Okay, so I'm not Christian and I know about 0% about what angels are like in the bible. I DO have one, but it's a REALLY LONG book and I don't know were to begin to look for references to angels and what they look like. I know they are VERY different than what is in pop-culture. Can someone point out the books where I might find information on this subject? Thank you!
You don't need books -- all the information you need can be easily found on the Internet. Angels are not limited to the Christian tradition. Angels also exist in Judaism and in Islam. In fact, when you get to the archangels, for the most part the archangels all have the same names in all three traditions. You can get a good start from here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_angels_in_theology , but please recognize that Wikipedia is not infallible. There is a list of external references at the end of the article. I encourage you to check out those references.
Why don't you start with the bible itself? Many Christians don't really know much about angels either (in my experience) so I think you have a lot of flexibility as long as you base it on actual passages in the old or new testament. The Old testament will probably have more information to work with. Do you want to go into deep research and actually read various translations of the Hebrew/Greek/Aramaic? Also, there are other accounts of angels in the Book of Mormon, and the Quran too.
Do you know where the passages about angels are? Because it's a HUGE book and I don't know where to start. I also don't have time to read the WHOLE thing. And I am looking specifically for Christian angels for story lore.
In terms of appearance, you have three types explicitly described in the Bible: cherubim, seraphim, and ophanim. Isaiah and Ezekiel describe them in detail. Cherubim (Ezekiel 1:4-14) 4 I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north—an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal,5 and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, 6 but each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. 8 Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four of them had faces and wings, 9 and the wings of one touched the wings of another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved. 10 Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. 11 Such were their faces. They each had two wings spreading out upward, each wing touching that of the creature on either side; and each had two other wings covering its body. 12 Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went. 13 The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightningflashed out of it. 14 The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning. Ophanim (Ezekiel 1:15-18) 15 As I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces. 16 This was the appearance and structure of the wheels: They sparkled like topaz, and all four looked alike. Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel.17 As they moved, they would go in any one of the four directions the creatures faced; the wheels did not change direction as the creatures went. 18 Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around. Seraphim (Isaiah 6:1-4) In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. Then you also have angels like Gabriel and Michael, who aren’t really given a description in the Bible. They seem to be much more human in appearance than the others, though. Depending on the denomination, both of them may be considered archangels. Protestants usually consider Michael to be the only archangel, though. The other biblical sources most useful to you will probably be: The Book of Genesis, especially parts surrounding the Garden of Eden and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It also briefly alludes to the Nephilim, hybrid offspring of humans and what seem to be fallen angels. The Book of Daniel, especially Chapters 8 and 9 where Gabriel interprets Daniel’s visions. 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18 include another appearance of a cherub The Book of Tobit. You’ll need a Catholic Bible for this one. It includes the archangel Raphael. Luke 1, where Gabriel foretells the births of John the Baptist and Jesus. Luke 24 offers a very brief description of two angels at the empty tomb of Jesus. The Book of Revelation has a ton of angel content, owing to its subject matter. The Book of Enoch, which is only canon to a handful of denominations. It probably has the most angel lore of any scriptural source.
Of course there are many different ways to interpret ancient books, especially religious or mystical ones. I subscribe to the belief that the bible was written very symbolically. I think when they describe metal skin and heads of animals etc it's to try to get across a sense of how fierce and powerful they are. And I think faces looking out toward the sides implies they can see all around and can't be snuck up on or attacked. I would try to use a more modern description but try to incorporate some of what they might have been trying to describe. By some accounts angels were supposedly not material, but beings of light, and at first Adam and Eve were the same, until after the fall, when they were given garments of skin (not meaning clothing made of animal skin, but bodies of flesh with skin on the outside). This is one way I've heard it interpreted anyway. When the Bible mentions someone having a Glory or the Glory of God, it means they actually glow brightly. And angels definitely did that.
There are also guardian angels. In the Old Testament they would be the ones who intervened to save Lot and his family before the destruction of Sodom or closed the mouths of the lions to save Daniel. In the New Testament they would be the ones who saved St Peter from prison. They seem to take completely human appearance, intervene in moments of need and disappear once their work is done. Not the most exciting sounding but they could definitely be a cool plot element, maybe an angels among us kind of a theme. (delete if not allowed I experienced this IRL) I was driving home in a blizzard and a car behind me was tailgating me hard. We got to a straight un-populated section of the road and he flew around me, lost control, spun around and ended up cross-wise in the road. It was either the ditch or a T-bone collision, so I took the ditch. Guy in the car that had caused it didn't even bother to see if I was ok, straightened out and sped off. Like I said before, this was an unpopulated section of the road, maybe 5 miles or more from any kind of house in the middle of a white-out blizzard in northern lower peninsula Michigan. The ditch was filled with snow so damage to my car was minimal but I was stuck like hell. This was before cellphones so my only real option was to button up my coat and start walking and hope I either flag down a car or not get frostbitten before I can reach a house with a land line. I was about to start out when a big man appeared out of the blizzard. He was wearing carhartt overalls, a flannel shirt and a big straight-blade buck knife on his belt. He told me to get in and put the car in reverse while he pushed. A few minutes later my car was back on the road. I got out to at least thank him and offer a ride since he shouldn't be out in that kind of weather either. He was gone. Like gone gone. The only thing I could see was where his boots had been in the ditch when he pushed me out, but nothing showing he had walked out of the ditch. I am not superstitious but that shook me almost as much as hitting the ditch in the first place. I joke about it now, about having a redneck guardian angel, but when I think about it I can remember exactly what he looked like like it was yesterday...but this was like 25 years ago.
Generally, as X Equestris' post shows, angels are pretty weird. Sometimes they appear in human forms but otherwise there's a reason that when they appear to people they often say, "Be not afraid!" It's because they're terrifying. Apart from the Bible, in Christian mythology, the most important books about angels are the Book of Enoch (which is included in the Bible by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church but not others as far as I'm aware) and On the Celestial Hierarchy by Pseudo-Dionysius. There are also a few places where Paul talks about thrones, principalities, powers, etc.- this is generally held to be in reference to angels. Pseudo-Dionysius later developed these into distinct ranks- 9 total- which became more or less the orthodox Christian viewpoint.
There are 3 volumes in the Book of Enoch. You can download them from this page @ Internet Archive. In some cases you'll find all 3 books in one volume, in some maybe individually. I don't know which ones are more readable or well translated, so I just linked to the whole page.
If we're going with Biblical interpretation they are not what we traditionally think of, in terms of what they look like. They are not like the Humanoid with wings that we tend to think they are. Also they are castes of them, that vary by where they rank in the order of things in Heaven.
Now that's fascinating stuff!! A few thoughts. As you go back through human history, the gods become increasingly animalistic. In fact in Paleolithic times it's believed they simply worshiped animals, like cave bears and sabertooth tigers etc. Probably for their various attributes like great strength, speed, cunning, prowess in combat and hunting etc. All qualities it's good to have, and if you worship the right animals your tribe might be blessed with some of those traits. Moving forward you start to see animal/human hybrids, like in ancient Egypt. It's as if people were beginning to separate themselves from the unimaginable power and chaos of the purely natural world, to see themselves as having some divine attributes. It's as if the gods were slowly becoming humanized, even as the peoples themselves were beginning to break free little by little of absolute dependence on nature and its cycles and terror/awe of the natural world. I think at first they saw themselves mostly as the weakest creatures, with no claws or tusks or antlers or fangs, not nearly as strong or fast as the predatory animals, huddling in the night by the fires and praying not to be attacked by monsters out of the dark. Each new religion incorporated the gods of older religions as lesser godlike beings, such as angels and demons. This was largely in order to absorb the older civilizations into the new religion. They had to give them something familiar to latch onto. But now the animalistic gods become subservient to the fully humanized ones. And gradually the massive pantheons developed each their own leader, an Allfather, the wisest and most powerful, who kept the rest in order. Organization and hierarchy. And eventually the entire multitude of gods merged into one supreme being in the monotheisms. Rather than other gods he's surrounded by a plethora of lesser divinities like angels etc. Symbolically animal attributes were used to impart a sense of strangeness and certain qualities to the beings. Just as today we build sci-fi alien creatures mostly from parts of animals. It's hard to conceive of living creatures that are completely unfamiliar, so you assemble them like the mythological creatures. A circle (a wheel) is a symbol of eternity, endlessness, completeness. Perfection. A circle, or a circular mandala, tends to appear many times in the dreams of people who are developing toward psychological health. Gold is another symbol of perfection and eternity, since it's the only metal that doesn't corrode or rust in any way. You can bury it and dig it up in a thousand years and with just a little polishing it gleams like brand new. Circles and gold are also symbols of the sun, source of all life on earth and of warmth and light, all symbolic of the good things. Darkness and cold etc are associated with sickness, danger and death. Eyes are signs of consciousness and awareness. Watchfulness. A god covered with eyes can see everything, including the hidden (occult) and a person's inner thoughts feelings and intentions. He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been bad or good so be good for goodness' sake. Besides hallucinogenic plants and mushrooms, a lot of religious visions also came in the form of dreams. Waking visions are basically dreams so powerful that they take over while you're awake and force you to dream. I think this explains a lot of the strangeness. Also important to keep in mind—in Old Testament times the Hebrews were a warrior people, so theirs was a warrior god. He promised them dominion over their enemies and was fierce and destructive. By the time of the New Testament they had become an agricultural people, and the dying and resurrecting gods are based on the symbolic death and resurrection of the crops each year. Agricultural tribes are much more peaceful than warrior tribes, and their gods tend to be kind and benevolent.
Why thank you sir! I've dabbled in comparative religion and mythology, connected with my studies on Jungian psychology. Jung was a big fan of Mircea Eliade, who wrote some of the best books on comparative religion and shamanism/sorcery.
I'm not sure I can get behind the claim that agricultural people are less warlike. While pastoralists have done their share of violence from time to time (especially those nice folks of the central Asian steppes) it's pretty rare for their armies to get that big or for the casualties to get too high. I would say agricultural societies can overall match anyone for bloodthirst and usually with bigger armies. It was thanks to all those wheat fields that Roman armies were big enough to stomp through Europe, North Africa, and the Levant till it was all under their dominion. When Christianity became the Roman state religion it was a martial religion- Christian pacifism was very rarely heard of in those times. Also, the Old Testament covers a lot of history, and for much of that history, the Hebrews are largely agricultural. That was in fact when most of the material was edited into more or less its current form. Also a lot of the warlike material in the Old Testament has very similar analogues in Egyptian texts, Egypt being a very agrarian, and very warlike, society. Even the Ark of the covenant, the mobile seat of God which was carried into battle, can probably be traced to the influence of the Egyptian barks. Attempting to give a clear explanation for why certain religions or deities become popular is very tricky business. I'll just say that Christianity, like the Judaism it emerged from, had a lot of Hellenistic influence. The stamp of Greek philosophy/ religion (they are never neatly separable) is all over the New Testament. At that time Neoplatonism had been interacting with Judaism and other near east currents for a while and they were mutually influencing each other. This is where hermeticism and Gnosticism come from too. Intellectual paganism looks increasingly monotheistic, while the monotheists are readily borrowing Platonic and Stoic concepts to develop their theology and explain their rituals. As Christian theology develops the language used to debate the nature of Christ leans heavily on ideas and categories borrowed from Plato, Aristotle, etc. The eucharistic rite is described as a mystery in language very close to that of the pagan theurgic rites. In fact it is held to do exactly what the pagan mysteries purport to do- effect union with God. The nine ranks of angels fits in with a general Aristotelian and Neoplatonist worldview, broadly agreed upon in Hellenistic thinking, that sees the world as a series of concentric spheres. Each sphere is presided over by angels or gods; to communicate with God one had to pass through these spheres consecutively, through the mediation of these angels. Paul uses the term "archon" (usually translated "ruler") to describe these mediating beings, though nowadays the term is popularly associated with Gnosticism. Anyway what Paul maintained was that Christ had altered this situation by breaking through all these spheres between us and the divine, replacing all these mediators with one mediator- himself- and so freeing us from the rule of the archons. With the passing of the centuries the context of these remarks has been obscured so that most people reading them today don't realize the worldview from which Paul is operating and how radical Paul's teaching was in that context.
It's endlessly fascinating to trace the influences back. Lately I've been digging into the pre-socratic philosophers, which served as a major basis for Jung's studies. Turns out religions and mythology (same thing really, myths are the religious stories) are projections of the unconscious into the mysteries of nature and the uncanny. This is why there are so many similarities between religions all across the world that had no contact with each other. It's never simple. In fact no matter how much complexity you try to include, more can always be added. And when I said agricultural tribes are more peaceful than warrior tribes I was mainly still talking about their religions. But as I understand it the warrior tribes of early times were nomadic, following herds of food, and would pillage any villages along the way. They had the attitude you see in the Odyssey, where Odysseus' men causally pillage a settlement or two to get supplies for their trip. They operated on Nietzsche's Master Morality, the idea that the strong deserve whatever they can take, and that pacifism is weakness and folly and the weak deserve slavery or death. The more pacifist concepts couldn't develop until agriculture, when tribes settled down in an area and had to defend the crops, which didn't tend to migrate, against roaming hunter-gatherers and the warrior tribes. As any group does, they still needed to be capable of violence or they would become either slaves or dead. And many groups were mixed, having farms and also a thriving warrior class. I don't know for a fact, but I'm thinking this became more common in later times when tribes expanded to become city-states and soon everybody didn't know everybody else in the group. But look at the attitudes even today of for instance vegetarians and vegans versus meat-eaters, and especially ranchers who earn their livelihood from raising and slaughtering animals. It's basically pacifists on one side and on the other a much tougher attitude based on the realities of life and death in the animal world. I think Joseph Campbell, who I learned that part from, was talking about primarily or even entirely agricultural tribes verses primarily or entirely war-based ones. The cannibals had even more destructive gods and beliefs. A peoples' gods reflect their way of life, and if killing is your way of life you need much sterner and more forbidding gods and rituals. But we're getting pretty far off-topic.
Genesis chapter 6. The book of Enoch. Both of these cover the angels that were on earth before the flood. The fallen angels had kids with female humans and they birthed giants. The souls of these giants became demons of today.
Wow, it does, doesn't it? I used to wonder why the Bible seems so short on monsters and giants/titans compared to most religions (aside from Goliath and Leviathan). Maybe most of it was just removed by the Roman committee that decided on what would be canon and what didn't make the cut.
