/lit/ - Literature

>>16128067
In the Bible, there are four entities that now get called 'angels.' They are the seraphim, cherubim, ophanim, and malakhim. Some people also add stuff like the thrones, dominions, powers, principalities, from the New Testament but those are never described and sometimes sound like they refer to secular mortal authorities, and if to anything spiritual, more so to demons than angels. Speaking of demons the se'irim are also described. What's important to know is that malakhim alone is translated in Greek as angelos, and that's because both of those words mean 'messenger.' So in the most restricted sense only they are 'angels.' The malakhim have the form of humans. That is why angels get depicted as humans (with wings), because the malakhim really just are human-like beings (though they're not shown with wings anywhere in the Bible). On the other hand, the seraphim and cherubim are shown with wings but they're more like celestial creatures. The seraphim have six wings covering their face and worshiping God continuously. We are not told what they look like past that, HOWEVER the word 'seraph' is also used throughout the Bible to refer to serpents of a sort, so that puts into perspective the whole thing with the serpent in the garden (maybe it was a seraph originally, though the word isn't used). The cherubim have four heads (ox, lion, eagle, man)and four wings. Then the ophanim or 'wheels' are wheels-within-wheels full of eyes. The seraphim, cherubim, and ophanim are never called malakhim so technically these 'Biblical angels' might never have been angels, but an entirely different class of celestial creatures that do such things as worship God and drive his chariot/merkabah.