' Glory to God in the highest [heaven],
Among men (Divinel good pleasure.'
i. They are 'sons of God.' In this respect the saints who are raised again are 'equal to the angels' (Lk 20*=). They are sons of God by creation and by obedience (Job 1« 2' 38'). They ' do not owe their existence to the ordinary process of filiation, but to an immediate act of creation ' (Godet, OT Studies, 7) ; thus resembling in their origin the bodily nature of those who are ' sons of
are
frequently described as 'holy' (Mt Lk 9'-*, Job 5' 15'=, Dn 8"), and bj; implication we learn that angels obey God's will in heaven, since we are taught by our Lord to pray that God's holy w ill may be done on earth as it is in heaven (Mt 6'", cf. Ps 103=").
3. They are free from scnsiioiis feelings. This is taught in Mt 22"" 'In the resurrection they neither marry [as men] nor are given in marriage [as women], but are as the angels of God in heaven.' These words were spoken by our Lord in response to the doubts of the Saddueees on the subject of the resurrection. Christ's reply is in eflect this : The source of your error is that you do not fully recoOTize the power of God. Yon seem to think that God can make only one kind of body, with one sort of functions, and dependent on one means of life. In that way you limit unduly the power of God. 'In that age' (Lk 20^'), 'when they rise from the dead' (Mk 12-^), men do not eat and drink ( Ro 14"). Not being mortal, they are not dependent on food for nourishment, nor have they, by nature, sensuous appetites, but are lai-yyeXoi ('equal to the angels'). Thus skilfully did Jesus ■/ive a double-edged reply to the teachings of tlie Saddueees (Ac 238). While answering their objection against the resurrection. He affirms that ' those who are accounted worthy to attain to that alwv, and the resurrection from the dead . . . are equal to the angels' — thus plainly disclosing His belief in angels and setting it over against their disbelief. As to the spiritual nature of angels, Philo speaks of them as acihiiaroi. Kal eiiSal/jioyei i/ixai ('incorporeal and happy souls') ; and again, as 'bodiless souls, not mixtures of rational and irrational natures as ours lu,-. I.ut Inn in- the irra- tional nature cut out, \vholl\ ini rill -. nl ihrough- oul, i.mv-ll.ouulits (\o-,.^.. 1 . vJi, ,,. x,:,-o,) like
aiMona.r (Uruiiiinoiid-syV,,'.-. Ii:.-H7; , f . Plulo's
ANGELS
ANGELS
55
Confusion of Tongues, p. 8, Allegory, iii. 62). Tlie Babbis interpreted Dn 7"* to teach that the nature of the angels is fire. ' They are nourished by the radiance which streams from the presence of God. They need no material nourishment, and their nature is not responsive to bodily pleasures ' (Weber, Jiid. Theol." 167 ; Pesikta, 57a ; Exodus R. 32). They are also said to be ' spiritual beings ' (Lev. R. 24), 'without sensuous requirements' (Yoma, lib), 'without hatred, envy, or jealousy' (Chag. 14). The Jewish k-vnds which interpret Gn 6* as teaching a loniiniii^^liii.i; of angels with women, so as to proilurc •uiinhty men, men of renown,' seem at variaii((> with the above belief as to the immunity of celestial intelligences from all passion. It is true that Jude ^ and Enoch 15'"' both speak of the angels as having first ' left their habitation ' in heaven ; but the fact that they were deemed capable of sexual intercourse implies a much coarser conception of the angelic nature than is taught in the words of our Lord, of PhUo, and of the Talmud.
6> They have extensive, and yet limited, know- ledge. This is clearly taught in one utterance of Christ's, recorded in Mt 243«|| Mk 13== ' Of that day and hour knoweth no man, not even the angels of heaven.' The implications clearly are (1) that angels know most things, far better than men ; but (2) that there are some things, including the day of the Second Advent, which they do not know. Both these propositions admit of copious illustration from Jewish literature. First, as to their exten- sive knowledge. There are numerous intimations of the scientific skill of the angels, their acquaint- ance with the events of human lives, and their prescience of future events. The Book of Jubilees, a pre-Christian work extensively read, affirms (1^) that Moses was taught by Gabriel concerning Creation and the things narrated in Genesis ; that angels taught Noah herbal remedies (10'=), and brought to Jacob seven tablets recording the
history of his posterity {3'2-'). In Enoch
is said to have taught iiiun metallurgy and other
sciences ; as rnjinetheus was said to have taught
the Greeks. In To 12'= the angel assures Tobit that he was familiar with all the events of his troublous days : as in 2 S 14"- =" the woman of Tekoa flatters Joab that he was 'as wise as an angel of God to know all things that are in the earth.' But this knowledge hii.s its /t»jj<*. Angels were supposed to understand no language but He- brew (Chagigah, 16«). In 2 Es 4=^ in revealing eschatological events, the nnL'il ^jivcs the tokens of the comiiiL;- cihI, Imt rdiilV^-o lii, i'_jin.r;iiK-e as to whether Esilr:i.^ « ill l.r .'ilur ji ilniiiDc. The Midrash on I's ■_'.")" .•iirirms th.it ■iiulliin- i, liidden from the anj;.-!-; ■ ; l.ut .icr.inliir,; {>• S,i,i/,ri/riii, 99a, andotln-i- ■I'alniuilic |.,i>.-.i ■(■,-, • ilir\- know not the time of Israel's iiilriii|i(ii;ii. In I I' 1'- we are told that 'the aii-els d.-sii.- ' (Imt iu \,iiii) -to look into' some of the NT mysteries ; and in Slav. Enoch 24= 40=, Enoch tells his children that not even the angels know the secrets which he discloses to them.