RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Angel
the ministering angels have no access (Talmud, Nedarim 32a).
The essence of the angels is fire; they sustain themselves in fire; their fiery breath consumes men, and no man can endure the sound of their voices (Talmud, Shabbat 88b; Hagigah 14b). Another theory is that they are half fire and half water, and that God makes peace between the opposing elements (Jerusalem Talmud, Rosh ha-Shanah ii. 58a). According to one tradition, each angel was one-third of a world in size; according to another, 2,000 parasangs, his hand reaching from heaven to earth. The angels, numbering either 496,000 or 499,000, are said to have been created either on the first day (Book of Jubilees ii. 2), the second day (Slavonic Enoch), or on the fifth day (Gen. Rabbah hi.). Their food is manna, of which Adam and Eve ate before they sinned (Vita Adce et Evas, p. 4).
As a rule, the angels are represented as good, and as not subject to evil impulses (Gen. Rabbah xlviii. 14); nevertheless, two were expelled from heaven for 138 years on account of prematurely disclosing the decree of Sodom's destruction (ib.). Two narratives are given in Enoch vi.-xv., of the fall of the angels. According to one, Azazel was the leader of the rebellion, and the chief debaucher of women; according to the other, Samiaza, or §hamhazai, was the chief seducer. Each has ten chieftains and 100 angels at his command. They are punished at the hands of Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel (Enoch ix. 1, xl. 2).
B. Pick.
III. Development of the Scriptural Angelology:
The nature of Holy Scripture forbids any attempt to build upon its text a systematic angelology. The Bible covers a wide field of time, and, for anything save its main purpose, it is a book of imperfect record. Moreover, its evidence on this question is less apt to be direct than indirect. An elaborate angelology can therefore be derived from the Bible only by doing violence to sound exegesis. Yet it is possible to detect a general movement of thought and to deduce a conclusion, touching the weight to be given to the scriptural doctrine of angels.
The belief in angels is not an original element in the Scriptures; the Bible holds it in common with all the men of antiquity, who lacked a unifying
conception of law and made the poet
i- The and the theologian one and the same
Belief in person. So the mind instinctively
Angels Com- peopled space with personal forces
mon to All both good and evil. The field of
Antiquity, reality, being governed neither by
the scientific idea of law nor by the monotheistic idea of God, was inevitably broken up and parceled out by a kind of spiritual feudalism. The belief in angels being thus instinctive, it follows that, so far as the Scriptures are concerned, the doctrine in question is n°t a primary one; on the contrary, it is a subordinate element. To be true to the Bible "self, the emphasis must be put on the relation between that belief in angels which the men I.-12
of the Bible inherited from antiquity and that saving knowledge of the divine unity which is the heart of God's word. The center of gravity and interest is not in angelology as such.
The central and controlling element in the Old
Testament is the self-revelation of God in his holy
and creative unity. The pith of
2. The prophecy is God's manifestation of Hexateuch. himself in terms of the moral order in
the experience of the chosen nation. It is significant, then, that in the Hexateuch the angels in their plurality play a small part (Gen. xix. 15, xxxii. 1). The "angel of Yahweh," " the angel of the presence," on the other hand, are constantly in evidence. The unity of God, dominating the religious consciousness, has given a monarchical turn to the angelology of antiquity. In the preexilic prophets the angels appear but twice. In both cases (Hosea xii. 4, Isa. xxxvii. 36) the usage is unitary. This fact,
3. The taken with the extreme rarity of the Prophets, term on the one hand, and, on the
other hand, with the fact that the existence of heavenly hosts is taken for granted (Isa. vi. 1-6), gives a weighty piece of evidence. Even in exilic prophecy as a whole there is no emphasis. The " angel of the presence " appears once (Isa. Ixiii. 9). The angels in their plurality do not appear. The prophetic passion spends itself upon God's presence in the crises of the nation's history, and upon his power to guide it toward a supreme moral end (the day of Yahweh). Even in Ezekiel, in whom the apocalyptic tendency begins to be strongly marked, the angels are not named.
But in Zechariah a new turn is taken. The angel of Yahweh appears incessantly. Moreover, the angels in their plurality appear (Zech. ii. 3). The apocalyptic tendency is becoming dominant. The moral passion of prophetism is declining. And from Zechariah's time on, there seems to be a steady increase in the amount of attention given to the angels. How far this is due to the influence of Parseeism and how far to the inherent tendency of Judaism, it may be impossible to determine with precision. But certain it is that as Judaism abounds in its own sense and its difference from prophetism develops, the angels play a larger and yet larger part. The climax is reached when the Essenes impose upon those entering the order a terrible oath not to betray the names of the angels (Josephus, War, II. viii. 7). At this point, Judaism comes close to Chaldean magic.
Davidson has said (DB, i., p. 97) that in the New Testament there is no advance. The statement is misleading. There is not nor can 4. The New there be any advance beyond the Testament. Jewish angelology. The Jewish mystic knew a great deal about the angelic hosts, their hierarchical order, and their names. In truth, he knew more than there was to know. " Advance " in this direction would have meant a fuller exposition of unreality. But the New Testament is the literary product of a magnificent revival of Hebrew prophetism. The
Angel Anglo-Saxons