Angel

Angels are usually viewed as emanations of a supreme divine being, sent to do the tasks of that being. Traditions vary as to whether angels have free will or are merely extensions of the supreme being's will. While the appearance of angels also varies, many views of angels give them a human shape.

Etymology

The word "angel" in English (from Old English and German Engel), French (from Old French angele), Spanish, and many other Romance languages are derived from the Latin angelus, itself derived from Koine Greek: ???????, angelos, "messenger" (pl. ???????).^[1] The ultimate etymology of that word in Greek is uncertain.^[2]

In Hebrew & Arabic the primary term for "angel" is "malakh" (????????), "malaika", or "malak" (????) derived from the Semitic consonantal root l-'-k (?-?-?), meaning "to send." This root is also found in the noun "Melakha" (????????), meaning "work", and the noun "Mal'achut" (??????), meaning "message". Other words referring to angels include ???? kruv^[3] describing young children, from which the English word "cherub" is derived. Another Hebrew term is Gil-Gulim, meaning "revolving," and angels are sometimes depicted as wheels with wings. Derived from this is the Hebrew term "Gal-Gal," "the rotation of fortune, change."^[4]

Judaic beliefs

The Bible, Oral Law, Midrash and various mystical texts present angels as heavenly beings created by God who are not endowed with free will. They occasionally appear on earth in furtherance of God's will, often as messengers. They are frequently encountered in mystical texts, particularly those of the Merkabah tradition. Jewish angelology is far from systematic, and the purpose, nature and personalities of individual angels and the heavenly host as a whole varies greatly across historical eras, texts, genres and traditions.^[5]

The Bible uses the terms ???? ????? (melakh Elohim; messenger of God), ???? ???? (melakh Adonai; messenger of the Lord), ??? ?????? (b'nai Elohim; sons of God) and ??????? (ha-qodeshim; the holy ones) to refer to beings traditionally interpreted as angels. Other terms are used in later texts, such as ????????? (the upper ones). Daniel is the first biblical figure to refer to individual angels by name.^[5]

In post-Biblical Judaism, certain angels came to take on a particular significance and developed unique personalities and roles. Though these archangels were believed to have rank amongst the heavenly host, no systematic hierarchy ever developed. Metatron is considered one of the highest of the angels in Merkabah and Kabbalist mysticism and often serves as a scribe. He is briefly mentioned in the Talmud,^[6] and figures prominently in Merkabah mystical texts. Michael, who serves as a warrior and advocate for Israel ()is looked upon particularly fondly. Gabriel is mentioned in the Book of Daniel () and briefly in the Talmud,^[7] as well as many Merkabah mystical texts.

Maimonides and rationalism

In the Middle Ages, some Jews presented a rationalist view of angels that is accepted by many Jews.

The rationalist view of angels, as held by Maimonides, Gersonides, Samuel Ibn Tibbon, etc., states that God's actions are never mediated by a violation of the laws of nature. Rather, all such interactions are by way of angels. Even this can be highly misleading: Maimonides harshly states that the average person's understanding of the term "angel" is ignorant in the extreme.

Rather, according to Maimonides, the wise man understands that what the Bible and Talmud refer to as "angels" are actually metaphors for laws of nature, or the principles by which the universe operates. This is explained in his Guide of the Perplexed II:4 and II:6, and differs from the more widespread perception of angels in the Torah.

Christianity

Early Christians took over Jewish ideas of angels, which had passed from an early stage, where the idea of angels oscillated between that of a messenger of God and God himself to an identification with specific individual messengers (Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, and Uriel). Then, in the space of little more than two centuries (from the third to the fifth) the image of angels took on definite characteristics both in theology and in art.^[8]

By the late fourth century there is a consistent teaching among the Church Fathers on the existence of different categories of angels in line with the missions and activities assigned to them. Development of the doctrine of the angels was related to the settlement of the Trinitarian disputes in which some proposed that Jesus was not divine but on the level of immaterial beings subordinate to the Trinity.^[9]

Iconography

Accounts of angels in the Bible say nothing of wings, except for the Seraphim, which have six or three pair, and the earliest known Christian image of an angel, that in the Cubicolo dell'Annunziazione in the Catacomb of Priscilla, which is dated to the middle of the third century, is without wings. Representations of angels on sarcophagi and on objects such as lamps and reliquaries of that period also show them without wings.^[10]

The earliest known representation of angels with wings is on what is called the Prince's Sarcophagus, discovered at Sarigüzel, near Istanbul, in the 1930s and attributed to the time of Theodosius I (379-395).^[11]

From the same period is a statement by Saint John Chrysostom explaining the significance of the wings: "They manifest a nature's sublimity. That is why Gabriel is represented with wings. Not that angels have wings, but that you may know that they leave the heights and the most elevated dwelling to approach human nature. Accordingly, the wings attributed to these powers have no other meaning than to indicate the sublimity of their nature."^[12]

From then on, though of course with some exceptions, Christian art represented angels with wings, as in the cycle of mosaics in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major (432-440).^[13]

Latter-day Saint beliefs

People who claimed to have received a visit by an angel include Joseph Smith, Jr., and the Three Witnesses of the Book of Mormon: Oliver Cowdery, David Whitmer, and Martin Harris. Although Cowdery, Whitmer, and Harris all eventually became disaffected with Smith and left the church, none of them retracted their statement that they had seen and conversed with an angel of the Lord, and indeed, even defended their claim of angelic visitation to their deaths. Countless other Latter-day Saints, both in the early movement and modern church, claimed or have claimed to have seen angels, though Joseph Smith posited that, except in extenuating circumstances such as the restoration, mortals teach mortals, spirits teach spirits and resurrected beings teach other resurrected beings. ^[16]

The majority of the angelic visitations in the early Latter Day Saint movement were witnessed by Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery, who, prior to the establishment of the Church, both claimed to have been ministered to by the prophet-historian Moroni, the Book of Mormon prophet Nephi, John the Baptist, and the Apostles Peter, James, and John. Later, at the dedication of the Kirtland Temple, Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery claimed to have been visited by Jesus, and subsequently by Moses, Elias, and Elijah.^[17] Joseph Smith taught that "there are no angels who minister to this earth but those that do belong or have belonged to it"^[18] and, accordingly, Latter-day Saints believe that Michael the Archangel was Adam (the first man) when he was mortal, and that Gabriel lived on the earth as Noah.^[19]

Zoroastrianism

In Zoroastrianism there are different angel-like animals. For example, each person has one guardian angel, called Fravashi. They patronize human beings and other creatures, and also manifest God?s energy. The Amesha Spentas have often been regarded as angels, although they don't convey messages,^[20] but are rather emanations of Ahura Mazda ("Wise Lord", God); they initially appear in an abstract fashion and then later became personalized, associated with diverse aspects of the divine creation.^[21]

Bahá'í

Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í Faith, referred to angels as people who through the love of God have consumed all human limitations and have been endowned with spiritual attributes.^[22]

`Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'u'lláh's son, defined angels as "those holy souls who have severed attachment to the earthly world, who are free from the fetters of self and passion and who have attached their hearts to the divine realm and the merciful kingdom".^[23]

Occultism

According to most Thelemites, the single most important goal is to consciously connect with one?s HGA, a process termed "Knowledge and Conversation." By doing so, the magician becomes fully aware of his own True Will. For Crowley, this event was the single most important goal of any adept:

Crowley felt that attaining Knowledge and Conversation was so important, that he staked the claim that any other magical operation was, in a sense, evil.

Mysticism

Some mystics believe that a soul grows in steps from a mineral, to a plant, then an animal, and then to a human. When the human resolves to die, a soul could become an angel. The Persian Sufi mystic poet Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi wrote in his poem Masnavi:

The Christian (Swedish) writer Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) wrote in his book Conjugial Love that a soul of a man and a soul of a woman who are (happily) united by marriage enter heaven and become an angel. This could be a married couple on earth or a couple that met after their earthly deaths.

Occult author Samael Aun Weor argues that a soul cannot evolve to become an angel through mechanical evolution?the Buddhist Wheel of Life has involution of nature as well as evolution?as such the steps would be mineral, plant, animal, human, animal, plant, mineral. To evolve to become an angel involves conscious work and voluntary suffering: marriage is treated as a sacrament, and is the means which Swedenborg was referring to. The mystics were not referring to the death of the human body, but to the "dissolution of the ego"; the psychological death; the Buddhistic annihilation; the death of "myself"; the method of the removal of all our sins which Jesus Christ so wisely pointed out, and which was emulated by innumerable Saints.

Notes

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