The Bible Undressed

            Angels have become part of our culture. There are movies about angels, whether comedies like Angels In The Outfield (1951 and remade in 1994), or more serious, like Fallen in 1998 (Wikipedia has a long list of angel-related movies). There are TV shows like Touched By An Angel. St. Valentine’s Day is accompanied by little cherubic ‘angels.’

Go in any cemetery and you will likely find at least one statue featuring an angel.

            The curious thing is that none of these depictions, on film, TV, cards or statuary are Biblically correct.

            What is an angel? The Hebrew word malaḵ means ‘messenger.’ The Greek word used in the New Testament, angelos, has the same meaning. When you read of angels appearing to people throughout the Bible they are consistently portrayed simply as men. No women. No wings. No harps. No halos. Just men. A typical example is when the Lord and two angels visit Abraham to announce the birth of Isaac, and they are described as ‘men.’ The two ‘men’ then go to visit Lot in Sodom. Thus it is whenever angels appear to people. I guess that’s too bland for most people, so you get ones dressed in white robes with big wings and of course female angels, too. But that’s not how they are portrayed in the Bible. Come to think of it, why would angels even need wings?

            In the New Testament Gospels angels function primarily as messengers, and again appear as men. Recall that when the women go to Jesus’ tomb they meet angels but think they are men. You’d think if they wings and halos the women would have noticed it. Other passages seem to refer to angels as servants of God, carrying out His instructions. Jesus did make one enigmatic statement about angels, though: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven continually see the face of My Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 18:10) This spawned the idea that everybody has a guardian angel watching over them, but I think Jesus’ statement is rather obscure and I don’t read too much into it.

            Now, there are other celestial beings in the Bible. ‘Cherubim,’ the plural of cherub, are in the Bible, but they are not synonymous with ‘angels.’ Cherubim first appear early on, in the Garden of Eden: “So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Gen. 3:24)  These ‘cherubim’ serve as guardians. Ezekiel gives a description:

“Within it there were figures resembling four living beings. And this was their appearance: they had human form. Each of them had four faces and four wings. Their legs were straight and their feet were like a calf’s hoof, and they gleamed like burnished bronze. Under their wings on their four sides were human hands. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, their wings touched one another; their faces did not turn when they moved, each went straight forward.  As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle. (Ezekiel 1:5-10)

It seems strange to me that he says they had ‘human form.’ I’ve never seen a human with four faces, wings and animal parts! In chapter 10 Ezekiel again speaks of cherubim accompanied by turning wheels, fire, smoke and loud noise. These passages are favorites of those who see it as a description of UFOs and alien visitation. Anyway, this is how the artist Raphael interpreted Ezekiel’s cherub:

Ezekiel’s Vision, c. 1518

This may be a better representation of how the ancients thought of such creatures:

Certainly nothing like the little chubby sprite found on a Valentine’s Day card. They are fierce guardians of the gods (or the God) with various animal parts along with their wings.

            Another being described in the Bible is the seraph (pl: seraphim). The first time seraphim are mentioned in the Bible is missed by most people because of how it is translated: “The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people and they bit the people, so that many people of Israel died.” (Numbers 21:6)  Some interpret ‘fiery’ as meaning ‘venomous’ since people die from their bites, but it almost sounds like seraphim are fire-breathing dragons! In that passage it goes on to refer to these seraphim as serpents/snakes (see v. 9). Maybe not dragons, but certainly not humanoid. Later the prophet Isaiah describes seraphim in this way: “Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.” (Isaiah 6:2)  A seraph takes a burning coal and touches it to Isaiah’s lips, telling him that his sins have been forgiven. Isaiah’s description does not seem like a ‘fiery serpent’ but since a serpent was said to speak to Eve in the Garden I suppose Isaiah thought one could talk to him, too. So maybe it is in fact a winged serpent in this passage. Later in the book in two passages the word is specifically used of ‘flying serpents.’ Literally, flying seraphim. (Isaiah 14:29, 30:6)  So, the few references we have to seraphim sound nothing like humanoid creatures. Here is a winged serpent from the tomb of Pharaoh Amenhotep II (1427 to 1400 B.C.). It would not be surprising that such images from Egypt had an influence on the Hebrew culture.

            So, getting back to ‘angels,’ when they appear in the Biblical stories they are simply men serving as messengers. There are other creatures in Heaven, but they do not function in the same way. They appear to be guardians and servants of God (or the gods). Of course, theologians can’t leave well enough alone and so a whole hierarchy of ‘angels’ was developed to fill in the gaps of our knowledge (or flesh out the mythology, you might say). Heaven gets pretty crowded in the end. Which brings me to this thought.

            The Judeo-Christian religion is supposed to be a ‘monotheistic’ one, meaning only one God. But here we have these other heavenly beings like cherubim and seraphim. Then there is Satan (see previous post), who is an immortal being who can take supernatural action on Earth. And he has his demons to help him. So add them to the supernatural landscape. In the previous post I mentioned that the ‘sons of God’ appeared before God in his throne room (Job 1). Does this mean ‘angels’ or are they yet another type of being? And in some versions of Christianity Mary, the mother of Jesus, is even called “the Mother of God.’ And there are many saints, who are said to be able to intervene for and protect people, even performing miracles on Earth. All these various beings sound like gods, or at least demigods. And of course in most branches of Christianity Jesus is also God, and so is the Holy Spirit. The bottom line is that there are a lot of beings in Heaven. Is that really monotheism? It might be more accurate to call the religion ‘henotheistic,’ which means there are many gods, but only one is to be worshipped. After all, that is what the first of the Ten Commandments says: “You shall have no other gods before Me.” (Exodus 20:3)   Not that Yahweh is the only god, but He is the only one that is to be worshipped, recognized as #1 among the various gods.

            There are many beliefs about angels in today’s world, but few of those traditions are rooted in the Bible. Strictly speaking ‘angels’ are just messengers from God who appear in human male form. Sorry, women! There are other heavenly beings that seem to serve God in various (vague) ways. I’m still not sure why a Supreme Being needs any other being to work for Him.  But, half the fun of religion is being able to make up stuff to suit your fancy. So go for it! Make a Star-Wars-galaxy full of strange heavenly beings! The sky is (literally) the limit!

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Thinking exercises:

1. Do you think you have a Guardian Angel watching over you? Has he ever let you down?

2. Why do you think it is that when angels visit people they always appear as men? Why not as women?

3. Is a Supreme Being who needs angels and other beings to carry out His work truly ‘supreme?’ Are such beings inherently inferior to God and therefore liable to make mistakes at times?