Loading...I received an inordinate number of responses to my post discussing Christ as an angel in Paul, many of them suggesting to me that I had not provided enough background to make sense of this identification (Christ as angel), in light of ancient Jewish beliefs. So here a discussion from early in the book about that, taken from my chapter 2. There is more to be said about angels as both divine and in human form, and I’ll say more later in other posts. But this at least gives some background – that to some may be a bit surprising. If the followers came to think of Jesus as an angel, they may have had passages and views like the following in mind.
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Angels in ancient Judaism were widely understood to be superhuman messengers of God who mediated his will on earth. It is striking that various angels sometimes appeared on earth in human guise. More than that, in some ancient Jewish texts there is a figure known as “the angel of the Lord,” who is regarded as the “chief” angel. How exalted is this figure? In some passages he is identified as God himself. And yet sometimes he appears as a human. This is the Jewish counterpart to the pagan view that the gods could assume human guise to visit the earth.
The Angel of the Lord as God and Human
An example early in Scripture can be found in Genesis 16. The situation is this. Abraham had been promised by God that he would have many descendants: he would be the father of the nation of Israel. But he was childless. His wife Sarah handed her servant Hagar over to him so that he could conceive a child with her. Abraham willingly complied, but then Sarah became jealous of Hagar and mistreated her. Hagar ran away.
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Could the Book of Enoch also have been an influence on Paul’s view of angels?
It’s theoretically possible. I don’t know what the evidence would be one way or the other off hand.
Just for clarification…..When you use the term “the LORD” you are referring to Yahweh as opposed to the use of the term Lord…thus meaning God Almighty Himself?
Are there other uses of the term angel…both in the Hebrew texts and the Christian Canon and later in Church tradition and now days? It seem in popular thinking that angels are quaint creatures bringing messages to the faithful, or protecting humans as in “guardian angels” or beings who guide us in the right direction such as Clarence in “It’s a Wonderful Life” who receives his wings at the end of the movie when the Christmas bell rings.
Any thoughts on this?
Yup, LORD is the typical translation for YHWH. And yup, more on angels is coming….
Bart, thanks for the explanation. It clears up what you have been saying. I need to read the Nicene Creed again…and I am looking forward to buying and reading the book.
How do Jewish exegetes through the centuries interpret these passages about Angel of the Lord, that seem to dilute the uniqueness and oneness of God, a theme in Jewish theology that has been prominent in Judaism since the Rabbinic period?
I’m not completely sure. I *think* they see the Angel as a manifestation of God in some sense rather than as a separate being. Maybe someone else knows off hand?
Have Christian exegetes in the pre-modern period typically understood the Angel of the Lord to be the pre-incarnate Son? What then persuaded the exegetes this is anachronistic?
Yup, many apparently did. I think the view got surplanted as Christians began to think even more exalted things about Jesus. They continued to think that Jesus was the incarnation of God at these points of the text, but he was also much more than that.
HWL, one study that looks at the interpretations of “the angel of the Lord” in the history of Jewish thought is “The Messenger of the Lord in Early Jewish Interpretations of Genesis” by Camilla Hélena von Heijne
She says that “the aim of the present study is to explore the ambiguous relationship between God and His angel in early Jewish biblical intepretation and theology, focusing on sources from roughly 200 B.C.E. to 650 C.E. How did the early Jewish interpreters treat this perplexing phenomeon? Who is ‘the angel of the Lord’? how is he related to God and to other heavenly emissaries? How is the angel of the Lord depicted in the various sources? Was the angel understood as a manifestation/revelation of God Himself, or as an independent angelic being, a messenger distinct from God? A third alternative between these two extremes may be that ‘the angel of the Lord’ was regarded as a hypostasis of God, a personification/anextension of the divine will, possessing a certain degree of independent personhood but not completely separate from God.” (pp. 1-2).
This comment goes back to a previous post. I did a N.T. search using the BibleWorks program. I believe it’s safe to say that NO instances of the Greek phrase “aggelos(oi) of God” in the N.T. could be taken as “non-heavenly beings.” I looked at each instance with the NSRV as the parallel text, and I don’t think any examples would/could be considered ambiguous. Since BibleWorks allowed the search to include all case/number endings of aggelos and likewise with the word theos, I pretty sure my search was complete.
Looking forward to seeing you Wednesday night at Centre College!
I didn’t think I was going to like the recent Bible miniseries on the History channel, but I actually ended liking the OT part, especially because of the cool Ninja angels. They were actually exciting characters. So often we tend to theologize or speak of the mythological character of these stories in the abstract and forget that they are some pretty good stories. Jesus’ contemporaries would be quick to imagine the the exciting or mysterious angelic messengers when trying to understand who Jesus really was once they believed that he had been raised from the dead.
sounds like “how Jesus became god” will be grt read. may i suggest you seriously consider writing a book specifically looking at the resurrection from a sceptics point of view. there has been so much said from the apologists and so little credible responses. almost all of the responses are from non new testament specialist (carrier, barker, hitchens ect) who dont really know what they are talking about and dont specifically deal with the points raised by the likes of licoa, craig and co (the empty tomb, women as witnesses, visions, pauls conversion, the rapid growth of Christianity ect). most NT scholars dont seem to want to get to involved with the resurrection even if they seem sceptical prob cos they would sympathise with Christianity (Dale Martin) but i would think there is a big market for a quality text.
I’ll have two chapters on the resurrection in How Jesus Became God. I think it’s enough for now!
gavm, may wanna check out gerd ludemann’s The Resurrection Of Christ: A Historical Inquiry …
Here’s an interesting text to discuss from the gospel of Thomas:
(13) Jesus said to his disciples, “Compare me to someone and tell me whom I am like.”
Simon Peter said to him, “You are like a righteous angel.”
So Lambdin, but other translations are also possible, eg, Patterson’s ‘a just messenger. (If it’s not already in your book, footnote me!)
“Sheeply” is my new favorite word.
No mention of ‘the Angel of Death’ aka ‘The Destroyer’ actually being God himself (Exodus 11)?
Interesting…
Interesting in what sense … ? And you surely must have been aware of this before?
Actually, never thought of it!
Oh, ok. Well, glad I could offer an additional example of God acting as an angel, especially as an Angel of Death … Additionally, doesn’t this mean that if the Trinitarians got it right then Jesus/The Son was that Destroyer as well? 😉
I still can’t help thinking that in *some* of these situations, the intent may have been that God was speaking *through* the “angel.”
Seriously off topic…the idea of “end times” or “end of the world” seems to be on the minds of the religious and non-religious…seen with the rise of sensational best-selling books and movies. Have you ever considered writing a trade book on the the Bible’s diverse views on the subject? There seems to be alot out there from a dogmatic or sensationalist point of view, but I think a trade book that discusses views of scholars on end time views in the Bible has the potential to lead to a best seller!
http://www.christianpost.com/news/left-behind-movie-poster-revealed-tim-lahaye-weighs-in-on-script-90347/
Great idea!
The new left behind movie coming out in 2014 has some well-known actors in it…great!! more people who don’t know much about the Bible are going to think the Bible (and “the original” christians) teaches the left behind version/interpretation of the future, esp if it makes itself in the theatre! The 65 million people who bought the left behind novels need to buy a book written by you on the subject!
My previous comment about angels with halos and feathery wings was a (too) cute way of asking whether Paul would have considered all angels to be equal in nature or that there were degrees of power or exultation or whatever. It appears from your reference in another post (can’t put my hand on it?) there was a concept of a chief angel.
Yes indeed!