In some

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

traditions, the Angel of the Presence / Face (lit. "faces",

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

: ''Mal'akh HaPanim'', ) or Angel of his presence / face (Hebrew: ''Mal'akh Panav'', ) refers to an entity variously considered

angel An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

ic or else identified with

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

himself. The phrase occurs in the

Book of Isaiah The Book of Isaiah ( ) is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and the first of the Major Prophets in the Christian Old Testament. It is identified by a superscription as the words of the 8th-century BC prophet Isaiah ben Amo ...

(), which states that, throughout the history of the

Israelites Israelites were a Hebrew language, Hebrew-speaking ethnoreligious group, consisting of tribes that lived in Canaan during the Iron Age. Modern scholarship describes the Israelites as emerging from indigenous Canaanites, Canaanite populations ...

, God has loved and been merciful to that nation and shared in its distresses, saving Israel with "the angel of his presence". The

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

translation of the

explains the term in the most explicit language as a reference to God: "not an ambassador, nor an angel, but the Lord Himself (Greek: αὐτὸς κύριος) saved them". In the

Book of Jubilees The Book of Jubilees is an ancient Jewish apocryphal text of 50 chapters (1,341 verses), considered canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, as well as by Haymanot Judaism, a denomination observed by members of Ethiopian Jewish ...

, the Angel of the Presence explains to

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

the history of

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. Jubilees depicts this entity as one of God's special agents and does not provide him with a specific name. In the Testament of Judah, Judah states that he has received blessing from the Angel of the Presence. In the book of Enoch, four angels that stand before the Lord of Spirits are given as:

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * he He ..., a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name * Michael (bishop elect)">Michael (surname)">he He ..., a given nam ...

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), now generally known in English as Raphael ( , ), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of paintings by Raphael, His work is admired for its cl ...

Gabriel In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel ( ) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind, as the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Chris ...

, and

Phanuel Phanuel ( ''Phanouēl'') or Penuel ( ''Pənū’êl'') was the father of Anna the prophetess. He is mentioned once only in the New Testament, in . He was a member of the Tribe of Asher and his name means "Face of God". Theologian John Gill s ...

. According to some scholars, the

Second Book of Enoch The Second Book of Enoch (abbreviated as 2 Enoch and also known as Slavonic Enoch, Slavic Enoch, or the Secrets of Enoch) is a pseudepigraphic text in the apocalyptic genre. It describes the ascent of the patriarch Enoch, ancestor of Noah, throu ...

identifies

Uriel Uriel , Auriel ( ''ʾŪrīʾēl'', " El/God is my Flame"; ''Oúriḗl''; ''Ouriēl''; ; Geʽez and Amharic: or ) or Oriel ( ''ʾÓrīʾēl'', "El/God is my Light") is the name of one of the archangels who is mentioned in Rabbinic tradition ...

, known in various traditions under the names of Phanuel or Sariel, as the Angel of the Presence or else as one of the Angels of the Presence.

Bible

A related term is "angel of his Presence" used just once, in Isaiah 63:9. There it says that throughout the history of Israel, God has loved and been merciful to that nation and shared in its distresses, saving Israel with "the angel of his presence". Some theologians believe that the

translation (ἄγγελος ἀλλ᾽ αὐτὸς κύριος) demonstrates that "angel of his presence" is simply a way of referring to God, not a regular or created angel. "Not an elder or an angel, but the Lord Himself saved them..." is a current Septuagint translation.

Second Temple period

In the second century BC

Book of Tobit The Book of Tobit (), also known as the Book of Tobias, is a deuterocanonical pre-Christian work from the 3rd or early 2nd century BC which describes how God tests the faithful, responds to prayers, and protects the pre-covenant community (i.e., ...

, which is regarded as canonical by Catholics and Orthodox Christians, Raphael is described as one of the seven angels who see God's glory: "I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of the Lord." In the

Pseudepigrapha A pseudepigraph (also :wikt:anglicized, anglicized as "pseudepigraphon") is a false attribution, falsely attributed work, a text whose claimed author is not the true author, or a work whose real author attributed it to a figure of the past. Th ...

, in the

, the Angel of the Presence explains to

the history of

identifies

as the Angel of the Presence or else as one of the Angels of the Presence. In the

, angels of the presence and angels of Sanctification are the two highest orders of

angels An angel is a spiritual (without a physical body), heavenly, or supernatural being, usually humanoid with bird-like wings, often depicted as a messenger or intermediary between God (the transcendent) and humanity (the profane) in variou ...

. They were created on the first day, so that they could participate in the keeping of the Sabbath with

in heaven and on earth. God instructed one of these angels (thought to be

St. Michael Michael, also called Saint Michael the Archangel, Archangel Michael and Saint Michael the Taxiarch is an archangel and the warrior of God in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. The earliest surviving mentions of his name are in third- and second- ...

), to write the history of creation for

. The angel took the tablets of history and law, and in a long revelation, recited them to Moses with instructions to write them down. In the

Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs is a constituent of the apocryphal scriptures connected with the Bible. It is believed to be a pseudepigraphical work of the dying commands of the twelve sons of Jacob. It is part of the Oskan Armenian Or ...

, Judah, one of the 12 sons of

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...

and Leah, testifies that he was blessed by an angel of the presence.

New Testament

In the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke, the priest Zechariah is visited by an angel. After Zechariah receives a prophecy about the birth of John the Baptist, the angel identifies himself: "I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God. . . ." Commentators have interpreted this statement to imply high rank. For example,

Matthew Henry Matthew Henry (18 October 166222 June 1714) was a British Nonconformist and Presbyterian minister and author who was born in Wales but spent much of his life in England. He is best known for the six-volume biblical commentary ''Exposition o ...

writes "He is Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, an immediate attendant upon the throne of God. The prime ministers of state in the Persian court are described by this, that they saw the king's face". Gabriel is not called an

archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the Catholic hierarchy of angels, based on and put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the 5th or 6th century in his book ''De Coelesti Hierarchia'' (''On the Celestial Hierarchy'') ...

in the Bible, but is so called in

Intertestamental period The intertestamental period (Protestant) or deuterocanonical period (Catholic and Eastern Orthodox) is the period of time between the events of the protocanonical books and the New Testament. It is considered to cover roughly 400 years, spanning f ...

sources like 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 ...

References

{{reflist

Bible

Second Temple period

New Testament

See also

References

Further reading