Angel Wings

[Dorothy]

Hi! Very beautiful indeed!

1. Is the writer using figurative language?
2. Cherubims signify beauty, and so, does this role as angel fit with the nature of wings as signs of splendour in the Heavenly spheres - maybe?

There are various roles that angels take due to the realms and dominions - maybe angels such as Cherubims have wings to make them look even more beautiful - wings of a Heavenly substance??

I once asked a priest about the meanings of wings of angels in scripture, and he said the imagery of wings represents the various powers given to them.

 

[friardchips]

Well, we have the next best thing: Ancient Near Eastern art. It’s likely the ancient Israelite conception of what a ‘cherub’ was is something similar or identical to the sacred beasts that was essentially universal in Ancient Near Eastern cultures: human-animal or animal-animal hybrids (winged men, (winged) griffins, (winged) sphinxes, (winged) human-headed bulls, (winged) goat-headed lions, winged eagle-headed men, etc.) who are thought to serve as vehicles for gods and kings and as guardians of the sacred. I mean, in Assyria, their version of these sacred beasts - the winged bulls - were called karibu “one who blesses.”

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/19/53/71/195371c469331444489261caf3ea83d8.jpg
“He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.”

http://media.kunst-fuer-alle.de/img/36/m/36_65149~winged-genii,-assyrian-period,-c-750-bc.jpg

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JOnnM2zEatg/T53tkUZqEwI/AAAAAAAAChM/f1wLBnR_UzE/s1600/Ivory+sphinx.jpg
“The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the lid with their wings, their faces ‘a man to his brother’; toward the lid shall the faces of the cherubim be.”

http://www.bibleorigins.net/files/mvc506.jpg

https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=w...inged+sphinx+phoenician&imgrc=Ae2-LpfZaiRDPM:
“On the walls all around the temple, in both the inner and outer rooms, [Solomon] carved cherubim, palm trees and open flowers.”

http://emp.byui.edu/SATTERFIELDB/Bulls and Gods/God Cherubim.jpg
“He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; he flew on the wings of the wind.”

https://ferrelljenkins.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/alalakh132-133-t.jpg
“The LORD reigns; let the peoples tremble! He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!”

Thank you for this awesome post. Other worldly beings were written into accounts in Near Eastern Mythology around the time of Genesis according to the time some scholars say one or both of the Genesis Creation stories were written, one after the other - the priestly eras. I tend to disagree with this as it is too late on in the history of the Jewish people. There is the possibility of influence and yet I’d say that considering the prophetical warnings by both of the Isaiah’s - between 900 and 450BC - were concerned with the idolatry of Babylon, I would take it that the Jewish people were inspired by their own earlier stories, as they would have been too observent to have risked inspiration from outside sources thanks to the warnings of the prophets. I tend to think that Moses or a scribe he knew, or maybe a descendent or relation, would have voiced Genesis. Between 1200 and 1500BC. As opposed to some reports that claim Genesis accounts were written from 400-1000BC - this seems way out. The Near Eastern Mythology stories that could have been used for inspiration are too late for Moses - 800-1000BC (this is my amateur opinion). It might be possible though that in the priestly era the creation stories were first written when originally communicated verbally earlier on in the Jewish history at the time of Moses.

 

[Dorothy]

philamuseumstore.org/istar.asp?a=65&image=/istarimages/mp/10095!1383-1515.jpg

I so like this painting of the Annunciation by Henry Osawa Tanner. The angel Gabriel is depicted as a column of light.

 

[friardchips]

St. Michael, St. Raphael and St. Gabriel are God’s Archangels. They are God’s Messengers who God sends to fight our toughest battles for us.

 

[friardchips]

The malak Yhwh (‘Messenger/Angel of Yhwh’) or the malak Elohim was apparently thought to have a human form. In fact, a good deal of the angels that appear in the Bible really seem to appear as humans (in Tobit, in fact, the angel Raphael disguises himself as a man); the only thing that marks these messengers as not being regular humans in some instances are their white clothing. (For example, the men in linen of Ezekiel or Daniel or the angels who appear in Jesus’ tomb in the gospels.)

Only the cherubim and the wheels in Ezekiel, the seraphim in Isaiah, and the living creatures in Revelation are really described as being non-humanoid, even sort of eldritch abomination-y, in form. (I’m not counting Abaddon/Apollyon or that “mighty angel” that has John eat the open scroll.) And yes, these are the only ones that are expressly said to have wings.

Ezekiel’s four cherubim each have four faces (a human, an eagle, an ox and a lion) and four wings with eyes, human hands, the feet of a calf. They are accompanied by wheels-within-wheels (ophanim) covered with eyes. Isaiah’s seraphim has six wings: “with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.” (They apparently have hands as well, since one of them touches Isaiah’s lips with a burning coal it held in its hand.) The four living creatures of Revelation are like a combination of Isaiah and Ezekiel: a lion, a calf, one that “had a face like that of a man,” and an eagle that each has six wings and are covered with eyes.

http://cfile233.uf.daum.net/R400x0/131C974F4E6CBF482B7136

http://www.burningjoy.net/pix/seraphim3.jpg

http://philosopherswheel.com/throne.jpg

Thank you for this great post. I’d say this re-telling of the facts as documented appear as the truth is.

Would be interesting to know what the inscription says on the second image and a rough date for the image.

 

[friardchips]

philamuseumstore.org/istar.asp?a=65&image=/istarimages/mp/10095!1383-1515.jpg

I so like this painting of the Annunciation by Henry Osawa Tanner. The angel Gabriel is depicted as a column of light.

I love the face of Mary. I’d be nice to see a bit more of the angel though. Seems a little impersonal. Amazing painting still, and very warm which the soft glow of light from the angel brings to it.

Did the priest describe the way in which the wings of angels represent the power attributed to them? Maybe he was speaking on general terms that the wings denote beings more powerful than humankind.

 

[Dorothy]

I love the face of Mary. I’d be nice to see a bit more of the angel though. Seems a little impersonal. Amazing painting still, and very warm which the soft glow of light from the angel brings to it.

Did the priest describe the way in which the wings of angels represent the power attributed to them? Maybe he was speaking on general terms that the wings denote beings more powerful than humankind.

The priest didn’t go into detail about the powers the angels have.

I do remember hearing, at another time, that they do God’s bidding about affecting the weather.

This site has a lot of information about the angels, in line with correct Church teaching.

opusangelorum.org/english.html

 

[Ridgerunner]

The priest didn’t go into detail about the powers the angels have.

I do remember hearing, at another time, that they do God’s bidding about affecting the weather.

This site has a lot of information about the angels, in line with correct Church teaching.

opusangelorum.org/english.html

We understand they are servants of God and that they have functions. We think of those functions in terms of, say, affecting the weather. Not a bad image, but one wonders whether that is sufficiently complete.

Aquinas tells us that each angel is a separate species, unlike any other. He asserts that their intellect and will are a unity; that is, they don’t think to do one thing and decide to do another. What they think, they do.

We are constantly informed by physicists about the complexity and nigh onto incomprehensibility about much of the universe; the interaction of matter and energy, the possibilities for dark matter, dark energy, big bangs, the emanations of which somehow exceeded the speed of light. If one thinks of those things in terms even of the action of atoms, let alone quantum particles and all the forms of energy that exist, the complexity is just staggering. And it’s all held in the Mind of God. If no sparrow falls without God knowing it, then no atom spins and no quantum particle exchanges place with another without God knowing that as well.

I have sometimes wondered whether angels are more like thoughts than they are like beings one could perhaps somehow see if he had the right goggles. Might one angel “be in charge” of the principles governing quantum physics or some aspect of it. Might he be the conduit of God’s thought, knowledge and intention concerning the actions of such things.

And is an angel’s “name” perhaps the whole of its being; so that if we truly were confronted by the name of an angel, our synapses could no more bear it than our bodies could bear a load of sand shot at us two feet from the mouth of a cannon. Are they perhaps that magnificent?

Might guardian angels, for example, know everything there is to know about human thoughts and actions, so that they’re creation’s foremost psychologists? Might they, uniquely, be able to communicate thoughts directly to us in a way that a “physics angel”, for example, might not be able to do without the intermediation of a guardian angel?

And might the whole of it be the music of the “choirs of angels”; a symphony so stupefyingly grand that we could “listen” to it with unfiltered perception for all eternity without experiencing a moment’s boredom? And might that “music” be exactly what a loving God might have wanted to hear His creatures “sing” and enjoy? And might the “music” constantly increase in complexity and grandeur as God exposed more and more of His infinity forever?

Amazing to think about. Someday we’ll know.

 

[Dorothy]

Ridgerunner,

Interesting speculation about angels!

They serve a majestic infinitely loving God.

It is said that those who go to Heaven will be falling into God for all eternity.

 

[friardchips]

Ridgerunner,

Interesting speculation about angels!

They serve a majestic infinitely loving God.

It is said that those who go to Heaven will be falling into God for all eternity.

A reassuring and comforting image.

 

[friardchips]

We understand they are servants of God and that they have functions. We think of those functions in terms of, say, affecting the weather. Not a bad image, but one wonders whether that is sufficiently complete.

Aquinas tells us that each angel is a separate species, unlike any other. He asserts that their intellect and will are a unity; that is, they don’t think to do one thing and decide to do another. What they think, they do.

We are constantly informed by physicists about the complexity and nigh onto incomprehensibility about much of the universe; the interaction of matter and energy, the possibilities for dark matter, dark energy, big bangs, the emanations of which somehow exceeded the speed of light. If one thinks of those things in terms even of the action of atoms, let alone quantum particles and all the forms of energy that exist, the complexity is just staggering. And it’s all held in the Mind of God. If no sparrow falls without God knowing it, then no atom spins and no quantum particle exchanges place with another without God knowing that as well.

I have sometimes wondered whether angels are more like thoughts than they are like beings one could perhaps somehow see if he had the right goggles. Might one angel “be in charge” of the principles governing quantum physics or some aspect of it. Might he be the conduit of God’s thought, knowledge and intention concerning the actions of such things.

And is an angel’s “name” perhaps the whole of its being; so that if we truly were confronted by the name of an angel, our synapses could no more bear it than our bodies could bear a load of sand shot at us two feet from the mouth of a cannon. Are they perhaps that magnificent?

Might guardian angels, for example, know everything there is to know about human thoughts and actions, so that they’re creation’s foremost psychologists? Might they, uniquely, be able to communicate thoughts directly to us in a way that a “physics angel”, for example, might not be able to do without the intermediation of a guardian angel?

And might the whole of it be the music of the “choirs of angels”; a symphony so stupefyingly grand that we could “listen” to it with unfiltered perception for all eternity without experiencing a moment’s boredom? And might that “music” be exactly what a loving God might have wanted to hear His creatures “sing” and enjoy? And might the “music” constantly increase in complexity and grandeur as God exposed more and more of His infinity forever?

Amazing to think about. Someday we’ll know.

 

[Faith1960]

I once asked a priest about the meanings of wings of angels in scripture, and he said the imagery of wings represents the various powers given to them.

Our deacon once said that wings and such were just artists ways of depicting them, but that they don’t really have wings.

 

[Dorothy]

Our deacon once said that wings and such were just artists ways of depicting them, but that they don’t really have wings.

Yes!

I also remember hearing that they are depicted as babies so that we would think of their innocence, and that they are depicted with wings to symbolize the speed that they travel from one place to another.

The book “Angels (and Demons)” by Peter Kreeft, in question and answer format, gives a very accurate teaching about the angels, based on the theology of St. Thomas Acquinas. Peter Kreeft also has a good sense of humor.