Ananiel, Anânêl (

Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...

: עננאל,

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

: Ανανιας) was the 14th Watcher of the 20 leaders of the 200 fallen angels who are mentioned in an ancient work titled the

Book of Enoch The Book of Enoch (also 1 Enoch; Hebrew language, Hebrew: סֵפֶר חֲנוֹךְ, ''Sēfer Ḥănōḵ''; , ) is an Second Temple Judaism, ancient Jewish Apocalyptic literature, apocalyptic religious text, ascribed by tradition to the Patriar ...

. The name Ananiel is sometimes translated as "Rain of God" even though the name is often confused with the name Hananiel. Michael Knibb interprets his name to be "cloud of God". The name came into Arabic from the Coptics who in turn transliterated it from the Greeks. Ananiel was entrusted by God "all the trees of the earth, its plants, the rain, the dew, the heat, the

simoom Simoom ( ''samūm''; from the root ''s-m-m'', "to poison") is a strong, hot, dry, dust-laden wind. The word is generally used to describe a local wind that blows in the Sahara, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and the deserts of Arabian Peninsula. Its t ...

, the wind and as many tmospheric phenomenaas there are in summer and winter." Ananiel is also known as an angelic guard of the gates of the South Wind. The

describes three gates for each direction. The first gate inclines to the south-east and brings a hot wind. The second is due south and brings pleasant fragrances, dew, rain, prosperity and life. The third is south-west and brings dew, rain, locusts and devastation. Ananiel is one of the guardians of these gates and can be interpreted as an Archangel to petition for these. Conversely, according to the tradition of the

Coptic Orthodox Church The Coptic Orthodox Church (), also known as the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria, is an Oriental Orthodox Christian church based in Egypt. The head of the church and the See of Alexandria is the pope of Alexandria on the Holy Apo ...

, Ananiel is the name of one of the seven holy archangels.

See also

References

Further reading