Angel

(Latin angelus; Greek aggelos; from the Hebrew for "one going" or
"one sent"; messenger). The word is used in Hebrew to denote
indifferently either a divine or human messenger. The Septuagint
renders it by aggelos which also has both significations. The
Latin version, however, distinguishes the divine or spirit-
messenger from the human, rendering the original in the one case
by angelus and in the other by legatus or more generally by
nuntius. In a few passages the Latin version is misleading, the
word angelus being used where nuntius would have better expressed
the meaning, e.g. Is., xviii, 2: xxxiii, 3, 6. It is with the
spirit-messenger alone that we are here concerned. We have to
discuss the meaning of the term in the Bible, the offices, and
names assigned to the angels, the distinction between good and
evil spirits, the divisions of the angelic choirs, the question of
angelic appearances, and the development of the scriptural idea of
angels. The angels are represented throughout the Bible as a body
of spiritual beings intermediate between God and men; "Thou hast
made him (man) a little less than the angels" (Ps., viii, 6).
They, equally with man, are created beings; "praise ye Him, all
His angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts...for He spoke and they
were made. He commanded and they were created" (Ps., cxlviii, 2,
5: Co., i, 16, 17). That the angels were created was laid down in
the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). The decree "Firmiter" against
the Albigenses declared both the fact that they were created and
that men were created after them. This decree was repeated by the
First Vatican Council, "Dei Filius". We mention it here because
the words: "He that liveth for ever created all things together"
(Ecclus., xviii, 1) have been held to prove a simultaneous
creation of all things; but it is generally conceded that
"together" (simul) may here mean "equally", in the sense that all
things were "alike" created. They are spirits; the writer of the
Epistle to the Hebrews says: "Are they not all ministering
spirits, sent to minister to them who shall receive the
inheritance of salvation?" (Heb. i, 14). It is as messengers that
they most often figure in the Bible, but, as St. Augustine, and
after him St. Gregory, expresses it: angelus est nomen officii and
expresses neither their essential nature nor their essential
function, viz.: that of attendants upon God's throne in that court
of heaven of which Daniel has left us a vivid picture: "I behold
till thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days sat: His garment
was white as snow, and the hair of His head like clean wool: His
throne like flames of fire: the wheels of it like a burning fire.
A swift stream of fire issued forth from before Him: thousands of
thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred
thousand stood before Him: the judgment sat and the books were
opened" (Dan., vii, 9, 10; cf. also Ps., xcvi, 7; cii, 20; Is.,
vi, etc.) This function of the angelic host is expressed by the
word "assistance" (Job, i, 6: ii, 1), and our Lord refers to it as
their perpetual occupation (Matt., xviii, 10). More than once we
are told of seven angels whose special function it is thus to
"stand before God's throne" (Tob., xii, 15; Apoc., viii, 2-5). The
same thought may be intended by "the angel of His presence" (Is.,
lxiii, 9) an expression which also occurs in the pseudo-
epigraphical "Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs".

But these glimpses of life beyond the veil are only occasional.
The angels of the Bible generally appear in the role of God's
messengers to mankind. They are His instruments by whom He
communicates His will to men, and in Jacob's vision they are
depicted as ascending and descending the ladder which stretches
from earth to heaven while the Eternal Father gazes upon the
wanderer below. It was an angel who found Agar in the wilderness
(Gen., xvi); angels drew Lot out of Sodom; an angel announces to
Gideon that he is to save his people; an angel foretells the birth
of Samson (Judges, xiii), and the angel Gabriel instructs Daniel
(Dan., viii, 16), though he is not called an angel in either of
these passages, but the man Gabriel" (ix, 21). The same heavenly
spirit announced the birth of St. John the Baptist and the
Incarnation of the Redeemer, while tradition ascribes to him both
the message to the shepherds (Luke, ii, 9), and the most glorious
mission of all, that of strengthening the Kind of Angels in His
Agony (Luke, xxii, 43). The spiritual nature of the angles is
manifested very clearly in the account which Zacharias gives of
the revelations bestowed upon him by the ministry of an angel. The
prophet depicts the angel as speaking "in him". He seems to imply
that he was conscious of an interior voice which was not that of
God but of His messenger. The Massoretic text, the Septuagint, and
the Vulgate all agree in thus describing the communications made
by the angel to the prophet. It is a pity that the "Revised
Version" should, in apparent defiance of the above-named texts,
obscure this trait by persistently giving the rendering: "the
angel that talked with me: instead of "within me" (cf. Zach., i,
9, 13, 14; ii, 3; iv, 5; v, 10). Such appearances of angels
generally last only so long as the delivery of their message
requires, but frequently their mission is prolonged, and they are
represented as the constituted guardians of the nations at some
particular crisis, e.g. during the Exodus (Exod., xiv, 19; Baruch,
vi, 6). Similarly it is the common view of the Fathers that by
"the prince of the Kingdom of the Persians" (Dan., x, 13; x, 21)
we are to understand the angel to whom was entrusted the spiritual
care of that kingdom, and we may perhaps see in the "man of
Macedonia" who appeared to St. Paul at Troas, the guardian angel
of that country (Acts. xvi, 9).The Septuagint (Deut., xxxii, 8),
has preserved for us a fragment of information on this head,
though it is difficult to gauge its exact meaning: "When the Most
High divided the nations, when He scattered the children of Adam,
He established the bounds of the nations according to the number
of the angels of God". How large a part the ministry of angels
played, not merely in Hebrew theology, but in the religious ideas
of other nations as well, appears from the expression "like to an
angel of God". It is three times used of David (II K., xiv, 17,
20; xiv, 27) and once by Achis of Geth (I K., xxlx, 9). It is even
applied by Esther to Assuerus (Esther, xv, 16), and St. Stephen's
face is said to have looked "like the face of an angel" as he
stood before the Sanhedrin (Acts, vi, 15).

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

As Divine Agents Governing The World

The foregoing passages, especially those relating to the angels
who have charge of various districts, enable us to understand the
practically unanimous view of the Fathers that it is the angels
who put into execution God's law regarding the physical world. The
Semitic belief in genii and in spirits which cause good or evil is
well known, and traces of it are to be found in the Bible. Thus
the pestilence which devastated Israel for David's sin in
numbering the people is attributed to an angel whom David is said
to have actually seen (II K., xxiv, 15-17), and more explicitly, I
Par., xxi, 14-18). Even the wind rustling in the tree-tops was
regarded as an angel (II K., v, 23, 24; I Par., xiv, 14, 15). This
is more explicitly stated with regard to the pool of Probatica
(John, v, 1-4), though these is some doubt about the text; in that
passage the disturbance of the water is said to be due to the
periodic visits of an angel. The Semites clearly felt that all the
orderly harmony of the universe, as well as interruptions of that
harmony, were due to God as their originator, but were carried out
by His ministers. This view is strongly marked in the "Book of
Jubilees" where the heavenly host of good and evil angels is every
interfering in the material universe. Maimonides (Directorium
Perplexorum, iv and vi) is quoted by St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa
Theol., I:1:3) as holding that the Bible frequently terms the
powers of nature angels, since they manifest the omnipotence of
God (cf. St. Jerome, In Mich., vi, 1, 2; P. L., iv, col. 1206).
Though the angels who appear in the earlier works of the Old
Testament are strangely impersonal and are overshadowed by the
importance of the message they bring or the work they do, there
are not wanting hints regarding the existence of certain ranks in
the heavenly army. After Adam's fall Paradise is guarded against
our First Parents by cherubim who are clearly God's ministers,
though nothing is said of their nature. Only once again do the
cherubim figure in the Bible, viz., in Ezechiel's marvellous
vision, where they are described at great length (Ezech., i), and
are actually called cherub in Ezechiel, x. The Ark was guarded by
two cherubim, but we are left to conjecture what they were like.
It has been suggested with great probability that we have their
counterpart in the winged bulls and lions guarding the Assyrian
palaces, and also in the strange winged men with hawks' heads who
are depicted on the walls of some of their buildings. The seraphim
only appear in the vision of Isaias, vi, 6. Mention has already
been made of the mystic seven who stand before God, and we seem to
have in them an indication of an inner cordon that surrounds the
throne. The term archangel only occurs in St. Jude and I Thess.,
iv, 15; but St. Paul has furnished us with two other lists of
names of the heavenly cohorts. He tells us (Ephes., i, 21) that
Christ is raised up "above all principality, and power, and
virtue, and dominion"; and, writing to the Colossians (i, 16), he
says: "In Him were all things created in heaven and on earth,
visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominations, or
principalities or powers." It is to be noted that he uses two of
these names of the powers of darkness when (ii, 15) he talks of
Christ as "despoiling the principalities and powers...triumphing
over them in Himself". And it is not a little remarkable that only
two verses later he warns his readers not to be seduced into any
"religion of angels". He seems to put his seal upon a certain
lawful angelology, and at the same time to warn them against
indulging superstition on the subject. We have a hint of such
excesses in the Book of Enoch, wherein, as already stated, the
angels play a quite disproportionate part. Similarly Josephus
tells us (Be. Jud., II, viii, 7) that the Essenes had to take a
vow to preserve the names of the angels. We have already seen how
(Dan., x, 12-21) various districts are allotted to various angels
who are termed their princes, and the same feature reappears still
more markedly in the Apocalyptic "angels of the seven churches",
though it is impossible to decide what is the precise
signification of the term. These seven Angels of the Churches are
generally regarded as being the Bishops occupying these sees. St.
Gregory Nazianzen in his address to the Bishops at Constantinople
twice terms them "Angels", in the language of the Apocalypse. The
treatise "De Coelesti Hierarchia", which is ascribed to St. Denis
the Areopagite, and which exercised so strong an influence upon
the Scholastics, treats at great length of the hierarchies and
orders of the angels. It is generally conceded that this work was
not due to St. Denis, but must date some centuries later. Though
the doctrine it contains regarding the choirs of angels has been
received in the Church with extraordinary unanimity, no
proposition touching the angelic hierarchies is binding on our
faith. The following passages from St. Gregory the Great (Hom. 34,
In Evang.) will give us a clear idea of the view of the Church's
doctors on the point: "We know on the authority of Scripture that
there are nine orders of angels, viz., Angels, Archangels,
Virtues, Powers, Principalities, Dominations, Throne, Cherubim and
Seraphim. That there are Angels and Archangels nearly every page
of the Bible tell us, and the books of the Prophets talk of
Cherubim and Seraphim. St. Paul, too, writing to the Ephesians
enumerates four orders when he says: 'above all Principality, and
Power, and Virtue, and Domination'; and again, writing to the
Colossians he says: 'whether Thrones, or Dominations, or
Principalities, or Powers'. If we now join these two lists
together we have five Orders, and adding Angels and Archangels,
Cherubim and Seraphim, we find nine Orders of Angels.

St. Thomas (Summa Theo., I:108), following St. Denis (De Coelesti
Hierarchia, vi, vii), divides the angels into three hierarchies
each of which contains three orders. Their proximity to the
Supreme Being serves as the basis of this division. In the first
hierarchy he places the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones; in the
second, the Dominations, Virtues, and Powers; in the third, the
Principalities, Archangels, and Angels. The only Scriptural names
furnished of individual angels are Raphael, Michael, and Gabriel,
names which signify their respective attributes. Apocryphal Jewish
books, such as the Book of Enoch, supply those of Uriel and
Jeremiel, while many are found in other apocryphal sources, like
those Milton names in "Paradise Lost". (On superstitious use of
such names, see above). The number of the angels is frequently
stated as prodigious (Dan., vii, 10; Apoc., v, 11; Ps., lxvii, 18;
Matt, xxvi, 53). From the use of the word host (Sabaoth) as a
synonym for the heavenly army it is hard to resist the impression
that the term "Lord of Hosts" refers to God's Supreme command of
the Angelic multitude (cf. Deut., xxxiii, 2 ;xxxii, 43;
Septuagint). The Fathers see a reference to the relative numbers
of men and angels in the parable of the hundred sheep (Luke, xv,
1-3), though this may seem fanciful. The Scholastics, again,
following the treatise "De Coelesti Hierarchia" of St. Denis,
regard the preponderance of numbers as a necessary perfection of
the angelic host (cf. St. Thomas, Summa Theol., I:1:3).

Good And Bad Angels

The distinction of good and bad angels constantly appears in the
Bible, but it is instructive to note that there is no sign of any
dualism or conflict between two equal principles, one good and the
other evil. The conflict depicted is rather that waged on earth
between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the Evil One, but
the latter's inferiority is always supposed. The existence, then,
of this inferior, and therefore created, spirit, has to be
explained. The gradual development of Hebrew consciousness on this
point is very clearly marked in the inspired writings. The account
of the fall of our First Parents (Gen., iii) is couched in such
terms that it is impossible to see in it anything more than the
acknowledgment of the existence of a principle of evil who was
jealous of the human race. The statement (Gen., iii) is couched in
such terms that it is impossible to see in it anything more than
the acknowledgment of the existence of a principle of evil who was
jealous of the human race. The statement (Gen., vi, 1) that the
"sons of God" married the daughters of men is explained of the
fall of the angels, in Enoch, vi-xi, and codices, D, E F, and A of
the Septuagint read frequently, for "sons of God", oi aggeloi tou
theou. Unfortunately, codices B and C are defective in Ge., vi,
but it is probably that they, too, read oi aggeloi in this
passage, for they constantly so render the expression "sons of
God"; cf. Job, i, 6; ii, 1; xxxviii, 7; but on the other hand, see
Ps., ii, 1; lxxxviii, & (Septuagint). Philo, in commenting on the
passage in his treatise "Quod Deus sit immutabilis", i, follows
the Septuagint. For Philo's doctrine of Angels, cf. "De Vita
Mosis", iii, 2, "De Somniis", VI: "De Incorrupta Manna", i; "De
Sacrifciis", ii; "De Lege Allegorica", I, 12; III, 73; and for the
view of Gen., vi, 1, cf. St. Justin, Apol., ii 5. It should
moreover be noted that the Hebrew word nephilim rendered gigantes,
in vi, 4, may mean "fallen ones". The Fathers generally refer it
to the sons of Seth, the chosen stock. In I K., xix, 9, an evil
spirit is said to possess Saul, though this is probably a
metaphorical expression; more explicit is III B., xxii, 19-23,
where a spirit is depicted as appearing in the midst of the
heavenly army and offering, at the Lord's invitation, to be a
lying spirit in the mouth of Achab's false prophets. We might,
with Scholastics, explain this is malum poenae, which is actually
caused by God owing to man's fault. A truer exegesis would,
however, dwell on the purely imaginative tone of the whole
episode; it is not so much the mould in which the message is cast
as the actual tenor of that message which is meant to occupy our
attention.

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

The Term "Angel" In The Septuagint

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

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

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

Angels In Babylonian Literature

The Bible has shown us that a belief in angels, or spirits
intermediate between God and man, is a characteristic of the
Semitic people. It is therefore interesting to trace this belief
in the Semites of Babylonia. According to Sayce (The Religions of
Ancient Egypt and Babylonia, Gifford Lectures, 1901), the
engrafting of Semitic beliefs on the earliest Sumerian religion of
Babylonia is marked by the entrance of angels or sukallin in their
theosophy. Thus we find an interesting parallel to "the angels of
the Lord" in Nebo, "the minister of Merodach" (ibid., 355). He is
also termed the :"angel" or interpreter of the will or Merodach
(ibid., 456), and Sayce accepts Hommel's statement that it can be
shown from the Minean inscriptions that primitive Semitic religion
consisted of moon and star worship, the moon-god Athtar and an
"angel" god standing at the head of the pantheon (ibid., 315). The
Biblical conflict between the kingdoms of good and evil finds its
parallel in the "spirits of heaven" or the Igigi--who constituted
the "host" of which Ninip was the champion (and from who he
received the title of "chief of the angels") and the "spirits of
the earth", or Annuna-Ki, who dwelt in Hades (ibid. 355). The
Babylonian sukalli corresponded to the spirit0-messengers of the
Bible; they declared their Lord's will and executed his behests
(ibid., 361). Some of them appear to have been more than
messengers; they were the interpreters and vicegerents of the
supreme deity, thus Nebo is "the prophet of Borsippa". These
angels are even termed "the sons" of the deity whose vicegerents
they are; thus Ninip, at one time the messenger of En-lil, is
transformed into his son just as Merodach becomes the son of Ea
(ibid., 496). The Babylonian accounts of the Creation and the
Flood do not contrast very favourably with the Biblical accounts,
and the same must be said of the chaotic hierarchies of gods and
angels which modern research has revealed. perhaps we are
justified in seeing all forms of religion vestiges of a primitive
nature-worship which has at times succeeded in debasing the purer
revelation, and which, where that primitive revelation has not
received successive increments as among the Hebrews, results in an
abundant crop of weeds.

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

Angels in the Zend-Avesta

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

Angels in the New Testament

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

Notes

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

HUGH POPE
Transcribed by Jim Holden

From the Catholic Encyclopedia, copyright � 1913 by the
Encyclopedia Press, Inc. Electronic version copyright � 1996 by
New Advent, Inc., P.O. Box 281096, Denver, Colorado, USA, 80228.
([email protected]) Taken from the New Advent Web Page
(www.knight.org/advent).

This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an
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