The Heavenly Beings we'll discuss today are the Archangels.
And yet, that's false. The first sentence of this article was a misdescription.
Though many claim that there are multiple Archangels, there is no Biblical evidence for such a position. In fact, there are only two passages that mention the word 'Archangel.'
1 Thessalonians 4:16 : For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
Jude 1:9 : Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
As you can see, Michael is the only Archangel mentioned in the Bible. In fact, 1 Thess 4:16 seems to imply that there is only one!
The underlined Greek there is the word ἀρχαγγέλου ('archangelou'). This word (like the root word 'Archangel') only appears once in Scripture, and though some translations render it 'the voice of an archangel,' they only do that because of the traditional belief in multiple Archangels.
A more natural translation would be 'the voice of Archangel,' or even better, 'the chief angel's voice.'
Also, the prefix 'arch' meaning 'chief' or 'main' indicates that there is only one.
I'll explore the identity of the Archangel in a minute, but just for interest's sake we will briefly list the seven traditional Archangels.
Obviously, there is Michael (whose name means 'who is like God').
The second of the traditional Archangels is Gabriel ('God is my Strength'), associated by tradition with the 'man in linen' from Ezekiel, and by name with the guide angel in Daniel (Daniel 8:16, 9:21) and the angel who came to Mary's home and told her she would give birth to Jesus (Luke 1:19).
There is a strange amount of reverence applied to Gabriel, who is considered by the Jews to be one of the angels that protects Israel, along with Michael. Sometimes, extra-biblical literature describes him as standing at the left hand of God.
Another Archangel, Uriel ('God is my Light'), is considered the angel of Justice and is not mentioned at all in the canonical Scriptures.
He is mentioned in the Book of Enoch, however, in the section known as the Book of the Watchers, as the ruler of Tartarus. Tartarus is the realm where the fallen Sons of God are kept bound until the end of time (Jude 1:6, Second Peter 2:4).
Raphael ('God Heals') is considered the patron Archangel of healing. He is associated with the angel that sat by the pool of Bethesda and moved the water. Again, not mentioned by name in the canonical Scriptures.
Those four- Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, and Raphael- are usually considered the main Archangels, one for each of the corners of the Earth. There are other traditional Archangels, but they are inconsistent in different traditions. What it really comes down to is that Gabriel and Michael are the only named angels in scripture.
But, scripturally, there is only one Archangel- Michael.
And who exactly is he? Well, first of all, he is chief above all other angels. Hence the title 'Archangel.'
And remember that, by the time of the New Testament, the word angel (or 'messenger') had expanded in its use from simply the heavenly beings sent to deliver messages, and was used as a synonym for the Old Testament phrase 'holy ones,' or (as I would put it) 'Heavenly Beings.'
The writers of the New Testament used the word 'angel' in the way we use it today- as a blanket term for God's spiritual employees.
This means that Michael is not just chief over the Malakim, he is chief over the whole Heavenly Host, even the Holy Ones and the members of God's Divine Council!
Now what angel do we know of that is in charge of all the other angels?
The Messenger Yahweh, the 'Son of Man,' the Destroyer and the King of Abaddon, the angel who has the Divine Name within him (Exodus 23:20-22), who will inherit the kingdom (Daniel 7:13-14) certainly seems to fit this description.
You could say that Michael is the proper name, whereas 'Messenger Yahweh' is a title.
It is certainly true that the Jews conflated these two angels. According to the Yalkut Weubeni it was Michael who prevented Isaac from being sacrificed, though the Bible says this was the Angel of Yahweh (Genesis 22:11).
In the Midrash Exodus 18:5, it is Michael who destroys Senaccarib's armies, while the Bible says it was the Angel of Yahweh (Isaiah 7:36). Michael was seen as the Advocate for God's people, while Biblically it is the Angel of Yahweh who fills this role (Zechariah 3).
The only times Michael is mentioned by name in the Old Testament are all in Daniel. It is quite possible that Michael was the Babylonian name for the being previously called simply 'Messenger Yahweh,' just as Daniel adapted the Babylonian term Watcher for the spirits previously called simply 'Sons of God.'
Thanks to Daniel, the name Michael was in widespread use by the time of the New Testament, and was used instead of 'the Messenger Yahweh.' This could explain why the Messenger Yahweh is not mentioned as such in the New Testament. Outside of two references to 'Michael,' he is only called by the generic term 'a messenger of the Lord' (ancient Greek did not really have definite articles in the same way we do).
Anyway, if we accept that Michael is the Messenger Yahweh, as did many Jews, and we've already shown in part one that the Messenger Yahweh is Jesus, then this inevitably leads us to the conclusion that Michael, the Archangel, is Jesus.
Lest you think I'm some random crazy dude on the Internet, notable scholars who agreed with my views include Martin Luther, Hengstenberg, Jacobus Ode, John Calvin, John Bunyan, Matthew Henry, Charles Spurgeon, and Robert Clayton. Philo, who wrote during the lifetime of Jesus and influenced early Christian thought greatly, identified the archangel specifically with the Logos as God's creative principle. Other Jewish commentators such as Wetstein and Surenhusius made the same connection.
Interestingly, Robert Clayton not only identified Michael as Christ, but proposed that Gabriel was the Holy Spirit.
For our primary evidence, we'll need to look at the second of Michael's two NT mentions, that found in the Book of Revelation.
Revelation 12:3-12 (with my commentary in bold): Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. (As we'll see, this seven-headed Dragon is identified with Satan.)
Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born.
She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” (Obviously, this is a poetic description of Mary giving birth to Jesus.) And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. (This could either refer to Jesus' death or one of his ascensions.) The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days.
Then war broke out in heaven.
Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
(Now this is the part that always seemed a bit strange to me. Here we were, witnessing the Dragon trying to kill the heir to the throne of the nations, and suddenly this random war breaks out and some random angel defeats Satan. It's as though the prince just bows out of the story, and sends Michael to do all the work! In the end, the protagonist never even faces the villain!)
Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down."
Here's the thing- if we understand Michael as the heavenly name of Jesus, the whole story seems to light up! The war is not between the Dragon and some random angel, the war is between the Dragon and the child!
The child has finally defeated his enemy, and all his forces, and passed the final test necessary to become the King of nations, ruling "with an iron scepter." He was killed, and snatched up to heaven, but he rose victorious and slew death, defeating the power of the Dragon once and for all.
And there's another reason connected to this passage for concluding that Michael is a title of Jesus.
Looking through the Old Testament, we find two prophesies that seem to go hand in hand, not only with each other but with the passage from Revelation.
Psalm 74:13-15 : It was you [Yahweh] who split open the sea by your power; you broke the heads of the Tanninim. It was you who crushed the heads of Leviathan and gave it as food to the creatures of the desert.
Genesis 3:14-15 : So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”
The Tanninim were seen as sea monsters. Some modern commentators think they were whales, but in cultural context they were actually sea serpents. And the chief of them all, the god of chaos and the raging sea, was Leviathan, the 'king of the sons of pride' (Job 41:34). And yet even he is easily defeated by God. Specifically, his heads are crushed.
There's a very specific reason that Revelation 12 so frequently calls Satan 'the Dragon.' The word translated serpent in Genesis 3 is 'nachash,' which can be used to apply to any serpentine creature, even lizards or sea serpents.
Leviathan is also described as having multiple heads. His equivalents in Caananite myth, Lotan and Tiamat, are said to have seven heads. The Hydra in Greek Mythology, which also has seven heads, is thought to be a derivative of these ancient storm-chaos deities. Bible scholar Michael Dahood argues that Psalm 74:12-17 implies seven heads by using seven 'you' phrases talking about Yahweh defeating Leviathan and his Tanninim minions.
There are three characters in Revelation described as having seven heads: the beast of the sea (13:1), the scarlet beast (17:3) and- sure enough- the Dragon (Revelation 12:3).
The point is that this battle between Michael and the Devil is the fulfillment of the curse on the serpent. What at first seemed to refer simply to people getting bitten by snakes and killing them in revenge was actually a hidden prophecy of the ultimate conflict between the God-Serpent and the God-Man.
Satan "bruised his heel," using Judas to hand him over to the Romans who literally nailed his heels to a board and killed him, but ultimately Jesus crushed Satan, utterly defeating him and his armies and throwing them out of Heaven, as recorded in Revelation.
Michael is the one who defeated the Dragon. If Michael is not Jesus, then it seems like this prophecy kind of flops.
As you saw in Revelation, Michael is seen as the leader of the 'host of heaven,' the armies of angels employed by Yahweh in spiritual warfare against the forces of Chaos. All through Judaism and Christianity, Michael has been viewed as the commander of Heaven's Armies.
And if we look way back in Joshua, we find an interesting character called 'the Captain of the Host of Yahweh.'
Joshua 5:13 - 6:2 : And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand.
Remember that the Messenger Yahweh and the Destroyer are often shown with an outstretched sword, both in Scripture and traditional Jewish art.
And Joshua went unto him, and said unto him, Art thou for us, or for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as Captain of the Host of Yahweh am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?
Joshua worships the Captain! Other times in the Bible where people worshiped angels (Revelation 19:10) the people are rebuked on the grounds that angels are servants of God too. But in this case, the angel not only allows him to worship, he takes it a step further and commands Joshua to take off his shoes! This was the same command given in Exodus to Moses, when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush in the form of the Messenger Yahweh.
And the Captain of Yahweh's host said unto Joshua, "Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is Holy." And Joshua did so. Now Jericho was securely shut up because of the children of Israel; none went out, and none came in. And Yahweh said to Joshua: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor."
The text now begins to call him Yahweh! Just as with the Angel of the LORD, the Captain is interchangeable with the name Yahweh.
According to Revelation 19:10, mere angels will not accept worship (at least, the unfallen ones). Colossians 2:18 specifically warns against the worship of angels, or even 'humility' towards them! When the Logos took the form of Jesus, he too accepted worship from those around him (Matthew 14:33; 28:9,17; Luke 24:52; John 9:38; Hebrews 1:6).
Returning to the New Testament, there's a major piece of evidence we've actually already mentioned, but you probably didn't notice it.
1 Thess. 4:16 (GLT) : Because the Lord Himself shall come down from Heaven with a commanding shout of an archangel's voice (As discussed earlier, a better translation would be 'the Archangel's voice'), and with God's trumpet. And the dead in Christ will rise again first.
Now, there are two possibilities as to what this verse means. Either Jesus is shouting in the Archangel's voice, or the Archangel is shouting while Jesus descends. Most people seem to follow the latter interpretation. After all, Jesus isn't an Archangel!
And yet, he is. In fact he is THE Archangel.
First off, the second explanation is unnecessarily complicated. But there's a bigger problem that emerges when we hold this idea up to the light of Scripture.
John 5:25-29a : Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth.
In Thessalonians it is the voice of the Archangel that calls the saints from their graves, in John it is the voice of the Son of God. The only reasonable reconciliation is that Jesus Himself is the Archangel, coming to Earth as Michael, Prince of Israel. But he has a new name- he is now the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, coming to gather his Holy Ones (1 Timothy 6:15).
Revelation 19:11-16 : Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns. He had a name written that no one knew except Himself. He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.
And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. And out of his mouth doth proceed a sharp sword, that with it he may smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, and he doth tread the press of the wine of the wrath and the anger of God the Almighty, and he hath upon the garment and upon his thigh the name written, `King of kings, and Lord of lords.'
Whereas in Chapter 12 we read of 'Michael and his angels,' and Michael is seen as the leader of Heaven's armies, he now has a new name, quite a few in fact. The Word of God, called Faithful and True, is leading the armies of Heaven. Michael was the name of Jesus in the old order, when he was the Messenger Yahweh. But Jesus now has aspects of Himself that did not even exist before He came to the earth, and thus is called by a new name which no one knows.
Revelation 3:12b : I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, that doth come down out of the heaven from my God -- also my new name.
The new name of Jesus, the name of God the Father, and the name of the New Jerusalem are all one Name, the name which the child, the Son of Man has received, along with all power and dominion and majesty (Daniel 7:13-14). In some Jewish traditions, the name 'Yahweh' is a name which God took when he entered the covenant with Israel. His true name, his integral name from eternity, is a hidden name that only he knows. They call this secret name 'the seventy-two letter name.'
Rabbi Abin commented: "The Great Name of Creation has 42 letters and leans to the left, and is the source of creation. The Great Name of Redemption has 72 letters and leans to the right, and rescues us from oppression and returns us to God."
Hebrews 1:3-4 : The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.
This interpretation also lends context to Jesus' remark in Matthew 26:53 :
Do you think that I am not able now to call upon my Father, and He will place beside me more than twelve legions of angels?
There's a problem, however.
Jude 8-10a: Nevertheless, in like manner those filthy dreamers also defile the flesh, reject authority, and speak evil of dignities. Yet Michael, the Archangel, when he was contending with the devil, disputing about the body of Moses, did not dare to bring up an evil-speaking judgment, but said, 'The Lord rebuke thee!' And these (the filthy dreamers) speak evil of things which they know not.
As critics are quick to point out, Jesus would have had every right to judge against the Devil! So why would Michael 'not dare' to accuse him, and instead confer the issue to God? After all, when tempted by the Devil in the wilderness, Jesus rebuked him using Old Testament scripture!
The problem actually lies in their interpretation of the text.
It is not that Michael was afraid to correct Satan's error, or somehow lacked the authority to confront him. Jude isn't rebuking the godless for correcting people's errors. He is rebuking them from speaking 'evil of things which they know not.'
We have a good Biblical word for this- slander. Unfounded and unfavorable gossip. The word translated 'evil-speaking' is the same word usually translated 'blasphemous' or (sure enough) 'slanderous.'
The point of this verse is that even Michael, the very head over all angels, God the Son, refused to engage in slander. He 'dared not' abase himself to the level of ungrounded insults, because that would have violated his perfect character. When Jesus debated Satan in the wilderness, he did not simply say 'Satan, you're stupid! Scram, you fat loser!' That would have been the ad hominem fallacy!
Instead, he used arguments from the Word of God and, in effect, cried 'the Lord rebuke thee!' He used the words of God, not his own, to rebuke Satan. But notice that he didn't simply abstain from debating. In Jude, as well, it said that they were already disputing. But when the argument reached the point where he could no longer reason, he appealed to a higher authority instead of stooping to a lower level.
And this way of dealing with Satan is not only shared by Michael and Jesus. In Zechariah 3, the Messenger Yahweh employs this very same tactic.
Zechariah 3:1-4 : Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Messenger Yahweh, and the Accuser standing at his right side to accuse him. Yahweh said to the Accuser, “Yahweh rebuke you, Accuser! Yahweh, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?” Now Joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel. The angel said to those who were standing before him, “Take off his filthy clothes.” Then he said to Joshua, “See, I have taken away your sin, and I will put fine garments on you.”
This is a very similar situation to that described in Jude 9. In the extra-Biblical story Jude was referencing, Michael was arguing that Moses should go to Heaven, and Satan wanted to bring him down to Sheol. In Zechariah 3, they are arguing over Joshua the high priest. As in Jude, it is implied that they have been arguing for some time, and as in Jude the first dialogue we hear is 'Yahweh rebuke you!'
So rather than refute the equation of Jesus and Michael, the passage in Jude actually reinforces the connection between the Messenger Yahweh and Michael!
In all three Satan/Logos debates, the Logos figure (whether Jesus, Michael, or the Messenger Yahweh) appeals to God the Father to rebuke Satan, rather than engaging in base slander and squabbling.
For the last piece of evidence, we have to go into the prophetic visions of Daniel.
The spiritual warfare between the demonic nations of the fallen angels and the chosen nation of Israel plays a major part in Daniel. There, the term 'Prince' is used to describe the Heavenly Beings in charge of particular countries.
Daniel 10:13 : But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
Daniel 10:20-21 : Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come. But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.
Daniel 12: 1 : And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
When it calls Michael 'your Prince' and 'the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people,' it is reflecting the traditional Jewish belief that Michael is the Heavenly representative of Israel.
But there's more to be discovered about Michael from this passage.
Daniel 8:25 : Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troubled times.
Here we have a connection made between the Messiah and the Prince! And since it is in the context of restoring Jerusalem, it only makes sense to conclude that the Messiah here prophesied is Michael! Remember that Jesus' new city, the New Jerusalem, was to be called by his new, secret Name.
In The People's Bible, Joseph Parker sums up the concept nicely:
"The very best Jewish writers concur in teaching that the name "Michael" is the same as the title "Messiah." It is held by them that the few passages in which he is referred to can be most satisfactorily explained on this supposition... This is the dazzling and nameless personage that has appealed to the religious imagination through all the known centuries of time. One day—not one of earth's cold, grey days, but a day of brighter cast—we shall see that Personage, and name him, and thank him for the tender veiling of a light that might have struck creation blind."
When Daniel first enters the cycle of visions that makes up the second half of the book, he sees a man. He falls into terror at seeing this figure, and falls asleep. Then, in verse 10 he is awoken by a less intimidating angel, the angel Gabriel, who proceeds to show him visions of the future, primarily those concerning Michael, the Son of Man, and the Messiah.
Many commentators believe that the first angel was Michael himself, the main subject of Daniel's visions. Compare the description of him with that of Jesus in Revelation chapter 1.
Daniel 10:5-6 : I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of fine gold from Uphaz around his waist. His body was like topaz, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
Revelation 1:13-15 : And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; and his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.
All throughout Daniel, Michael is identified as the 'Prince,' the Heavenly representative, of Israel. But earlier, it was Yahweh who claimed Israel as his own.
The dynamic here is both extremely simple and extremely powerful. Not only are Michael and Yahweh conflated in their roles, but the terminology of Daniel actually provides insight into the Old Testament relationship between God the Father and God the Son.
Isaiah 43:15 : I am Yahweh, your Holy One, Israel’s Creator and King.
Now, if Yahweh is Israel's King... who would be the Prince other than Jesus, the only begotten Son of God?
Isaiah 9:6 : For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Acts 5:31 : Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.
The main character of the Bible is not God the Father. It is Jesus. The Bible, from beginning to end is the story of a prince who gives his life to regain his people, rises victoriously from the grave- conquering his greatest enemy- and is rewarded with the power and dominion of the whole earth.
By the end of the Bible, Jesus is no longer Michael. Where before he was Prince of Princes (Daniel 8:20), now he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He rules over every name that is named, and all principalities, powers and rulers have been made subject to him.
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