An angel is a spiritual, heavenly, or supernatural entity, often depicted as humanoid with bird-like wings, frequently in the role as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in various traditions like the Abrahamic religions.The Free Dictionary: "angel". , retrieved 1 September 2012.Mircea Eliade Encyclopedia of Religion Macmillan Publishing (1986) p. 282 Other roles include protectors and guides for humans, such as guardian angels, and servants of God.Augustine of Hippo's Enarrationes in Psalmos , 103, I, 15, augustinus.it In Western belief-systems the term is often used to distinguish benevolent from malevolent intermediary beings.Mircea Eliade Encyclopedia of Religion, Macmillan Publishing (1986), p. 282.
Emphasizing the distance between God and mankind, revelation-based belief-systems require angels to bridge the gap between the earthly and the transcendent realm.Mircea Eliade Encyclopedia of Religion, Macmillan Publishing (1986), p. 284. Angels play a lesser role in monistic belief-systems, since the gap is non-existent. However, angelic beings might be conceived as aids to achieve a proper relationship with the divine.Mircea Eliade Encyclopedia of Religion, Macmillan Publishing (1986), p. 283.
Abrahamic religions describe angelic hierarchies, which vary by religion and sect. Some angels are indicated with names (such as Gabriel or Michael) or are of a specific kind or rank (such as a seraph or an archangel). Malevolent angels are often believed to have been expelled from heaven and are called fallen angels. In many such religions, the devil (or devils) is identified with such angels.
Angels in art are often identified with bird wings,Proverbio (2007), pp. 90–95; compare review in La Civiltà Cattolica, 3795–3796 (2–16 August 2008), pp. 327–328. halos,Didron, Vol. 2, pp. 68–71. and divine light. They are usually shaped like humans of extraordinary beauty, though this is not always the case sometimes, they are portrayed as being frightening or inhuman.
Etymology, names
The word angel arrives in modern English from Old English engel (with a hard g) and the Old French angele. Both of these derive from Late Latin angelus, which in turn was borrowed from Late Greek angelos (literally "messenger"). Τhe word's earliest form is Mycenaean a-ke-ro, attested in Linear B syllabic script.palaeolexicon.com, a-ke-ro , Palaeolexicon. According to the Dutch linguist R. S. P. Beekes, ángelos itself may be "an Oriental loan, like ἄγγαρος (ángaros, 'Persian mounted courier')."Beekes, R. S. P., Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 9.
The rendering of ángelos is the Septuagint's default translation of the Biblical Hebrew term malʼākh, denoting simply "messenger" without connoting its nature. In the Latin Vulgate, this meaning becomes bifurcated: when malʼākh or ángelos is supposed to denote a human messenger, words like nuntius or legatus are applied. If the word refers to some supernatural being, the word angelus appears. Such differentiation has been taken over by later vernacular translations of the Bible, early Christian and Jewish exegetes and eventually modern scholars.
Background The concept of angels is historically best to be understood from different ideas of the concept of God throughout history. In polytheistic and animistic worldviews, supernatural powers (i.e. deities, spirits, daemons, etc.) were assigned to different natural phenomena.al-Suyūṭī’s, Jalāl al-Dīn. "“Panangelon”: Angelology and Its Relation to Polytheism." The Intermediate Worlds of Angels: 153–154. Within a monotheistic framework, these powers were reconsidered to be servants of the supreme deity, turning autonomous supernatural beings into "angels".Abu-Hamdiyyah, Muhammad. The Qur'an: an introduction. Routledge, 2020. p. 102.
By that, supernatural powers controlling or influencing humanity's perception of the world, including natural phenomena and humans, are ultimately under control of a supreme God. Prominent angels, such as Michael and Gabriel, reflect a connection to the Chief Semitic deity El. Even "bad" angels such as Satan, Samael, Iblis etc., can be understood as an operating force within the nature of humans, as responsible for selfish tendencies.
The idea of angels in early Hebrew scripture as supernatural agents is absent.Barr, James. "The question of religious influence: The case of Zoroastrianism, Judaism, and Christianity." Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 53.2 (1985): 201–235. Instead, the Hebrew deity intervenes in human affairs, mostly by means of punishment. Only in later thought of post-exilic and prophetic writings, the Biblical deity is conceptualized as distant and more merciful, his interventions replaced by the idea of angels. However, such angels still carry out the gruesome attributes of God and can be both benevolent and malevolent. The notion of angels as embodiment of good emerges only under influence of Zoroastrianism, in which the Devil is conceived as the principle of evil, with a hosts of demons, in battle with the holy entities (Aməša Spəṇta) created by Ahura Mazda (principle of good).
The influence of dualistic tendencies and replacement of divine powers by angels is evident in the Qumram writings. In the Angelic Liturgy, the Hebrew term elim (deities, heavenly powers) is used for angelic beings and not for God.Rees, Valery. From Gabriel to Lucifer: A cultural history of angels. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2012. The War Scroll speaks about angels of light fighting against demonic beings of darkness.
Zoroastrianism
In Zoroastrianism there are different angel-like figures. They patronize human beings and other creatures, and also manifest God's energy.
The Amesha Spentas, although rather emanations of Ahura Mazda ("Wise Lord", God) than distinct messengers, have often been compared to angels.Lewis, James R.; Oliver, Evelyn Doroth;, Sisung, Kelle S. (Editor) (1996), Angels A to Z, Entry: Zoroastrianism, pp. 425–427, Visible Ink Press, .Piras, A. (2016), Angel. In Vocabulary for the stury of religion, Brill. Similar to angels in Abrahamic tradition, Vohu Manah reveals to Zoroaster the true nature of God.Reynolds, G. S. (2009). Angels. In K. Fleet, G. Krämer, D. Matringe, J. Nawas and D. J. Stewart (eds.), Encyclopaedia of Islam Three Online. Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/1573-3912_ei3_COM_23204.
Additionally to the Amesha Spentas, the Fravashi have often been compared to angels, functioning as a guardian angel, and have been adopted as such by Zoroastrians themselves since the 19th century.Kuehn, S.; Leder, S.; & Pökel, H. P. (2019, December). Introduction: Angels and Their Religious and Cosmological Contexts. In The Intermediate Worlds of Angels. Ergon-Verlag. p. 15. Unlike the Amesha Spentas, the Fravashi appear as individualized warriors of Ahura Mazda's celestial army, descending from heaven to aid those who summon them against demons.Piras, A. (2016), Angel. In Vocabulary for the stury of religion, Brill.
Judaism
In Judaism, angels ( mal'āḵ; "messenger"), are understood through interpretation of the Tanakh and in a long tradition as supernatural beings who stand by God in heaven, but are strictly to be distinguished from God and are subordinate to him. Occasionally, they can show selected people God's will and instructions.Hermann Röttger: Mal'ak jhwh, Bote von Gott. Die Vorstellung von Gottesboten im hebräischen Alten Testament. Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1978, (zugl. Dissertation, Universität Regensburg 1977). Johann Michl: Engel (jüd.). In: RAC, Band 5. Hiersemann Verlag, Stuttgart 1962, pp. 60–97. (in German). In the Jewish tradition they are also inferior to humans since they have no will of their own and are able to carry out only one divine command.Joseph Hertz: Kommentar zum Pentateuch, hier zu Gen 19,17 EU. Morascha Verlag Zürich, 1984. Band I, p. 164. (in German).
Hebrew Bible
The Torah uses the Hebrew terms (; "messenger of God"), (; "messenger of the Lord"), (; "sons of God") and (; "the holy ones") to refer to beings traditionally interpreted as angels.
The term () is also used in other books of the Hebrew Bible. In the early stages of Hebrew writings, the term refers to human messengers, not to supernatural entities.Jones, David Albert. Angels: a history. Oxford University Press, 2010. p. 3. A human messenger might be a prophet or priest, such as Malachi, "my messenger"; the Greek superscription in the Septuagint translation states the Book of Malachi was written "by the hand of his messenger" (). Examples of a supernatural messenger are the "Malak YHWH", who is either a messenger from God,Pope, Hugh. "Angels." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1907. accessed 20 October 2010 an aspect of God (such as the logos),Frederick Copleston, A History of Philosophy, Volume 1, Continuum, 2003, p. 460. or God himself as the messenger (the "theophanic angel.")Baker, Louis Goldberg. Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Angel of the Lord "The functions of the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament prefigure the reconciling ministry of Jesus. In the New Testament, there is no mention of the angel of the Lord; the Messiah himself is this person."
In the early writings of the Hebrew Bible, both as well as the are aspects of God.Russell, Jeffrey Burton. The devil: Perceptions of evil from antiquity to primitive Christianity. Cornell University Press, 1987. p. 197 In the earliest records, the Bənē hāʾĔlōhīm are in heaven. They are depicted as the heavenly court or the pantheon of religious belief-system of their time. They reflect the transcendent aspect of the Divine, but become progressively differentiated from the good aspect of the Divine. The mal’āḵ on the other hand, expresses the Divinties' interaction with the world. As such the mal’āḵ functions as the voice of the Divine, the Divine spirit, or as God himself. In Exodus 3:2–4, it is both Yahweh as well as a mal’āḵ by which Moses is addressed.Russell, Jeffrey Burton. The devil: Perceptions of evil from antiquity to primitive Christianity. Cornell University Press, 1987. p. 197 The fusion of the Bənē hāʾĔlōhīm with the mal’āḵ is evident in the Book of Hiob. Here, Satan is both one of the Bənē hāʾĔlōhīm in the heavenly court, as well as a mal’āḵ expressing God's interaction with humanity.Russell, Jeffrey Burton. The devil: Perceptions of evil from antiquity to primitive Christianity. Cornell University Press, 1987. p. 201-202
Michael D. Coogan notes that it is only in the late books that the terms "come to mean the benevolent semi-divine beings familiar from later mythology and art." Daniel is the biblical book to refer to individual angels by name, mentioning Gabriel in Daniel 9:21 and Michael in Daniel 10:13. These angels are part of Daniel's apocalyptic visions and are an important part of apocalyptic literature.
In Daniel 7, Daniel receives a dream-vision from God. [...] As Daniel watches, the Ancient of Days takes his seat on the throne of heaven and sits in judgement in the midst of the heavenly court [...] an [angel] like a son of man approaches the Ancient One in the clouds of heaven and is given everlasting kingship. Jeffrey Burton Russel writes that "the more the banim and the mal'ak were seen as distinct from the God, the more it was possible to thrust upon the evil elements in the divine character that Yahweh had discarded.".Russell, Jeffrey Burton. The devil: Perceptions of evil from antiquity to primitive Christianity. Cornell University Press, 1987. pp. 198–199.