1. The officials known as angels or messengers of the syna- gogue, transferred to the Christian Church. These were mere clerks or readers; so that their position does not answer to that of the angels presiding over the churches. There is, besides, no trace of the transfer of that office to the Christian Church.
9. Angels proper. Heavenly guardians of the churches. This is urged on the ground that the word is constantly used in the Apocalypse of a heavenly being; by reference to the angels of the little ones (Matt. xviii. 10), and to Peter’s angel (Acts xii. 15). It is urged that, if an individual may have a guardian angel, so may a Church. Reference is also made to the tutelar national angels of Dan. x, 21; xii. 1.
But why should the seer be instructed to write to heavenly messengers, with exhortations to repentance and fidelity, and describing them as “rich,” “ poor,” “ lukewarm,” etc. (ch. ii. 45 diel LO
3. The angels are a personification of the churches themselves : the Church being spoken of as if concentrated in its angel or messenger. But in ver. 20, they are explicitly distinguished from the golden candlesticks, the churches.
4. The rulers and teachers of the congregation. These are compared by Daniel (xii. 3) to stars. See Mal. ii. 7, where the priest is called the messenger (angel) of the Lord; and iii. 1, where the same word is used of the prophet. See also Hag. i. 13. Under this interpretation two views are possible. (a) The angels are Bishops ; the word dyyedos sometimes oceurring in that sense (as in Jerome and Socrates). This raises the quest- ion of the existence of episcopacy towards the close of the first century.* (6) The word is used of the minestry collectively ; the whole board of officers, including both presbyters and deacons, who represented and were responsible for the moral condition of the churches. See Acts xx. 17, 28; 1 Pet. v. 1-5.
Dr. Schaff says: “This phraseology of the Apocalypse already looks towards the idea of episcopacy in its primitive form, that is, to a monarchical concentration of governmental form in one
a a
* See Bishop Lightfoot’s Essay on the Christian Ministry, in his ‘‘ Commens tary on Philippians.”