Angel

For other uses, see Angel (disambiguation).

In many mythologies and religions, an angel is a good spirit. The word angel comes from the Greek word angelos which means "messenger". Angels appear frequently in the Old Testament, the New Testament, Qur'an and Aqdas.

An angel watching over two children.

Three angels, in a picture made in about 1420 by the Russian, Andrej Rublev.

Wounded Angel, Hugo Simberg, 1903, voted Finland's "national painting" during 2006

Different references to angels throughout the Bible suggest different kinds and ranks of angels, such as seraphs (Hebrew plural: seraphim) or cherubs (Hebrew plural: cherubim). This resulted in medieval theologians outlining a hierarchy of such divine messengers, including not only cherubs and seraphs, but also archangels, powers, principalities, dominions and thrones.

The study of angels is called angelology.

In the Bible

Angels are powerful spirits that obey God's commands. They sometimes appear to humans in a human form. They can deliver messages to people in person or in dreams. Angels that are named in the Bible are Michael (called a "chief prince"), Gabriel (known for telling Mary that she would be the mother of Jesus), and Raphael (in the Apocryphal Book of Tobit). The Ethiopian Book of Enoch also lists four Archangels which watch over the four parts of heaven; Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel. Lucifer is also known as an angel in the Bible.

Appearances in Genesis

God, in the Book of Genesis sends an Angel with a sword made out of fire to keep Adam and Eve from going back to the Garden of Eden.

• He later sends an angel to Hagar to tell her not to run away from Abraham and that she will give birth to Ishmael.
• After Abraham is circumcised , three men come to him to tell him that his wife Sarah will give birth to a son Isaac and they turn out to be angels.
• Two angels pretending to be human go to Sodom and Gomorrah to see if there are ten good people there but there aren't so one of them destroys Sodom and the other rescues Lot and his family.
• When Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael away later, an Angel of God comes to her to help them.
• When Jacob runs away from Esau, he falls asleep and has a dream about angels climbing up and down a ladder. When Jacob goes back to Canaan, he fights a man who turns out to be an Angel and wins. Jacob says he'll let the Angel go if the Angel gives him a blessing so the Angel changes Jacob's name to Israel. Jacob asks the Angel "what is your name?" and the Angel asks Jacob why he wants to know.

Appearances in Exodus

In the Book of Exodus, an Angel comes to a bush and makes a fire but the bush doesn't burn. When Moses sees this, he comes close to the Bush and he hears God speak to him. On the way to Egypt, Moses forgets to circumcise his son so an Angel tries to kill him but then Zipporah circumcises him and the Angel lets Moses live. Angels are also there when God gives the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai.

Appearances in Leviticus

In the Book of Leviticus, the Ark of the Covenant, has statues of two angels called Cherubim on top of it.

Appearances in Numbers

In the Book of Numbers, Balaam goes to curse the Israelites but G-d sends an Angel to be a Satan against Balaam. Balaam doesn't see the Angel but his donkey does so she moves out of the way. Balaam then hits her and gets her to go continue moving. When the donkey sees the Angel again and Balaam doesn't, she moves to the other side of the road and Balaam hits her and she starts walking again. When she sees the Angle again and there's nowhere on the road to go, she stops moving, so Balaam hits her. Balaam's donkey then talks to him and asks him why he's hitting her. He says if he had a sword, then he would kill her. Then Balaam sees the Angel and the Angel tells Balaam that Balaam's donkey is more righteous than he is and that he would have only killed Balaam but not the donkey.

Appearances in Deuteronomy

When Moses spoke to the Israelites in the Book of Deuteronomy, there were ten thousand angels next to him.

Appearances in Judges

G-d sends an Angel to Gideon in the Book of Judges to tell Gideon that he must save the Israelites. He later sends an Angel to an Israelite woman and her husband Manoach to tell them that they would have a son Samson.

Appearances in Samuel

When King David has a census, G-d punishes him by sending an Angel to cause a plague.

Appearances in Kings

When Queen Jezebel wants to kill Elijah, an Angel comes to help him. Another Angel later protects Elisha. When King Ahab asks the prophet Micaiah for a prediction, Mecaiah tells him that G-d sent an Angel to trick Ahab into fighting a war and getting killed. Later when Sannecherib attacks Judah, G-d sends His Angel to kill Sannecherib's entire Assyrian army.

Isaiah

Isaiah said that the Angels sang songs and that every Angel had six wings, two for covering its face, two for covering its feet and two for flying. Isaiah said that when he heard the Angels sing he said "I am doomed for I live among a people of unclean lips" and that G-d got angry with him for saying that.

Ezekiel

The Book of Ezekiel begins with Ezekiel seeing Angels on a Chariot.

Zechariah

The prophet Zechariah saw an Angel tell him that G-d would have mercy on the Jews. And that their enemies will be punished. Another Angel says that even the Kingdom of Israel will come back to the land. Zechariah sees an Angel defending the Priest from The Satan when The Satan says that the Priest did a bad thing. An Angel shows Zechariah a Menorah in the Temple of Jerusalem. The Angel tells Zechariah that the children of Zerubavel will be Kings.

Malachi

G-d told Malachi that He would send an Angel and Elijah to announce that the Messiah was coming.

Job

In the Book of Job, all the Angels meet with G-d and The Satan bets G-d that he can make Job curse G-d

Daniel

In the Book of Daniel, an Angel rescues Daniel's friends from Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel also mentions Angels being named Michael and Gabriel

Chronicles

In the Books of Chronicles, The Satan gets King David to want to have his census.

Appearances in The New Testament

In the New Testament, an Angel tells The Virgin Mary that she will give birth to Jesus, Angels proclaim the birth of Jesus in the Adoration of the shepherds (Luke 2:10) and Angels help Jesus in the desert.

In Luke 22:43 of the New Testament, an Angel comforts Jesus during the agony in the garden of Gethsemane and in Matthew 28:5 an Angel speaks at the empty tomb following the Resurrection of Jesus saying: “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as He said".

Types of Angels

• Cherubs are described as creatures which have four wings. Cherubim guard the Eden with a sword of fire. This suggests that the author of Genesis was aware of different types of angels. A Cherub is mentioned in Ezekiel 28:13-14, saying that the angel was in the Garden of God.

Ezekiel 28:13-14 13. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. 14. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

It describes the sound of their wings, "like the roar of rushing waters."

Ezekiel 10:5-7 ; Ezekiel 10:8 reveals that they have hands like a man under their wings .

Ezekiel 1:7 KJV reveals that they look like man but are different because they have "straight feet" and four wings and four faces.

Ezekiel ch 1, and 10 describe the cherubim creatures ascending and descending from the earth with wheels. Ezekiel 1:14-20 ; Ezekiel 10:16

Ezekiel 10:9-13 describes what the wheels appeared to look like, and how they moved around, how they moved or flew through the sky quickly but turned not as they went; and how the inside workings of the wheels appeared to be "a wheel in the midst of a wheel" and that the color of the wheels was the color of "Amber" Stone. There are four separate wheels in both accounts, one for each single cherub which is there.

• Seraphs (Hebrew for "burning") are depicted as having six wings They are known for singing and praising God. They can shout so loud, they shake the temple.
• Archangels like Gabriel (Gospel of Luke 1:19) are the highest type of angel. They are considered saints in the Catholic church. However, in the King James Version of the Bible; they are another type of angel. In the Book of Revelation the Angel Michael casts the 'great dragon' Satan out of heaven and down to earth in a great battle between the good and bad angels, just before the Great Judgement of angels and man. (Revelation 12)
• The Leviathan in Book of Job 41:19-21 has flame that goes: 'out of his mouth' like a dragon. Isaiah 30:6 also talks of a 'fiery flying serpent'. Compare Revelation 20:2: , where an angel: 'laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years'.

Religion

Rabbinic Judaism

In Judaism angels are created by God from fire. They fullfil tasks given by God. Rabbinic Judaism rejects earlier accounts on fallen angels who sinned by mating with humans. Instead, angels are servants of God. Still, not all angels are benevolent. Some angels are jealous of humans, because God loves them so much. Unlike angels, humans can overcome sin and repent. Angels cannot repent their sin, because they are already sinless.

When the Bible speaks about the creation of humans in the plural, Judaism sometimes argues that God discussed his decision with the angels. But they make clear, it is God alone who creates humans. God only wanted to discuss with the angels to show that someone in power, should still try to value the opinion of people lower.

Islam

In Islam angels are created by God (referred to as Allah in the Arabic, Persian, Urdu, Pashto, and Dari languages) before jinn and humans. Some say, that before angels however, demons were created. Angels were created in heaven and fullfil God's orders. Some angels deliver messages to humans and prophets, most famous among them is Gabriel. Other angels support humans with rain. Some angels don't have a task on earth, but dwell in heaven, for example, to praise God.

Muslims disagree if angels can fail a task, but they agree that an angel never wants to disobey. Sometimes angels might simply make mistakes on accident, like the angels Harut and Marut. But these angels are not considered evil, they just lose their rank as punishment, but can restore their rank later again. Not all angels are nice. God gives angels violent tasks too. For example, God orders angels to punish people in hell, not demons. Muslims believe hell is under God's control, and not the demon's. They believe hell is not only suffering, but also justice. Angels watch out that people don't escape their punishment. While the benevolent angels are said to be created from light, some Muslims think the angels in hell are created from fire.

Muslims believe that angels are also present in life. They are, however, only in clean places. They are believed to give also good advises and blessings.

In art

They are often shown in art as having wings and a halo. The wings represent their speed, and the halo represents their holiness.

The cherubim in art always appear as baby faced angels with very small, non-useful wings.

The cherubim statue or bronze casting of cherubim in the Temple of Solomon depicted them as two four winged creatures whose wings touched at the peak of the ark that they were making.

The same cherubim creatures were said to be cast in gold on top of the Ark of the Covenant. Casting metal is one of the oldest forms of artwork, and was attempted by Leonardo da Vinci.

In literature

Angels are generally held to be holy and virtuous, hence the term is used loosely to apply to anyone particularly good or kind, or having a good influence. In his novel Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy chooses the name of an angel, Gabriel, for his kind and helpful hero. On the other hand, in his play Measure for Measure, Shakespeare's use of the name Angelo is ironic, since Angelo is a character who likes to see himself as virtuous, but who is concealing evil aspects of his nature. Fallen angels, who are no longer holy or virtuous, are also known as devils.

However, since angels are held to be spirits (that is, non-material beings), medieval theologians were faced with the problem of how humans could see a non-physical creature. Eventually a theory was put forward that angels must make themselves a body out of the nearest thing to the non-physical, i.e. from air. Hence in his famous poem Aire and Angels, the seventeenth century metaphysical poet John Donne uses this idea to write a cynical comment on women, whose love, he says, is like an angel's body of air, while men's love is like the real thing, the angel itself.

Idea of Guardian angel

From the era of the Romantics onwards, there has developed the widely held belief that everyone has an angel assigned to guard them. This concept is probably based on Jesus' comment in Matthew 18:10 regarding children, though it is not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible.

In superstitions

Seeing repetitive numbers are thought to be associated with numerology, also referred to as angel numbers. It is believed that angels communicate with humans through repetitive appearances of numbers. Humanity has studied and used numbers since the dawn of time, and no matter what the culture is, there are certain numbers that hold specific value or meaning over other numbers.

Related pages

• Demigod

Other websites

• Media related to Angels at Wikimedia Commons