Teratology, Hierarchy and the Tyranny of Heaven

Jewish Bible Quarterly. 22(1): 51-56., 1994

In loving memory of grandmother Hind4 Raizel Breitman Angels: What, who are these beings? Artists such as Leonardo or Raphael depicted them as ethereal, winged beings. But was this correct? Scripture abounds with divine creatures which differ in form and function. Naively massing them as one genre is misleading, a conception that should be revised. Every biblical account must be set within the context in which it appears. This approach will help both the advanced scholar and student. We begin with the word malakha general Hebrew term, literally "messenger." Not every malakh is divine; some are human emissaries. The prophets are sometimes called malakhim,l humans assigned by God to admonish the people. Similarly, Jacob sends malakhim to his brother Esau (Gen. 32:4), who are clearly mortals. Conversely, a heavenly malakh may manifest through inanimate matter, as when Israel flees the Egyptians. Here, God dispatches the "cloud" to protect them (Ex. 14:19).. The following is II classification of angels found in the Bible: seraphim. erelim, ophanim, hayoth, keruvim, malakhim and Bnei HaElohim. Seraphim, composed of fire, proclaim God's holiness. The seraph of Isaiah's vision performs the ritual of placing hot coals on the prophet's mouth as purification (Is. 6:2-7).2

2023

Angels are supernatural beings that are often depicted as messengers of God. They are said to be incredibly powerful and intelligent, and they are often involved in helping humans. This paper will explore the different populations of angels, and it will discuss their role in the universe.

Old Testament essays, 2016

Most studies of angelic beings in the Bible do not attempt to interrogate their gender presumably because of Jesus' statement in Matt 22:30 that angels do not marry neither are they given in marriage. Therefore, this article offers a textual review of biblical women's encounter with angelic beings and of instances in Scriptures in which angelic beings appear in what appear to be gendered forms which call into question the assumption that angels are sexless or genderless. It is argued that some form of degenderization is discernible in the depiction of these celestial beings in the Bible which could have significant implications for feminist biblical discourse of the ancient texts.

Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament) Die Deutsche Nationalibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.

In this paper the angelic hierarchy is described and discussed. The nature of the snake in the garden of Eden is also discussed.

Reviews in Religion & Theology, 2020

The angels though unseen must be seen to be believed. For as invisible spirits, the angels cannot be seen, read, or written with the aid of any visible media. And yet as heavenly messengers, the angels may also be believed to communicate messages in many different media. Stephen Miller's The Book of the Angels: Seen and Unseen is a multimedia study of the literary sources of the angels in dialogue with the visual arts. It can be read as a triptych, which, in a dialogic opening from the textual to the visual, unfolds into three spheres for the study of the nature, orders, and place of the angels as unseen in spirit yet seen in the arts. In ostensible imitation of the angelic hierarchy, it is divided into nine parts, consisting in an introduction, eight numbered chapters: (1) On the Nature of the Angels; (2) On the Hierarchies and Orders of Angels; (3) Seven Heavens; (4) The Archangels; (5) Other Angels; (6) Fallen Angels; (7) Contemporary References to Angels in Popular Literature, Film, and Television; and (8) More Things in Heaven and Earth. The first three chapters on the (1) nature, (2) orders, and (3) place of the angels form the three panels on which he presents the middle chapters on the (4) archangels, (5) angels, and (6) demons that index divisions within the second sphere of the (2) orders of the angels, and the introductory and (8) concluding chapters as successive elaborations upon the third sphere of the place of the angels in dialogue with the visual arts. The text is framed by this dialogue with the visual arts. It is neither naïvely empirical nor sufficiently critical for a philosophic demonstration. Miller writes, instead, with an open invitation to a gallery of curiosities for those who, with Rowan Williams, may be curious to learn of that for which 'we have no real idea' (p. 109). He disavows any pretense of a scientific angelology as he acknowledges that 'little is categorically known' of the angels, except as it can be 'pieced together from tradition, lore, and legend, scattered documentation, witness, testimony and theological, philosophical and artistic meditation insight and imagination' (p. 1). He acknowledges, with St Paul, that there are angels not yet known to us, the inadequacy of past reflections on the angels (p. 6), and the insufficiency of angelology as a 'simplistic reflection of the manifold reality' of the angels (p. 112). And he definitively renounces any attempt to 'rationalize' the mystery of the angels (p. 115). Yet he nevertheless insists that this study of the angels need not be an entirely 'fruitless' task (p. 112). For he also curates from among the visual arts a collection with which to 'map out traditions and associated lore and legends surrounding angels' in an illustrative cartography of the angelic orders and manifestations (p. 116). Miller draws from the 'tradition, lore, and legend' (p. 1) of Zoroastrianism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity (pp. 80, 91, 97, 111), a 'general

Oriens christianus Volume: 98, Pages: 64-75, 2015

The story of the Fallen Angels in 1 Enoch has been interpreted in various ways since antiquity. The history of interpretation of this story is still fascinating modern scholars, involved in the study of 1 Enoch and Second Temple Judaism. How is the story of the Fallen Angels understood in Ethiopia? According to the literal reading, the fallen beings are real angels who lusted after women. According to the symbolic reading, the fallen angels, both in Gen 6 and 1 Enoch 6-8, are children of Seth, human beings of righteous descent, who transgressed by breeding with women of unrighteous descent. This paper shows the co-existence of the literal and the symbolic interpretations in Ethiopic literature.