In religion, a fallen angel is a wicked or rebellious angel that has been cast out of heaven. The term "fallen angel" does not appear in the Bible, but it is used of angels who sinned, such as those referred to in 2 Peter 2:4: "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment". It is also used to describe angels cast down to the Earth during the War in Heaven, as well as Satan (who is distinct from Lucifer, particularly in Luciferianism), demons, and certain Watchers. A similar notion can be found in Nahj al-Balagha, an Islamic collection of sermons, letters, and narrations attributed to Ali: "Allah, the Glorified One, will not let a human being enter paradise if he does the same thing for which Allah turned an angel from it".
Mention of angels who physically descended (and figuratively "fell") to Mount Hermon is found in the Book of Enoch, which the Ethiopian Orthodox Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church accept as biblical canon; as well as in various pseudepigrapha.
Video Fallen angel
Second Temple period Judaism
Sons of God
In the period immediately preceding the composition of the New Testament, some sects of Judaism identified the "sons of God" (??? ???????) of Genesis 6:1-4 as fallen angels. Some scholars consider it most likely that this Jewish tradition of fallen angels predates, even in written form, the composition of Gen 6:1-4. Lester L. Grabbe calls the story of the sexual intercourse between angels and women "an old myth in Judaism". Until the mid-2nd evidence that some early Christians accepted this Jewish Enochic pseudepigraphy and the application of the angelic descent myth to the "sons of God" passage in Genesis 6:1-4. Its presence not only in the East but also in the Latin-speaking West is attested by the polemic of Augustine of Hippo (354-430) against the motif of giants born of the union between fallen angels and human women. Rabbinic Judaism and Christian authorities rejected the tradition. Those who adopted the tradition viewed the "sons of God" as fallen angels who married human women and begot the Nephilim through unnatural unions.
Watchers
The reference to heavenly beings called "Watchers" originates in Daniel 4, in which there are three mentions, twice in the singular (v. 13, 23), once in the plural (v. 17), of "watchers, holy ones". The Ancient Greek word for watchers is ????????? (egr?goroi, plural of egr?goros), literally translated as "wakeful". Note that, beginning by AD 150, the Greek letter eta (?) was iotacized to sound the same as iota (?); and the Old Slavonic alphabets, both Cyrillic and Glagolitic, made no phonetic distinction between the letters they derived from Greek ? and ?. The Greek term was transcribed in the Jewish pseudepigraphon the Second Book of Enoch (Slavonic Enoch) as Grigori, referring to the same beings as those called Watchers of the (First) Book of Enoch.
First Enoch
A Jewish story of angels coming down to Earth rather than being cast down, referred to as the story of angelic descent, is found chiefly in the Jewish pseudepigraphic Book of Enoch, verses 6-9; the Qumran Book of Giants; and perhaps in Genesis 6:1-4. These Watchers became "enamored" with human women (1 Enoch 7.2), and had intercourse with them. The offspring of these unions, and the knowledge they were given, corrupted human beings and the earth (1 Enoch 10.11-12). A number of apocryphal works, including 1 Enoch (10.4), link this transgression with the Great Deluge. This fact was adopted by early Christianity, but abandoned by Rabbinic Judaism and later Christianity. During the period immediately before the rise of Christianity, the intercourse between these Watchers and human women was often seen as the first fall of the angels.
Slavonic Enoch
The Slavonic Second Book of Enoch is problematic as evidence for Jewish belief as it has been heavily redacted by Christian transmission. For example, the passage dealing specifically with the fall is regarded as a Christian interpolation by the editor of the modern standard edition:
2 Enoch 29:3 "Here Satanail was hurled from the height together with his angels"--a probable Christian interpolation according to Charlesworth's Old Testament Pseudepigrapha
The text refers to "the Grigori, who with their prince Satanail rejected the Lord of light". The Grigori are identified with the Watchers of 1 Enoch. The Grigori who "went down on to earth from the Lord's throne", married women and "befouled the earth with their deeds", resulting in confinement under earth (2 Enoch 18:1-7) In the longer recension of 2 Enoch, chapter 29 refers to angels who were "thrown out from the height" when their leader tried to become equal in rank with the Lord's power (2 Enoch 29:1-4).
Most sources quote 2 Enoch as stating that those who descended to earth were three, but Andrei A. Orlov, while quoting 2 Enoch as saying that three went down to the earth, remarks in a footnote that some manuscripts put them at 200 or even 200 myriads. In The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha: Apocalypic Literature and Testaments edited by James H. Charlesworth, manuscript J--taken as the best representative of the longer recension--has "and three of them descended" (p. 130); while manuscript A--taken as the best representative of the shorter recension--has "and they descended", which might indicate that all the Grigori descended, or 200 princes of them, or 200 princes and 200 followers, since it follows the phrase that "[t]hese are the Grigori, 200 princes of whom turned aside, 200 walking in their train" (p. 131).
Chapter 29, referring to the second day of creation (before the creation of human beings), says that "one from out the order of angels" or, according to other versions of 2 Enoch, "one of the order of archangels" or "one of the ranks of the archangels" "conceived an impossible thought, to place his throne higher than the clouds above the earth, that he might become equal in rank to [the Lord's] power. And [the Lord] threw him out from the height with his angels, and he was flying in the air continuously above the bottomless." In this chapter, the name "Satanail" is mentioned only in a heading added in a single manuscript, the GIM khlyudov manuscript, which is a representative of the longer recension and was used in the English translation by R. H. Charles.
Satan
The Hebrew Bible personifies Satan as a character in only three places, always inferior to God's power: it portrays him as an accuser (Zechariah 3:1-2), a seducer (1 Chronicles 21:1), and a heavenly persecutor (Job 2:1). It uses the Hebrew word, which means "adversary", elsewhere to speak of human opponents or some evil influence and does not explicitly say that Satan is an angel nor that he is fallen. However, the Oxford Dictionary of the Jewish Religion states that Satan appears in Jewish pseudepigrapha--especially apocalypses--as "ruler of a demonic host, influencing events throughout the world, cast out of heaven as a fallen angel", and ascribes the idea of Satan as a fallen angel to a misinterpretation of Isaiah 14:12. Some also say that Lucifer is one of the archangels before he fell from Heaven. He thought that God's order to "love human kind more than God himself" was ridiculous, which made him hate humanity and that lead to his fall.
Maps Fallen angel
Christianity
In Christianity, Satan is often seen as the leader of the fallen angels. The New Testament mentions Satan 36 times in 33 verses, and the Book of Revelation tells of "that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world", being thrown down to the Earth together with his angels. In Luke 10:18, Jesus says: "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." While the New Testament thus mentions Satan falling from Heaven, it never says that he was an angel, only that he masquerades as one in 2 Corinthians 11:14. The concept of fallen angels is not foreign to the New Testament, though; both 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude 1:6 refer to angels who have sinned against God and await punishment on Judgement Day.
Dragon and his angels
In the New Testament, Revelation 12:3-14 speaks of a great red dragon whose tail swept a third part of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. In verses 7-9, after defeat in a War in Heaven in which the dragon and his angels fought against Michael and his angels, "the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world--he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him".
Fall of Lucifer
The Fall of Lucifer finds its earliest identification with a fallen angel in Origen, based on an interpretation of Isaiah 14:1-17, which describes a king of Babylon as the fallen "morning star" (in Hebrew, ?????). This description was interpreted typologically as an angel in addition to its literal application to a human king: the image of the fallen morning star or angel was thereby applied to Satan in both in Jewish pseudepigrapha and by early Christian writers, following the transfer of Lucifer to Satan in the pre-Christian century.
Origen and other Christian writers linked the fallen morning star of Isaiah 14:12 to Jesus' statement in Luke 10:18 that "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven" and to the mention of a fall of Satan in Revelation 12:8-9. In Latin-speaking Christianity, the Latin word "lucifer" as employed in the late 4th-century AD Vulgate to translate ????, gave rise to the name "Lucifer" for the person believed to be referred to in the text. Orthodox Judaism does not believe the name Lucifer is a reference to Satan, but rather the text in chapter four indicates that it is a literal taunt against the King of Babylon.
Christian interpretation of Ezekiel 28
Indeed, Christian tradition has applied to Satan not only the image of the morning star in Isaiah 14:12, but also the denouncing in Ezekiel 28:11-19 of the king of Tyre, who is spoken of as having been a "cherub". Rabbinic literature saw these two passages as in some ways parallel, even if it perhaps did not associate them with Satan, and the episode of the fall of Satan appears not only in writings of the early Church Fathers and in apocryphal and pseudepigraphic works, but also in rabbinic sources. However, "no modern evangelical commentary on Isaiah or Ezekiel sees Isaiah 14 or Ezekiel 28 as providing information about the fall of Satan".
Islam
The Islamic belief differs in regards to whether or not there are any fallen angels. Since angels are described as creatures with no urges or lower desires (nafs), several scholars refused the existence of fallen angels in Islam. Otherwise, the fallen angels are considered to oppose mankind as a result of their superior nature in comparison to them. If this case is assumed, the fallen angels of Islamic theology (unlike the Christian fallen angels) did not fall because of envy or rebellion against God, but rather due to their hard feelings towards humans in general. Al? ibn Ab? T?lib explained, the worship of angels is a consequence of their awareness of God, but they may stop worshipping, by misunderstanding the orders of God, due to their limited knowledge. If they abandon their worship, they fall.
According to a story from Tabari on the authory of Ibn Masud and Ibn Abbas, Harut and Marut (Arabic: ????? ??????) are fallen angels who asked God to destroy mankind after humans committed acts of disobience around the world. Consequently, God gave them humanlike urges and made them descend to Earth in order to determine whether or not Satan would have authority over the angels; they would not do better than humans for long. On Earth, they entertained and acted upon sexual desires and were guilty of idol worship, whereupon they even killed an innocent witness. For their deeds, they were not allowed to ascend to Heaven again. Those who reject the angelic origin of Harut and Marut prefer to view them as kings (malikayn) than angels (malak). Their origin story is not in the Quran.
Another possible fallen angel is the archdevil Iblis (Arabic: ????????) or Azazil (Arabic: ?????? Az?z?l). Alternatively, he is considered to be a jinni who was either once ascended to heaven, but later banished from there or counts as the father of the jinn. As a fallen angel, the jinn existed already before the fall of Iblis and the Jinn, like humans, do not ascend to Heaven before death. Iblis is assumed to be different from the Jinn. While the Jinn are made out of smokeless fire, he is believed to be composed of another kind of fire (according to Ibn Abbas from the fire of samum). Unlike the Christian belief, Iblis is not generally in charge of non-angelic spirits, but over the satanic Jinn (demons). In parts of folklore, some other angels were convinced by Iblis to distrust the creation of human and have fallen with him, now roaming as demons on earth or in hell.
In a narrative from Ja'far al-Sadiq according to Shia' sources, Idris met an angel, which the wrath of God fell upon, and his wings and hair were cut off; after Idris prayed for him to God, his wings and hair were restored. In return they become friends and in request the angel took Idris to the Heavens to meet the angel of death.
Religious views
Judaism
The concept of fallen angels is first found in Judaism among texts of the Second Temple era, being applied in particular to Azazel. However, from the Middle Ages certain Jewish scholars, both rationalist and traditionalist, rejected belief in rebel or fallen angels, since they considered evil as simply the absence of good or at least as not absolute. However, modern Orthodox Rabbeim believe that angels don't have free will, and are "pre-programmed" to perform certain duties. When an angel's duty is completed, the angel ceases to exist.
Christianity
Christians adopted the concept of fallen angels mainly based on their interpretations of the Book of Revelation Chapter 12., which plainly states that they fight alongside Satan against Michael and the other good angels, and Matthew 25:41, which states that eternal fire was prepared for the fallen angels and Satan himself.
Catholicism
In Catholicism, the Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of "the fall of the angels" not in spatial terms but as a radical and irrevocable rejection of God and his reign by some angels who, though created as good beings, freely chose evil, their sin being unforgivable because of the irrevocable character of their choice, not because of any defect in the infinite divine mercy.
Universalism
In 19th-century Universalism, Universalists such as Thomas Allin (1891) claimed that Clement of Alexandria, Origen and Gregory of Nyssa taught that even the Devil and fallen angels will eventually be saved.
Unitarianism
In Unitarianism, Joseph Priestley suggested that the passages refer to Korah. William Graham (1772) suggested that it referred to the spies in Canaan. These passages are generally held today to be commentary, either positive or neutral or negative, on Jewish traditions concerning Enoch circulating in the Early Church.
Islam
Even if fallen angels are accepted, according to Islam it is unthinkable that an angel aware of the existence of God could envy God or try to usurp his throne. Rather the rebellion of angels is a result of their limited abilities to understand the true nature of the human, holding their way of perceiving God is the only way, and they became guilty of opposing Adam as a vice regent and fixing on one interpretation of God to the exclusion of others.
Influence
- In literature, John Milton's Paradise Lost (7.131-134, etc.), refers to the Devil as being "brighter once amidst the host of Angels, than the sun amidst the stars".
Footnotes
References
- Anderson, ed. by Gary (2000). Literature on Adam and Eve. Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9004116001. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
- Bamberger, Bernard J. (2006). Fallen angels : soldiers of satan's realm (first paperback ed.). Philadelphia, Pa.: Jewish Publ. Soc. of America. ISBN 0827607970.
- Charlesworth, edited by James H. (2010). The Old Testament pseudepigrapha. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson. ISBN 1598564919. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
- Davidson, Gustav (1994). A dictionary of angels: including the fallen angels (1st Free Press pbk. ed.). New York: Free Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-02-907052-9.
- DDD, Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter W. van der Horst, (1998). Dictionary of deities and demons in the Bible (DDD) (2., extensively rev. ed.). Leiden: Brill. ISBN 9004111190.
- Douglas, James D. with Merrill Chapin Tenney, Moisés Silva (editors) (2011). Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Zondervan. ISBN 9780310229834. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link)
- Orlov, Andrei A. (2011). Dark mirrors: Azazel and Satanael in early Jewish demonology. Albany: State University of New York Press. ISBN 1438439512.
- Platt, Rutherford H. (2004). Forgotten Books of Eden (Reprint ed.). Forgotten Books. p. 239. ISBN 1605060976.
- Reed, Annette Yoshiko (2005). Fallen angels and the history of Judaism and Christianity : the reception of Enochic literature (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge [u.a.]: Cambridge University Press. p. 1. ISBN 978-0-521-85378-1.
- Schwartz, Howard (2004). Tree of souls: The mythology of Judaism. New York: Oxford U Pr. ISBN 0195086791.
- Wright, Archie T. (2004). The origin of evil spirits the reception of Genesis 6.1-4 in early Jewish literature. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck. ISBN 3161486560.
Further reading
Source of article : Wikipedia
0 Comments