ARCHANGELS

ARCHANGEL. — The specification of this title is no where to be found in the Old Testament, and only mentioned twice in the New, being applied only to one personage, under the name of Michael. In St. Jude, where it is mentioned, Michael is represented as contending with the arch-fiend respecting the discovery of the body of Moses. The other instance in which it occurs is recorded in 1st Thessalonians iv. 16, where the term archangel is used in reference to the second advent of our Saviour at the last day, coming in his glory, and attended by the resplendent retinue of heaven ; respecting which Theoderet has this striking and solemn apothegm. " That if the sound of the trumpet, when the law was given from Mount Sinai, was so dreadful to the Jews, that they said unto Moses, Let not the Lord speak unto US) lest we die j how terrible must be the sound of this trumpet (the archangel's) which will call all men to the final judgment." Whether in both these instances Jesus Christ may not be intended, is deserving of the consideration, and has attracted the notice of the biblical student. Bishop Horsley, besides other critics, confidently asserts, with much ability and ingenuity, that the reference in the passage in Jude is alone applicable to the Redeemer of mankind ; for the word archangel simply indicates a superiority of command over the hierarchy of heaven. Some of the ancient writers, holding the singular conceit, that the rank over which Michael presides, is the eighth of the celestial orders,* affirming that Paul mentioned only a part of the heavenly choir, there being more of which he has not spoken. Others have imagined that the distinction of the title bears some allusion to the customs of oriental order observed in the courts of the Assyrian, Chaldean and Persian kings. Michael, the archangel, tells Daniel that he is one of the chief princes in the court of the Almighty.

From the passages in the Bible which contain the name of Michael, he there appears, and is pointed out to our view as an angel of peculiar dignity and transcendent glory in the court of the Most High. Gabriel and Michael are the only proper names of angels recorded in the Holy Scriptures ; and it has been argued from this circumstance, that all the multitudes of the angelic hosts have their appropriate distinctive appellations ; and though to our finite comprehension such a conjecture presents an extreme difficulty, yet, the God " who telleth the stars and calleth them all by their names, and whose understanding is infinite, may have the name of each particular angel registered in the apocalyptic book of immortality.

Some commentators suppose that those princes or angels, (Dani. x. 13,) who opposed Michael and Gabriel, were evil spirits, such as are described by St. Paul under the names of the rulers of the darkness of this world, having their residence in the lower regions of the air. — Ephes. ii. 2 ; vi. 12. These evil spirits are sometimes represented as a part of the heavenly host, both in respect to their original station, and because they are the instruments of Providence, and have a command over the inferior world, as far as God thinks fit to permit it. — (1 Kings xxii. 19 ; Job i. 6. They are likewise represented as accusers of good men before God, and as aggravating their faults, in order to have them delivered over to them, as the executioners of God's judgments, (Job i. 11 ; ii. 5 ; Rev. x. 12). It was * the opinion of the Jews, that there are noxious and accusing spirits who fly about the air, and that there is no space between the earth and the firmament that is free from them, but the air is full of demons.

Various opinions have been given as to the dispute respecting the body of Moses in the martial contest between Michael and Satan. Some consider it has been taken from an apocryphal book, or a Jewish legend, and only mentioned as an illustration ; but such a quotation hardly would have been made by an inspired penman. Others think that the body of Moses is a figurative expression for the Jewish people or polity, as Christians are called the body of Christ, and has reference to Zech. iii. 2. But it seems most reasonable to conclude that Moses was buried by the ministration of angels, Deut. xxxiv. 6, and the spot concealed, lest his remains should be made the object of idolatrous worship. Lightfoot) however, considers it a mere Jewish tradition, quoted by the apostle to meet the Jews on their own ground.

That the body of the Jews and their service, should be called the body of Moses, and that these words are to be referred to Zech. iii. 1, 2, seems not very probable, seeing in that prophet there is no mention of Michael or of the body, or the death of Moses, nor doth Onias speak of the body of Moses, (2 Macc. xv. 12), but of the whole Jewish nation.

Moreover, that Moses was not buried by the Jews, we learn from Scripture, which saith, No man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day and therefore Philo saith, he was buried not by men, but angels ; that there was an altercation betwixt Michael the archangel, and Sammael the prince of Devils, about the body of Moses, we learn from the tradition of the Jews ; and it is most probable it was not only that his sepulchre might be unknown, lest the Jews, who were prone to idolatry, should worship him ; but about the ascent of it into heaven, he being taken away as Enoch and Elias were, and not dying the common death of men, (which Satan contended he ought to do, for killing the Egyptian), but disappearing only.

Hence the Jews say, " ascendit ad ministrandum Excelso," that he ascended to minister to the Lord. And Philo saith, God brought him near to himself, saying to him, stand with me, and that by the word of God he was translated, whence he was present with Elias at the transfiguration of our Lord.

" Lawrence has translated from the Ethiopic, the book of Enoch (Jude 14), which was brought from Abyssinia by Bruce, and considers it to have been written by some Jew, a short time before the Christian era. It does not appear to have ever been received into the sacred canon ; and the quotation of a single passage from it by St. Jude, as Lawrence observes, will not prove his approbation of the whole book, more than the quotations from uninspired writers by other apostles ; but the book itself is interesting, as showing what were the Jewish opinions upon various points, before the birth of Christ. The passage quoted by St. Jude, forms what is called chap. 2 of the Book of Enoch, and is translated by Lawrence as follows : " Behold he comes with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon them, to destroy the wicked, and to reprove all the carnal for everything which the sinful and ungodly have done and committed against him."

In the testament of the fwelve patriarchs, a similar fictitious or apocryphal work, about the beginning of the second century, the belief or practice seems to have existed, of the invocation of intercessory angels, who made supplication on behalf of the righteous, and obtained the remission of their sins ; and which fictions were deposited, as testimony before the angels of the presence of the Most High. In this spurious production Gabriel is represented as praying for those who dwell on earth, and supplicating the Lord of spirits.

Author: George Clayton Jr. 1854