The angelology of the New Testament attaches closely to the notions already developed. The ministry of angels is, as in the Old Testament, specially connected with the work of salvation (Heb. i. 14), and with the person of Christ (John i. 51), to whom after the temptation (and at Gethsemane 1) angels minister, and who can at will command their aid (Mat. xxvi. 53). As in the later Old Testament books, revelations by angels are given in vision or dream, but even waking eyes see the angel or angels who minister at the resurrection. So an angel delivers Peter (Acts xii.), &c. As in the Old Testament, the figure of angels is human, their raiment white, and their aspect luminous. A multitude of angels appear singing praises at the nativity (Luke ii. 13), and in general they sympathise with the repentance of sinners and the progress of the divine kingdom (Luke xv. 10; 1 Pet. i. 12). Gabriel reappears in Luke i. The belief in special guardian angels of individuals appears as current (Acts xii. 15), but the words of Jesus (Mat. xviii. 10) hardly go farther than the statements of the Psalms. The angelic hosts of the prophetic eschatology are naturally transferred to the second coming (Parusia) of our Lord. The saints after the resurrection are like the angels (Mat. xxii. 30; Luke xx. 3G). In the Apocalypse angels play a great part. Notable features, in addition to the seven highest angels (viii. 2), are the angels of the seven churches (who, however, are by many taken as human figures, church officers), and the association of special angels with cosmical forces, e.g., angels of fire and water (xvi. 5, xiv. IS). The same idea appears even more sharply expressed in the writings of Paul, if, as Ritschi has rendered plausible, the elements (elemental powers) of the world (Col. ii.; Gal. iv. 3) are the angels, and specially the angels of the law. This view is connected with the characteristic position of Paul and the Epistle to the Hebrews, that the inferiority of the old covenant is stamped by the fact that the law was given and enforced by angels (Gal. iii., iv.; Heb. ii.; cf. Acts vii. 53), an idea partly based on Exod. xxiii. 20, /., and partly on a transference to Sinai of the usual poetico-prophetic imagery of a theophany a transference suggested by Ps. Ixviii. 17, Deut. xxxiii. 2, and actually carried out in the LXX. translation of the latter text, and in the current Jewish theology of the period. Angel worship is condemned in Col. ii. (probably with reference to Essene doctrine); cf. Rev. xix. 10. In Heb. ii., and 1 Cor. vi. 3, Christians are superior to angels.
Theological reflection on the doctrine of angels already begins among the Alexandrian Jews; and Philo, who calls them "a chorus of unembodied souls" occupying the air, places them in close parallelism to his speculations on the divine ideas or powers. From this association the transition is easy to Gnostic speculations, where the ranks of angels appear as produced by successive emanation, and thus serve to fill up the interval which Gnosticism puts between God and the world. In this connection we find also a doctrine of creation by angels (Basilides), and dualistic views of good and evil angels. Against these heresies the early church emphasises the creation of angels and the fall of the evil angels, but Origen tells us that up to his time the ecclesiastical doctrine did not define "quando isti creati sint vel quales aut quomodo sint." On these topics, however, many subtle questions arose, e.g., whether angels have bodies of an ethereal kind, whether they were created before the world or along with the light, &c. Gradually angel-worship sprung up, and in spite of the opposition of the best fathers (Theodoret, Augustin, ttc.), became firmly established, and is still acknowledged in the Roman catechism. An elaborate theory of the angelic hierarchy, based on Neoplatonic doctrines, is laid down in the work of Pseudo-Dionysius, J)e Hierarchia Celesti (5th century), and exercised much influence on mediaeval theo logy, which accepted the work as a genuine product of the apostolic age. The schoolmen treat of angels under the doctrine of creation, dividing rational creatures into angels, who are pure spirits, and men (Sent. Lib. ii., dist. i., sqq.), and the nature and powers of angels form the most notori ous problems of the misdirected subtlety of the schools (cf. e.g., Duns on the Second Book of Sentences). Protestant theologians have always felt less interest in the subject, and generally reduce the doctrine of angels to a mere appendix to the doctrine of creation or of God s works. Recent writers often go much farther. Thus, Schleiermachcr sums up the whole doctrine of angels by saying, that the possible existence of angels should not influence conduct, and that revelations of their being are no more to be looked for. A reaction, partly rooted on the later philosophy of Schelling, has led several German theologians (Hofmann, &c.) to lay more weight on the doctrine.
The Biblical doctrine of angels must be studied with the aid of the best books on Biblical theology (Schulz, Oehler, Ewald, Weiss, tfcc.), and of the commentaries on special passages. The book of Enoch is accessible in Dillmann s translation, and other Jewish notions may be found in Eisenmenger. The literature of the subject, theological and theosophic, is immense.
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ANGEL, a gold coin, first used in France in 1340, and introduced into England by Edward IV. in 14G5. It varied in value between that period and the time of Charles I. from Gs. 8d. to 10s. The name was derived from the representation it bore of St Michael and the dragon.
ANGELICA, a genus of plants of the natural order of the Umbelliferae. The name Angelica is popularly given to a plant of an allied genus, Archangelica oj/icinalis, the tender shoots of which arc used in making certain kinds of aromatic sweetmeats.
ANGELO, Michel. See Michel Angelo Buonarroti.
ANGELUS SILESIUS, a German philosophical poet, was born in 1G24 at Breslau or Glatz, and died at Breslau in 1G77. His family name was Johann Scheffler, but he is generally known under the assumed name which marks the country of his birth. Brought up a Protestant, and at first physician to the duke of würtemberg, he embraced, in 1G53, the Roman Catholic religion, and took orders as a priest. His peculiar religious faith, founded on his early study of the works of Tauler and Bohme, as expressed in his hymns (Cherub inischcr Wandersmann), is a mystical pantheism founded on sentiment. The essence of God he held to be love: God, he said, can love nothing inferior to himself: but he cannot be an object of love to himself without going out, so to speak, of himself, without manifesting his infinity in a finite form; in other words, by becoming man. God and man are therefore essentially one. A selection of his hymns, which are very popular in, Germany, was published in 1820 by Yarnhagen Yon Ense.
