_THE ANGELS OF THE VISIONS_
ZECHARIAH i. 7—vi. 8
Among the influences of the Exile which contributed the material of
Zechariah’s Visions we included a considerable development of Israel’s
belief in Angels. The general subject is in itself so large, and the
Angels play so many parts in the Visions, that it is necessary to
devote to them a separate chapter.
From the earliest times the Hebrews had conceived their Divine King to
be surrounded by a court of ministers, who besides celebrating His
glory went forth from His presence to execute His will upon earth. In
this latter capacity they were called Messengers, Male’akim, which the
Greeks translated Angeloi, and so gave us our Angels. The origin of
this conception is wrapt in obscurity. It may have been partly due to a
belief, shared by all early peoples, in the existence of superhuman
beings inferior to the gods,[889] but even without this it must have
sprung up in the natural tendency to provide the royal deity of a
people with a court, an army and servants. In the pious minds of early
Israel there must have been a kind of necessity to believe and develop
this—a necessity imposed _firstly_ by the belief in Jehovah’s residence
as confined to one spot, Sinai or Jerusalem, from which He Himself went
forth only upon great occasions to the deliverance of His people as a
whole; and _secondly_ by the unwillingness to conceive of His personal
appearance in missions of a menial nature, or to represent Him in the
human form in which, according to primitive ideas, He could alone hold
converse with men.
It can easily be understood how a religion, which was above all a
religion of revelation, should accept such popular conceptions in its
constant record of the appearance of God and His Word in human life.
Accordingly, in the earliest documents of the Hebrews, we find angels
who bring to Israel the blessings, curses and commands of Jehovah.[890]
Apart from this duty and their human appearance, these beings are not
conceived to be endowed either with character or, if we may judge by
their namelessness,[891] with individuality. They are the Word of God
personified. Acting as God’s mouthpiece, they are merged in Him, and so
completely that they often speak of themselves by the Divine _I_.[892]
“The _function_ of an Angel so overshadows his _personality_ that the
Old Testament does not ask who or what this Angel is, but what he does.
And the answer to the last question is, that he represents God to man
so directly and fully that when he speaks or acts God Himself is felt
to speak or act.”[893] Besides the carriage of the Divine Word, angels
bring back to their Lord report of all that happens: kings are said, in
popular language, to be _as wise as the wisdom of an angel of God, to
know all the things that are in the earth_.[894] They are also employed
in the deliverance and discipline of His people.[895] By them come the
pestilence,[896] and the restraint of those who set themselves against
God’s will.[897]
Now the prophets before the Exile had so spiritual a conception of God,
worked so immediately from His presence, and above all were so
convinced of His personal and practical interest in the affairs of His
people, that they felt no room for Angels between Him and their hearts,
and they do not employ Angels, except when Isaiah in his inaugural
vision penetrates to the heavenly palace and court of the Most
High.[898] Even when Amos sees a plummet laid to the walls of
Jerusalem, it is by the hands of Jehovah Himself,[899] and we have not
encountered an Angel in the mediation of the Word to any of the
prophets whom we have already studied. But Angels reappear, though not
under the name, in the visions of Ezekiel, the first prophet of the
Exile. They are in human form, and he calls them _Men_. Some execute
God’s wrath upon Jerusalem,[900] and one, whose appearance is as the
appearance of brass, acts as the interpreter of God’s will to the
prophet, and instructs him in the details of the building of City and
Temple.[901] When the glory of Jehovah appears and Jehovah Himself
speaks to the prophet out of the Temple, this _Man_ stands by the
prophet,[902] distinct from the Deity, and afterwards continues his
work of explanation. “Therefore,” as Dr. Davidson remarks, “it is not
the sense of distance to which God is removed that causes Ezekiel to
create these intermediaries.” The necessity for them rather arises from
the same natural feeling, which we have suggested as giving rise to the
earliest conceptions of Angels: the unwillingness, namely, to engage
the Person of God Himself in the subordinate task of explaining the
details of the Temple. Note, too, how the Divine Voice, which speaks to
Ezekiel out of the Temple, blends and becomes one with the _Man_
standing at his side. Ezekiel’s Angel-interpreter is simply one
function of the Word of God.
Many of the features of Ezekiel’s Angels appear in those of Zechariah.
_The four smiths_ or smiters of the four horns recall the six
executioners of the wicked in Jerusalem.[903] Like Ezekiel’s
Interpreter, they are called _Men_,[904] and like him one appears as
Zechariah’s instructor and guide: _he who talked with me_.[905] But
while Zechariah calls these beings Men, he also gives them the ancient
name, which Ezekiel had not used, of Male’akim, _messengers_, _angels_.
The Instructor is _the Angel who talked with me_. In the First Vision,
_the Man riding the brown horse, the Man that stood among the myrtles_,
is _the Angel of Jehovah that stood among the myrtles_.[906] The
Interpreter is also called _the Angel of Jehovah_, and if our text of
the First Vision be correct, the two of them are curiously mingled, as
if both were functions of the same Word of God, and in personality not
to be distinguished from each other. The Reporting Angel among the
myrtles takes up the duty of the Interpreting Angel and explains the
Vision to the prophet. In the Fourth Vision this dissolving view is
carried further, and the Angel of Jehovah is interchangeable with
Jehovah Himself;[907] just as in the Vision of Ezekiel the Divine Voice
from the Glory and the Man standing beside the prophet are curiously
mingled. Again in the Fourth Vision we hear of those _who stand in the
presence of Jehovah_,[908] and in the Eighth of executant angels coming
out from His presence with commissions upon the whole earth.[909]
In the Visions of Zechariah, then, as in the earlier books, we see the
Lord of all the earth, surrounded by a court of angels, whom He sends
forth in human form to interpret His Word and execute His will, and in
their doing of this there is the same indistinctness of individuality,
the same predominance of function over personality. As with Ezekiel,
one stands out more clearly than the rest, to be the prophet’s
interpreter, whom, as in the earlier visions of angels, Zechariah calls
_my lord_,[910] but even he melts into the figures of the rest. These
are the old and borrowed elements in Zechariah’s doctrine of Angels.
But he has added to them in several important particulars, which make
his Visions an intermediate stage between the Book of Ezekiel and the
very intricate angelology of later Judaism.
In the first place, Zechariah is the earliest prophet who introduces
orders and ranks among the angels. In his Fourth Vision the Angel of
Jehovah is the Divine Judge _before whom_[911] Joshua appears with the
Adversary. He also has others standing _before him_[912] to execute his
sentences. In the Third Vision, again, the Interpreting Angel does not
communicate directly with Jehovah, but receives his words from another
Angel who has come forth.[913] All these are symptoms, that even with a
prophet, who so keenly felt as Zechariah did the ethical directness of
God’s word and its pervasiveness through public life, there had yet
begun to increase those feelings of God’s sublimity and awfulness,
which in the later thought of Israel lifted Him to so far a distance
from men, and created so complex a host of intermediaries, human and
superhuman, between the worshipping heart and the Throne of Grace. We
can best estimate the difference in this respect between Zechariah and
the earlier prophets whom we have studied by remarking that his
characteristic phrase _talked with me_, literally _spake in_ or _by
me_, which he uses of the Interpreting Angel, is used by Habakkuk of
God Himself.[914] To the same awful impressions of the Godhead is
perhaps due the first appearance of the Angel as intercessor. Amos,
Isaiah and Jeremiah themselves directly interceded with God for the
people; but with Zechariah it is the Interpreting Angel who intercedes,
and who in return receives the Divine comfort.[915] In this angelic
function, the first of its kind in Scripture, we see the small and
explicable beginnings of a belief destined to assume enormous
dimensions in the development of the Church’s worship. The supplication
of Angels, the faith in their intercession and in the prevailing
prayers of the righteous dead, which has been so egregiously multiplied
in certain sections of Christendom, may be traced to the same
increasing sense of the distance and awfulness of God, but is to be
corrected by the faith Christ has taught us of the nearness of our
Father in Heaven, and of His immediate care of His every human child.
The intercession of the Angel in the First Vision is also a step
towards that identification of special Angels with different peoples
which we find in the Book of Daniel. This tells us of heavenly
princes not only for Israel—_Michael, your prince, the great prince
which standeth up for the children of thy people_[916]—but for the
heathen nations, a conception the first beginnings of which we see in
a prophecy that was perhaps not far from being contemporaneous with
Zechariah.[917] Zechariah’s Vision of a hierarchy among the angels was
also destined to further development. The head of the patrol among
the myrtles, and the Judge-Angel before whom Joshua appears, are the
first Archangels. We know how these were further specialised, and had
even personalities and names given them by both Jewish and Christian
writers.[918]
Among the Angels described in the Old Testament, we have seen some
charged with powers of hindrance and destruction—_a troop of angels of
evil_.[919] They too are the servants of God, who is the author of all
evil as well as good,[920] and the instruments of His wrath. But the
temptation of men is also part of His Providence. Where wilful souls
have to be misled, the _spirit_ who does so, as in Ahab’s case, comes
from Jehovah’s presence.[921] All these spirits are just as devoid of
character and personality as the rest of the angelic host. They work
evil as mere instruments: neither malice nor falseness is attributed to
themselves. They are not rebel nor fallen angels, but obedient to
Jehovah. Nay, like Ezekiel’s and Zechariah’s Angels of the Word, the
Angel who tempts David to number the people is interchangeable with God
Himself.[922] Kindred to the duty of tempting men is that of
discipline, in its forms both of restraining or accusing the guilty,
and of vexing the righteous in order to test them. For both of these
the same verb is used, “to satan,”[923] in the general sense of
_withstanding_, or antagonising. The Angel of Jehovah stood in Balaam’s
way _to satan him_.[924] The noun, _the Satan_, is used repeatedly of a
human foe.[925] But in two passages, of which Zechariah’s Fourth Vision
is one, and the other the Prologue to Job,[926] the name is given to an
Angel, one of _the sons of Elohim_, or Divine powers who receive their
commission from Jehovah. The noun is not yet, what it afterwards
became,[927] a proper name; but has the definite article, _the
Adversary_ or _Accuser_—that is, the Angel to whom that function was
assigned. With Zechariah his business is the official one of prosecutor
in the supreme court of Jehovah, and when his work is done he
disappears. Yet, before he does so, we see for the first time in
connection with any angel a gleam of character. This is revealed by the
Lord’s rebuke of him. There is something blameworthy in the accusation
of Joshua: not indeed false witness, for Israel’s guilt is patent in
the foul garments of their High Priest, but hardness or malice, that
would seek to prevent the Divine grace. In the Book of Job _the Satan_
is also a function, even here not a fallen or rebel angel, but one of
God’s court,[928] the instrument of discipline or chastisement. Yet, in
that he himself suggests his cruelties and is represented as forward
and officious in their infliction, a character is imputed to him even
more clearly than in Zechariah’s Vision. But the Satan still shares
that identification with his function which we have seen to
characterise all the angels of the Old Testament, and therefore he
disappears from the drama so soon as his place in its high argument is
over.[929]
In this description of the development of Israel’s doctrine of Angels,
and of Zechariah’s contributions to it, we have not touched upon the
question whether the development was assisted by Israel’s contact with
the Persian religion and with the system of Angels which the latter
contains. For several reasons the question is a difficult one. But so
far as present evidence goes, it makes for a negative answer. Scholars,
who are in no way prejudiced against the theory of a large Persian
influence upon Israel, declare that the religion of Persia affected the
Jewish doctrine of Angels “only in secondary points,” such as their
“number and personality, and the existence of demons and evil
spirits.”[930] Our own discussion has shown us that Zechariah’s Angels,
in spite of the new features they introduce, are in substance one with
the Angels of pre-exilic Israel. Even the Satan is primarily a
function, and one of the servants of God. If he has developed an
immoral character, this cannot be attributed to the influence of
Persian belief in a Spirit of evil opposed to the Spirit of good in the
universe, but may be explained by the native, or selfish, resentment of
Israel against their prosecutor before the bar of Jehovah. Nor can we
fail to remark that this character of evil appears in the Satan, not,
as in the Persian religion, in general opposition to goodness, but as
thwarting that saving grace which was so peculiarly Jehovah’s own. And
Jehovah said to the Satan, _Jehovah rebuke thee, O Satan, yea, Jehovah
who hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee! Is not this a brand plucked from
the burning?_
FOOTNOTES:
[889] So Robertson Smith, art. “Angels” in the _Encyc. Brit._, 9th ed.
[890] So already in Deborah’s Song, Judg. v. 23, and throughout both J
and E.
[891] Cf. especially Gen. xxxii. 29.
[892] Judg. vi. 12 ff.
[893] Robertson Smith, as above.
[894] 2 Sam. xiv. 20.
[895] Exod. xiv. 19 (?), xxiii. 20, etc.; Josh. v. 13.
[896] 2 Sam. xxiv. 16, 17; 2 Kings xix. 35; Exod. xii. 23. In Eccles.
v. 6 this destroying angel is the minister of God: cf. Psalm lxxviii.
49_b_, _hurtful angels_—Cheyne, _Origin of Psalter_, p. 157.
[897] Balaam: Num. xxii. 23, 31.
[898] vi. 2-6.
[899] Vol. I., p. 114.
[900] ix.
[901] xl. 3 ff.
[902] xliii. 6.
[903] Zech. i. 18 ff.; Ezek. ix. 1 ff.
[904] Zech. i. 8: so even in the Book of Daniel we have _the man_
Gabriel—ix. 21.
[905] i. 9, 19; ii. 3; iv. 1, 4, 5; v. 5, 10; vi. 4. But see above, pp.
261 f.
[906] i. 8, 10, 11.
[907] iii. 1 compared with 2.
[908] iii. 6, 7.
[909] vi. 5.
[910] i. 9, etc.
[911] iii. 1. _Stand before_ is here used forensically: cf. the N.T.
phrases to _stand before God_, Rev. xx. 12; _before the judgment-seat
of Christ_, Rom. xiv. 10; and _be acquitted_, Luke xxi. 36.
[912] iii. 4. Here the phrase is used domestically of servants in the
presence of their master. See above, p. 293, n. 826.
[913] ii. 3, 4.
[914] Hab. ii. 1: cf. also Num. xii. 6-9.
[915] First Vision, i. 12.
[916] x. 21, xii. 1.
[917] Isa. xxiv. 21.
[918] Book of Daniel x., xii.; Tobit xii. 15; Book of Enoch _passim_;
Jude 9; Rev. viii. 2, etc.
[919] Psalm lxxviii. 49. See above, p. 312, n. 896.
[920] Amos iii. 6.
[921] 1 Kings xxii. 20 ff.
[922] 2 Sam. xxiv. 1; 1 Chron. xxi. 1. Though here difference of age
between the two documents may have caused the difference of view.
[923] There are two forms of the verb, שׂטן, satan, and שׂטם, satam,
the latter apparently the older.
[924] Num. xxii. 22, 32.
[925] 1 Sam. xxix. 4; 2 Sam. xix. 23 Heb., 22 Eng.; 1 Kings v. 18, xi.
14, etc.
[926] Zech. iii. 1 ff.; Job i. 6 ff.
[927] 1 Chron. xxi. 1.
[928] i. 6_b_.
[929] See Davidson in _Cambridge Bible for Schools_ on Job i. 6-12,
especially on ver. 9: “The Satan of this book may show the beginnings
of a personal malevolence against man, but he is still rigidly
subordinated to Heaven, and in all he does subserves its interests. His
function is as the minister of God to try the sincerity of man; hence
when his work of trial is over he is no more found, and no place is
given him among the _dramatis personæ_ of the poem.”
[930] Cheyne, _The Origin of the Psalter_, p. 272. Read carefully on
this point the very important remarks on pp. 270 ff. and 281 f.