of both was heard before the glory of the great Raphael; in 2Ma 3:26 two young men appeared, notable in their strength and beautiful in their glory; and the Protevangelium of James narrates that an angel of the Lord appeared in the great light to Joachim.(c) They wear raiment of great luminousness. Mat 28:3 His appearance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow; cf. Dan 10:6, Eze 1:13, Rev 1:14; Rev 19:12. So Apocalypse, Apocalyptic of Peter says of the angels, their body was whiter than any snow.

iii. Differences between NT and Rabbinism as to Angels.We undertook to show that in the main Christ and His Apostles appropriated the Angelology of Judaism; and the above systematic treatment has surely rendered this evident. It has often been observed that Jesus says very little about angels; and, so far as the bulk, of His sayings is concerned, this is quite true; but when we classify His utterances, we find that they constitute almost a complete Angelology; and so far as it goes, it is in harmony with the Jewish beliefs of the period. The Jews believed all that the NT says of angels, but they also believed much more.

1. It is very significant that the Gospels are silent as to the mediation of angels. In Judaism this was very prominent. In Tobit, e.g., one great function of angels is said to be to carry the prayers of saints within the veil, before the glory of the Holy One (Tob 12:12; Tob 12:15). In Enoch 40:6 the seer says: And the third voice heard I pray and intercede for those who dwell on the earth, and supplicate in the name of the Lord of spirits. In the Greek Apocalypse, Apocalyptic of Baruch (c. 11), Michael is said to have a great receptacle in which the prayers of men are placed to be carried through the gates into the presence of the Divine glory (Texts and Studies, v. i. 100). In the Midrash Exodus Rabba 21 an angel set over the prayers of men is said to weave them into crowns for the Most High.But not only are the Gospels silent as to the need of angels to be mediators in carrying the prayers and necessities of saints into the unapproachable chamber of the Most High, the teaching of Jesus was designed to counteract such a view of God. When our Lord said: Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things (Mat 6:32); Your heavenly Father feedeth the fowls (Mat 6:26); Thy Father seeth in secret (Mat 6:18); Pray to thy Father who is in secret (Mat 6:6),He certainly wished to break down the barriers which the Jewish mind had placed between itself and God, and encourage men to come direct to the Father in childlike confidence.

2. In other respects the only difference is, that the Gospels are free from the extravagant embellishment in which the Rabbis indulged, when speaking of angels: (a) as to their size. The Talmudic treatise Chagigah (13b) says that Sandalfon is taller than his fellows by the length of a journey of 500 years; and the Gospel of Peter (c. 9) tells how the Roman soldiers saw two men descend from heaven, and the head of the two reached unto heaven, but that of Him whom they released from the tomb overpassed the heavens.(b) As to a fondness for the marvellous in describing their appearance and actions. For instance, Yoma 21a narrates how a high priest was killed by an angel in the Holy of Holies, and the impress of a calfs foot was found between his shoulders. Joshua ben Hananiah is reported to have told the Emperor Hadrian that God hears the song of new angels every day. When asked whence they come, he replied, From the fiery stream which issues from the throne of God (Dan 7:10); see Bacher, Agada der Tannaiten, i. 178.(e) The Jews also speculated much as to the origin of the angels, their connexion with the four elements, etc.; and they had ingenious methods of computing their number by Kabbalistic Gematriathe whole thing being the extravaganza of Oriental phantasy.

iv. The objective value of the NT doctrine of Angels.The most difficult part of our task now awaits us, to give some account of modern views as to the reality of angels, and to discuss whether there are valid reasons why we, as Christians, are bound to accept the prima facie NT teaching as to the angelic ministry. Every Christian must feel that it is of very great importance to decide whether the Lord Jesus really believed in the objective existence and ministrations of angels. To this question the present writer feels obliged to give an affirmative reply [but see art. Accommodation, above, p. 20], and that for the following reasons: (1) Though Jesus did not speak much concerning angels, yet His recorded sayings cover, with some intentional exceptions, almost the complete Angelology of the Jewswhich is evidence that He was, in the main, in agreement with it. (2) If the disciples had been radically mistaken on this subject, surely this is a matter as to which Christs words were applicable: If it were not so, I would have told you, Joh 14:2. (3) In controversy with the Sadducees, who were sceptical as to angels, He adroitly gave them such a reply to their objection against the resurrection as to show that the existence and nature of angels was to Him a settled matter, and might be used to elucidate the nature of the resurrection body. There is a wealth of conviction in the words of Jesus: Those who rise again are like the angels. (4) Christ made mention of angels not merely in the parables, where we expect symbolism and pictorial illustration, but also in the interpretation (Mat 13:39; Mat 13:41; Mat 13:49). (5) He used the punitive ability of angels to warn men against despising the little ones in His kingdom (Mat 18:10). Apart from a literal belief in angels, such words are an empty threat. (6) In the time of His most intense agony He evidently derived comfort from the loving sympathy of the cloud of witnesses; for when He emerges from the trial and its bitterness is past, He assures Peter that, had He permitted it, more than twelve legions of angels would readily have intervened to deliver Him (Mat 26:53).Stevens (Theology of NT, p. 80) is impressed by other passages. In several places, he says, Christ seems to refer to angels in such a way as to show that He believed in their real existence. He will come in the glory of his Father with his holy angels (Mar 8:38). Angels in heaven neither marry nor are given in marriage (Mar 12:25). Of the hour of his Advent not even the angels in heaven know (Mar 13:32).

In recent times the views of scholars are much divided on this subject. 1. There are large sections of the universal Church to whom the existence of angels is very real, not only as a matter of theoretical belief, but as a matter of religious experience. They set great value on the services of angels as mediators between themselves, in their sins and needs and miseries, and the holy, infinite God; and they delight to think that the spiritual strength and light and succour which come to them in answer to prayer, reach their low estate through the mediation of angels. We might readily quote from saints of the Greek and Roman Churches on this head, but we prefer to give the disclosures of Swedenborg. According to him, we are every moment in the most vital association with the spirits both of heaven and hell. They are the perpetual prompters of our thoughts: they incessantly work by insinuating influences on our loves; and they give force on the one hand to the power of temptation, and on the other fortify the soul, by hidden influx, to resist temptation (Rev. G. Bush, Disclosures of Swedenborg, 79).

2. There are many who believe in angels theoretically. They take the teaching of the NT in a thoroughly literal sense. They are prepared to maintain and contend that Jesus Christ believed in the real existence of angels; and, in consequence, a belief in angels forms part of their creed; but angels have no part in their inner religious life. Some admit, not without regret and self-reproach, that angels do not seem so real to them as they did to Jesus; while others are reluctant to admit that it can be a fault to yearn as they do for heart-to-heart fellowship with God Himself, without the intervention of an angel ministryto seek for direct interaction with God, without even the holiest angel intervening in the sacredness of the communion. As a specimen of this attitude, we quote from an article in the First Series of the Expositor (viii. 409 ff.) by R. Winterbotham: I do not mean to imply that we disbelieve either the existence or the ministry of angelic beings: we cannot do so without rejecting and denying point blank the unquestioned and unquestionable dicta of our Lord and of His apostles. But I do say that our belief in angels is formal only, or at the best merely poetic. It does not strike its roots down into our religious consciousness, into that inner and unseen, but most real and often passionate, life of the soul towards God and the powers of the world to come.

3. There are others yet again who set such a high value on the immediacy of the interaction of fellowship with God, believing, as they do, that it was the chief feature of Christs teaching to reveal the possibility of fellowship with God as our Fatheror led perhaps by scientific predilections to feel that there is now no room for angels in our modern worldthat they sweep away the intervention of angels, and are reluctant to admit that the Lord Jesus really believed in their existence. They would believe rather that He accommodated Himself in this matter to current popular notions. For instance, Beyschlag maintains that the immediate relation to the world in which Jesus viewed His heavenly Father left no room for such personal intermediate beings [as the Jews of that time believed in]. In passages like Luk 12:8; Luk 15:10 angels are a poetic paraphrase for God Himself. The holy angels of the Son of Man, with whom He will come again in His glory, are the rays of Divine majesty which is then to surround Him with splendour: they are the Divine powers with which He is to waken the dead. And again, The most remarkable passage is Mat 18:10, and it is the very passage which we can least of all take in prosaic literalness. According to it, even the least of the children of men has his guardian angel who at all times has access to the Heavenly Father, viz. to complain to Him of the offences done to his protg on earth. But as God, according to Jesus, knows what happens to each of His children without needing to be told, in what other way can we conceive this entirely poetical passage, than that in every child of man a peculiar thought of God has to be realized, which stands over his history, like a genius, or guardian spirit, and which God always remembers, so that everything which opposes its realization on earth comes before Him as a complaint? (New Test. Theology, i. 86 f.). Dr. Bruce is even more pronounced. In his Epistle to the Hebrews (p. 45) he says: For modern men, the angels are very much a dead theological category. Everywhere in the old Jewish world, they are next to nowhere in our world. They have practically disappeared from the universe in thought and in fact. Then, with a strange lapse of the historic sense, he adds: This subject was probably a weariness to the writer of our Epistle. A Jew, and well acquainted with Jewish opinion, and obliged to adjust his argument to it, he was tired, I imagine, of the angelic regime. Too much had been made of it in Rabbinical teaching and in popular opinion. It must not be supposed that he was in sympathy with either.

A belief in angels among men of to-day depends entirely on ones religious outlook, ones general view of God and the world. The man who has scientific proclivities, who has toiled through much doubt and uncertainty before he can sincerely affirm the first article of the Christian creed, I believe in God the Father Almighty, will probably be reluctant to take more cargo aboard than his faith can carry. In other words, he will employ the Law of Parsimony, Entia praeter necessitatem non multiplicanda sunt, and, finding the full satisfaction of his religious needs in direct intercourse with God the Father, will reject, or ignore as superfluous, the ministry of angels. So also the man of mystical tendencies, whose eager desire is to have communion with the Divinewho claims to be endowed with a faculty by which he can cognize God, and receive immediate communications from Him, is also likely to regard the intervention of angels between his spirit and the Divine Spirit as an intrusion. And not less so is this the case with one who has leanings to Pantheismwhether he regards God as altogether immanent in the world, or as both immanent and transcendent. In proportion as ones thoughts centre on Divine immanence, and as one regards God as more or less identical with Force, variant but transmutable, present everywhere, and everywhere causative, in that proportion are ones thoughts drawn away from every theological conception but that of the One Great Cause of motion, life, and mind. There is no room for angels.

The only scientific conception which to some minds seems to foster the belief in angels is the Law of Evolution, or, to speak more accurately, the anticipation of gradation of being, encouraged by that law. T. G. Selby, in his volume of sermons headed by one on The Imperfect Angel, contends that a true science welcomes the belief in angels as intervening between man and God. It is surely not unscientific, he says, to assume the existence of the pure and mighty beings spoken of by seers and prophets of the olden time. The spirit of inspiration, in seeking to convey to us some faint hint of the strict and awful and absolute holiness of God, depicts ranks of angels indefinitely higher and better than the choicest saints on earth: and then tells us that these angels, which seem so lofty and stainless and resplendent, are creatures of unwisdom and shortcoming in comparison with the ineffable wisdom and surpassing holiness of God (p. 7). Godet in his Biblical Studies on the OT has elaborated a scientific apologia on behalf of angels. He contends that science recognizes three forms of being: species without individuality, in the vegetable world; individuality under bondage to species, in the animal world; individuality overpowering species, in the human race. He holds, therefore, that it is antecedently probable that there is a fourth form of beingindividuality without specieseach individual owing his existence no longer to parents like himself, but immediately to the Creative Will. This fourth form would exactly be the angel (p. 2 ff.).

It remains now to show that a belief in angels is in precise accord with the fundamental views of God and the world which present themselves in the recorded life and teaching of the Lord Jesus. Were the belief in angels at variance with Christs personal religious outlook, we might readily regard it as an excrescence which modern thought might lop off without much detriment; but if it is closely allied to our Lords fundamental doctrines, then this will surely confirm the impression arrived at from other evidence, that Jesus sincerely believed in the reality of angels, and would have us derive from the belief the same comfort and support which He did. Where shall we look with more assurance for the first principles of the doctrine of Jesus than to the Lords Prayer? There our Saviour taught His disciples to say, Our Father which art in heaven. Hallowed be Thy name. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Beyond all contradiction, then, it is an axiom of the creed of Jesus that there are beings in heaven who do Gods will. It is generally recognized that Jesus presented to men a conception of God which meets the needs of mans religious nature, rather than of his reason and intellect. Men of culture and philosophical training may aspire to know God as the One in all, the Absolute, the First Cause; and may appeal for support to isolated sayings of the Apostles, but not to sayings of the Master. His sayings owe their eternal permanence to the fact that they appeal to that which is common to all menthe innermost in all menthe heartthe religious nature. To conceive of God as the Absolute, or the First Cause, may satisfy the reason; but before the heart can be satisfied, it must know God as Father, the Father in heaven. But the very phrase Father in heaven seems to imply that He has sons in heaven. And that this implication is warranted, is irrefragably substantiated by the words which follow: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Surely no one can deny that Christ firmly believed that there are beings in heaven who do Gods will, to say the least, far more perfectly than we do, since their obedience is the model to which we are constantly taught to pray that we may attain. Again, it was the outstanding feature of Judaism to push God aloof from men and the world, whereas Jesus brought God nearer to men, as a Father who takes a minute interest in all that concerns us. But if Jesus thus brought heaven nearer to man, He must, in the very act, have brought the occupants of heaven nearer, and must wish us to believe that they also are deeply interested in our welfare. There is no need that angels should tell God anything that concerns us. He knows already far more than they can tell. Those who object to the doctrine of angels because it interposes a barrier between our prayers and our Fathers love, misunderstand Christs teaching. His disclosure of the Fatherliness of God was meant to correct Judaism, in so far as it made angels the bearers of our prayers and the informants to God of our requirements. Those Christians also who approach God through angels contravene in this way Christs teaching: and also His example, for in the garden He said to Peter (Mat 26:53): I could pray the Father, and he would send angels. Christs teaching and example both show that it is our duty and privilege to have direct intercourse with God in prayer and fellowship. But this is not to say that there is no room for the ministry of angels. We may still believe that angels are sent on errands of mercy. Indeed, we may well say to those who on this subject are of doubtful mind, as the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews said: Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to do service on behalf of those who shall inherit salvation? (Mat 1:14). There is nothing at all in the Gospel doctrine of angels which is at variance with the religious needs of the most cultured among us. It may present difficulties to reason, as everything which is supernatural does; but the heart of man which loves God must surely rejoice to think that the heavenly Father has also a family in heaven as on earth (Eph 3:15). It must always find a responsive chord in the nature of men who allow the heart a place in their creed, to be told that there are beings who continually behold the face of our Father, who are deeply interested in us (Mat 18:10); that our penitence gives the angels joy (Luk 15:10); that in our times of depression and anguish it may be our privilege to have an angel sent from heaven, strengthening us (Luk 22:43), as in our times of gladness it is our privilege to give thanks to the Father from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named (Eph 3:14 f.).

Literature.Articles on Angels in Hasting’s Dictionary of the Bible (by Davidson; cf. also Extra Vol. p. 285 ff.), Schenkels Bibellexicon (by Schenkel), Riehms HWB [Note: WB Handwrterbunch.] (by Delitzsch). Encyclopaedia Britannica (by Robertson Smith). For Jewish beliefs see Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. i. p. 583 ff.; Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus, vol. ii. Appendix xiii.; Bousset, Religion des Judenthums, 313325; Gfrorer, Urchristenthum, i. 352378; Weber, Judische Theologie2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] (see Index 8. Engel); Donehoo, Apocryphal and Legendary Life of Christ; Schiefer, Die religiosen and ethischen Anschauungen des IV Ezrahuches: Kohut, Die Judische Angelologie. On the general subject see Everling, Die Paulinische Angelologie: Latham, The Service of Angels; Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, 127 ff.; Expositor, First Series, viii. 409 ff.; Expository Times, iii. 437, vi. 145, 193; Davidson, Theology of OT, 289306; Beyschlag, NT Theology2 [Note: designates the particular edition of the work referred] , i. 86 ff.

J. T. Marshall.

Fuente: A Dictionary Of Christ And The Gospels

Angels

Evil angels we read of, Psa 78:49. And we read of “angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, that the Lord hath reserved in everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day. (Jud 1:6) And we read that Satan is sometimes – transformed into an angel of light.” (2Co 11:14) But the Scriptures are altogether silent respecting their nature, agency, and extent. The Holy Ghost hath been graciously pleased to give general precepts and warnings to the church, respecting the malignity of those evil angels, and to admonish the people of God to resist the devil, and that he shall flee from them. We are taught also, by the several names given to the chief of those evil powers, to be always looking to the Lord Jesus for grace to resist the “fiery darts of this enemy,” who is called, “the prince of this world.” (Joh 12:31) “the prince of the power of the air; the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience,” (Eph 2:2) But to numberless enquiries, which we feel highly disposed to put forth, concerning these things, there are no encouragements of any answers to be given in the word of God. It is very blessed, however, to be enabled by the promises of God, to take to ourselves those glorious and comprehensive assurances which belong to the whole church of Christ, and which ensure the present safety of every individual member, and the ultimate triumph in Christ, over Satan and all his angels. One Scripture tells the church, that”no temptation hath them taken, but such as is common to man: and that God is faithful, who will not suffer them to be tempted above that they are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that they may be able to bear it.” (1Co 10:13) And another Scripture saith, that “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under their feet shortly.” (Rom 16:20) Here then, is enough for every child of God to know and to rest in, until the whole comes to be explained in eternity.

See Satan

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

Angels

Angels, a word signifying, both in Hebrew and Greek, messengers, and therefore used to denote whatever God employs to execute his purposes, or to manifest his presence or his power. In some passages it occurs in the sense of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14; 1Sa 11:3; Luk 7:24; Luk 9:52): in others it is applied to prophets (Isa 42:19; Hag 1:13; Malachi 3): to priests (Ecc 5:6; Mal 2:7): to ministers of the New Testament (Rev 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 19:35): 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 distinctively 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. 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 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: but there are numerous passages in the Scriptures which are wholly inconsistent with this notion, and if Mat 22:30, stood alone in its testimony, it ought to settle the question. So likewise, the passage in which the high dignity of Christ is established, by arguing that he is superior to the angels (Heb 1:4, sqq.), would be without force or meaning if angels had no real existence.

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 naturesascending from man towards God, and forming a chain of being to fill up the vast space between the Creator and manthe lowest of his intellectual creatures. This may be inferred from the analogies which pervade the chain of being on the earth whereon we live, which is as much the divine creation as the world of spirits. Accordingly the Scriptures describe angels as existing in a society composed of members of unequal dignity, power, and excellence, and as having chiefs and rulers (Zec 1:11; Zec 3:7; Dan 10:13; Jud 1:9; 1Th 4:16).

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. The fact that angels always appeared in the human form, does not, indeed, prove that this form naturally belongs to them. But that which is not pure spirit must have some form or other: and angels may have the human form; but other forms are possible. 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), 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 passage already referred to in Mat 22:30, teaches by implication that there is no distinction of sex among the angels. In the Scriptures indeed the angels are all males: but 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, although there is no record of their creation.

The preceding considerations apply chiefly to the existence and nature of angels. Some of their attributes may be collected from other passages of Scripture. 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.’

The ministry of angels, or that they are employed by God as the instruments of His will, is very clearly taught in the Scriptures. The very name, as already explained, shows that God employs their agency in the dispensations of His Providence. And it is further 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), that their agency is employed 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 34:7; Psa 91:11; 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 unto him (Rev 19:10; Rev 22:9) whom the angels themselves reverently worship.

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. 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. The Jews (excepting the Sadducees) entertained this belief. There is, however, nothing to authorize 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 anything 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 [SATAN].

Fuente: Popular Cyclopedia Biblical Literature

Angels

The words malac , signify ‘messenger.’

1. It is used for the mystic representation of the divine presence, as in Gen 31:11-13. “The angel of God” spake unto Jacob saying, “I am the God of Bethel.” “The angel of Jehovah” spake to Hagar and said, “I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be numbered for multitude.” Gen 16:7-11. “The angel of Jehovah” spake to Abraham saying, “By myself have I sworn,” etc. Gen 22:11; Gen 22:15-16. Three ‘men’ drew near to Abraham’s tent. One said Sarah should have a son: at which Sarah laughed, and Jehovah said, “Wherefore did Sarah laugh?” Two of the three left, and were called ‘angels’ at the gate of Sodom, while Jehovah, the third, talked with Abraham. Gen 18:1-33: cf. also Exo 3:2; Exo 3:6-15; Num 22:22-35. Jacob, in blessing the sons of Joseph, said, “The Angel which redeemed me from all evil bless the lads.” Gen 48:16. It is generally believed that it was the second person in the Trinity who appeared as a man in the O.T. It is no doubt the same who is called ‘the mighty angel’ in Rev 10:1-3.

2. The intelligent spiritual beings who are constantly referred to in scripture as God’s messengers both as carrying good tidings and, as executors of God’s judgements. We know little of their nature: “of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire,” Heb 1:7; and man is described as being a little inferior to the angels. Psa 8:5 ; Heb 2:7. There are apparently gradations in rank among them, described as principalities and powers, of which Christ as Man is now the head. Col 2:10. Twice we meet with ‘archangel:’ an archangel’s voice will accompany the rapture of the church, 1Th 4:16; and ‘Michael the archangel’ contended with Satan about the body of Moses. Jud 1:9. He with his angels will fight with the dragon and his angels and cast them out of heaven. Rev 12:7-8. Gabriel is the only other name of an angel revealed to us: he appeared to Daniel, to Zacharias, and to Mary: he said that he stood in the presence of God. Dan 8:16; Dan 9:21; Luk 1:19; Luk 1:26.

Though we are unconscious of the presence of angels we know that they are ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall inherit salvation, Heb 1:14: cf. Psa 34:7; and we read also that they ministered to the Lord when He was here. Mat 4:11; Mar 1:13; Luk 22:43. There are ‘myriads’ of these angels, Mat 26:53; Heb 12:22; Rev 5:11; and they are described as ‘mighty,’ ‘holy,’ ‘elect,’ 2Th 1:7; Mar 8:38; 1Ti 5:21: they do not marry, Mar 12:25. We are not told when they were created, but doubtless they are referred to as ‘the sons of God’ who shouted for joy when God created the earth. Job 38:4-7.

The law was given by their ministry, Act 7:53; Gal 3:19; Psa 68:17; and they had to do with proclaiming the birth of the Saviour, Luk 2:8-14; and they attended at the resurrection. Mat 28:2; Joh 20:12. Angels are not the depositaries of the revelation and counsels of God. They desire to look into the things testified by the Spirit of Christ in the prophets, and now reported by the apostles in the power of the same Spirit. 1Pe 1:12. The world to come is not to be put in subjection to them, but to man in the person of the Son of man, Heb 2:5-8; and the saints will judge angels. 1Co 6:3. It is therefore only a false humility that would teach the worshipping of angels. Col 2:18. When John fell down to worship the angel in the Revelation, being overpowered by reason of the stupendous things revealed, he was on two occasions restrained from worshipping his ‘fellow servant,’ as in Rev 19:10 ; Rev 22:9.

In Psa 8:5 the word is elohim, ‘God:’ the name of God being given to the angels as His representatives: cf. Psa 82:6. In Psa 68:17 it is shinan ‘repetition;’ reading “even thousands upon thousands.” In Psa 78:25 it is abbir, ‘mighty:’ “every one did eat the bread of the mighty” margin.

3. FALLEN ANGELS.

a. We read of angels who kept not their first estate,’ but left their own habitation, and are kept in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgement of the great day. Jud 1:6. God spared not the angels who sinned. 2Pe 2:4. The nature of their sin may be referred to in Gen 6:2. Their punishment and that of Sodom and Gomorrah is held up as a warning against fleshly indulgence, and despising government. 2Pe 2:10; Jud 1:6-8.

b. Besides the above which are kept in chains we read of angels connected with Satan. The great dragon and his angels will be subdued by Michael and his angels, and be cast out of heaven. Rev 12:9. The lake of fire, or Gehenna, has been specially prepared for the devil and his angels, though, alas, man will also be cast therein. Mat 25:41. Abaddon or Apollyon is the name of ‘the angel of the bottomless pit,’ Rev 9:11, that is, ‘the abyss,’ not hell, which, as seen above, is the place of punishment. Isa 14:12-16 and Eze 28:14-19, may throw some light on the fall of Satan, but whether the fall of those called ‘his angels’ was brought about by the same cause and at the same time is not revealed. Scripture is quite clear that all of them will be overcome and eternally punished.

4. The term ‘angel’ is used metaphorically for a mystical representative. When Peter was delivered from prison, and knocked at the door, those who had been praying for his release said, “It is his angel.” Act 12:15. They supposed Peter was still in prison, and that the one at the door was his representative, his spirit personified, perhaps with very vague ideas of what they really meant. In Revelation 2, 3, the addresses to the seven churches are made to the angel of each. It signifies the spirit and character of the assembly personified in its mystical representative, each one differing from the others, according to the state of the assembly. The messages, though addressed to churches existing at the time, no doubt set forth the state of the church in its varied phases ever since apostolic times down to its entire rejection as the responsible witness for Christ at the close of the dispensation.

Fuente: Concise Bible Dictionary

Angels

Angels. By the word “angels” (that is, “messengers” of God), we ordinarily understand a race of spiritual beings of a nature exalted far above that of man, although infinitely removed from that of God — whose office is “to do him service in heaven, and by his appointment to succor and defend men on earth”.

I. Scriptural use of the word. There are many passages in which the expression “angel of God” is certainly used for a manifestation of God himself. Compare Gen 22:11 with Gen 22:12 and Exo 3:2 with Exo 3:6 and Exo 3:14. 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 — as to Abraham at Mamre, Gen 18:2; Gen 18:22, compare Gen 19:1 to Jacob at Penuel, Gen 32:24; Gen 32:30 to Joshua at Gilgal, Jos 5:13; Jos 5:15 etc. Besides this, which is the highest application of the word angel, we find the phrase used of any messengers of God, such as the prophets, Isa 42:19; Hag 1:13; Mal 3:1, the priests, Mal 2:7. And the rulers of the Christian churches. Rev 1:20.

II. Nature of angels. Angels are termed “spirits,” as in Heb 1:14 — but it is not asserted that the angelic nature is incorporeal. The contrary seems expressly implied in Luk 20:36. The angels are revealed to us as beings such as man might be, and will be when the power of sin and death is removed, because always beholding his face, Mat 18:10, and therefore being “made like him.” 1Jo 3:2. Their number must be very large, 1Ki 22:19; Mat 26:53; Heb 12:22, their strength is great, Psa 103:20; Rev 5:2; Rev 18:21, their activity marvelous, Isa 6:2-6; Mat 26:53; Rev 8:13, their appearance varied according to circumstances, but was often brilliant and dazzling. Mat 28:2-7; Rev 10:1-2.

Of the nature of “fallen angels,” the circumstances and nature of the temptation by which they fell, 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; Rev 12:7; Rev 12:9. 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. Compare Heb 2:10; Heb 5:9; Heb 12:23.

III. Office of the angels. Of their office in heaven, we have only vague prophetic glimpses as in 1Ki 22:19; Isa 6:1-3; Dan 7:9,10; Rev 6:11, etc., which show us nothing, but a never-ceasing adoration. They are represented as being, in the widest sense, agents of God’s providence, natural and supernatural, to the body and to the soul. In one word, they are Christ’s ministers of grace now, and they shall be of judgment hereafter. Mat 13:39; Mat 13:41; Mat 13:49; Mat 16:27; Mat 24:31 etc. That there are degrees of the angelic nature, both fallen and unfallen, and special titles and agencies belonging to each, is clearly declared by St. Paul, Eph 1:21; Rom 8:38, but what their general nature is it is useless to speculate.

Fuente: Smith’s Bible Dictionary

ANGELS

Angels are the ministers and officers of the Divine Court and Providence in the invisible government of the world; and being now become subject to Christ, (Heb 1:6) they serve in the invisible government, and that of the Church and of the world, that it may be brought to the purpose of God in behalf of his Church; of which both together, the secular princes with the clergy, are the visible ministers. So that these invisible agents denote and imply the visible; which also for this reason are called Angels in the Revelation, in the same manner as in other Books of Holy Writ, the secular princes or magistrates have the same attributes given to them as the angels, f1 and the very name too; (2Sa 14:17; 2Sa 14:20) even though heathens, they might be so called.

The foundation of this is built upon the principle, that the intellectual world is an original copy and idea of the visible; and that there is such an union and affinity between these two, that nothing is done in the visible but what is decreed before, and exemplified in the intellectual.

Now the Revelation is a prophecy in which is declared the decree of God, both positive and permissive; that is, what he is resolved shall be performed in his kingdom, both intellectual and visible, and what he will permit to be done in that of Satan to obstruct his designs, but in reality to magnify his glory the more; and therefore, in such a prophecy, wherein the prophet is caught up in the spirit to see the first springs of events, it is sufficient, and much more lively to set down what is done in the intellectual world; for the symbols that describe those events must by consequence describe those of the visible.

The Angel of a Nation denotes the prince or king thereof.

The Angel of a Church, its bishop, or chief pastor.

An Angel, an inferior ruling power, or a visible agent made use of by God in bringing about the designs of his Providence.

An Angel from the Altar, an ecclesiastical minister.

f1 Compare Rom 13:6, with Heb 1:14

Fuente: A Symbolical Dictionary

ANGELS

(1) Ministering

Gen 16:7; Gen 19:16; Gen 22:11; Exo 14:19; Exo 23:20; 1Ki 19:5; Psa 91:11; Isa 63:9

Dan 3:28; Dan 6:22; Mar 1:13; Luk 16:22; Act 5:19; Act 12:7; Act 27:23; Heb 1:14

(2) Appear to Men

Gen 32:1; Num 22:31; Jdg 2:1; Jdg 6:11; Jdg 13:3; Jdg 13:13; Zec 1:9; Zec 2:3

Mat 1:20; Mat 2:13; Mat 28:2; Luk 1:11; Luk 1:28; Luk 2:9; Joh 20:12; Act 8:26; Act 10:3

–SEE Angels (1), ANGELS

(3) Wait upon Christ

Mat 24:31; Mat 25:31; Mat 26:53; Luk 2:13; Luk 22:43; Joh 1:51

2Th 1:7; Heb 1:6; Rev 5:11

(4) Of Wrath, Execute the Judgments of God

Gen 19:1; Jdg 5:23; 2Sa 24:16; 1Ch 21:15; 2Ch 32:21

Isa 37:36; Act 12:23

(5) Fallen Angels

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

(6) In Heaven

Mar 12:25; Luk 12:8; Luk 15:10; Heb 12:22; Rev 7:11; Rev 8:2

–SEE Heavenly Host, FUTURE, THE

(7) Of the Churches

Rev 1:20; Rev 2:1; Rev 2:8; Rev 2:12; Rev 2:18; Rev 3:1; Rev 3:7; Rev 3:14

–Worship Forbidden, See WORSHIP, TRUE

Fuente: Thompson Chain-Reference Bible