What is an Angel?

(Angel)

So, what are Angles really like according to the Bible? What does only the bible have to say about Angles, who they are? What are they? Let’s find out what the Bible has to say about what exactly angles are:

Let’s start off with what the word “angel” itself means:

The English word "angel" comes from the Greek word “ἄγγελος” Meaning 'messenger' and in the original languages of the Bible (also Greek but Hebrew as well) Angel was the Hebrew “מַלְאַך” (mal-awk') in the Old Testament and then translated into the Greek “ἄγγελος”(ang'-el-os) in the New Testament: both meaning the same thing “a messenger” [1].

So, we see the word angel does not necessarily provoke dead human being in heaven now with wings and a halo nor babies with wings either: with one word the bible describes angels simply as “messengers”.

Angles=Messengers

But why are angels described as “Messengers”? If we look at Angels being describe in the Bible, we can clearly see why they are given this name:

In Genesis 19:1-22 we read of 2 Angels that are sent to rescue Lot and his family because of Abraham’s concerns for his nephew Lot. (This event is covered in more detail in 'The one man that changed it all')

Genesis 19:13

“..The Lord…has sent us…”

In Genesis 24:7 Abraham says to his servant that God will send his angel to make his journey a success:

Genesis 24:7

“…he will send his angel before you,..”

God himself says to Moses that he will send and Angel before Israel to scare away the native Canaanites:

Exodus 33:2

“I will send an angel before you and drive out the Canaanites.”

Daniel said God had sent an angel to keep lions from killing him:

Daniel 6:22

“My God sent his angel, and he shut the mouths of the lions. They have not hurt me,…”

Luke 1:27

“God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to…Mary.”

Peter realized God had sent an angel to free him from jail:

Acts 12:11

“...the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me…”

And John said God sent an angel to give him a prophetic vision of Jesus:

Revelation 1:1

“The revelation from Jesus Christ…He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,…”

All throughout the bible Angels are described this way from genesis to revelation: they are described as being sent from God to humans to help, guard, save, or even punish them. Doesn’t this sound like a mailman or some other delivery man ordered to go deliver something to a specific person? Because that is exactly what these verses seem to describe angels as doing.

They even sometimes come to give a direct message from God in a vision to a particular human:

An Angel says he has been sent to Daniel in order to give a message order by God:

Daniel 10:11

“Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you.”

Zechariah was given a vision by an Angel that had a direct message from God:

Zechariah 1:14

“Then the angel who was speaking to me said, ‘Proclaim this word: This is what the Lord Almighty says:…’”

Even Jesus’s dad (Joseph) got a message from an Angel (that was most likely sent by God with a message):

Matthew 2:13

“…,an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph... ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’”

So, we can conclude that Angels really do act as messengers sent by God himself with either a specific message or/and a specific mission to carry out. So, it’s obvious Angels are considered messengers: because, to a human perspective, this is mainly what they are seen doing. Why this title describes what they do (at least to a human point of view) it doesn’t really describe what exactly they are. Much like a professional title (like doctor, mailman, chef etc.) does not really describe what the person doing them really is. So, does the Bible actually say what an angel really is?

Angels are also known by other names as well it seems:

Daniel calls the angles he sees speaking “holy ones”

Daniel 8:13-14

“Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to him, ‘How long will it take for the vision to be fulfilled…’”

Jude 1:8 when he calls false pastors slandering Angles, he refers to the angles as celestial beings

Jude 1:8

“…heap abuse on celestial beings.”

This is clarified as angles in the next verse because he talks about Michael and Satan (which are considered two angles!) as an example.

The original word was the Greek “δόξας” (dox'-ah) which means “Good, glorious, or glory”. In this case it means “Glorious ones” (referring to angles) [2].

This describes the value of Angels as being holy and glorious: so, whatever they are, they are described as being very amazing and wonderful beings.

But this still doesn’t really describe what exactly angels are: so, does the Bible actually say what exactly angels are?

Why it's not exactly clear in the Bible what exactly angels are: because while the Bible clearly mentions their role as messengers, it’s less clear in describing what exactly they are, but with some study of what the entire Bible has to say about angels the Bible strongly begins to hint what exactly an angel is:

Speaking of Angels, King David in a song seems to tell what exactly angels are made of:

Psalm 104:4

“He makes winds [of] his messengers (that seems to be Angels),

flames of fire his servants (also Angels).”

So, King David seems to be describing what angels are (or what they are made of) and from this description, they seem to be made of air (wind) and fire (flames). So, does this mean that angels are just made from earthly elements (air and fire) does this even mean they are alive at all or just really magical air/fire of some kind?

Why this description of what angels are seems confusing there are some things to consider:

The word for “wind” has a double meaning:

This word is the Hebrew “רוּח” (roo'-akh) and it can not only mean “wind” but also “spirit” [3].

So, David can either be saying Angels are made of wind or spirit, so the real question is which is it?

While it's not necessarily clear which meaning David was trying to say here, the meaning of the word seems to be leaning towards “spirit” instead of just “air” here. It seems this way because Angels are described as being so much more than just a gust of air (like the other titles of them mentioned above: “holy ones” and “glorious ones”) and how amazing their appearances can be to humans (that is going to be talked about later).

This is finally confirmed what the meaning of this particular verse is in the New Testament: when Paul is specifically speaking about angels and brings up this verse as mentioning angles being made of spirit:

Hebrews 1:7

“...In speaking of the angels he (David) says,

(Psalm 104:4)

‘He makes his angels spirits,

and his servants flames of fire.’ ”

So, Paul confirms that this word is rightfully referring to Spirit instead of wind: so, the Bible reveals here that Angels are made of spirit: but Paul takes that a step further in this book of Hebrews saying not only are they made of spirit, but they are spirits:

Hebrews 1:14

“Are not all angels…spirits…?”

Paul asks a rhetorical question here; really to remind these particular Christians of what angels are: he clearly says angels are spirits!

But what about the other part of Psalms saying angles are also flames of fire?

Psalm 104:4

“...flames of fire his servants (also Angels).”

This verse is still describing angels but then says they are made of fire instead of spirit; does this mean that all spirits are really just made of fire? Or is this referring to something else?

At first, like the first part of this verse, it seems angels are made of literal fire but considering other verse describing how angels are, it seems David is only describing how they look sometimes and not what their made of exactly:

Angels, as it will be covered later, often appear to humans as bright shining beings that could be described as being on fire; this might have been the case to why the prophet Isaiah seems to have called, what seems to be Angels, a very interesting name:

Isaiah 6:1-2

“…I saw the Lord, high and exalted…Above him were seraphim,...”[4]

In fact, an angel onetime even appear as literal fire to a human (Moses):

Acts 7:30

“…an angel appeared to Moses…[as]…flames (fire)…”

So, considering all the verses that seem to describe what some angels look like, it seems when David says God made angels flames of fire, he was probably referring to how they look sometimes, not necessarily what exactly they are.

So, with all this in mind, the Bible ultimately reveals that angels are spirits just like God is. So, even though their ‘job’ is being messengers this is not what they are. Like a mailman or doctor are really humans these ‘messengers/angels’ are really spirits.

So, what exactly are angles according to all these verses? Angles are spirit beings who often either save, protect, curse, or just give a message to humans.

(Back to Angles)

Sources:

[1]

[A] Online Etymology dictionary “Angel”

Website:

https://www.etymonline.com/word/angel

[B] Strong’s Hebrew Concordance --4397.מֲלְאָךְ (mal-awk')--a messenger; from Biblehub

Website:

https://biblehub.com/hebrew/4397.htm

[C] Strong’s Greek Concordance --4397.”ἄγγελος”(ang'-el-os)--a messenger, angel; from Biblehub

Website:

https://biblehub.com/str/greek/32.htm