Angels

JOHN A. MCGUCKIN

Angel is the Greek biblical term for “messenger” of God (angelos) and in most of the many scriptural references to the angels (Gen. 16.7, 32.1; Judg. 6.11; Dan. 7.10) they appear as heavenly beings, sometimes radiant in light and power, but on earth usually in human form (called “Sons of Men” or “Sons of God”), made present as intermediaries who serve God’s will by mediating with humankind. In the biblical texts the angels are especially the deliverers of revelation and, as such, play a large role in the New Testament stories of the annunciation, the nativity, and the resurrection (Mt. 28.2–7; Jn. 20.12). The late intertestamental (especially the Apocalyptic) texts saw the angels chiefly in the court of God, attending on the divine will for earth and supervising human affairs as his ministers of providential care. This influenced the thinking of the early Christian literature (especially the Book of Revelation and the Letter to the Hebrews) and this aspect of angelic attendance at the divine court developed among the earliest churches into a vision of the angelic host as the preeminent singers of God’s glory, the liturgical choir of divine praise, which was also thought to be specially attracted to the church Eucharistic liturgies, so as to join in with them. Jesus referred to angels on sev­eral occasions, teaching that they always enjoyed the presence and vision of the Father (Mt. 18.10), and that they would form the accompanying army of God which would return with the Son of Man at the Second Glorious Coming (Parousia; Mt. 16.27). Some very early Jewish Chris­tian sects developed an angelology which saw Christ as a high archangel who had come to earth to deliver a salvific gospel. That theological trend to use angels as a synonym for divine presence and action, and to hypostatize the divine presence by an angelic reference, was already advanced in Hellenistic Judaism, as can be seen in the instance of Philo and in elements of some Christian gnostics. The trend imagined the angelic mediators as “manifestations” (hypostases) of the divine on earth; thus, the Law was seen to be given through angels, not directly by an epiphany of God to Moses. It is a doctrine that is clearly rebutted in several parts of the New Testa­ment (the pastoral letters and the Epistle to the Hebrews) which insist that Jesus Christ is “far superior” to the angels (Col. 2.18; Heb. 1.4).

Irenaeus insisted that the angels were distinct creatures of God, not a system of divine emanations as Gnosticism imagined and, like humanity, they had a destiny to serve and worship the deity (Adversus Haereses 2.30.6–9). Origen greatly extended the patristic understanding of the angelic orders with his doctrine (later condemned at the ecumenical council of 553) of the preexistence of souls. The angels, in Origen’s scheme, were the original souls created by God, who retained their heavenly dignity and ethereal status. Humanity had once been angelic, but had fallen into corporeality because of premundane sins; although one day the faithful soul could ascend back to become transfigured once more into angelic glory. It was Origen who brought the widespread belief in guardian angels into church life, with his teaching that God had appointed angels to watch over the destiny of nations, but also others to care for the safe journey of each soul on earth, until it returned to its original heavenly family. The Origenian scheme of preexistence was highly attractive to the Christian mystics, such as Evagrius, but was never accepted by the larger church.

In the 4th century St. Gregory of Nazianzus rescued the doctrine of angels from the implication of Origenian preexis­tence doctrine, and laid out a system that would become authoritative for the wider Orthodox tradition. God, Gregory argued, had made three creations. The first was the angelic order. The second was the material and animal creation, and the third was humanity. The two first creations were simple and coherent in their ontology: spiritual and fleshly, respectively. Humankind alone was a “mixed creation” (flesh and spirit). By faith­ful obedience, and a constant “ascent” of soul, human beings could attain to the glory of angelic status in the afterlife (Carmina 1.1.7).

Two scriptural passages caught the imagination of the early church, where the “ranks” of the angels were described with some differences (Col. 1.16; Eph. 1.21). The early patristic writers, putting them together, came up with an enumeration of five different ranks. Dionysius the Areopagite added to that list of five the separate ranks of Angel, Archangel, Seraph, and Cherubim, and thus set out the definitive list of the “Nine Orders” of the angels which would form the basic under­standing of both the Latin and Eastern churches ever after (in ascending order: Angels, Archangels, Principalities, Powers, Virtues, Dominions, Thrones, Cherubim, and Seraphim). The Seraphim occupied the seventh heaven alongside God, and their proximity to the Divine Presence resulted in their eruption into pure fire (in such a way are they always depicted in iconogra­phy). The Cherubim were the living throne of God (a prayer recalling this is said by the priest as he moves to the high place during the divine liturgy in the course of the singing of the Trisagion hymn). The angels were seen to be endowed with almost infinite mobility and vast powers. From the Byzan- tine-era liturgy onwards, the deacons often assumed a role of symbolizing the angelic orders attendant on the liturgy, and the imperial eunuchs (sexless, as Jesus had said the angels were in heaven: Mk. 12.25) had the special task of singing the Cherubic hymn at the time of the Great Entrance: “We who in a mystery represent the Cherubim, and sing the thrice holy hymn to the life- creating trinity, now lay aside all earthly cares, that we may receive the King of all who comes escorted by the ranks of unseen angels.”

Devotion to the angels in the Orthodox Church has always been strong, and con­tinues to this day as a marked aspect of normal Christian life. They are referred to as the “Bodiless Powers,” and several feasts in the course of the year are dedicated to them, especially to Michael and Gabriel, known as the Taxiarchs (leader of heavenly hosts). Ordinary Mondays in the Orthodox week are dedicated to them. The Sticheron for Vespers dedicated to the bodiless powers reads as follows: “Most radiant attendants of the triune Godhead; you angels who serve as supreme commanders, with all the powers on high you cry out rejoicing – Holy are you O Co-Eternal Word; Holy are you the Holy Spirit; one glory, one kingdom, one nature, one Godhead and power.”

SEE ALSO: Cherubikon; Communion of Saints; Divine Liturgy, Orthodox

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Danielou, J. (1952) “Les anges et leurs mission d’apres les Peres de l’Eglise,” Irenikon 5.

Frank, K. S. (1964) Angelikos Bios. Munster: Graumann.