The information about angels provided by the writings in the Old and New Testaments is very scanty. We know much more about specific acts that they have performed throughout history (e.g., rescuing Lot from Sodom, announcing the birth and resurrection of Jesus) than we know about exactly what they look like, how they function, and what they do with their time when they are not rescuing people and giving announcements.

 

It would appear that God did not find it important to fill us in on these details, perhaps for very good reasons of His own—which we may not be able to understand with our human minds. But that has not prevented mankind from being extremely curious about such details. And from the history of religious speculation, it would appear that it has not prevented many writers from rushing in to fill the gap in our knowledge. Since long before the time when Jesus lived on the Earth, religious authors have collected, and written about … and sometimes perhaps invented out of their own fertile imaginations … stories, legends, myths, and speculations about the goings-on in the supernatural realm. The separate article Biblical Angelology provides an overview of what we can clearly know about angels with the Bible as our sole source of information.

 

The collection of short articles below gives a brief overview of the nature of some of the sources of extra-biblical angelology.

 

 

The Canon of the Bible

 

The Biblical canon is an exclusive list of books written during the formative period of the Jewish or Christian faiths; the leaders of these communities believed these books to be inspired by God or to express the authoritative history of the relationship between God and his people (although there may have been secondary considerations as well).

There are differences between Christians and Jews, as well as between different Christian traditions, over which books meet the standards for canonization. The different criteria for, and the process of, canonization for each community dictates what members of that community consider to be their Bible.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biblical_canon

 

The word canon itself is derived from a Greek word that implies a “measuring rod.” The underlying idea of the term is that the validity and value of any information, any other writings, any interpretation of religious ideas must be “measured” against a fixed standard. A simple analogy would be the measuring sticks at the entrance to certain rides at many amusement parks. A child who wants to go on the ride must stand next to the stick and see if he “measures up” to being tall enough for the ride.

 

In the religious sense, the measuring standard is the truth revealed in the collection of books that have been historically accepted as having been inspired by God. Any new idea or new writing is measured against that unchanging standard to see if it has merit. Even if it does “measure up,” that does not mean that it becomes a part of that canon. Both Jewish and Christian Biblical canons are considered “closed canons” … it is believed that God guided the collection and establishment of the canon, with the intent that it provide a permanent, unchanging standard for all time.

 

Since at least 100 AD or so, the Jews have accepted the 39 documents that make up the collection of writings labeled the Old Testament in Christian Bibles as being their canon of scripture. The Jewish term for the collection is the Tanakh. Tanakh is an acronym (TNK) for the first letters of the three sections into which they divide the collection:  T for Torah, the first five books, containing “the Law”; N for Neviim, the Hebrew word for the books of the Prophets; and K for Ketuvim, the Hebrew word for the other “Writings.” Although they may find other documents of historical interest or as having useful speculation on religious topics, only those 39 documents are accepted as having unquestioned divine approval.

 

Most Protestant churches accept as their scriptural canon both the documents of the Tanakh, and the 27 documents that make up the New Testament in the King James Version of the Bible and in most modern translations.

 

In addition to the 66 documents mentioned, there is a set of 16 documents (usually labeled The Apocrypha) that were written between the time of the prophet Malachi (author of the final book of the Old Testament) and the time of Jesus. Even though these documents were evidently written by devout Jews, and are not in any sense Christian documents, the Jews rejected their inclusion in the canon of the Tanakh. The Roman Catholic Church has accepted 10 of these as part of their own canon of scripture. They refer to this collection of ten as the deuterocanonical books—meaning the “second” canon. This indicates their admission that these books were not part of the original Jewish canon, and derive their credibility as inspired from the decision of the Roman Catholic Church to declare them as inspired. The Greek Orthodox Church accepts 14 of the documents of The Aprocrypha into their own canon, and the Russian Orthodox Church accepts a slightly different 14.

 

 

Extra-Canonical Jewish and Christian Writings

 

The term extra-canonical (“outside the canon”) is an adjective describing ancient religious writings that cover some of the same topics and history covered by the books of the Jewish or Christian Bible, but which are not part of the collection of documents making up the scriptural canon of Judaism or Christianity.

 

The “closed canon” of the Jewish and Christian Bibles means that the amount of information considered authoritative that is available on topics of religious interest is very limited. And yet almost every bit of the information we do have in the canonical writings leads to curiosity and questions … for which there are no clear answers provided within those writings. Examples:
 

 

Curiosity and questions like these have been rampant since long before the time of Christ. And wherever there has been curiosity, there have usually been enthusiastic authors ready to respond to that curiosity with written answers. Those answers may have been developed from oral legends and myths. They may have been presented as being the result of visions from God. And in far too many cases, they may have been fanciful speculations from the fertile imagination of the author, presented as solid facts.

 

A large selection of manuscripts of this sort were circulating in the centuries just before and after the time of Christ. And to this day, many bookstores have translations of the most enduringly appealing of them. Sometimes collections of some of them are labeled “Lost Books of the Bible,” although this is a misleading designation. The implication is that they were, once upon a time, considered part of the “canon of scripture” of either or both the Jews and Christians, and that somehow they were then strangely lost—or perhaps deliberately suppressed by religious leaders. Both of these implications are erroneous. It is known what documents were part of the Jewish canon at the time of Christ, and they are the same ones that are in the Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, now. There was considerable interest at the time, within Jewish scholarly circles, in some of the extra-canonical books that were written after the last of the books of the Tanakh. But there is no record that there was ever any serious consideration that they should have somehow been included in the official canon.

 

There are many records from the earliest years of Christianity showing which documents were commonly considered inspired by Christian believers of the first two centuries, and with a very few exceptions that remained under dispute in some areas of the world, they are the same ones as those currently in the New Testaments of today. The canon was completely settled in most places by at least the fourth century AD. The few debatable documents that finally were rejected as part of that canon are well-known and were never lost—or suppressed, although perhaps most people without an interest in ancient literature may have been unaware of them.

 

It is not necessarily that any or all of these documents are without value to the serious student of both history and the Bible. In a few cases they may provide valuable and fairly reliable historical information about the time in which they were written. (The primary example of this is the First Book of Maccabees from The Apocrypha.) In other cases, they give a fascinating view of the legends and myths that were accepted by some as being plausible. And in still other cases, they provide an overview of what some minority sects of the Jewish or Christian religions held as doctrine, and insight into the course of the development of certain theological ideas. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of Christians in recent decades have become fascinated, and at times even obsessed, with the highly fanciful and speculative content of many of these writings, and failed to ground their enthusiasm solidly in the canonical scriptures so that they can “separate the wheat from the chaff.” The result at times has been the acceptance and promotion of some very aberrant doctrinal positions that are incompatible with the Bible, and only supported by this extra-biblical material.

 

One of the major areas of doctrine that is addressed very little in the Bible, but elaborated to a great extent in many of the extra-biblical writings, is that of angelology. Many of the theories and speculation and elaboration of both Jewish and Christian theologians over the centuries about what the angelic world is like have been based not on the Bible, which provides so little information on the topic, but on material gleaned from the extra-canonical writings.  

There are four main categories of extra-canonical writings which are typically of interest to Bible students: Apocalypses, The Apocrypha and apocryphal writings, the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, and the New Testament Pseudepigrapha.

 

 

Apocalypse

 

Apocalypse: One of the Jewish and Christian writings of 200 B.C. to A.D. 150 marked by pseudonymity, symbolic imagery, and the expectation of an imminent cosmic cataclysm in which God destroys the ruling powers of evil and raises the righteous to life in a messianic kingdom. (Etymology: … from Greek apokalypsis, from apokalyptein to uncover)

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/apocalypse

 

An apocalypse is a document that purports to “reveal” a detailed look at the future when God will once again openly intervene in the affairs of mankind on Earth as He did in ancient times. The official term “The Apocalypse” is reserved in Christian circles as a designation of the last book of the Christian Bible, what is usually called the Book of Revelation. That book begins with the sentence, “The revelation [apokalypsis] of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place.”

 

The word has even made its way into secular writing as a synonym for “the end of the world as we know it,” in circumstances that have nothing to do with religious belief. Any scenario which seems similar to the massive destruction described in the Book of Revelation, which might be caused by totally non-supernatural circumstances such as nuclear war, or a collision of Earth with a huge asteroid, may be referred to as “apocalyptic.” Science fiction writers have often used such a scenario for either apocalyptic (during the disaster) or “post-apocalyptic” (in the aftermath, short or long, of the disaster) stories and films. An example of the former would include War of the Worlds, and the latter the Planet of the Apes movies.

 

For a detailed overview and summary of many of the documents of the centuries just before and after the time of Christ which are designated as apocalyptic writings, see:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalyptic_literature

 

When the Jewish people came back from exile in Babylon in the 5th Century BC, and rebuilt Jerusalem and the Temple, there were high expectations that the earthly kingdom of the Messiah would be inaugurated soon. When their hopes failed to materialized, and the ancient prophecies of the prophetic writings of the Tanakh, such as the Book of Daniel, did not come to pass on the expected time table, speculation arose that some series of cataclysmic events would eventually usher in the era of fulfillment. And a whole genre of writing arose in which authors purported to provide the details of such a scenario. None of these were ever accepted by the Jewish religious leaders as being authoritative and inspired by God, and thus none ever made it into the “Old Testament canon.”

 

Likewise, after the death and resurrection of Jesus, many of his followers expected that He would return in a short time to set up an earthly kingdom, or perhaps whisk them off to heaven and destroy the Earth. As the decades passed and it became obvious that this was not going to happen immediately, another genre of apocalyptic writings arose, purporting to give the details of what must come to pass before the Christian Millennial hopes could be realized. They had much in common with the Jewish apocalyptic writings, and often used some of the same symbolism and stylistic elements. Although many of these writings may have excited some readers at the time, only the Book of Revelation, thought to have been written by the Apostle John, was eventually accepted by the religious leaders of the time as being an inspired, authentic revelation from God Himself.

 

 

Apocrypha

 

The English word apocrypha is derived from the Greek word apokryphos, meaning obscure or hidden. In general use, apocryphal is an adjective indicating that a document or a statement is of doubtful authenticity. However, when the word is capitalized, as The Apocrypha, it is a technical reference to a specific collection of religious documents that were written before the time of Christ, and relate to the history of the Jews, but are not accepted by the Jewish authorities as being part of the canon of the Tanakh. They are also not accepted by most Protestant groups as part of the Bible. But the Roman Catholic and various Orthodox Churches each accept most of them as being part of inspired scripture. In Bibles used by these religious groups, they may be inserted between the Old Testament and the New Testament, in an appendix at the end of the Bible, or in some cases, interspersed throughout parts of the Old Testament. They are sometimes referred to as “intertestamental books” as they primarily cover events believed to have happened after the last events recorded in the Old Testament and before the events of the New Testament.

 

The following chart of the books of The Apocrypha included in some Bibles is from

 

http://gbgm-umc.org/UMW/Bible/apocot.stm

 

1. Books & Additions to Esther in the Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Slavonic Bibles

·         Tobit

·         Judith

·         Additions to the Book of Esther

·         Wisdom of Solomon

·         Ecclesiasticus (or the Wisdom of Jesus, Son or Sirach)

·         Baruch

·         The Letter of Jeremiah (Baruch ch. 6)

·         The Additions to the Greek Book of Daniel:
The Prayer of Azariah and Song of the Three Jews
Susanna
Bel and the Dragon

·         1 Maccabees

·         2 Maccabees

 

2. Books & Additions to Esther in the Greek Orthodox, & Slavonic Bibles, not Roman Catholic

·         1 Esdras (called 2 Esdras in Slavonic, 3 Esdras in Appendix to Vulgate)

·         Prayer of Manasseh (in Appendix to Vulgate)

·         Psalm 151, following Psalm 150 in the Greek Orthodox Bible

·         3 Maccabees

 

3. Books in the Slavonic Bible & Appendix to Vulgate

·         2 Esdras (called 3 Esdras in Slavonic and 4 Esdras in the Appendix to Vulgate)

Note: In the Latin Vulgate, Ezra-Nehemiah are called 1 and 2 Esdras

 

4. Books in Appendix to Greek Orthodox Bible

·         4 Maccabees

   List is based on that of The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha, New Revised Version, (1994)

 

A number of details about angels beyond what is in the Old and New Testaments appear in The Apocrypha, including the names of two specific angels, Raphael and Uriel. If the documents of The Apocrypha are credible, inspired works, then this may be useful information. If, on the other hand, they are only fictional accounts invented by their authors or derived from legends and myths, then this information can be misleading.

 

 

Pseudepigrapha

 

The word pseudepigrapha is derived from the Greek words pseudos (false) and epigrapha (inscriptions).

In Biblical studies, pseudepigrapha refers particularly to works which purport to be [but actually were not] written by noted authorities in either the Old and New Testaments or by persons involved in Jewish or Christian religious study or history. These works can also be written about Biblical matters, often in such a way that they appear to be as authoritative as works which have been included in the many versions of the Judeo-Christian scriptures.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudepigrapha

 

In many if not most cases, there is very little disagreement among scholars of ancient literature about the fact that such works were not written by those people whose names are attached to them. Internal evidence in most of them makes it clear that it would have been impossible for the person named to have been the actual author. And, in fact, it appears clear in most cases that the name of the famous person was attached to the document for the specific purpose of giving its content more credibility among readers.

 

 

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha

 

Most pseudepigraphal documents that purport to have been written by famous Old Testament personages, or to cover events prior to the time of Jesus, are typically labeled Old Testament Pseudepigrapha. Although it is impossible to accurately date the various documents, most scholars are convinced that the vast majority were written by Jewish writers in the period between the return from the Babylonian exile up through the first century AD. There is no way to estimate accurately how many such writings were extant in ancient times. But typical online collections of such works list thirty or more well-known examples of pseudepigraphal documents which are available as translations in English today. Those which seem to have the most popularity among Bible students include the Ethiopian Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the Book of Jasher, the Apocalypse of Baruch, and the Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs.

 

The Book of Enoch in particular is often cited as a source of information about angelology. It includes the alleged names of over 100 angels, goes into great detail about the organization of the angelic hierarchy, and recounts many tales of exploits of both “good angels” and “fallen angels.” And it is perhaps the primary source for documentation purporting to establish that the vague account in Genesis about “sons of God” marrying “daughters of men” prior to the flood is actually speaking about illicit sexual relationships between supernatural angels and human women. The Book of Enoch insists that this resulted in the birth of gigantic human-angel hybrid creatures called the Nephilim. When these creatures died, their “disembodied spirits” became what were later termed “demons.”

 

Since this information is not in the Bible, and it purports to give details of events in both ancient history and in the supernatural realm, either the author of the Book of Enoch was truly inspired by God to know all of these things, they sprang from his own imagination, or he compiled them from myths and legends of his time. Evaluating some of the content of the Book of Enoch in the light of the canon of scripture should allow the reader to come to a conclusion on which of these alternatives is correct. See “Sample Content from Some of the Most Popular Extra-Canonical Books” for some excerpts from this book. 

 

The other main document which has a wide audience in some Christian circles is the Book of Jasher. A document by this name is mentioned twice in the Bible, in Joshua 10 and 2 Samuel 1. But no such book was ever part of the Hebrew Old Testament. Over the centuries a number of documents have been brought to the attention of the public, with claims that each was the “original” Book of Jasher spoken of in the Bible. Most have eventually been dismissed as spurious by both Christian and Jewish scholars.

 

The Hebrew title of the document does not indicate it was material written by a prophet named Jasher. The Hebrew word jasher is taken to mean upright or righteous. And thus the title indicates that it is a Book of the Upright or Book of the Righteous, an account of some of the upright or righteous patriarchs. The book which currently has the interest of some Bible students as being the original Book of Jasher was reportedly first printed and circulated in Hebrew in Europe in the 1500s. The introduction to a Hebrew edition published in Spain in 1625 claimed that the original from which it had been copied had been spirited away from Jerusalem to Spain not long after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD—but there is no historical evidence to validate this claim. The credibility of the book as an ancient writing from Biblical times has been disputed for centuries by both Jewish and Christian scholars, with the Encyclopedia Judaica noting that it was likely a rabbinical writing of the 1200s.

 

The book surfaced in the US in the early 1800s, when a Jew named Moses Samuel of Liverpool, England, translated the Hebrew version into English and sold the translation to New York publisher Mordecai Manuel Noah. Noah published an American edition in 1840. Latter Day Saints founder Joseph Smith, just beginning development of his Mormon movement, cited the book as early as 1842. The copyright was obtained by Salt Lake City publisher J.H. Parry, which published an edition in 1887, giving it credibility in Mormon circles, where many consider it as being an inspired writing clear up to today. Given the fact that Mormons were used to the idea of viewing “extra-biblical” writings, such as Smith’s Book of Mormon and his other writings, as inspired, it is understandable why they might give approval to such a book. But it’s not quite clear why it has developed such a following in more traditional evangelical circles, given the content, which in many cases just cannot be harmonized with the Bible. For an overview and excerpts of some of the content, see Sample Content from Some of the Most Popular Extra-Canonical Books.

 

 

New Testament Pseudepigrapha   

 

Just as there were a large number of writers who appended the name of famous Old Testament personages on to their own writings to give them credibility, a number of authors in the centuries after the death and resurrection of Jesus composed documents purporting to have been written by well-known New Testament characters or their associates. These included apocalypses, Gospels (narratives of the life of Jesus similar to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in the Bible), epistles (letters) similar to those of Paul in the New Testament, alleged collections of sayings of Jesus, and narratives claiming to tell of the activities of the twelve Apostles or other disciples of Jesus after the accounts in the book of Acts. There are close to a hundred of these available in English translation today, and there is evidence that there were at least 150 or more others circulating in the early centuries after the time of Jesus. Some commentators refer to all of these as “New Testament Apocryphal works.” Others use Pseudepigrapha as a designation for all. And still others recognize a subset of the Pseudepigrapha—those documents which had a wider acceptance in the early Church even though they didn’t make it into the Canonical New Testament—and reserve the term “New Testament Apocrypha” for that collection.

 

An extensive collection of “Early Christian Writings,” along with background and commentary on each, can be found at:

http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/

 

This collection includes all the books of the canonical New Testament as well as many of the Apocryphal and Pseudepigraphal works.

 

 

Rabbinical writings

 

In addition to the apocryphal and pseudepigraphal documents that may seem to be in imitation of the books of canonical scripture, many Jewish scholars of the centuries just before and after the time of Christ wrote theological material which has had an extremely strong influence on religious thought among both Jews and Christians to this day. They didn’t present their material as on a par with scripture, but as commentary on scripture—and interpretation of scripture. The following definitions will be helpful in understanding the descriptions of some of this material below.  

 

Rabbi:

1 : MASTER, TEACHER -- used by Jews as a term of address
2 : a Jew qualified to expound and apply the halakah and other Jewish law

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/rabbi

Halakah:

… the body of Jewish law supplementing the scriptural law and forming especially the legal part of the Talmud

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/halakah

Haggadah, Aggadah

… ancient Jewish lore forming especially the nonlegal part of the Talmud

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/haggadah

Rabbinic, rabbinical:

... of or relating to rabbis or their writings

http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/rabbinic

 

The Talmud

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talmud

 

The Talmud (תלמוד) is a record of rabbinic discussions of Jewish law, ethics, customs, and stories, which are authoritative in Jewish tradition. It is the fundamental source for rabbinic legislation and case law. The Talmud has two components: the Mishnah, which is the first written compendium of Judaism's Oral Law; and the Gemara, a discussion of the Mishnah (though the terms Talmud and Gemara are often used interchangeably). While arranged as comments on the Mishnah and related Tannaitic writings, the Gemara often ventures onto other subjects and expounds broadly on the Tanakh. The Gemara is the basis for all codes of rabbinic law and is much quoted in other rabbinic literature.

 

…Mishna and Gemara

The Jewish Oral law was recorded by Rabbi Judah haNasi and redacted [redact: to edit and prepare for publication] as the Mishnah (משנה) in 200 CE. The oral traditions were committed to writing to preserve them, as it became apparent that the Palestine Jewish community, and its learning, was threatened. The rabbis of the Mishnah are known as Tannaim (sing. Tanna תנא); many teachings in the Mishnah are reported in the name of a specific Tanna.

Over the next three centuries the Mishna underwent analysis and debate in Palestine and Babylonia (the world's major Jewish communities). This analysis is known as Gemara (גמרא). The rabbis of the Gemara are referred to as Amoraim (sing. Amora אמורא). The analysis of the Amoraim is generally focused on clarifying the positions, words and views of the Tannaim.

 

Many Christians who have heard of the Talmud assume that it is made up primarily of legalistic discussions of just how to apply Old Testament laws, such as how to keep the Sabbath. This is not so. The content ranges widely on almost every aspect of human life, philosophy, ethics, government, personal relationships, and much more. And it is full of discussions of all sorts of parables and stories, including speculation on the nature of the supernatural world. It is in this context that there were many Talmudic stories and speculations that made their way into both some of the pseudepigraphal Jewish and Christian writings, and the speculative theology of some of the early Christian “church Fathers.”  

 

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1521&letter=A&search=angelology

 

Upon the foundations of Scripture a gigantic structure was reared at the time of the completion of the Talmud. Post-Talmudic mysticism extravagantly enlarged this structure, until it reached from earth to heaven; and the fanciful ideas of the Apocrypha and pseudepigrapha, of the Talmudic and Midrashic works, and of the mystic and cabalistic literature rush along like a wild stream that overflows its banks. From this wealth of material the assumption may be drawn that the Angelology was not systematically organized. The Judaic intellect is little inclined to systematization; and a systematic Angelology was a matter of impossibility with the vast number of haggadists [rabbis who specialized in commentary on the non-legal aspects of the Talmud], who lived and taught at different times and places, and under a manifold variety of circumstances. In this regard it is difficult to distinguish between Palestinians and Babylonians, between the Tannaim and the Amoraim; for descriptions of heaven varied according to the exegetic needs of the homily and the social condition of the audience.

 

For more details on the topic of Talmudic angelology, see the Jewish Encyclopedia link above.

 

Early Christian Writers

 

Many aspects of angelology in “popular” Christian thinking throughout the past 1,500 years have been derived primarily from a very few influential authors whose works became “classics.” The names of three in particular are regularly introduced into discussions of angelology. The first was primarily a speculative theologian. The other two were authors of fictional works … works which were so persuasive in their portrayals of heaven and hell—and angels and demons—that over time they became accepted as “the way things really are.”  And thus later writers incorporated into their own works many of the basic elements of the stories of these three that were based not on the Bible at all, but on a conglomeration of the sources listed above—and the very active imaginations of the authors themselves.

 

Pseudo-Dionysius

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-Dionysius_the_Areopagite

 

Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, also known as pseudo-Denys, is the name scholars have given to an anonymous theologian and philosopher of the 5th century, who wrote a collection of books, the Corpus Areopagiticum, falsely ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, mentioned in Acts 17:34

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_of_angels

 

According to medieval Christian theologians, the Angels are organized into several orders, or Angelic Choirs. The most influential of these classifications was that put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the Fourth or Fifth century, in his book The Celestial Hierarchy.

In this work, the author drew on passages from the New Testament, specifically Ephesians 6:12 and Colossians 1:16 (considered by modern scholars to be very tentative and ambiguous sources in relation to the construction of such a schema), to construct a schema of three Hierarchies, Spheres or Triads of angels, with each Hierarchy containing three Orders or Choirs. In descending order of power, these were:

 

· First Hierarchy:

o Seraphim

o Cherubim

o Thrones or Ophanim

· Second Hierarchy:

o Principalities

o Virtues

o Powers

· Third Hierarchy:

o Dominions

o Archangels

o Angels

 

 For more details on the speculations about the angelic choirs, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelic_choirs

 

 

Dante

 

 


Botticelli Inferno illustration, 1400s

 

 

Durante degli Alighieri, commonly known as Dante, was a 14th Century Italian poet. His most famous work, titled in English The Divine Comedy, is a collection of three separate poems which describe fictional trips by Dante to Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.  

 

The most influential of these, usually dubbed Dante’s Inferno, has been published separately in numerous editions through the subsequent centuries, right up to today. It covers in excruciating detail Dante’s trip to what he describes as varying levels and compartments of Hell, being given a tour by the first century pagan poet Virgil.

 

In spite of the fact that The Inferno was clearly identifiable as a work of fiction, many religious writers and artists for the next 500 years used its imagery as if it was an actual geography of the Underworld, and the descriptions of the torments of Hell in it as if they were elements of a documentary.

 

A detailed overview of Dante’s poem, including commentary on its influence throughout history, can be seen at:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Divine_Comedy

 

 

Milton

 

English poet John Milton wrote his most famous epic poem, Paradise Lost, in 1667. It describes in elaborate detail the pre-history of the angelic realm, the “rebellion of Lucifer,” the creation of Adam and Eve, and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Although Milton was not a theologian, and claimed no divine inspiration for the details he included in the poem, its scenarios worked their way into the popular conception of Heaven and Hell for the next three centuries and are still influential today.

 

 

Many artists, authors, and religious teachers from a wide variety of backgrounds have blended his concepts into their own art works and writings. The result is that many Bible students seem not to realize that many of their own perspectives on these topics are not grounded in the few scriptures from the Bible which elaborate on these topics, but on fanciful embellishments by such artists, authors, and teachers—that have been, in part, derived from the fertile imagination of Milton.

 

Samples of illustrations by famous artists for editions of Paradise Lost can be seen at:  

http://www.paradiselost.org/4-stories-pictures.html

 

An exploration of the poem and its influence, including summaries and commentary, can be seen at:

http://www.paradiselost.org/

 

 

In Summary

 

The Bible has very little to say regarding the “pre-history” of angels, and about their activities when they aren’t making announcements to humans or doing God’s bidding in ministering to humans. It does not describe their appearance in detail, nor does it clarify anything about some sort of heavenly “governmental hierarchy” within which they might function. It only names two of them, Michael and Gabriel.

 

Therefore, any authors purporting to give additional information of this sort beyond what is in the pages of the Bible—including detailed descriptions of angels, names of other angels, scenarios in heaven or in pre-human history, and details of a hierarchy of angelic beings—must either be divinely-inspired on the level of the authors of the canonical books of the Bible, or are spinning tales which are the invention of their own human speculation and imagination. The reality is that Jewish authors from as far back as 200 BC and earlier, and Christian authors for the past almost 2000 years, have indulged in such speculation and imaginative flights of fancy. This has included both Catholic and Protestant writers, and teachers from many “non-mainstream” religious groups such as the Mormons, Seventh Day Adventists, and many more.  

 

A person who accepts the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible as being the only sure foundation of information for Faith would do well to take any such information not just with a grain of salt, but perhaps a whole salt-shaker. If the Bible is a sufficient foundation for Faith and salvation, and God did not see fit to include more information about these topics within its collection of documents, then embellishing its content with legends and myths about angels doesn’t serve to enhance faith. It has seemed primarily designed at best to tickle ears that want to know “some new thing.” And at worst, it has ended up twisting some of the simple truths of the Bible, and taking people down paths that have led to confusion and darkness.

 

 

 

 

Where Angels Fear to Tread:

Sources of extra-biblical stories,
legends, myths, and speculation about angels