Angel (dyytXoc, used in the Sept. and New Test, for the Hebrew ™><b^, nialak'), a word signifying both in Hebrew and Greek a messenger (q. v.), and therefore used to denote whatever God employs to execute his purposes, or to manifest his presence or his power ; hence often with the addition of FliiT* Jehovah, or E^fl'SK, Elohim. In later books the word 0"1'd"Tp, kedoshim , holy ones, oi iiyioi, is used as an equivalent term. In some passages it occurs in the sense of an ordinary messenger (Job i, 14 ; 1 Sam, xi, 3 ; Luke vii, 4 ; ix, 52) ; in others it is applied to prophets (Isa. xliii, 19; Hag. i, 13; Mai. iii); to priests (Eccl. v, 5; Mai. ii, 7) ;. to ministers of the New Testament (Rev. i, 20). It is also applied to impersonal agents ; as to the pil- lar of cloud (Exod. xiv, 19) ; to the pestilence (2 Sam. xxivy 16, 17 ; 2 Kings xix, 30); to the winds ("who maketh the winds his angels," Psa. civ, 4) : so like- wise plagues generally are called " evil angels" (Psa. lxxviii, 49), and Paul calls his thorn in the flesh an " angel of Satan" (2 Cor. xii, 7).
But this name is more eminently and distinctly ap- plied to certain spiritual beings or heavenly intelli- gences, employed by God as the ministers of his will, and usually distinguished as angels of God or angels of Jehovah. In this case the name has respect to their official capacity as " messengers," and not to their na- ture or condition. The term "spirit," on the other hand (in Greek ni'tvpa, in Hebrew till), has reference to the nature of angels, and characterizes them as in- corporeal and invisible essences. When, therefore, the ancient Jews called angels spirits, they did not mean to deny that they were endued with bodies. When they affirmed that angels were incorporeal, they used the term in the sense in which it was un- derstood by the ancients ; that is, free from the im- purities of gross matter. This distinction between "a natural body" and "a spiritual body" is indicated by Paul (1 Cor. xv, 44) ; and we may, with sufficient safety, assume that angels are spiritual bodies, rather than pure spirits in the modern acceptation of the word. (See Ode, De A ngelis, Tr. ad Rh. 1739.)
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It is disputed whether the term Elohim (q. v.) is ever applied to angels ; but in Psa. viii, 5, and xcvii, 7, the word is rendered by angels in the Sept. and oth- er ancient versions ; and both these texts are so cited in Heb. i, 6 ; ii, 7, that they are called Sons of God. But there are many passages in which the expression, the "angel of God," "the angel of Jehovah," is cer- tainly used for a manifestation of God himself. This is especially the case in the earlier books of the Old Testament, and may be seen at once by a comparison of Gen. xxii, 11 with 12, and of Exod. iii, 2 with 6 and 14, where He who is called the " angel of God" in one verse? is called "God," and even "Jehovah," in those that follow, and accepts the worship due to God alone (contrast Eev. xix, 10; xxi, 9). See also Gen. xvi, 7, 13; xxi, 11, 13; xlviii, 15, 16; Num. xxii, 22, 32, 35 ; and comp. Isa. lxiii, 9 with Exod. xxxiii, 14, etc., etc. The same expression, it seems, is used by Paul in speaking to heathens (see Acts xxvii, 23 ; comp. with xxiii, 11). More remarkably, the word " Elohim" is applied in Psa. lxxxii, 6, to those who judge in God's name.
It is to be observed also that, side hy side with these expressions, we read of God's being manifested in the form of man; e. g. to Abraham at Mamre (Gen. xviii, 2, 22 ; comp. xix, 1) ; to Jacob at Penuel (Gen. xxxii, 24, 30) ; to Joshua at Gilgal (Josh, v, 13, 15), etc. It is hardly to be doubted that both sets of passages refer to the same kind of manifestation of the Divine Presence. This being the case, since we know that "no man hath seen God" (the Father) "at any time," and that " the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath revealed him" (John i, 18), the inev- itable inference is that by the "Angel of the Lord" in such passages is meant He who is from the beginning, the " Word," i. e. the Manifester or Revealer of God. These appearances are evidently " foreshadowings of the incarnation" (q. v.). By these God the Son man- ifested himself from time to time in that human na- ture which he united to the Godhead forever in the virgin's womb. See Jehovah.
This conclusion is corroborated by the fact that the phrases used as equivalent to the word " angels" in Scripture, viz., the " sons of God," or even in poetry, the " gods" (Elohim), the " holy ones," etc., are names which, in their full and proper sense, are applicable only to the Lord Jesus Christ. As He is "the Son of God," so also is He the " angel" or "messenger" of the Lord. Accordingly, it is to his incarnation that all angelic ministration is distinctly referred, as to a cen- tral truth, by which alone its nature and meaning can be understood (comp. John i, 51, with Gen. xxviii, 11-17, especially ver. 13). (See an anon, work, Angels, Cherubim, and Gods, Lond. 1861.) See Logos.