THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA
Anfrelologry
Anger speak of angels, calling
tlicni
ambassadors of
man
to
uikI i)f God to nmu; and I hey are holy because Others, on of this blameless and hononiblc olliee. the eoiitrary. arc profane and unworUij', as is seen in Ps. Ixxviii. 49" [iileiii. "On Giants." pp. 3^). But Philo also calls them Itigoi. "words," or "in-
God
(iili'iii. "On Confusion of Language," p. S; Dreams."!. 12.19; "Allegory." iii. (i2; compare Hag. ii. based on Ps. xx.xiii. (i). They are also called "God's own powers with whom 'the Father of the Universe consulted when saying: Let us make man.' To them He .gave the mortal part of our soul to form by imitating His art when He shaped the rational principle in us " (iclem, " On FugiAngels are the priests in the heavtives," p. 13). enly temple ((rf«m, " Monarchy," ii. 1). And in the same manner as the rabbis speak of Michael (.Metatron)as the captain of the heavenly Imst. as the high priest that offers sacrifice in the upper temple, and as the charioteer of God, Philo says:
tellects"
"On
'
"The
rather, the Crpntor of the unlverso. cave to the areh/*<!/. i.s ["word "J lla- |irivilt't:)'nf siaiidliiK scpanUiiiK I tie (-feature from Iliet reatnr, and uf liiterci'iihi^r l)eleen tile iiiiriiortul (iod and the mnrtal. a.s alnbju4.sador sent bv the ruler to the subjeet. lieji.ieirik' in this pl^sitlun. he says fpeut. v. .t] 'I st'md between tlie Lord and ynu.' Itelnjf neither uiu-reated imr erealed. tmt between the twu. pledj^e uud seeurity to the i'reator and to the erealui-e. a llope that the niert'iful God would nut de.spise His work" ("On Wlio is the lieir." p. -fci : ooiupaie "*)u Dreams. 1. :i'>; "On Fugitives," p. 1!», where he is called " the ehariolt'er of the powers " ; and"On Confusion of Languages," p. :JH, whei'e, like Metatron with liis seventy-two names, he is called " the great archangel of many nnpt'l anil inn^i anrifiit
on
tln' rttnlliu'.-i.
696
to elements, and to animals, as well as to ideals perceived by the Prophets. "Xaltiral forces and angels are identical. AVIien the rabbis (Midr. Ecd. x. 7) say: When man sleeps, his soul speaks to the angel, and the angel to the cherub,' man's imaginative faculty is called angel, and his intellectual faculty is called cherub. The form in which angels appear characterizes the mental vision of the .seer." He thus distinguishes between angels endowed with eternal life such as the Spheric Intelligences and the perishable phenomensi. But then these spheres and angels were not created for our sake, says Maimonides ("Moreli," iii. 13) in opposition to .Saadia, who says: "Man is superior to everything formed of earllily matter, but exceedingly inferior to the spheres anil intelligences." Of such spheres, Aris'
—
—
counted fifty, numbering as many ideals. Maimonides, with later philosophers, a.ssumcs these to l)e ten, the Tenth Intelligence being the Active Intellect. For this reason, JIaimonides follows the Cabala in counting ten classes of angels (" Yesode ha-Torah," ii. 7). In the Cabala two currents run in parallel lines. The luiietieal Ciibala. bent upon overruling, through totle
ineaiitiitioiis,
Ilie
destinies of earthly
names").
The medieval philosophers
treated the belief in ralionalislie spirit thttii did Philo. Saailia, tintling man to be Iheubjcet of Creation, and tliefeforc in the center of the world, claims
angels in a
ftir
iiinre
him a rank higher than that of the angels ("Emunot we-De'ol," iv. 1). They are to him cical tires of light, ethereal beings, created for special purposes visions of the prophet rather than realities. (ii. b), So is the tiery angel of death (iv. (i). Saadia, Satan to him is a human licing (see Ha-Levi, Ibn Ezra to Num. xxii. 'i'i), Judtdt
for
Ibn Daud, Maimonides.
ha-Levi also sees in the angels beings created of ethereal matter; some for a certain time, and those of the upper world for eternity ("Cuzaii," iv. 13; Concerning Gabirol's angels see Cassel's note). formed of fire, see Katifmaiiti. " Attributeiilchre," pp. 184, iiOo. To Ibn Diiud angels iire itilrlligenees, created, yet eternal and s])irilual the molors of the soul; the highest of these intelligences being the active intellect of the Tenth Sphere, identified by the Jlohammedan thinkers (according to"Cuzari," i. 87) with the angel Gabriel and the Holy Ghost, but mentioned already in Job. xxxii. 8 as "the spirit in man; and the breath [A.V. "inspiration"] of the Almighty that giveth them undeistanding." Maimonides, taking as his guide Aristotle, who places the "Intelligences" as intermediate beings between the Prime Cause and existing things— by the agency of which is produced the motion of the spheres on which all existence depends dechires the Biblical angels to be the beings with whom God consults before taking action (Gen. R. viii.). Differing, however, from Aristotle, whose "Intelligences" are coexistent with the First Cause, he a.sserts that the angels are created by God, and endowed with the power of governing the spheres; that they are conscious beingspossessedof a free will, but that, unlike human beings, they are in constant action and with;
—
out evil ("Morehi" ii. 6-7). Far from accepting Scripture in its literal meaning, when angels are introduced, he finds the term "angel" applied to men.
Cabalistic
yiew.
life
by the higher powers,
is
ever busy
finding new names of angels able to control the lower forces. Such at-
tempts are made
in "Sefer ha-Riiziiu." which is a of angels for the months of the vear, in the "Sefer Itizicl," and the like. On the "other hand, the Ni'Oi)latonic view of Emanation, and the idea of the macrocosm, or the world in its totality, being the evolution of the imtige of God, the type of which is man as microcosm, neci-ss;irily made man the object of Creation, .so that in this view he ranks above the angels (Zohar, iii. 08); while they (the angels) belong to the lower realm, to the world of formation (i/ezirn/i). and not to that of Creation (hcriii/i), to which the hitrher spirits belong. The angels are intellecttiiil, spiritual beings, yet invested to make them visible to man with a shining etirb (Frank and Jelliuek. "Cal)ala."p. 101: Joel. " Religions|)liilosophie d. Zohar," pp. 278-279). How far Jewish Angelology Wiis infiuenced by Babylonian and Persian mythology, and what its relations are to Manda-an lore and Relation to Egyptian-Hellenistic gnosticism, is still ii matter of dispute among stuto nonJewish Re- dents(see Kohut. " Jid. Aiigelologie"; Schorr, " He Haluz." viii. 1-121); Gunligions. kel. "Schi')pfung und Chaos"; Dielist
"Abraxas"; Kcssler. "Mamheans" in .Schaaf and Herzog's "Encyclopedia of Heligious Knowledge." The ^Manda'ans also speak of angels of light tcricli,
(not kings, Brandt. " Mandilische Sehrifteii," p. 14)
surrounding the king of
liglit (Brandt." Mandilische Religion," p. 42; " Mandiliselie Sehrifteii," p 14). ami of angels of wrath surrounding the evil s]iiril Ruah (Brandt, "Mandilische Religion," p. l'2;i); of tit lee angels, or guardian spirits, accompanying Adam (ibid. pp. 44. 122): of the angel Yofim (Yofafin) (ihid. pp. 26. 198) of Ptahil (Gabriel), the a,ssistant of the Lord of Life at the world'screatiou (ibid. pp. 34, 3'), 44, 50of the great sardonyx (p. 221 as well as of Azti.55) zel (p. 198); of the seven nether worlds with their archdcmons as rulers (" ilandilische Sehriflen." pp. 137-183). But Persian mythology is throughout interwoven with Angelology (see Brandt. " Mandilische Religion." pp. 194-198)." Coptic gnosticism, also, has Ariel as king of the nether world, coiTcsponding with Ur of the Mand.-eans (see Schmidt, "Gnostische Schriften in Koptischer Sprache," p. 413). That the archons. the seventv-two rulers of the
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