Weāre doing something that I havenāt done since high school, and thatās opening a Bible and reading whatās inside. This time will be much different though, as the ones I was handed were the King James Version, which Iāve come to find is the worst one for studying due to the extra medieval style language and incorrect (or dated) translations. Makes a lot of sense as to why I struggled!Ā
So todayās book is going to be The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV) with Apocrypha. Iām excited to get into this one, even with the new edition hopefully on the way this year? I read that it keeps getting pushed back, but am very interested in the updates.Ā
Genesis
This book deals with a lot of interesting happenings, kind of just the ābefore timesā so what Iāve found is a lot of angels walking among humans with or without God as they do things. Iāll go into specifics by the verses Iāve highlighted.Ā
Genesis 3:24 ā Cherubim with flaming swords guard Eden.Ā
This verse describes the exile of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, and mentions Cherubim. The NRSV notes mention them as being half human half lion, Sphinx-likeā as in āSphinx of Egyptā so it says. In other references and things I had seen they can also be seen as having three heads and more monstrous, but itās clear that Cherubs are mainly tasked with the guardianship of sacred places. I do find it interesting here that it only mentions them being like Sphinxes, and why that is. Theyāre also guarding the east of the garden, which might have some symbolism to the temple (Ezekiel 10:19) and its processional gate?
Another note for this one from the footnotes is that they guard Jerusalem. (1 Kings 6:23-28,32,35)
There is also a cross reference here to Ezekiel 28:13-16 that weāll be discussing at a later date!
Genesis 6:1ā4 ā The āsons of Godā.
Ah this verse. When I reference angels and giggle itās this verse that comes to mind because of how modern Christianity likes to have angels as these sweet holy beings. Of course they bring about retribution, fire and healing, but they donāt like to mention this stuff.Ā
This is where the āsons of Godā or divine beings, angels for our sake, come down and see all the pretty girls and lie with them. This is apparently a bit of a topic in theological circles, as the footnotes had mentioned. Mainly because nothing seems to happen to the beings exceptā¦ āWell, I guess Iāll shorten their lives!ā God responds in this matter like that, he shortens the lifespan to 120 years. This was made from the original fear as during the Garden of Eden when he feared humans obtaining divinity. This makes me think of demi-gods in Greek literature, and how this might coexist with the idea.Ā
Genesis 18ā19 ā Angels visit Abraham, then destroy Sodom.Ā
These verses deal with three beings that visit Abraham. It is said that one of the three is the Lord, but the other two are said to be angels. They travel to Sodom and Gomorrah and find Lot and his family. The story is a famous one, the city is full of sin and God wants to destroy it, and in the end he does.Ā
Where the angels are concerned here is they were visiting and the people wanted to āknowā them, as my text graciously offers as an alternative to the term non-consensual sex. This act is offensive because apparently a lot of the meaning is placed on how hospitable Lot is? Lot even offers his own daughters at one point to the strangers to avoid insulting the literal angels in his house. Iām not sure about beingĀ thatĀ hospitable.Ā
The angels here are walking with God, just accompanying him on the visit. Yet they are eating and speaking with the family, which is interesting in itself. To me this says they can eat normally, even if performative. I know of further writings saying angels exist off of manna but the idea that they could and would eat human food is something worth noting to me. Especially as we tend to see these beings as above us and not needing fuel as humans do.Ā
Genesis 28:12 ā Jacobās ladder.
A small mention of a vision Jacob has. Basically Heavenās stairway and angels just going to work, going back home. Stairway was said to be a more accurate translation as well? Heās witnessing this and then the Lord is standing next to him and delivers a message.Ā
I find it an interesting snapshot of a way angels might travel, though curious as wellā¦wings. In this case I believe it might be Jacobās brain interpreting astral/celestial travel the only way he can handle it, which happens a lot for us. Not that I think there is any ārightā way but it feels very human in terms of travel between dimensional spaces. Not wrong, just curious.
Genesis 32:24ā30 ā Jacob wrestles a mysterious being.Ā
To me, this set of verses was a bit silly. I say this because seemingly nothing was going on beforehand and then all of a sudden Jacob was just wrestling with a guy. An angel or the Lord, Iām not quite sure which it is in this instance because Jacob does say āfor I have seen the face of the Lordā after the being sort of denies wanting to give his name when he asks. The name is not given, just a blessing and a hip check.Ā
So Genesis wasnāt a lot of information, but it is a good introduction into angels and how weāre seeing them before a lot of the visions start up. So far it is just a lot of accompanying God and doing his bidding. I would like to put a pin in that idea that the Cherubim who guard Eden have flaming swords, just to see if this shows up again. As well as the idea of angels potentially needing fuel to exist, as when they ate with Lot and his family.
Next time Iām going to be reading Exodus and possibly Isaiah and getting into the Cherubim and Seraphim side of things! See you next time~
-Gwen A.
Iād like to dedicate this post to a kind woman I once knew, though briefly, named Genesis. She was a fellow pagan, bright, wild and had a kind heart. Rest in peace, miss lady, you touched my heart.
My fascination with angels started when I was younger, when a friend I had at the time told me a story of when she had a nearly life threatening fever. She was a child and looked up, apparently seeing something significant and told her mom, āArenāt its wings pretty?ā Which shocked her mother, clearly. My friend turned out fine by the way!
So why go deeper? Well, now that Iām out of college with an unrelated degree and figuring out a few things, I decided to get back into something I love. I was already obsessed with drawing wings, birds and the like, it just seemed natural! What I found was a much more complex world that keeps pushing me forward along the path to really understanding angelology.Ā
To fully understand this of course I must research. Iām not one to turn away a good research topic either, so this wasnāt exactly a struggle for me. While I wasnāt starting from ground zero, that is with zero knowledge about the subject, I still needed to align some reference texts to really get into the meat of the situation.Ā
The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NRSV) with ApocryphaĀ
Lemme tell you I groaned when I realized this had to start with a Bible. Honestly. But this version is more scholarly than preachy? So it has been a really great reference.
Iāve also never read Apocrypha as my family was Southern Baptist and had their own traditions, which didnāt include anything past the Kings James Version Bible. Sad, because I missed out on potential information, but happy now that I can indulge in it as an adult with fresh eyes.Ā Ā
Book(s) of EnochĀ
This was one of my family's "no-no" books when it came to reading about their religion. Uh. I'm really excited to read them.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite āĀ The Celestial Hierarchy
The literal go-to book for angelic hierarchy! Written by a mysterious person. So here's hoping I can learn from it.
Stephen Burge āĀ Angels in Islam
So happy this is available in English. I wanted to have a good scope of what all aspects of the religion had about angels.
Gustav Davidson āĀ A Dictionary of Angels
Dated but one that I would like to keep in mind.
Darren Oldridge āĀ The Devil: A Very Short Introduction
To know an angel is to know the devil, I suppose! I want to get into demonology too, but that's an equally large topic. For now I'll stick with angels~
I wonāt bore you with every single scrap of whatever Iām going to read through or find, and Iām sure this list will only grow, as it tends to go when youāre researching. Lucky for me I have access to the library so I donāt need to fill my poor house with books. My partner probably appreciates that more than I do.
Iām always open to more books and things to dive into, so if anyone has any recommendations I would be happy to hear them! Iām mainly going to focus on angels themselves, but demonology is the logical next step, so Iād love to hear about that. I also will venture into Gnosticism some, as itās got a very unique take on angels and Iād like to read about that. I never knew about Gnosticism before, so that will be a whole adventure by itself.Ā
Thanks for reading, I hope you found something entertaining here. Until next time!
The strength I had to call upon not to say "batman" after this title. You're welcome.
Hello there internet surfers and fellow curious angel followers! My name is Gwen and I'd like to introduce myself a little before we get into the gritty craziness that is the angelic world.
Who Am I?
I'm Gwen Ashwood, and I love angels. I'll wait for the echoes of hello from you all - it is a little bit of an addiction, I'll admit. From my falling in love with wings and drawing them, to researching countless hours about their hierarchy and intricacies, I'd like to say I'm gaining some good knowledge I'd like to share! Outside of angels? I'm a horrible nerd, gamer, and LGBTQ+ soup member (paragirl/pansexual/polyam, all the Ps!).
Why Angels?
Other than my love for them, I saw a gap in research that I wanted to fill. Angels are associated with the Bible and the Christian faith primarily - but I simply asked the question of "but what if they weren't?" And started on this journey. It wasn't just a question of "what if" because then I would just be writing a story in which my own version of things played out. While I'd love to do that as well, and of course have plans to, there is something deeper there. A need to find out more about angels as an entity, and a as a being that can make it's own decisions and form its own thoughts.
Wait you're Pagan?
That's correct! I have a small mix of Greek and Norse gods that I follow and I'm very happy where I'm at today with my spirituality. It's been an interesting road with me and angels regarding this, as of course I'd question myself. Questions were there, and I did a lot of soul searching! I still found that I was dedicated to learning about these beings, but didn't need to be a part of the original source material as it were.
Okay, now what?
Now that I've spilled the beans, I'd like to start making soup! I have research I'm going to be doing, and would love to take you all on the journey. This will include things like Biblical research, my own personal findings and maybe even some story here and there. Though I might not be able to resist including fiction, the blog will mostly be research, theological findings, and my own opinion on such things.
Thank you for reading my little intro, and I can't wait to start sharing my knowledge with all of you!
Iām Gwen and I love angels. Itās weird because Iām also Pagan so my focus is gunna be on the critters themselves and what theyāre about.
I decided to throw myself into researching them and really seeing what I can find. Most of the things I see are angels in the light of the Christian god/faith? And I aim to look beyond that.
If you wondered as well, yes Iām an otherkin! Thatās going to be its own section of study but for now, I have angels and a lot of reading to get done.
Iāll share what I got here so feel free to follow along and/or read my official posts on my Wordpress!
