1.1 Angels in the Old Testament
The belief in a realm of intermediary entities, situated between the divine sphere and the human world, is a common aspect in the representations of premodern worldviews. These entities could be gods, fallen from their original rank; exceptional people or heroes elevated to a higher status; or hybrid beings existing on the border between the human and animal worlds (Römer et al. 2017). In the Bible, the Hebrew word mal'ak, translated as angel, originally meant ‘messenger’ (Meier 1988). Therefore, these intermediate entities are primarily conceived as servants and envoys of God to humans. In the first books of the biblical canon, the most attested figure of an angel is the ‘angel of God’ or ‘angel of Yahweh’ (Röttger 1978; Guggisberg 1979). The identity of this figure is difficult to pin down. Sometimes, he speaks and acts as if he were God manifesting Himself in person (Gen 31:11, 13). Sometimes, he is clearly distinguished from God Himself (Exod 32:34; 33:2–3). Apart from this angel of the Lord, the other angels seem to be ‘recycled’ pagan divinities, reduced to the rank of servants of the one God (Simbanduku 2004), who uses them for specific missions, such as watching over particular nations. The angels, sometimes called ‘the sons of God’, constitute God’s heavenly council and court (Job 1:6; 1 Kgs 22:19–22) (White 2014), and this proximity to God makes them ‘holy’ (Ps 89 [88]:6–8). This heavenly court evolves in later Judaism into a liturgical assembly that celebrates God’s majesty. As in the cultures of the Near East, where deities are often linked with celestial bodies, the biblical angels maintain a certain kinship with the stars: they are the guardians of cosmic order.
Close to God, angels can act as mediators between the divine world and the world of humans: ‘And he dreamed that there was a stairway set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it’ (Gen 28:12). This angelic mediation gains considerable importance in the religious life of Second Temple Judaism. Indeed, after the exile, angelology – previously discreet and rudimentary – became omnipresent, flourishing, and exuberant, especially in the canonical apocalyptic writings (Daniel, Zechariah). It became unrestrained in the literature of Hellenistic Judaism: for example, in the Book of Enoch (Dörfel 1998). Three factors can explain this surge in angelology after the exile. The first is the influence of Persian and then Hellenistic cultures, both of which assign a significant role to the intermediate world of spirits. The second is the deepening sense in Israel of the transcendence of the one God: on the one hand, this dismisses any danger of a polytheistic interpretation of angelology, and on the other, it made these intermediaries necessary to gradually bring believers closer to the thrice-holy God. The third is the eschatological fever that was characteristic of the period, which increased interest in an angelic world perceived as the anticipated realization of the world to come.
Hence, angels act as mediators, both descending and ascending, between God and humanity. In the context of descending mediation, they are sent on missions by God to fight in his name, forming the army of the ‘God of hosts (God Sabaot)’ (1 Sam 1:3; Ps 24 [23]: 10), to lead punitive expeditions (Gen 19:13; 1 Chr 21:15) (Schöpflin 2007b) or to carry out missions of exploration (Zech 1:10). They guide and protect communities as well as individuals. Michael takes special care of the people of Israel (Dan 12:1), and Raphael protects Tobias during his perilous journey, just as an angel supports Elijah’s journey to Horeb (1 Kgs 19:5–7). In regard to descending mediation, angels, serving as messengers of God, intervene also in prophetic revelation. Admitted to God’s council, they are familiar with his plans and are capable of transmitting divine messages (as revealing angels) or providing humans the correct interpretation (as interpreting angels; Dan 9:22) (Schöpflin 2007a; Melvin 2013).
In the context of ascending mediation, angels lift the prayers and good deeds of humans up to God. Thus, Raphael declares: ‘So now when you and Sarah prayed, it was I who brought the record of your prayers before the glory of the Lord’ (Tob 12:12). As their own prayers support and strengthen those of humans, the angels become, by extension, intercessors (Job 33:23–24; Rev 8:3–4). They are therefore intimately involved in the liturgical actions of humans (Frey and Jost 2017).
In post-exilic Judaism, the angelic world thus expands: ‘A thousand thousand served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood attending him’ (Dan 7:10). This realm also emerges out of from anonymity. Some angels receive their own name. In the canonical biblical writings, these include Michael, whose name means ‘Who is like God?’ ‘and who is ‘one of the chief princes’ (Dan 10:13, 21; 12:1); Gabriel, the angel who interpreted Daniel’s visions, whose name means ‘Man of God’ or ‘God is my strength’ (Dan 8:16; 9:21); and Raphael, ‘God heals’, Tobias’ companion. As for the pseudepigrapha, they abound with names, each more fanciful than the last. The internal organization of the angelic world also becomes clearer, although it is difficult to propose a standard model. An elite group stands out: the archangels. Sometimes there are four, sometimes seven (Berner 2007). Thus, Raphael describes himself as ‘one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of the Lord’ (Tob 12:15). The pseudepigrapha distinguish angelic classes according to their function. There are the angels of the face, close to God, but also the angels of sanctification, responsible for proclaiming the Sanctus, the watchers who (according to 1 Enoch) keep watch over humanity, etc.
Superhuman entities, which were not originally messenger angels, become integrated into this angelic world: the cherubim and seraphim (Hartenstein 2007). The cherubim are probably related to the karibu, Mesopotamian zoomorphic guardian and intercessor genii whose name means ‘blessing’ and who flanked the entrances to palaces and sanctuaries, or supported and adorned thrones (Wood 2008). In the Bible, the cherubim assume the role of guardians and protectors of the holy places (Gen 3:24). Inside the Tabernacle, two cherubim – two solid gold statuettes – face each other to protect the mercy seat (Exod 25:18–22). Similarly, in Solomon’s temple, adorned with cherubim on its walls (1 Kgs 6:29), two cherubim, in the form of two large gold-plated wooden figures, protect the holy ark with their outstretched wings (1 Kgs 6:23–28). The cherubim also bear the royal throne, so that God is called the one who ‘is enthroned on the cherubim’ (1 Sam 4:4; Isa 37:16; Ps 80 [79]:2; 99 [98]:1). The seraphim, named ‘burning ones’, initially refer to the hostile powers inhabiting the desert (venomous snakes or winged dragons). But they play a positive role in the famous vision of Isaiah 6: ‘Seraphs were in the presence above him; each had six wings: [...]. And one called to another and said: 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts’.
1.2 Christ, the angels, and the church in the New Testament
With the arrival of the ‘one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus’ (1 Tim 2:5), angelic intermediaries lose the functional importance they had in late Judaism. They fade away before Jesus Christ, ‘for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father’ (Eph 2:18). In order to emphasize the superiority of Christ’s mediation over all the mediations provided in the past by the institutions of the old covenant, the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 1:4–2:18) insists on the difference in nature between the Son and the angels who had played a mediating role in communicating the Law to Moses (Heb 2:2). However, angels do not disappear as if they no longer had any reason to exist. They continue to perform their functions, but henceforth in the service of the one Mediator, Christ. They become his angels (Matt 13:41; 16:27; 24:31). In the Gospels, the mission of angels is entirely centred on the mystery of Christ. They are particularly active in the accounts of Jesus’ childhood: they announce his conception (Luke 1:26–38), as well as that of his precursor (Luke 1:11–20). Remaining true to their liturgical function, angels sing the glory of God at the birth of the Messiah in Bethlehem (Luke 2:9–14). Angels were more discreet during Jesus’ ministry, despite serving him after his victory over the Tempter in the desert (Matt 4:11). They only fully return to the scene at Passover, where one angels comforts Jesus during his agony in Gethsemane (Luke 22:43); another rolls away the stone from the tomb (Matt 28:2) and, in their white garments, radiant with the glory of God, the angels announce the resurrection (Luke 24:4) (Nicklas 2007). They are present at the ascension, explaining its meaning to the disciples (Acts 1:10).
Angels then naturally move on to serve the church, the community of Jesus’ disciples throughout history (Sullivan 2004). Indeed, ‘[a]re not all angels spirits in the divine service, sent to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation? (Heb 1:14). The Acts of the Apostles attests to their active participation in the church’s mission, accompanying it in multiple ways (Acts 5:19–20; 8:26; 10:3, etc.). Their service will find its fulfilment on the eschatological Day of the Lord, ‘when the Son of Man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory’ (Matt 25:31). The voice of the archangel will sound the signal along with the trumpet of God (1 Thess 4:16), and the angels will gather together the elect from the four winds (Matt 24:31). Then, in the eschatological kingdom, humans – sharing the immortal condition of the angels – will participate with them in the eternal heavenly liturgy, sumptuously described in the Book of Revelation by St John.
1.3 Angels in the life and thought of early Christians
Jesus Christ himself presents the angelic condition as the future of humanity: ‘But those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they are like the angels’ (Luke 20:35–36). Therefore, communion with the angels was for the early Christians, an important aspect of realized eschatology that they experienced at the time. This communion is especially evident in the liturgy, which is not just a symbolic anticipation of the eschatological worship yet to come, but also the participation in the heavenly worship that the holy angels presently celebrate before the throne of God and the Lamb.
The angel often appears as the model of the Christian life brought to fulfilment. This life is thus defined as bios angelikos, or angelic life (Frank 1964). For many Christians, imitating the various aspects of this angelic life (praise of God, purity, service to the mission, etc.) becomes a path to holiness. This angelic life is particularly suited to monastics, who embody the very mystery of the church as it is associated with the praise of the angelic orders.
However, following the New Testament (Col 2:18; Rev 19:10; 21:8–9; 22:9), the early Christians were wary of angel worship, which was suspected of latent polytheism and which flirted with Gnosticism. Nevertheless, as explained by several church fathers, including St Augustine, it was permissible to honour and pray to angels, provided that this veneration was clearly distinguished from the cult of latria, characterized by the offering of sacrifice, which is strictly reserved for God.
From a theological perspective, the church fathers’ attention on the angelic world occurs within the context of a critical dialogue with the surrounding religious and philosophical culture of late antiquity. The latter put significant emphasis on intermediary beings between humans and divinity. For Plato, demons (morally good beings endowed with keen intelligence) watch over mortals and play the role of mediators:
Everything demonic is an intermediary between what is mortal and what is immortal. – With what function? I asked. – That of making known and transmitting to the Gods what comes from men, and to men what comes from the Gods: the prayers and sacrifices of the former, the injunctions of the latter and their favours, in exchange for the sacrifices. (Plato, The Banquet; 202e–203a; Brisson, O’Neill and Timotin 2018)
While sharing the common belief in angelic mediation, the church fathers correct it on two points. Angelic mediation, on one hand, is entirely subject to and serves the mediation of Christ. On the other hand, contrasting with Gnostic thinking or emanationist philosophies that blur the boundary between the divine and the created, the church fathers clearly place angels on the side of creatures, incapable of creating:
All those who affirm that angels are the creators of any essence are the mouth of the devil their father. Being creatures, angels are not creators. The author of all things, who foresees and maintains everything, is God, the only uncreated one. (John of Damascus, The Orthodox Faith, 17; II, 3)
It was in critical dialogue with Neoplatonism, whether scholarly or popularized, that St Augustine in the West and Dionysius in the East were to decisively shape Christian angelology.
St Augustine significantly develops the theology of angels in two works from his later writings: De Genesi ad litteram (The Literal Meaning of Genesis, 404–414) and De civitate Dei (The City of God, 413–427; see Madec 1986; Klein 2018). Firstly, he asserts the primacy of the angel in God’s creative work. Indeed, he believes he can discern a reference to the creation of angels in the production of this mysterious light without material support which, according to Gen 1:3, springs forth first. The angel, a spiritual light, is an ‘intellectual life in itself’ (Literal Meaning of Genesis I, IX, 17). Inspired by Plotinus’ concept of the constitution of beings, St Augustine conceives the angel as the effect of the solidification of a free emanation from God, which crystallizes when it turns to its Origin. The angel knows itself in its own nature, then refers itself entirely to God and, in so doing, completes its ‘formation’. Thus, the angelic world occupies, in Augustine’s thought, a place similar to that of the Noûs or Intellect in Plotinus’ global vision of the universe. The angel is the first creature, an intellectual mirror for God’s creative plan.
The world of angels is perfectly integrated into the universe of creatures in which it plays a primordial role not only because the angel is the first and most elevated of creatures but also because he is the reflection of creative action and created works, as well as the first agent of the return to God through praise and love. The angelic nature thus becomes the archetype, the consciousness and the ideal of the creaturely condition. (Solignac 1972: 653)
The primacy of angels in creation is echoed by their primacy in the City of God. In Book 10 of the City of God, St Augustine explains the place of the holy angels in relation to the history of humankind: angels are not mediators in the strict sense, and they do not claim any worship for themselves, but they present themselves as auxiliaries of divine providence. He goes on to explain that the history of the two Cities begins in the angelic world with the separation of light (good angels) and darkness (evil angels), following the initial and definitive choice for or against God that the angels had to make. Humans then entered into this story, so that the Celestial City is composed of both angels and humans, forming a single celestial society in Christ:
Christ is the head of the whole city of Jerusalem, where the faithful are numbered from the beginning to the end of time, to which are added also the legions and armies of angels, so that it may become one city under one king [...] happy in eternal peace and salvation, praising God without end, blessed without end. (Augustine, Ennarationes in Ps. 36, section 3, 4; Corpus Christianorum Latinorum 38: 370).
In a similar Neoplatonic vein – but more influenced by the metaphysics of Proclus – Dionysius the Areopagite offers a grandiose vision (especially in the Celestial Hierarchy) of the work of divinization, in which the angels play a leading role. Like a cascade of light, divinization follows a hierarchical order: coming from the Thearchy, i.e. the Holy Trinity, it first reaches the angels (the heavenly hierarchies) and then is transmitted to the church (the ecclesiastical hierarchy). In this dynamic perspective, Dionysius proposes a theory of the internal organization of the angelic world in three hierarchies and nine orders. A ‘hierarchy’ refers to the organic whole formed by intermediaries, each subordinate to the others, through whose action divinization is realized. The first hierarchy –Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones – is in direct contact with God. The second is composed of the Dominions, Virtues, and Powers; and the third of the Principalities, Archangels, and Angels, which are in contact with the ecclesiastical hierarchy immediately below. Within the hierarchical triad, each order receives divinizing light from the higher order, which it, in turn, conveys to the next order. In so doing, each higher order illuminates, purifies, and perfects the lower order. The angels of the higher order impart knowledge coming from God (illumination), freeing the angels from the lower order from ignorance (purification)and leading them to a more perfect knowledge (perfection)Thus, the return of creatures to God is accomplished in a hierarchical order. Despite a certain rigidity that does not always account for the entire scriptural data, this extensive vision of the angelic world captivated medieval thinkers and constitutes the framework of classical angelology.