Angel

An angel is, in many religious traditions, a lesser spiritual being which assists and serves God or the gods. The word originally comes from the Latin angelus, itself derived from the Greek ángelos, meaning "messenger". The closest Hebrew word for angel is malach, meaning messenger.

Jewish views

Angels appear in several Old Testament stories, such as the warning to Lot? of the imminent destruction of Sodom?. Many Old Testament chapters mention an "angry God" who sends His angel to smite the enemies of the Israelites. Traditional Jewish biblical commentators have a variety of ways of explaining what an angel is. The earliest Biblical books present angels as heavenly beings created by God, some of whom apparently are endowed with free will. Later biblical books in the Tanach present a stunningly different view of angels, such as in the book of Ezekiel, and these angels bear no relation whatsoever to the popular understanding of what an angel is.

To be added soon: The rationalist view of angels, as held by Maimonides, Gersonides, Samuel Ibn Tibbon, etc.

Christian views

In the New Testament an angel appears to Mary in the traditional role of messenger to inform her that her child will be the Messiah, and other angels are present to herald his birth.

Angels are frequently depicted as human in appearance, though many theologians have argued that they have no physical existence. (Hence the frequently recounted tale of Scholastics arguing about how many angels could fit on a pinhead; if angels possess physical bodies, the answer is "a finite number", if they do not, the answer is "an infinite number".) Seraphim are often depicted as 6 wings radiating from a center either concealing a body or without a body.

Some Christian traditions hold that there are as many as ten classes of angels; this is particularly clear in the work of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, an unknown fifth century author whose work The Celestial Hierarchy gives the names that have become part of tradition: angels, archangels, principalities, powers, virtues, dominions, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim.

New Age

Angels are also a part of New Age beliefs, and are sometimes referred to as dakini.

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• Angels in art
• /far-fetched belief (need to find a place for this instead of just deleting link)

/Talk