Angels

The Concept of Angelic Beings. The only source of valid information about angels is the Bible. The cherubim (plural of “cherub,” a Hebrew word) were celestial beings sent by God to guard the tree of life in the garden of Eden (Gn 3:24). They were represented symbolically on the ark of the covenant (Ex 25:18–22), in the tabernacle (Ex 26:31) and temple (2 Chr 3:7), and seen by the prophet Ezekiel in a vision of the restored Jerusalem (Ez 41:18–20). Two angels, Gabriel and the chief, or archangel, Michael, are named in the Bible (Dn 8:16; 9:21; 10:13; Lk 1:19, 26; Jude 9; Rv 12:7–9). Both Judaism and Christianity have the concept of fallen angels, of whom Satan is chief (Jb 1:6–12; Mt 25:41; 2 Pt 2:4), but neither the OT nor the NT goes into much detail about angels or demons. Scholars, poets, and artists have often gone beyond what is said about angels in the Bible. For example, the seraphim and cherubim were at times represented in the Bible as winged creatures, at least symbolically. In other passages, angels looked to observers like men clothed in white or shining garments (Lk 24:4; Acts 1:10). But even though Gabriel “flew swiftly” or “came quickly,” the Bible does not describe angels as men with wings growing out of their shoulders. Some angels, however, are described in the Bible as having wings (Is 6:1–8; Ez 1:5–8, 24).

Angels as Messengers. In the Bible, angels are spiritual beings who serve primarily as messengers. The English word “angel” comes directly from a Greek word for messenger. In Luke 9:52, Jesus sent “messengers” ahead of him. Usually the same word is translated “angel” and is understood to mean a spiritual messenger from God. In the OT also, one Hebrew word can refer either to a human messenger or to a spiritual being. It is not always immediately clear which is meant, especially since angels sometimes appeared in human form. In certain passages, “the angel of God” or a similar phrase may refer to God delivering his own message in a “theophany” (appearance of God himself). Once the patriarch Abraham beheld that “three men stood in front of him” (Gn 18:2), they were clearly delivering a message from God that the elderly Abraham and Sarah would have a son. During the conversation, God spoke directly (Gn 18:14). Two verses later, the men set out for Sodom, but the Lord lingered to talk to Abraham. Chapter 19 begins with “the two angels” arriving at Sodom, where they were taken to be men. Such ambiguity led an NT author to say, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb 13:2). The two major words translated as “angel” appear almost 300 times from Genesis to Revelation. One or two angels, or whole hosts (armies) of angels, may appear to a specific person. The angel who announced the birth of Jesus Christ to the shepherds was joined by “a multitude of the heavenly host” praising God (Lk 2:13, 14). In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to one disciple, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” (Mt 26:52). Such expressions as “the Lord of hosts” throughout the Bible probably refer to God as commander of an army of angels.

Walter R. Hearn and Howard F. Vos, “Angel,” in Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1988), 88.

Not surprisingly, understanding what the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) says about the members of God’s heavenly host must begin with the biblical text. It would be a mistake, however, to assume that merely detecting all the references in the Old Testament to angels accomplishes that task. As will become apparent, some terms aside from “angel” need discovery and consideration. But there is a preliminary step to casting that wider terminological net. Before we encounter the range of terms for the beings serving God in the spiritual world, we need to grasp that a given word will not necessarily yield the same information about those spirit beings. To illustrate: the label “spirit being” tells us only about the nature of a particular being (it is not embodied), not what that being does in God’s service or its specific status in God’s heavenly bureaucracy. This last sentence directs our attention to three kinds of information, all of which are relevant to the terms we’ll consider in this chapter: • Terms that describe nature (what the members of the heavenly host are or are like) • Terms that describe status (the hierarchical rank of the members of the heavenly host concerning God and each other) • Terms that describe function (what the members of the heavenly host do) Old Testament descriptions of the members of God’s heavenly host typically fall into one of these categories, with occasional overlap. Our task in this chapter is to survey the terms in each category. We will reserve a lengthy discussion of what these terms teach us about the heavenly later.

Michael S. Heiser, Angels: What the Bible Really Says about God’s Heavenly Host (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018), 1–2.

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