BIBLICAL ANGELOLOGY:

WHAT THE
BIBLE HAS
TO SAY
ABOUT
ANGELS
 TABLE OF CONTENT

Biblical Angelology: What the Bible Has

to Say About Angels

Effeminate Angels?

Heavenly Haloes?

On Wings of Angels?

Where Angels Fear to Tread: Sources of

extra-biblical stories,
legends, myths, and speculation about angels

PAM DEWEY
If you have questions or comments about any of the material in the articles
in this collection of Answers About Angels, you may write to:
oasis7@gmail.com

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 INTRODUCTION

ANSWERS ABOUT
ANGELS
Fifty years ago, the average American gave lip service to belief in angels
once a year—at Christmas time. A large proportion of households, both
church-goers and non-church-goers alike, had at least two angels on
hand for the season. One went at the top of the Christmas tree.

This angel most often looked like a beautiful young lady in a ball gown,
frequently made of white silk or chiffon or lace, and had delicate white
wings, typically either of lace or feathers.

The other typical household angel came with the resident Nativity Set
of figurines, and often perched on top of the stable which held the Baby
Jesus and His family—or was affixed to the gable on the front of it, to
give the illusion that the angel was hovering.

Although this angel’s garb was usually simpler, in line with the humble
clothes of the Holy Family, and its wings might be a variety of colors, it
was indeed still a female wearing a dress.

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So this was the introduction to angel lore that most young children, for
many generations, had absorbed. Angels were flying women who were
connected in some vague way with the Christmas celebration.

As they became familiar with the words of Christmas carols, and

perhaps had a Bible story book with the story of the birth of Jesus in it,
they learned that an angel announced the birth of Jesus to some
shepherds. Given the angel at the top of the tree and the angel on the
front of the stable, most children likely envisioned a pretty lady with
wings in a gown hovering over the shepherds near Bethlehem, telling
them about the Baby Jesus. A choir of other pretty ladies would be
hovering behind her in the sky, singing ethereally and melodiously in
their lovely soprano voices.

Children who were regularly taken to Sunday School might have had
this image slightly adjusted, for some Bible stories make it very clear
that the angels in those stories were said to have looked like men. If
these young people eventually were exposed to the religious art of the
Middle Ages and Renaissance, they would expand that perspective just
a bit more. So that eventually, hearing the term “angel” might bring to
mind either male or female winged figures.

But of course the Christmas Angels would still be those pretty ladies in
the pretty gowns.

The Rest of the Year

But even though the average American might eventually have a broader
concept of what an angel was, they still seldom thought of them at
other times of the year. The exception to this might be in a family that
was particularly pious regarding their religious faith. Some
denominations, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, give more
attention to angels, particularly the notion of “guardian angels” for
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people. In particularly dedicated Roman Catholic homes there would
be religious artwork depicting angels, and the children would be taught
from their earliest years to pray to their own guardian angel.

But in homes from different religious backgrounds, or no religious

persuasion at all, angels would have been primarily segregated to the
Christmas season, brought out then to decorate the home, and
afterwards tucked into tissue paper, boxed up, and placed on closet
shelves until the next year.

Angels out of the Closet

But something happened starting in the 1970s. Perhaps it was a

deliberate marketing scheme. Perhaps it was a spontaneous outpouring
of enthusiasm for the supernatural, related to the advent of the kind of
“New Age” spirituality that is unconnected to the Bible and to
traditional religious history. Whatever the cause, angel artwork,
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figurines, posters, greeting cards, banners, statuary, and much more
started showing up in unexpected places and throughout the whole
year. And by the 1990s, angels were no longer just bit players for
annual Christmas displays—they became Big Business.

The traditional Christmas tree topper angels are still around, as are the
Nativity Set angels. But they are now more of a nostalgia item than a
vital part of the Angel Business. In many cases, the traditional figures
have even been replaced at Christmas by more … contemporary
versions of the same thing. Some tree topper angels no longer look like
those lovely ladies.

And sometimes is not a lovely winged lady hovering over a Nativity

scene. For instance, there’s this … “Cativity Set” with two winged,
behaloed felinangels overlooking a furry version of the Holy Family:

From The Big Book of Angels (2002)

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/115/story_11544_4.html

Why are angels—and mystery—so well accepted and popular now?

Only a decade ago, there were a grand total of six books in print on
the topic of angels; today, they number in the hundreds. Why the
sudden fascination? Three possible explanations have been suggested:
First, that human history goes in cycles, as does the necessary
intervention of angels. Some have suggested that angels are in fact,
busier now in human affairs than they have been at other times. Even
in an era when membership in some organized religions is declining,
angels meet our need to encounter the divine in a direct, personal
way.

A second theory is that in the last few decades, we humans have been
overcome by science and technology until we feel there is no mystery
left, and yet we know instinctively that this is untrue. The converse of

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 this has also been suggested: that science is revealing so many
mysteries that we need to remind ourselves there is a loving presence
in the midst of it all. Have you seen the star show at the Rose
Center’s Hayden Planetarium in New York City? There is no way to
digest what we now know about the heavens without being absolutely
floored by the enormity and majesty of it all. The same goes for what
we’re discovering about human biology. The mystery is
overwhelming. We need help!

Finally, it is true that we live in a world in which we’re bombarded by

CNN, watching terrorists rip into buildings, seeing children starving
by the tens of thousands, hearing of viruses that cannot be cured. The
evil in our world is beyond our control, and we desperately need to
know there is a benevolent presence beyond us that is more than a
match for the presence of evil and hopelessness we see on our
television screens. We need to know that, despite everything, we are
loved. And that is what the angels tell us.

But these modern “angels,” for all the love they are said to spread, have
most often been ripped from the context of not only the nativity story,
but from any connection at all to the God of the Bible. A large
proportion of them have become the equivalent of an army of Fairy
Godmother-type beings, who can dispense wisdom in how to deal with
all of life’s little problems, and can intervene for everyone regardless of
religious persuasion (some surveys have found that more people believe
in the existence of angels than in the existence of God) to keep them
from harm and bring them a happy, prosperous life. They demand no
obedience to any particular creed, or standard of behavior or morals. In
fact, they demand nothing but belief in their existence. In exchange,
they promise peace, comfort, sunshine, and an unconditional love that
allows people to live life any way they please … if they only “believe in
angels.”

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Well, actually, “they” don’t promise any of this—for the reality is that
“they” are imaginary beings. The promises come from the Public
Relations efforts of the purveyors of Angelmania. It is even quite
obvious that some writers who would have written books on
Horoscopes, or channeling messages and advice for people from
“Ancient Ascended Masters,” in decades past have switched to touting
the blessings of looking to the “Angels Among Us” for guidance.

Does this mean that angels don’t exist? No, the Bible is very clear that
God does have supernatural assistants and messengers called, in
English, “angels.” Does it mean that angels don’t at times defend and
rescue humans in times of trouble? No, for the Bible is also very clear
that one of the primary missions of God’s angels is to do those very
jobs.

But what is also very clear is that the “angels” of popular culture bear
almost no resemblance to the nature of the angels of the Bible. They are
purely an invention of the human imagination.

The purpose of this collection of articles is to give an overview of just

what we can know about angels from the Bible, and to examine and
evaluate some of the popular mythology, in both religious and non-
religious circles, that has grown up around the topic of angels.

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 BIBLICAL ANGELOLOGY:

WHAT THE BIBLE

HAS TO SAY
ABOUT ANGELS
Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations herein
are from the New International Version (NIV).

Angelology is a branch of theology that deals with

a hierarchical system of angels, messengers, celestial powers or
emanations,
and the study of these systems.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angel

Angel: Definition

The English word angel comes from the Greek word aggelos
(pronounced ang-elos). The Greek word implies the function of a
messenger.
messenger When translating the word from the Greek New Testament
documents, most English translators have considered whether the one
fulfilling this function is a human, or a supernatural being. If it is a

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human, the word is usually translated by a word similar to messenger.
When it is clearly referring to a supernatural being, it is translated as
angel.

Jesus, speaking of John the Baptist, said:

This is the one about whom it is written: “I will send my

messenger [aggelos] ahead of you, who will prepare your way
before you.” (Mat 11:10)

John the Baptist was a normal human being, born to a mother and
father. He was commissioned by God as a messenger, but he was not a
supernatural being who came down from Heaven.

In speaking of the incident in the Old Testament when Israelite spies

entered the city of Jericho, and were hidden by a woman named Rahab,
James writes:

In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered
righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies
[aggelos; KJV: messengers] and sent them off in a different
direction? (Jam 2:25)

This is an obvious reference to human spies sent to gather information

from Jericho and bring a message back to human military leaders about
its vulnerabilities. So again the term is referring to human messengers.

But in the passage below, the messenger is obviously a supernatural

being sent with a message from God Himself, and thus the word is
translated angel.

But after he had considered this, an angel [aggelos] of the Lord

appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do
10
 not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is
conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Mat 1:20)

The Hebrew word translated in the Old Testament as “angel” is malak

(plural: malakim). Like aggelos, this word also implies a messenger.

As in the New Testament, when the word is obviously referring to a

human deputy, it is translated into English as messenger. But when it is
obviously a supernatural being representing God Himself, it is
translated as angel. You can see both types of meanings in this passage
from Genesis:

Jacob also went on his way, and the angels [malakim] of God
met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of
God!” So he named that place Mahanaim. Jacob sent
messengers [malakim] ahead of him to his brother Esau in the
land of Seir, the country of Edom. (Gen 32:1-3)

It is clear that the OT term malak and the NT term aggelos are
interchangeable in their meanings, as the incident regarding Rahab and
Jericho as it appears in the book of Judges is described this way by
Joshua:

The city and all that is in it are to be devoted to the LORD.

Only Rahab the prostitute and all who are with her in her
house shall be spared, because she hid the spies [malakim] we
sent. (Jos 6:17)

Even though the root of the English word angel is a Greek word that
could mean also a human messenger, centuries of the Biblical use of the
word have led to the term being used almost exclusively in modern
times to designate a supernatural being sent on a mission from
Heaven by God.
God
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Functions

In the New Testament, the author of the book of Hebrews notes the
primary function of angels who come to Earth:

Are not all angels ministering [doing the work of a servant or a

benefactor] spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?
(Heb 1:14)

Thus in the New Testament narrative, angels appear particularly in

roles of service to key individuals.

Among other activities, an angel or angels:

• Announced the conception of John the Baptist to his

father. (Luke 1)
• Announced the conception of Jesus to Mary and
Joseph. (Luke 1)
• Announced the birth of Jesus to the shepherds. (Luke 2)
• Warned Joseph to flee with Mary and the infant Jesus
to avoid Herod. (Mat 2)
• Ministered to Jesus after His 40 days of fasting, and His
confrontation with Satan. (Luk 4)
• Rolled back the stone from the tomb of Jesus and
announced His resurrection to some of His disciples.
(Mat 28)
• Rescued the Apostles from prison in Jerusalem. (Acts 5)
• Guided Philip to a meeting with the Ethiopian Eunuch.
(Acts 8)
• Rescued Peter another time from prison in Jerusalem.
(Acts 12)

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 • Instructed Cornelius the centurion to send for Peter,
leading to the baptism of Cornelius and his household.
(Act 10)

The activities of angels described in the Old Testament were often

similar. Among other things, an angel or angels:

• Rescued Lot and his daughters from Sodom. (Gen 19)

• Rescued Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness when they
had been banished. (Gen 21)
• Guided the people of Israel to the Promised Land. (Exo
23)
• Delivered to Gideon his commission. (Judg 6)
• Announced the conception of Samson to his parents.
(Judg 13)

In both the Old and New Testaments, the angels of God are also said
to do battle with evil supernatural forces which are attempting to
thwart the plans of God.

In Daniel, an angel comes to bring a message from God to the prophet

Daniel.

Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first

day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to
humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I
have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian
kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of
the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there
with the king of Persia.” (Dan 10:12-13)

This same “Michael, one of the chief princes” is referred to in the New
Testament book of Jude:
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 But even the archangel [archaggelos: chief angel] Michael, when
he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did
not dare to bring a slanderous accusation against him, but said,
“The Lord rebuke you!” (Jud 1:9)

And this “archangel Michael” is also referred to in the New Testament

book of Revelation. The author, John, sees a vision in which:

… there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought

against the dragon [identified in verse 9 as Satan], and the
dragon and his angels fought back. (Rev 12:7)

This would indicate that Satan has supernatural beings who accept his
own authority and assist him in doing his works of evil. For more
information on this topic, see “The Devil’s Dark Angels.”

Sample Scriptures

Click here for a sampler of scriptures with examples of these five main
roles of angels as they interact with the
servants of God: protection, provision,
comfort, guidance, and deliverance.

Named Angels

Only two angels are given specific names

in the Bible.

The “archangel Michael,” mentioned in

the passages above, is the only one who
is specifically designated an archangel.

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This illustration is from a typical Eastern Orthodox Icon (picture used
in religious worship) that depicts “Saint Michael the Archangel”
triumphing over the Devil.

The angel Gabriel announced the conception of Jesus to Mary and

Joseph, and of John the Baptist to his father, the priest Zachariah. This
is likely the same Gabriel who also delivered a message to the prophet
Daniel. The Bible does not specifically state that Gabriel is also an
“archangel” like Michael, but this has been the speculation since the
earliest centuries after
the writing of the New
Testament.

In Christian artwork,
such as the cast shown
here of a carving on a
cathedral from 1359,
he is often represented
as a winged figure
blowing a trumpet.

Perhaps this is because of speculation that he is actually the unnamed

archangel in I Thessalonians 4:16:

For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud
command, with the voice of the archangel and with the
trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Some apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings from shortly before and

after the time of Christ on the Earth (see “Where Angels Fear to Tread”
for definitions of these words and information on this type of literature)
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contain elaborate angelologies that name and describe many other
angels, and purport to give all sorts of information about their
activities, and elaborate details of a hierarchical system of “heavenly
government” in which they operate. Most of these writings have never
been widely accepted as “inspired scripture” in the same way as have the
66 books of the modern Protestant version of the Bible. But many
were, nonetheless, very influential in the thinking of the “early Church
Fathers.” Thus many of the details found in them have worked their
way into a sort of “Christian mythology” that has built up over the past
2000 years. It is
important for the
serious Bible student
to sort out which of
these details are
solidly based on the
actual canonical
scriptures (see
(
"Where Angels Fear
to Tread" for
definitions of canon,
canonical, and extra-
canonical) and which
are based on writings
that are unreliable at
best and contrary to the Bible at worst.

Out of these extra-biblical sources of information has come the notion

that there are seven archangels. In addition to Michael and Gabriel, the
book of Tobit, in the Roman Catholic Apocrypha, mentions one
named Raphael. And the pseudepigraphal Book of Enoch adds Uriel,
Raguel, Sariel, and Jerahmeel. ("Where Angels Fear to Tread" contains

16
information on the history and reliability of the information in these
books.)

What Do Angels Look Like?

Paintings and sculpture of angels throughout history have almost

invariably represented them as having huge wings and a circular halo of
some sort over, around, or behind their heads. Throughout history they
have appeared most frequently in artistic representations as either
females—or as very delicate, effeminate males. This 15th century
painting by Fra Angelico is typical of
such portrayals.

The only angelic being consistently

portrayed at times as a particularly
masculine character is the archangel
Michael. This is likely because he is
named as one who was involved in
battles, as he is shown in this 1865
sculpture, doing battle with Satan.

However, any of the accounts in the Bible that describe a person

interacting with an angelic messenger, such as Mary speaking with
Gabriel or Gideon speaking with an unnamed angel, never mention
anything about wings or a halo. Most of the time angels are just
described as looking like men (never women), who have appeared
unexpectedly. On a few occasions, particularly in visions, their
appearance may be described as “dazzling” or extremely bright, or like
fire or blazing jewels. But most of the time there is nothing about their
appearance that differentiates them from humans. It is for this reason
that the author of Hebrews could write:
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 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some
people have entertained angels without knowing it. (Heb 13:2)

The only heavenly supernatural beings that are described in the Bible as
having wings are the cherubim and seraphim. See the next section for
details on these beings.

For an exploration of the traditional features of angels as portrayed in

popular art, see the articles on:

Heavenly Halos

On Wings of Angels?

Effeminate Angels?

A Hierarchy of Angels?

Besides the angels and archangels, the Bible mentions by name two
other specific types of heavenly supernatural beings which humans have
seen, cherubim and seraphim. Neither is ever given the designation
“angel” in the Bible. Neither is ever portrayed as performing the
function of “messenger” implied by the terms malak or aggelos. And
neither is ever portrayed as “ministering to the saints” as Hebrews 1:14
defines the role of an angel.

But for some reason they have been referred to historically as part of an
“angelic hierarchy,” and as being, in that hierarchy, a type of angel …
above the angels. This seems to make little sense. It might be more
useful to refer to them as “celestial beings.” Thus one could say that
angels are celestial beings, but not all celestial beings are angels.

Cherub/Cherubim

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The English word cherub is derived directly from the Hebrew term
kerub used in the Old Testament. We first encounter the word in the
account of the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden.
God is said to have stationed guarding cherubim, along with a flaming
sword, at the entrance to the Garden, to prevent Adam or Eve (or
anyone else from then on) from approaching the Tree of Life in the
Garden. (Gen 3:24) In Hebrew, the addition of the suffix im at the
end of a word indicates the plural of that word. So cherubim is the
Hebrew word that refers to two or more cherubs. (The translators of
the King James Version of the Bible seemed not to have understood
this, and chose to use the word cherubims with an unneeded, added “s”
on the word.)

The author of Genesis gives no description of these cherubim. But the

word shows up again when Moses was being given instructions for
building the Tabernacle. In Exodus 25 Moses was commanded to have
a golden lid made for the Mercy Seat (the Ark of the Covenant chest,
holding the Ten Commandments, that would be in the room of the
Tabernacle called the Holy of Holies). The lid was to have a cherub at
each end of it, facing each other. Again there is no detailed description
of the cherubim, but we do learn that they had wings, and each was to
be designed so that his wings arched over the lid. Moses was also
commanded to have tapestries made to hang inside the Tabernacle,
with images of cherubim embroidered into the fabric. By the time
Solomon created the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem to house the Ark
of the Covenant, he also ordered the crafting of two huge, free-standing
cherubim with spread wings to tower over the Ark.

The only specific evidence we are given in the Bible as to the

appearance of any cherubim is in a vision described in the book of
Ezekiel. In this instance they seem to be fantastic creatures transporting
what appears to be a portable throne for God. There are four in the
vision. Each has a body like a man, feet like a calf, four wings—two
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that are spread when it flies, and two that remain covering its body.
Underneath the covering wings are what appear to be a man’s hands.
And each of the creatures has four faces, looking in four different
directions. One looks like an ox, one like a lion, one like an eagle, and
one like a man.

Are these exactly what the carved and embroidered cherubim of the
Tabernacle and later the Temple looked like? We have absolutely no
way of knowing, as the Bible just doesn’t say. In the Book of
Revelation, John has a vision in which he sees four creatures around the
throne of God in Heaven:

Also before the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass,
clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four
living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and
in back. The first living creature
was like a lion, the second was
like an ox, the third had a face
like a man, the fourth was like a
flying eagle. Each of the four
living creatures had six wings
and was covered with eyes all
around, even under his wings.
Day and night they never stop
saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the
Lord God Almighty, who was,
and is, and is to come." (Rev
4:6-8)

Were these creatures cherubim, related

to the ones that Ezekiel saw, but with
slightly different characteristics? Again
we have no way of knowing, since the
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Bible doesn’t elaborate on any connection. There are plenty of extra-
biblical myths and legends that may try to make such connections, but
without a clear word from the Bible, we can only speculate. And there
is a historical speculation that seems to have some merit regarding what
the cherubim in the Tabernacle and Temple may have looked like.
When God gave directions to Moses regarding making the cherubim,
the fact that He gave no specific instructions about what they looked
like seems to indicate that He expected that Moses and the Israelite
craftsmen who were to make them already knew what they looked like.
And archaeological excavations of civilizations in the Middle East that
were thriving during the era of ancient Israel,
including those of Egypt and Assyria, have
unearthed many examples of royal thrones and
buildings flanked by and decorated with
figures that certainly bear some resemblance to
the descriptions in Ezekiel. They are creatures
that combine various animal and human body
parts, such as the body of a lion, feet of an ox,
head of a man, and wings of a bird, or similar
combinations and variations. One such
example is this huge winged bull figure with a
human head from the Temple of Sargon II of
Assyria (c. 700 BC).

Another is this small

carved ivory plaque
representing a winged
sphinx-like creature with
a lion’s body and human
head, in a Phoenician
style with Egyptian

21
influence from about 150 years earlier.

Whether the Biblical cherubim looked similar to one of these ancient

artifacts or not, one thing is certain: They did not look like the figure
that has inherited the label “cherub” in Christian art for over 1000
years, as seen in this section of a
painting by Raphael from 1514.

It isn’t clear historically how or why

artists settled on calling these “baby
angels” by the name cherub, or how or
why they invented the notion of such
beings at all! The extremely popular
children’s book The Littlest Angel
(first published in 1946, but reissued
with updated artwork fairly frequently
clear into the 21st century) presents the
notion that children who die “become” angels when they arrive in
heaven, so perhaps the notion was that babies and toddlers who die
become the chubby little winged “cherub” figures that are so popular
with collectors even today. Whatever the source of the mythology, the
Bible is very clear that humans do not become angels when they die
and that biblical cherubs are not chubby babies.

Seraphim

It is surprising just how much speculation can be spun out of a tiny

portion of one chapter in the Bible, and one or two obscure words. The
Hebrew term seraph (plural: seraphim) is like that. It is used only twice
in the Bible. The prophet Isaiah saw a vision of God:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a
throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the
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 temple. Above him were seraphs,
seraphs each with six wings: With
two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their
feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to
one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is
full of his glory.”

At the sound of their

voices the doorposts
and thresholds shook
and the temple was
filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried.
“I am ruined! For I am
a man of unclean lips,
and I live among a
people of unclean lips,
and my eyes have seen
the King, the LORD
Almighty.” Then one
of the seraphs flew to
me with a live coal in
his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it
he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your
lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (Isa 6:1-
6)

That is the full collection of information in the Bible about seraphim.

These beings are never mentioned by name again. All that we can
determine from this passage is that they are winged beings that can fly,
they can speak, they have hands, and they are intimately connected
with God. We know nothing about any specific role or function that
23
they have, other than praising God in this specific instance. The
Hebrew word itself gives no clue as to the specific appearance of these
beings. It seems to have meant something that is “fiery,” but it is not
clear whether this is a reference to a color, a luminance, or what. But
this has not stopped commentators for over 1000 years from spinning
this sparse information into elaborate theories about the appearance,
nature, and function of the seraphim.

From Wikipedia.com: article: “Seraphim”

The early medieval writer called Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite

included seraphs in his "Celestial Hierarchy" (vii), which helped fix
the fiery nature of seraphs in the medieval imagination. It is here that
the Seraphim are described as being concerned with keeping Divinity
in perfect order, and not limited to chanting the trisagion'. Taking
his cue from writings in the Rabbinic tradition he gave an etymology
for the Seraphim as "those who kindle or make hot":

"The name Seraphim clearly indicates their ceaseless and eternal

revolution about Divine Principles, their heat and keenness, the
exuberance of their intense, perpetual, tireless activity, and their
elevative and energetic assimilation of those below, kindling them and
firing them to their own heat, and wholly purifying them by a
burning and all- consuming flame; and by the unhidden,
unquenchable, changeless, radiant and enlightening power, dispelling
and destroying the shadows of darkness" (Celestial Hierarchy, vii)

… Thomas Aquinas [1200s] in the Summa Theologiae offers a

description of the nature of the Seraphim:

The name "Seraphim" does not come from charity only, but from the
excess of charity, expressed by the word ardor or fire. fire Hence
Dionysius (Coel. Hier. vii) expounds the name "Seraphim" according
to the properties of fire, containing an excess of heat. Now in fire we
may consider three things.
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 "First, the movement which is upwards and continuous. This signifies
that they are borne inflexibly towards God.

"Secondly, the active force which is "heat," which is not found in fire
simply, but exists with a certain sharpness, as being of most
penetrating action, and reaching even to the smallest things, and as it
were, with superabundant fervor; whereby is signified the action of
these angels, exercised powerfully upon those who are subject to
them, rousing them to a like fervor, and cleansing them wholly by
their heat.

"Thirdly we consider in fire the quality of clarity, or brightness;

which signifies that these angels have in themselves an
inextinguishable light, and that they also perfectly enlighten others."

All of this fanciful interpretation based solely on the meaning of the

word seraphim may be interesting, but it is wholly unbiblical and
utterly speculative.

Beyond Seraphim and Cherubim: The “Choirs of Angels”

In Ephesians 1:19-21, the Apostle Paul wrote about the role of Christ
after the Resurrection:

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in

order that you may know the hope to which he has called you,
the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his
incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like
the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ
when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right
hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority,
power and dominion [KJV: principality, power, might, and
dominion],
dominion] and every title that can be given, not only in the
present age but also in the one to come.
25
Paul also wrote in Colossians 1:16 about some of the things created by
God:

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on

earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers
or authorities [KJV: thrones, or dominions, or principalities,
or powers];
powers] all things were created by him and for him.

It isn’t quite clear from these passages why some would conclude that
the terms “principality, power, might, and dominion,” in Ephesians,
and the added note regarding “thrones” in the listing in Colossians, as
listed in the King James Bible version of this passage, are specific names
of “ranks” or “types” of angels in a heavenly angelic hierarchy. But that
has historically been an interpretation in many Christian circles.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_of_angels

According to medieval Christian theologians, the Angels are

organized into several orders, or Angelic Choirs. Choirs The most
influential of these classifications was that put forward by Pseudo-
Dionysius the Areopagite in the Fourth or Fifth century, in his book
The Celestial Hierarchy.

In this work, the author drew on passages from the New Testament,
specifically Ephesians 6:12 and Colossians 1:16 (considered by
modern scholars to be very tentative and ambiguous sources in
relation to the construction of such a schema), to construct a schema
of three Hierarchies,
Hierarchies Spheres or Triads of angels, with each
Hierarchy containing three Orders
Orders or Choirs.
Choirs In descending order of
power, these were:

• First Hierarchy:
• Seraphim
• Cherubim

26
 • Thrones or Ophanim
• Second Hierarchy:
• Principalities
• Virtues
• Powers
• Third Hierarchy:
• Dominions
• Archangels
• Angels

While it is useful to know that some religious groups accept this theory
of angelology, it is also important to realize that this is not something
that is clearly revealed in the Bible at all—but is primarily a very
strained speculation with no real basis in scripture.

The Bible only directly addresses one “type” of angel, which it calls
simply an angel (aggelos or malak), with the term archangel evidently
designating a “chief angel.” As mentioned above, cherubim and
seraphim appear to be names for other supernatural beings not of the
same “type” as angels—which are “messengers” and “ministering spirits
sent to serve those who will inherit salvation”—at all.

And thus the elaborate “hierarchy” of angelic “choirs” is not a Biblical

notion, but a human invention.

In Summary

In light of the material covered above regarding what we cannot

determine about the angelic realm if we rely only on the Old and New
Testaments of the Bible as the sole source of information, just what can
we know about angels?

Angels are supernatural beings that are not normally

visible to the human eye as they go about their business.
27

Angels are able to manifest themselves into the physical
realm so that they can be seen by humans, and when
they have done so in situations described throughout
the Bible, they normally appeared as looking just like
men.

Angels were created by God as a completely separate
“kind” of being from man.

Some angels are involved in warfare with Satan and
those supernatural beings who serve him.

One of the primary roles of angels is to “minister to”
those humans whom God calls to be part of his Family.

Major ways in which angels interact with humans are:

Delivering messages from God.

Protecting and defending humans who are
God’s servants.

Guiding and delivering from harm humans who
are God’s servants.

Comforting and providing for humans who are
God’s servants.

28
 Effeminate
Angels?

In every instance in the Bible

where an angelic messenger is
described in any way, that
description includes note that
the angel was in a form like a
human. Although there are a
few instances in which the
being appeared in full supernatural “glory,” shining or glowing, a
number of times such angels looked so normal that the people visited
didn’t even realize that it was an angel until after the incident was over!
There is never any mention of such beings having wings or haloes as a
“giveaway” to their identity. (See “On Angel’s Wings?” and “Heavenly
Halos” for details on the origin of the artistic representation of angels
with wings and haloes.)

But if one were to judge by the common pictures and statues of angels
today in the Angel Shops that fill shopping malls and the Internet, it
would be logical to assume most of the accounts in the Bible must have

29
represented the beings as having the form of a human female.
female For the
vast majority of artwork of angels of the past century and more …
including even Christmas tree topper angels such as the two shown here
… have depicted creatures of graceful feminine beauty.

This assumption would be wrong. Angelic messengers are always

described in the Bible as having the form of human males.
males Why, then,
the almost unrelenting modern representation of angels being feminine?

Perhaps, once many religious circles accepted the erroneous notion that
Bible angels had wings, some early artists, looking for examples from
which to draw inspiration, were attracted to
the feminine “winged Nike” figure of
ancient Greek mythology and art. This
example is from around 550 B.C.

Greek art
had
already
been
influenced
by Egyptian art, and the depiction of
the Egpytian winged goddess Isis may

30
well have been of interest to Greek artists looking for motifs.

But what is even more likely is that what modern viewers and artists
perceive as “feminine” angels in many famous medieval European
paintings were not intended by the artists to be females at all.
Particularly during the Medieval period, the overt “sexuality” of much
classic Greek and Roman art was
almost totally repressed. Bodies were
totally covered, both male and
female, in long robes. For instance,
consider this painting of the angel
Gabriel (described clearly in the
Bible as appearing as a male figure)
from about 1400:

Modern eyes see this as a woman

with soft facial features in a pretty,
colorful, feminine dress.

But artists of the time seldom

painted overtly “chiseled,” square-jawed, masculine features on the faces
of men. So unless a male was bearded, and particularly if he was
represented as a young man, it wasn’t all that easy to sort out the
vaguely uni-sex
heads in
pictures by
gender.

31
And as for that pretty “dress,” look at a
painting of the coronation of Pope
Boniface IX, done during the same
century. All of these are male figures, in
typical religious garb of the time. Bright
colors and flowing garments were
obviously not limited to just the ladies of
those days!

Even the more typical “white gown” of

angels in some paintings is not intended at
all to look feminine, but reflects instead
the typical garb of Roman Catholic priests.
Even to this day, the main piece of
wardrobe of a Catholic priest is the white
“alb,” that is almost identical to the robe
of the angel in this picture, high collar, wide sleeves, belted waist, and
all.

Although there has been one recent instance of a woman wearing the
same outfit …

32
Outside their historical and cultural context, all of these features of
paintings can be very misleading. Even hairstyles which to us may look
stereotypically feminine because of length or curliness or the like may
well have been just typical male hairstyles of the time. The robes
probably cause the most confusion, as they tend to totally obscure any
hints that we might pick up of male musculature in bodies. Here are
some Medieval paintings which, because of slight differences in
costume, allow it to be abundantly clear that these are depictions of
“masculine” angels.

15th
Century

12th
Century

33
 12th
Century
17th Century

However, these are, in

general, the exception
rather than the rule for the
depiction of the most
famous classic paintings
that have included angels.
So by the 1800s, many artists who engaged in creating “popular”
pictures of angels had been brought up on seeing artwork which may
have seemed to them to feature many “female angels.” But even this is
likely not the primary cause of the shift to feminine angel
representations.

Perhaps the most significant

influence on the
“feminization” of angels of
the past 200 years or so is
the severing of the topic of
angels from a specific
Biblical context. Medieval
and Renaissance angels show
up in scenes from the Bible,
or at least from popular
religious legends (such as the
“Assumption of Mary”).
They are depicted either
delivering important
messages to significant
personages from Bible
34
stories, witnessing important events (such as in nativity scenes in
Bethlehem like this one by Charles Poerson from the 1600s), or
perhaps engaged in rapturous worship around the throne of God. Even
if the artist himself wasn’t a particularly “religious” person, much if not
most of the patronage of the arts at the time was from people wanting
Biblical art.

But the motif of angels has been appropriated by many modern artists
and their patrons who may well have no Biblical interests at all. In fact,
their angels have been removed from any particular connection to the
God of the Bible, and are much more akin to mythological creatures
such as fairies and leprechauns … and perhaps even pagan gods and
goddesses. They may have a “spiritual aura” connected to them, which
makes them look otherworldly, but without any special link to a
Heaven where God’s throne is. They are viewed by many as being
benevolent supernatural beings whose primary interest is helping out
people—not necessarily because they have been sent by God to do so,
but because it is just “their nature.”

35
And as this “new” kind of angel has taken shape in the past century or
two, the emphasis has shifted more and more to a sort of gentle,
nurturing, “motherly” (or “big sisterly”) role for angels—hence the
trend toward almost entirely representing them as female. Even
younger versions, of adolescent and preadolescent angels, seem aimed
almost entirely at just the sentimentality of the “prettiness” of little girls
and young ladies with wings. (There is a small subset of angels who are
viewed as being “supernatural warriors,” and believed by some to do
battle with malicious supernatural beings, and these are still depicted as
male.) The Internet is full of websites and online shops specializing in
angels—angel posters, figurines, artwork, collectibles—and only a
minority have any biblically religious emphasis at all. Most emphasize a
very “New Age” sort of pseudo-spirituality.

This trend started in the 1800s, as can be seen by angelic art works such
as this 1899 painting by Thayer (the model was his young daughter)
and the others below.

Greeting Card 1911

36
Greeting Card circa 1900

And the trend continues to this day, removing angels farther and
farther in the public mind from the reality of the powerful heavenly
messengers of the Bible, and essentially implying that they are an army
of Fairy Godmothers!

37
EXTRA-BIBLICAL ANGEL LORE:

Heavenly Halos?

The popular mental picture of an angel

that most people have in modern
American society almost invariably
includes a circle of some sort floating
above the head of that angel—whether
the angel looks like a pretty lady, a
“cherubic”
baby, or even
an angelic
duck. Usually
the circle is a
metallic
golden ring, but in recent years, popular
alternatives, especially for angel costumes, are
circlets of tinsel or marabou feathers

38
(connected by a thin wire to a headband to hold it on the head of the
pseudo-angel.)

Did this concept of the floating halo being part of the “outfit” of an
angel come from the Bible? If not, how and when did it become so
pervasive in society?

The Nimbus

The Bible says nothing about floating circles over the heads of any
being. And thus we have to look elsewhere for the origin of this
symbolism. That search takes us back to ancient pre-Christian art, and
a pictorial symbol known as the nimbus.

Nimbus Latin, rainstorm, cloud; probably akin to Latin nebula cloud

Nimbus:

1 a : a luminous vapor, cloud, or atmosphere about a god or

goddess when on earth b : a cloud or atmosphere (as of
romance) about a person or thing
2 : an indication (as a circle) of radiant light or glory about the
head of a drawn or sculptured divinity, saint, or sovereign

http://www.
m-
w.com/dictio
nary/nimbus

The Greek god, Helios

39
 The Roman god, Neptune

Buddha, circa 200 AD

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11080b.htm (bolding
bolding added)

In the plastic arts (painting and sculpture) the symbolism of

the nimbus was early in use among the pagans who
determined its form. In the monuments of Hellenic and Roman
art, the heads of the gods, heroes, and other distinguished
persons are often found with a disc-shaped halo, a circle of
light, or a rayed-fillet. They are, therefore, associated especially
with gods and creatures of light such as the Phoenix. The disc
of light is likewise used in the Pompeian wall paintings to typify
gods and demigods only, but later, in profane art it was
extended to cherubs or even simple personifications, and is
simply a reminder that the figures so depicted are not human.

40
In the miniatures of the oldest Virgil manuscript all the great
personages wear a nimbus. The custom of the Egyptian and
Syrian kings of having themselves represented with a rayed
crown to indicate the status of demigods, spread throughout the
East and the West. In Rome the halo was first used only for
deceased emperors as a sign of celestial bliss, but afterwards
living rulers also were given the rayed crown, and after the third
century, although not first by Constantine, the simple rayed
nimbus. Under Constantine the rayed crown appears only in
exceptional cases on the coin, and was first adopted
emblematically by Julian the Apostate. Henceforth the nimbus
appears without rays, as the emperors now wished themselves
considered worthy of great honour, but no longer as divine
beings.. In early Christian art,
art, the rayed nimbus asas well as
the rayless disc were adopted in accordance with tradition.
The sun and the Phoenix received, as in pagan art, a wreath or a
rayed crown, also the simple halo. The latter was reserved not
only for emperors but for men of genius and personifications of
all kinds, although both in ecclesiastical and profane art, this
emblem was usually omitted in ideal figures. In other cases the
influence of ancient art tradition must not be denied.

…The nimbus of early Christian art manifests only in a few

particular drawings, its relationship with that of late antiquity.
In the first half of the fourth century, Christ received a nimbus
only when portrayed seated upon a throne or in an exalted and
princely character, but it had already been used since
Constantine, in pictures of the emperors, and was emblematic,
not so much of divine as of human dignity and greatness. In
other scenes however, Christ at that time was represented
without this emblem. The "exaltation" of Christ as indicated by
the nimbus, refers to His dignity as a teacher and king rather

41
 than to His Godhead. Before long the nimbus became a fixed
symbol of Christ and later (in the fourth century), of an angel
or a lamb when used as the type of Christ.. The number of
personages who were given a halo increased rapidly, until
towards the end of the sixth century the use of symbols in
the Christian Church became as general as it had formerly
been in pagan art.

Thus the nimbus was not really used by artists as a depiction of an

actual glow that the artist believed would have necessarily have been
visible “in person” to the human eye out in the real world. It was part
of the history of iconography.

Iconography: …the
… traditional or conventional images or
symbols associated with a subject and especially a religious or
legendary subject
…the imagery or symbolism of a work of art, an artist, or a
body of art

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/iconography

In other words, you might say that iconography is the use of

standardized symbolic elements of pictures to impart information.
When looking at a painting, the nimbus around some heads would be a
clue to you that the individual was someone significant. The particular
significance would depend on the culture and the period of the
painting.

The iconographic symbol of the nimbus eventually became

interchangeable with the word halo.

Halo Latin halos, from Greek halOs threshing floor, disk, halo
Halo:

42
 1 : a circle of light appearing to surround the sun or moon and
resulting from refraction or reflection of light by ice particles in
the atmosphere

2 : something resembling a halo: as a : nimbus b : a region of

space surrounding a galaxy that is sparsely populated with
luminous objects (as globular clusters) but is believed to contain
a great deal of dark matter c : a differentiated zone surrounding
a central zone or object

3 : the aura of glory, veneration, or sentiment surrounding

an idealized person or thing

http://www.m-
w.com/dictionary/halo

By the time the Italian

artist Giotto painted this
scene in 1305, the use of
the nimbus or halo
around the heads of
personages in Christian
art work had indeed
greatly increased. Here
there are haloes around
the heads of Jesus, His
mother, Mary, other
women and men
disciples, and the angels
in the sky.

43
 But these haloes are not hovering above the heads of all of these
figures. In fact, they appear almost as if they are circular golden plates
placed behind each head. How did the halo get from this to the
hovering little golden tube
common today?

The first step to this

change may have been
when some artists began to
realize how incongruous
paintings of the backs of
people who had a nimbus
looked! In this painting of
the Last Supper, also by
Giotto around the same
time, the apostles who have
their backs to the viewer
almost look like their noses
are pressed into big golden dinner plates, rather than that their heads
are surrounded by a glow. (The figure in yellow without a halo is
Judas.)

In addition, early medieval paintings had very little “perspective” in the

scenes. A flat plate behind the head of
someone didn’t look too out of place, as
everything in the picture was basically
flattened also. But by the 1400s, artists were
perfecting techniques that made scenes
much more three dimensional and lifelike.
This left the traditional nimbus around
heads giving an even stronger sense of a flat

44
plate in the picture, an element decidedly even more out of place.

This painting (artist not identified) represents an early attempt to solve

this problem. The painter literally approached the nimbus as if it were
a circular plate, and tipped it on its side, foreshortening it to give the
illusion of depth, and moving it to a spot
above the head of the figure.

A similar effect is shown in this painting

by Della Francesca in 1460 AD.

Another solution, arrived

at by Raphael in this 1500
AD painting was to leave
the nimbus behind the
head, but remove all but
the rim of it, leaving a
hollow circle through
which the background of
the scene could be seen,

45
maintaining the illusion of depth in that way.

And by combining these two techniques, it is easy to see how some

artists eventually ended up with the circle floating above the head.

Eventually, some painters began dispensing with the halo altogether.

The closer one gets to modern times, and the more realistic the
environment and figures in the painting, the more common this
approach became.

But the “great artworks” of Western Civilization

from the thousand-year era from the fifth
century to the fifteenth century have been so
influential that they have dominated throughout
history many of the subconscious assumptions
of the average man of what angels look like—at
least until the rise of the “New Age Angel” fad
that now permeates American society.

Although it appears that the vast majority of

artists in the 20th and 21st centuries have
abandoned the iconic device of the nimbus or halo when depicting
angels and other religious personages, it still
thrives in particular in Eastern Orthodox and
Roman Catholic settings.

It is a Greek Orthodox tradition for artists to

continue to create icons … pictorial
representations of Christ, angels, and saints …
for inspirational and worship use. The design
and stylized features of such icons currently
made by artists vary little from those of a
thousand years ago, and continue to use the
46
nimbus.

And a significant proportion of modern Roman Catholic art, such as

this work by Arizona artist Enrique de la Vega, continues to include the
nimbus, even though there is not the same level of rigid custom
dictating this as there is in Orthodox art.

Angel Scripture Sampler:

Protection, Provision,
Comfort, Guidance,
Deliverance

There are scores of passages in both the Old and New Testaments that
describe the roles that angels fulfill in God's plans for mankind. Below
is a representative sample.

With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take
your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept
away when the city is punished." When he hesitated, the men grasped
his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led
them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. As
soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your

47
lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the
mountains or you will be swept away!" (Gen 19:15-17)

See, I am sending an angel ahead of you [the Israelites who have been
delivered from bondage in Egypt] to guard you along the way and to
bring you to the place I have prepared. Pay attention to him and listen
to what he says. Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your
rebellion, since my Name is in him. If you listen carefully to what he
says and do all that I say, I will be an enemy to your enemies and will
oppose those who oppose you. My angel will go ahead of you and bring
you into the land of the Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Canaanites,
Hivites and Jebusites, and I will wipe them out. (Exo 23:20-23)

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in
Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey
into the desert. He came to a broom tree, sat down under it and prayed
that he might die. "I have had enough, LORD," he said. "Take my life;
I am no better than my ancestors." Then he lay down under the tree
and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, "Get up and
eat." He looked around, and there by his head was a cake of bread
baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay
down again. The angel of the LORD came back a second time and
touched him and said, "Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for
you." So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he
traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the
mountain of God. (I Kin 19:3-8)

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,
and he delivers them. (Psa 34:7)

48
If you make the Most High your dwelling—
even the LORD, who is my refuge—

then no harm will befall you,

no disaster will come near your tent.

For he will command his angels concerning you

to guard you in all your ways;

they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. (Psa 91:9-12)

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was
pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was
found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her
husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public
disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him
in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take
Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the
Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the
name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." (Mat 1:18-
21)

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary
Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a
violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven
and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His
appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. 4The
guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead
men. The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that
you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has
49
risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go
quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going
ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told
you." (Mat 28:1-7)

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to
God for him. The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter
was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries
stood guard at the entrance. Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared
and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him
up. "Quick, get up!" he said, and the chains fell off Peter's wrists. Then
the angel said to him, "Put on your clothes and sandals." And Peter did
so. "Wrap your cloak around you and follow me," the angel told him.
Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the
angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a
vision. They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron
gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went
through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly
the angel left him. Then Peter came to himself and said, "Now I know
without a doubt that the Lord sent his angel and rescued me from
Herod's clutches and from everything the Jewish people were
anticipating." (Act 12:5-11)

50
 WHERE ANGELS FEAR TO TREAD:

Sources of extra-
biblical stories,
legends, myths, and
speculation about
angels

The information about angels provided by the writings in the Old and
New Testaments is very scanty. We know much more about specific
acts that they have performed throughout history (e.g., rescuing Lot
from Sodom, announcing the birth and resurrection of Jesus) than we
know about exactly what they look like, how they function, and what
they do with their time when they are not rescuing people and giving
announcements.

It would appear that God did not find it important to fill us in on these
details, perhaps for very good reasons of His own—which we may not
be able to understand with our human minds. But that has not
prevented mankind from being extremely curious about such details.
And from the history of religious speculation, it would appear that it
has not prevented many writers from rushing in to fill the gap in our
51
knowledge. Since long before the time when Jesus lived on the Earth,
religious authors have collected, and written about … and sometimes
perhaps invented out of their own fertile imaginations … stories,
legends, myths, and speculations about the goings-on in the
supernatural realm. The separate article Biblical Angelology provides
an overview of what we can clearly know about angels with the
Bible as our sole source of information.
information.

The collection of short articles below gives a brief overview of the

nature of some of the sources of extra-
extra-biblical angelology.
angelology

The Canon of the Bible

The Biblical canon is an exclusive list of books written during

the formative period of the Jewish or Christian faiths; the
leaders of these communities believed these books to be inspired
by God or to express the authoritative history of the
relationship between God and his people (although there may
have been secondary considerations as well).

There are differences between Christians and Jews, as well as

between different Christian traditions, over which books meet
the standards for canonization. The different criteria for, and
the process of, canonization for each community dictates what
members of that community consider to be their Bible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon

The word canon itself is derived from a Greek word that implies a
“measuring rod.” The underlying idea of the term is that the validity
and value of any information, any other writings, any interpretation of
religious ideas must be “measured” against a fixed standard. A simple
analogy would be the measuring sticks at the entrance to certain rides at
52
many amusement parks. A child who wants to go on the ride must
stand next to the stick and see if he “measures up” to being tall enough
for the ride.

In the religious sense, the measuring standard is the truth revealed in

the collection of books that have been historically accepted as having
been inspired by God. Any new idea or new writing is measured against
that unchanging standard to see if it has merit. Even if it does “measure
up,” that does not mean that it becomes a part of that canon. Both
Jewish and Christian Biblical canons are considered “closed canons” …
it is believed that God guided the collection and establishment of the
canon, with the intent that it provide a permanent, unchanging
standard for all time.

Since at least 100 AD or so, the Jews have accepted the 39 documents
that make up the collection of writings labeled the Old Testament in
Christian Bibles as being their canon of scripture. The Jewish term for
the collection is the Tanakh. Tanakh is an acronym (TNK) for the first
letters of the three sections into which they divide the collection: T for
Torah, the first five books, containing “the Law”; N for Neviim, the
Hebrew word for the books of the Prophets; and K for Ketuvim, the
Hebrew word for the other “Writings.” Although they may find other
documents of historical interest or as having useful speculation on
religious topics, only those 39 documents are accepted as having
unquestioned divine approval.

Most Protestant churches accept as their scriptural canon both the

documents of the Tanakh, and the 27 documents that make up the
New Testament in the King James Version of the Bible and in most
modern translations.

In addition to the 66 documents mentioned, there is a set of 16

documents (usually labeled The Apocrypha) that were written between
53
the time of the prophet Malachi (author of the final book of the Old
Testament) and the time of Jesus. Even though these documents were
evidently written by devout Jews, and are not in any sense Christian
documents, the Jews rejected their inclusion in the canon of the
Tanakh. The Roman Catholic Church has accepted 10 of these as part
of their own canon of scripture. They refer to this collection of ten as
the deuterocanonical books—meaning the “second” canon. This
indicates their admission that these books were not part of the original
Jewish canon, and derive their credibility as inspired from the decision
of the Roman Catholic Church to declare them as inspired. The Greek
Orthodox Church accepts 14 of the documents of The Aprocrypha into
their own canon, and the Russian Orthodox Church accepts a slightly
different 14.

Extra-
Extra-Canonical Jewish and Christian Writings

The term extra-canonical (“outside the canon”) is an adjective

describing ancient religious writings that cover some of the same topics
and history covered by the books of the Jewish or Christian Bible, but
which are not part of the collection of documents making up the
scriptural canon of Judaism or Christianity.

The “closed canon” of the Jewish and Christian Bibles means that the
amount of information considered authoritative that is available on
topics of religious interest is very limited. And yet almost every bit of
the information we do have in the canonical writings leads to curiosity
and questions … for which there are no clear answers provided within
those writings. Examples:

Where did Cain and Seth get their wives, if everyone descended from
Adam and Eve? The logical conclusion is that they married their own
sisters, but the Bible doesn’t say that in so many words. This has led
some to speculate that perhaps the wording of the Bible that indicates
54
God didn’t “create from scratch” any other people than Adam and Eve
is misleading, and that outside the Garden of Eden there were many
races of people.

What happened to the people of the tribes of the northern Kingdom of

Israel after they were taken into captivity by Assyria in the 8th Century
BC? The Bible doesn’t say. This has led some people to speculate, for
various reasons (also not authoritatively discussed in the Bible) that
they migrated by their tribes to areas of northern and western Europe,
and became the progenitors of the people in nations such as France and
England.

What happened to the Apostles after the time in the Book of Acts
where the main attention is given to the ministry of the Apostle Paul?
The Bible doesn’t say. This has led to many legends and myths (and
possibly some actual history) about the travels of various individuals
and pairs of them to parts of the known world.

What is heaven really like? Is it a physical place in the universe, or a

reality in a different dimension? Are the few descriptions of heaven we
read in the Bible, particularly in the Book of Revelation, to be taken as
literal, or are they merely symbolism for some deeper spiritual concept
we can’t even begin to comprehend?

Curiosity and questions like these have been rampant since long before
the time of Christ. And wherever there has been curiosity, there have
usually been enthusiastic authors ready to respond to that curiosity with
written answers. Those answers may have been developed from oral
legends and myths. They may have been presented as being the result of
visions from God. And in far too many cases, they may have been
fanciful speculations from the fertile imagination of the author,
presented as solid facts.

55
A large selection of manuscripts of this sort were circulating in the
centuries just before and after the time of Christ. And to this day, many
bookstores have translations of the most enduringly appealing of them.
Sometimes collections of some of them are labeled “Lost Books of the
Bible,” although this is a misleading designation. The implication is
that they were, once upon a time, considered part of the “canon of
scripture” of either or both the Jews and Christians, and that somehow
they were then strangely lost—or perhaps deliberately suppressed by
religious leaders. Both of these implications are erroneous. It is known
what documents were part of the Jewish canon at the time of Christ,
and they are the same ones that are in the Jewish Bible, the Tanakh,
now. There was considerable interest at the time, within Jewish
scholarly circles, in some of the extra-canonical books that were written
after the last of the books of the Tanakh. But there is no record that
there was ever any serious consideration that they should have somehow
been included in the official canon.

There are many records from the earliest years of Christianity showing
which documents were commonly considered inspired by Christian
believers of the first two centuries, and with a very few exceptions that
remained under dispute in some areas of the world, they are the same
ones as those currently in the New Testaments of today. The canon was
completely settled in most places by at least the fourth century AD. The
few debatable documents that finally were rejected as part of that canon
are well-known and were never lost—or suppressed, although perhaps
most people without an interest in ancient literature may have been
unaware of them.

It is not necessarily that any or all of these documents are without value
to the serious student of both history and the Bible. In a few cases they
may provide valuable and fairly reliable historical information about the
time in which they were written. (The primary example of this is the
First Book of Maccabees from The Apocrypha.) In other cases, they
56
give a fascinating view of the legends and myths that were accepted by
some as being plausible. And in still other cases, they provide an
overview of what some minority sects of the Jewish or Christian
religions held as doctrine, and insight into the course of the
development of certain theological ideas. Unfortunately, a significant
percentage of Christians in recent decades have become fascinated, and
at times even obsessed, with the highly fanciful and speculative content
of many of these writings, and failed to ground their enthusiasm solidly
in the canonical scriptures so that they can “separate the wheat from the
chaff.” The result at times has been the acceptance and promotion of
some very aberrant doctrinal positions that are incompatible with the
Bible, and only supported by this extra-biblical material.

One of the major areas of doctrine that is addressed very little in the
Bible, but elaborated to a great extent in many of the extra-biblical
writings, is that of angelology. Many of the theories and speculation
and elaboration of both Jewish and Christian theologians over the
centuries about what the angelic world is like have been based not on
the Bible, which provides so little information on the topic, but on
material gleaned from the extra-canonical writings.

There are four main categories of extra-canonical writings which are

typically of interest to Bible students: Apocalypses, The Apocrypha and
apocryphal writings, the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, and the New
Testament Pseudepigrapha.

Apocalypse

Apocalypse:
Apocalypse One of the Jewish and Christian writings of 200
B.C. to A.D. 150 marked by pseudonymity, symbolic imagery,
and the expectation of an imminent cosmic cataclysm in which
57
 God destroys the ruling powers of evil and raises the righteous
to life in a messianic kingdom. (Etymology: … from Greek
apokalypsis, from apokalyptein to uncover)

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/apocalypse

An apocalypse is a document that purports to “reveal” a detailed look at

the future when God will once again openly intervene in the affairs of
mankind on Earth as He did in ancient times. The official term “The
Apocalypse” is reserved in Christian circles as a designation of the last
book of the Christian Bible, what is usually called the Book of
Revelation. That book begins with the sentence, “The revelation
[apokalypsis] of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants
what must soon take place.”

The word has even made its way into secular writing as a synonym for
“the end of the world as we know it,” in circumstances that have
nothing to do with religious belief. Any scenario which seems similar to
the massive destruction described in the Book of Revelation, which
might be caused by totally non-supernatural circumstances such as
nuclear war, or a collision of Earth with a huge asteroid, may be
referred to as “apocalyptic.” Science fiction writers have often used such
a scenario for either apocalyptic (during the disaster) or “post-
apocalyptic” (in the aftermath, short or long, of the disaster) stories and
films. An example of the former would include War of the Worlds, and
the latter the Planet of the Apes movies.

For a detailed overview and summary of many of the documents of the

centuries just before and after the time of Christ which are designated
as apocalyptic writings, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalyptic_literature

58
When the Jewish people came back from exile in Babylon in the 5th
Century BC, and rebuilt Jerusalem and the Temple, there were high
expectations that the earthly kingdom of the Messiah would be
inaugurated soon. When their hopes failed to materialized, and the
ancient prophecies of the prophetic writings of the Tanakh, such as the
Book of Daniel, did not come to pass on the expected time table,
speculation arose that some series of cataclysmic events would
eventually usher in the era of fulfillment. And a whole genre of writing
arose in which authors purported to provide the details of such a
scenario. None of these were ever accepted by the Jewish religious
leaders as being authoritative and inspired by God, and thus none ever
made it into the “Old Testament canon.”

Likewise, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, many of his

followers expected that He would return in a short time to set up an
earthly kingdom, or perhaps whisk them off to heaven and destroy the
Earth. As the decades passed and it became obvious that this was not
going to happen immediately, another genre of apocalyptic writings
arose, purporting to give the details of what must come to pass before
the Christian Millennial hopes could be realized. They had much in
common with the Jewish apocalyptic writings, and often used some of
the same symbolism and stylistic elements. Although many of these
writings may have excited some readers at the time, only the Book of
Revelation, thought to have been written by the Apostle John, was
eventually accepted by the religious leaders of the time as being an
inspired, authentic revelation from God Himself.

Apocrypha

The English word apocrypha is derived from the Greek word

apokryphos, meaning obscure or hidden. In general use, apocryphal is
59
an adjective indicating that a document or a statement is of doubtful
authenticity. However, when the word is capitalized, as The
Apocrypha, it is a technical reference to a specific collection of religious
documents that were written before the time of Christ, and relate to the
history of the Jews, but are not accepted by the Jewish authorities as
being part of the canon of the Tanakh. They are also not accepted by
most Protestant groups as part of the Bible. But the Roman Catholic
and various Orthodox Churches each accept most of them as being part
of inspired scripture. In Bibles used by these religious groups, they may
be inserted between the Old Testament and the New Testament, in an
appendix at the end of the Bible, or in some cases, interspersed
throughout parts of the Old Testament. They are sometimes referred to
as “intertestamental books” as they primarily cover events believed to
have happened after the last events recorded in the Old Testament and
before the events of the New Testament. The following chart of the
books of The Apocrypha included in some Bibles is from

http://gbgm-umc.org/UMW/Bible/apocot.stm

1. Books & Additions to Esther in the Roman Catholic, Greek

Orthodox, and Slavonic Bibles

· Tobit

· Judith

· Additions to the Book of Esther

· Wisdom of Solomon

· Ecclesiasticus (or the Wisdom of Jesus, Son or Sirach)

· Baruch
60
 · The Letter of Jeremiah (Baruch ch. 6)

· The Additions to the Greek Book of Daniel:

The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Jews
Susanna
Bel and the Dragon

· 1 Maccabees

· 2 Maccabees

2. Books & Additions to Esther in the Greek Orthodox, &

Slavonic Bibles, not Roman Catholic

· 1 Esdras (called 2 Esdras in Slavonic, 3 Esdras in

Appendix to Vulgate)

· Prayer of Manasseh (in Appendix to Vulgate)

· Psalm 151, following Psalm 150 in the Greek

Orthodox Bible

· 3 Maccabees

3. Books in the Slavonic Bible & Appendix to Vulgate

· 2 Esdras (called 3 Esdras in Slavonic and 4 Esdras in

the Appendix to Vulgate)

Note: In the Latin Vulgate, Ezra-Nehemiah are called 1 and 2

Esdras

4. Books in Appendix to Greek Orthodox Bible

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 · 4 Maccabees

List is based on that of The New Oxford Annotated Bible

with Apocrypha, New Revised Version, (1994)

A number of details about angels beyond what is in the Old and New
Testaments appear in The Apocrypha, including the names of two
specific angels, Raphael and Uriel. If the documents of The Apocrypha
are credible, inspired works, then this may be useful information. If, on
the other hand, they are only fictional accounts invented by their
authors or derived from legends and myths, then this information can
be misleading.

Pseudepigrapha

The word pseudepigrapha is derived from the Greek words pseudos

(false) and epigrapha (inscriptions).

In Biblical studies, pseudepigrapha refers particularly to works

which purport to be [but actually were not] written by noted
authorities in either the Old and New Testaments or by persons
involved in Jewish or Christian religious study or history. These
works can also be written about Biblical matters, often in such a
way that they appear to be as authoritative as works which have
been included in the many versions of the Judeo-Christian
scriptures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudepigrapha

In many if not most cases, there is very little disagreement among

scholars of ancient literature about the fact that such works were not
written by those people whose names are attached to them. Internal
evidence in most of them makes it clear that it would have been
62
impossible for the person named to have been the actual author. And,
in fact, it appears clear in most cases that the name of the famous
person was attached to the document for the specific purpose of giving
its content more credibility among readers.

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

Most pseudepigraphal documents that purport to have been written by

famous Old Testament personages, or to cover events prior to the time
of Jesus, are typically labeled Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Although
it is impossible to accurately date the various documents, most scholars
are convinced that the vast majority were written by Jewish writers in
the period between the return from the Babylonian exile up through
the first century AD. There is no way to estimate accurately how many
such writings were extant in ancient times. But typical online
collections of such works list thirty or more well-known examples of
pseudepigraphal documents which are available as translations in
English today. Those which seem to have the most popularity among
Bible students include the Ethiopian Book of Enoch, the Book of
Jubilees, the Book of Jasher, the Apocalypse of Baruch, and the
Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

The Book of Enoch in particular is often cited as a source of

information about angelology. It includes the alleged names of over 100
angels, goes into great detail about the organization of the angelic
hierarchy, and recounts many tales of exploits of both “good angels”
and “fallen angels.” And it is perhaps the primary source for
documentation purporting to establish that the vague account in
Genesis about “sons of God” marrying “daughters of men” prior to the
flood is actually speaking about illicit sexual relationships between
supernatural angels and human women. The Book of Enoch insists that
this resulted in the birth of gigantic human-angel hybrid creatures

63
called the Nephilim. When these creatures died, their “disembodied
spirits” became what were later termed “demons.”

Since this information is not in the Bible, and it purports to give details
of events in both ancient history and in the supernatural realm, either
the author of the Book of Enoch was truly inspired by God to know all
of these things, they sprang from his own imagination, or he compiled
them from myths and legends of his time. Evaluating some of the
content of the Book of Enoch in the light of the canon of scripture
should allow the reader to come to a conclusion on which of these
alternatives is correct. See “Sample Content from Some of the Most
Popular Extra-Canonical Books” for some excerpts from this book.

The other main document which has a wide audience in some

Christian circles is the Book of Jasher. A document by this name is
mentioned twice in the Bible, in Joshua 10 and 2 Samuel 1. But no
such book was ever part of the Hebrew Old Testament. Over the
centuries a number of documents have been brought to the attention of
the public, with claims that each was the “original” Book of Jasher
spoken of in the Bible. Most have eventually been dismissed as spurious
by both Christian and Jewish scholars.

The Hebrew title of the document does not indicate it was material
written by a prophet named Jasher. The Hebrew word jasher is taken to
mean upright or righteous. And thus the title indicates that it is a Book
of the Upright or Book of the Righteous, an account of some of the
upright or righteous patriarchs. The book which currently has the
interest of some Bible students as being the original Book of Jasher was
reportedly first printed and circulated in Hebrew in Europe in the
1500s. The introduction to a Hebrew edition published in Spain in
1625 claimed that the original from which it had been copied had been
spirited away from Jerusalem to Spain not long after the destruction of
Jerusalem in 70 AD—but there is no historical evidence to validate this
64
claim. The credibility of the book as an ancient writing from Biblical
times has been disputed for centuries by both Jewish and Christian
scholars, with the Encyclopedia Judaica noting that it was likely a
rabbinical writing of the 1200s.

The book surfaced in the US in the early 1800s, when a Jew named
Moses Samuel of Liverpool, England, translated the Hebrew version
into English and sold the translation to New York publisher Mordecai
Manuel Noah. Noah published an American edition in 1840. Latter
Day Saints founder Joseph Smith, just beginning development of his
Mormon movement, cited the book as early as 1842. The copyright
was obtained by Salt Lake City publisher J.H. Parry, which published
an edition in 1887, giving it credibility in Mormon circles, where many
consider it as being an inspired writing clear up to today. Given the fact
that Mormons were used to the idea of viewing “extra-biblical”
writings, such as Smith’s Book of Mormon and his other writings, as
inspired, it is understandable why they might give approval to such a
book. But it’s not quite clear why it has developed such a following in
more traditional evangelical circles, given the content, which in many
cases just cannot be harmonized with the Bible. For an overview and
excerpts of some of the content, see “Sample Content from Some of the
Most Popular Extra-Canonical Books.”

New Testament Pseudepigrapha

Just as there were a large number of writers who appended the name of
famous Old Testament personages on to their own writings to give
them credibility, a number of authors in the centuries after the death
and resurrection of Jesus composed documents purporting to have been
written by well-known New Testament characters or their associates.
These included apocalypses, Gospels (narratives of the life of Jesus
similar to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Bible), epistles
(letters) similar to those of Paul in the New Testament, alleged
65
collections of sayings of Jesus, and narratives claiming to tell of the
activities of the twelve Apostles or other disciples of Jesus after the
accounts in the book of Acts. There are close to a hundred of these
available in English translation today, and there is evidence that there
were at least 150 or more others circulating in the early centuries after
the time of Jesus. Some commentators refer to all of these as “New
Testament Apocryphal works.” Others use Pseudepigrapha as a
designation for all. And still others recognize a subset of the
Pseudepigrapha—those documents which had a wider acceptance in
the early Church even though they didn’t make it into the Canonical
New Testament—and reserve the term “New Testament Apocrypha”
for that collection.

An extensive collection of “Early Christian Writings,” along with

background and commentary on each, can be found at:

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/

This collection includes all the books of the canonical New Testament
as well as many of the Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal works.

Rabbinical writings

In addition to the apocryphal and pseudepigraphal documents that may

seem to be in imitation of the books of canonical scripture, many
Jewish scholars of the centuries just before and after the time of Christ
wrote theological material which has had an extremely strong influence
on religious thought among both Jews and Christians to this day. They
didn’t present their material as on a par with scripture, but as
commentary on scripture—and interpretation of scripture. The
following definitions will be helpful in understanding the descriptions
of some of this material below.

66
 Rabbi:

1 : MASTER, TEACHER -- used by Jews as a term of address

2 : a Jew qualified to expound and apply the halakah and other
Jewish law

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/rabbi

Halakah:

… the body of Jewish law supplementing the scriptural law and

forming especially the legal part of the Talmud

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/halakah

Haggadah,
Haggadah Aggadah

… ancient Jewish lore forming especially the nonlegal part of

the Talmud

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/haggadah

Rabbinic, rabbinical:

... of or relating to rabbis or their writings

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/rabbinic

The Talmud

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud

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 The Talmud (‫ )דומלת‬is a record of rabbinic discussions of
Jewish law, ethics, customs, and stories, which are authoritative
in Jewish tradition. It is the fundamental source for rabbinic
legislation and case law. The Talmud has two components: the
Mishnah, which is the first written compendium of Judaism's
Oral Law; and the Gemara, a discussion of the Mishnah
(though the terms Talmud and Gemara are often used
interchangeably). While arranged as comments on the Mishnah
and related Tannaitic writings, the Gemara often ventures onto
other subjects and expounds broadly on the Tanakh. The
Gemara is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is much
quoted in other rabbinic literature.

…Mishna and Gemara

The Jewish Oral law was recorded by Rabbi Judah haNasi and
redacted [redact: to edit and prepare for publication] as the
Mishnah (‫ )הנשמ‬in 200 CE. The oral traditions were
committed to writing to preserve them, as it became apparent
that the Palestine Jewish community, and its learning, was
threatened. The rabbis of the Mishnah are known as Tannaim
(sing. Tanna ‫ ;)אנת‬many teachings in the Mishnah are reported
in the name of a specific Tanna.

Over the next three centuries the Mishna underwent analysis

and debate in Palestine and Babylonia (the world's major Jewish
communities). This analysis is known as Gemara (‫)ארמג‬. The
rabbis of the Gemara are referred to as Amoraim (sing. Amora
‫)ארומא‬. The analysis of the Amoraim is generally focused on
clarifying the positions, words and views of the Tannaim.

Many Christians who have heard of the Talmud assume that it is made
up primarily of legalistic discussions of just how to apply Old
68
Testament laws, such as how to keep the Sabbath. This is not so. The
content ranges widely on almost every aspect of human life, philosophy,
ethics, government, personal relationships, and much more. And it is
full of discussions of all sorts of parables and stories, including
speculation on the nature of the supernatural world. It is in this context
that there were many Talmudic stories and speculations that made their
way into both some of the pseudepigraphal Jewish and Christian
writings, and the speculative theology of some of the early Christian
“church Fathers.”

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1521&lette
r=A&search=angelology

Upon the foundations of Scripture a gigantic structure was

reared at the time of the completion of the Talmud. Post-
Talmudic mysticism extravagantly enlarged this structure, until
it reached from earth to heaven; and the fanciful ideas of the
Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, of the Talmudic and
Midrashic works, and of the mystic and cabalistic literature rush
along like a wild stream that overflows its banks. From this
wealth of material the assumption may be drawn that the
Angelology was not systematically organized. The Judaic
intellect is little inclined to systematization; and a systematic
Angelology was a matter of impossibility with the vast number
of haggadists [rabbis who specialized in commentary on the
non-legal aspects of the Talmud], who lived and taught at
different times and places, and under a manifold variety of
circumstances. In this regard it is difficult to distinguish
between Palestinians and Babylonians, between the Tannaim
and the Amoraim; for descriptions of heaven varied according
to the exegetic needs of the homily and the social condition of
the audience.

69
For more details on the topic of Talmudic angelology, see the Jewish
Encyclopedia link above.

Early
Early Christian Writers

Many aspects of angelology in “popular” Christian thinking throughout

the past 1,500 years have been derived primarily from a very few
influential authors whose works became “classics.” The names of three
in particular are regularly introduced into discussions of angelology.
The first was primarily a speculative theologian. The other two were
authors of fictional works … works which were so persuasive in their
portrayals of heaven and hell—and angels and demons—that over time
they became accepted as “the way things really are.” And thus later
writers incorporated into their own works many of the basic elements
of the stories of these three that were based not on the Bible at all, but
on a conglomeration of the sources listed above—and the very active
imaginations of the authors themselves.

Pseudo-
Pseudo-Dionysius

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-Dionysius_the_Areopagite

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, also known as pseudo-Denys,

is the name scholars have given to an anonymous theologian
and philosopher of the 5th century, who wrote a collection of
books, the Corpus Areopagiticum, falsely ascribed to Dionysius
the Areopagite, mentioned in Acts 17:34

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_of_angels

According to medieval Christian theologians, the Angels are

organized into several orders, or Angelic Choirs.
Choirs The most
influential of these classifications was that put forward by
70
 Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the Fourth or Fifth
century, in his book The Celestial Hierarchy.

In this work, the author drew on passages from the New

Testament, specifically Ephesians 6:12 and Colossians 1:16
(considered by modern scholars to be very tentative and
ambiguous sources in relation to the construction of such a
schema), to construct a schema of three Hierarchies,
Hierarchies Spheres
or Triads of angels, with each Hierarchy containing three
Orders or Choirs.
Choirs In descending order of power, these were:

• First Hierarchy:
o Seraphim
o Cherubim
o Thrones or Ophanim
• Second Hierarchy:
o Principalities
o Virtues
o Powers
• Third Hierarchy:
o Dominions
o Archangels
o Angels

For more details on the speculations about the angelic choirs, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelic_choirs

71
Dante

Botticelli Inferno illustration, 1400s

Durante degli Alighieri, commonly known as Dante, was a 14th

Century Italian poet. His most famous work, titled in English The
Divine Comedy, is a collection of three separate poems which describe
fictional trips by Dante to Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.

The most influential of these, usually dubbed Dante’s Inferno, has been
published separately in numerous editions through the subsequent
centuries, right up to today. It covers in excruciating detail Dante’s trip
to what he describes as varying levels and compartments of Hell, being
given a tour by the first century pagan poet Virgil.

In spite of the fact that The Inferno was clearly identifiable as a work of
fiction, many religious writers and artists for the next 500 years used its
imagery as if it was an actual geography of the Underworld, and the

72
descriptions of the torments of Hell in it as if they were elements of a
documentary.

A detailed overview of Dante’s poem, including commentary on its

influence throughout history, can be seen at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Comedy

Milton

English poet John Milton wrote his

most famous epic poem, Paradise
Lost, in 1667. It describes in
elaborate detail the pre-history of the
angelic realm, the “rebellion of
Lucifer,” the creation of Adam and
Eve, and their expulsion from the
Garden of Eden. Although Milton
was not a theologian, and claimed no
divine inspiration for the details he
included in the poem, its scenarios
worked their way into the popular
conception of Heaven and Hell for
the next three centuries and are still influential today.

Many artists, authors, and religious teachers from a wide variety of

backgrounds have blended his concepts into their own art works and
writings. The result is that many Bible students seem not to realize that
many of their own perspectives on these topics are not grounded in the
few scriptures from the Bible which elaborate on these topics, but on
fanciful embellishments by such artists, authors, and teachers—that
have been, in part, derived from the fertile imagination of Milton.

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Samples of illustrations by famous artists for editions of Paradise Lost
can be seen at:

http://www.paradiselost.org/4-stories-pictures.html

An exploration of the poem and its influence, including summaries and

commentary, can be seen at:

http://www.paradiselost.org/

In Summary

The Bible has very little to say regarding the “pre-history” of angels,
and about their activities when they aren’t making announcements to
humans or doing God’s bidding in ministering to humans. It does not
describe their appearance in detail, nor does it clarify anything about
some sort of heavenly “governmental hierarchy” within which they
might function. It only names two of them, Michael and Gabriel.

Therefore, any authors purporting to give additional information of

this sort beyond what is in the pages of the Bible—including detailed
descriptions of angels, names of other angels, scenarios in heaven or in
pre-human history, and details of a hierarchy of angelic beings—must
either be divinely-inspired on the level of the authors of the canonical
books of the Bible, or are spinning tales which are the invention of their
own human speculation and imagination. The reality is that Jewish
authors from as far back as 200 BC and earlier, and Christian authors
for the past almost 2000 years, have indulged in such speculation and
imaginative flights of fancy. This has included both Catholic and
Protestant writers, and teachers from many “non-mainstream” religious

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groups such as the Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and many
more.

A person who accepts the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments of
the Bible as being the only sure foundation of information for Faith
would do well to take any such information not just with a grain of salt,
but perhaps a whole salt-shaker. If the Bible is a sufficient foundation
for Faith and salvation, and God did not see fit to include more
information about these topics within its collection of documents, then
embellishing its content with legends and myths about angels doesn’t
serve to enhance faith. It has seemed primarily designed at best to tickle
ears that want to know “some new thing.” And at worst, it has ended
up twisting some of the simple truths of the Bible, and taking people
down paths that have led to confusion and darkness.

Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture quotations in this collection of

articles are from the THE HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL
VERSION®. (NIV) © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.
Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

If you have questions or comments about any of the material in the articles
in this collection of Answers About Angels, you may write to:
oasis7@gmail.com

FREE EDUCATIONAL SERVICE FOR PRIVATE STUDY:

mseedwork@yahoo.com

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