What Are Angels? The Biblical Doctrine of Angels in the Hebrew Bible, Second Temple Judaism, and the New Testament

Popular belief about angels owes more to Renaissance painting, greeting cards, and sentimental folklore than to the Bible. This paper asks what the biblical authors themselves meant by angels, and it proceeds in five steps. First, it examines the vocabulary of the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament and shows that "angel" names a job, a messenger's task, and not a species of being. Second, it establishes the creaturely status of angels and their place among the many kinds of heavenly beings in Scripture, including cherubim, seraphim, the living creatures, and the named archangels. Third, it traces the development of angelology in Second Temple Judaism, where the New Testament authors found a rich and ordered picture of the heavenly world. Fourth, it addresses the angel of Yahweh and the question of how the Old Testament can distinguish between God and his messenger and yet also identify them. Fifth, it surveys the New Testament's treatment of angels and corrects common misconceptions. The paper argues that angels are created members of the divine council who serve God's purposes, and that the Bible distinguishes loyal angels from the imprisoned fallen angels of Genesis 6 and from the roaming spirits called demons. This study belongs to the larger argument developed in my book, Three Rebellions: Understanding Genesis 1-11.