I. Their Existence and Orders. — In the Scriptures we have frequent notices of spiritual intelligences ex- isting in another state of being, and constituting a ce- lestial family or hierarchy, over which Jehovah pre- sides. The Bible does not, however, treat of this mat- ter professedly and as a doctrine of religion, but mere- ly adverts to it incidentally as a fact, without furnish- ing any details to gratify curiosity. The practice of the Jews of referring to the agency of angels every manifestation of the greatness and power of God has led some to contend that angels have no real existence, but are mere personifications of unknown powers of nature; and we are reminded that, in like manner, among the Gentiles, whatever was wonderful, or strange, or unaccountable, was referred by them to the agency of some one of their gods. It may be ad- mitted that the passages in which angels are described as speaking and delivering messages might be inter- preted of forcible or apparently supernatural sugges- tions to the mind, but they are sometimes represented as performing acts which are wholly inconsistent with this notion ((Jen. xvi, 7, 12; Judg. xiii, 1 21 ; Matt, xxviii 2-4) ; and other passages (e. g. Matt, xxii, 30 ; Heb. i, 4
sq.) would be without force or meaning if angels had no real existence. (See Winer's Zeitschr. 1827, ii.)
That these superior beings are very numerous is ev- ident from the following expressions : Dan. vii, 10, "thousands of thousands," and "ten thousand times ten thousand ;" Matt, xxvi, 53, " more than twelve le- gions of angels;" Luke ii, 13, " multitude of the heav- enly host ;" Heb. xii, 22, 23, " myriads of angels." It is probable, from the nature of the case, that among so great a multitude there may be different grades and classes, and even natures — ascending from man to- ward God, and forming a chain of being to fill up the vast space between the Creator and man, the lowest of his intellectual creatures. Accordingly, the Scrip- ture describes angels as existing in a society composed of members of unequal dignify, power, and excellence, and as having chiefs and rulers. It is admitted that this idea is not clearly expressed in the books composed before the Babylonish captivity ; but it is developed in the books written during the exile and afterward, es- pecially in the writings of Daniel and Zechariah. In Zech. i, 11, an angel of the highest order, one uho stands before God, appears in contrast with angels of an inferior class, whom he employs as his messengers and agents (comp. iii, 7). In Dan. x, 13, the appella- tion "one of the chief princes" ("iwN'n lb), and in xii, 1, "the great prince" (b"H".!l "ItSS^), are given to Michael. The Grecian Jews rendered this appellation by the term apxayyeXoe;, archangel (q. v.), which oc- curs in the New Test. (Jude 9 ; 1 Thess. iv, 16). The names of several of them even are given. See Ga- briel, Michael, etc. The opinion, therefore, that there were various orders of angels was not peculiar to the Jews, but was held by Christians in the time of the apostles, and is mentioned by the apostles them- selves. The distinct divisions of the angels, according to their rank in the heavenly hierarchy, however, which we find in the writings of the later Jews, were almost or wholly unknown in the apostolical period. The ap- pellations dpxai, t^ovaiai, cvvdfitic, Opovot, Kvpiorn- t(q, are, indeed, applied in Eph. i, 21 ; Col. i, 16, and elsewhere, to the angels ; not, however, to them ex- clusively, or with the intention of denoting their par- ticular classes ; but to them in common with all beings possessed of might and power, visible as well as invis- ible, on earth as well as in heaven. (See Henke's Magaz. 1795, iii; 1796, vi.) See Principality.
II. Their Nature. — They are termed " spirits" (as in Heb. i, 14), although this word is applied more com- monly not so much to themselves as to their power dwelling in man (1 Sam. xviii, 10; Matt, viii, 16, etc. etc.). The word is the same as that used of the soul of man when separate from the body (Matt, xiv, 26 ; Luke xxiv, 37, 39 ; 1 Pet. iii, 19) ; but, since it prop- erly expresses only that supersensuous and rational element of man's nature, which is in him the image of God (see John iv, 24), and by which he has com- munion with God (Eom. viii, 16) ; and since, alsc, we are told that there is a "spiritual body" as well as a "natural (^vxikov) body" (1 Cor. xv, 44), it does net assert that the angelic nature is incorporeal. The con- trary seems expressfy implied by the words in which our Lord declares that, after the Resurrection, men shall be " like the angels" (Jadyytkoi) (Luke xx, 36) ; because (as is elsewhere said, Phil, iii, 21) their bodies, as well as their spirits, shall have been made entirely like His. It may also be noticed that the glorious appearance ascribed to. the angels in Scripture (as in Dan. x. 6) is the same as that which shone out in our Lord's Transfiguration, and in which John saw Him clothed in heaven (Rev. i, 14-16); and moreover, that whenever angels have been made manifest to man, it has always been in human form (as in Gen. xviii, xix; Luke xxiv, 4 ; Acts i, 10, etc. etc.). The very fact that the titles "sons of God" (Job i, 6; xxxviii, 7; Dan. iii, 25, comp. with 28), and "gods"