Sometime before the creation of the stars, God created the angels. God said to Job:
When the stars were made, all My angels praised Me with a loud voice. (Job 38:7, LXX)
According to the Genesis account, God created the stars on the fourth day of creation. (Gen. 1:14-19) So, angels were created prior to that time.
In Ecclesiasticus, it says:
Wisdom hath been created before all things, and the understanding of prudence from everlasting. (Ecclesiasticus 1:4)
Blessed Augustine, commenting on this verse of Scripture, says:
For although we find no time before it, for wisdom was created before all things (Ecclesiasticus 1:4), — not certainly that Wisdom manifestly co-eternal and equal unto Thee, our God, His Father, and by Whom all things were created, and in Whom, as the Beginning, Thou createdst Heaven and Earth; but truly that wisdom which has been created, namely, the intellectual nature (Ecclesiasticus 1:4), which, in the contemplation of light, is light. For this, although created, is also called wisdom. But as great as is the difference between the Light which enlighteneth and that which is enlightened, so great is the difference between the Wisdom that createth and that which hath been created; as between the Righteousness which justifieth, and the righteousness which has been made by justification. For we also are called Thy righteousness; for thus saith a certain servant of Thine: “That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (II Cor. 5:21) Therefore, since a certain created wisdom was created before all things, the rational and intellectual mind of that chaste city of Thine, our mother which is above, and is free (Gal. 4:26), and “eternal in the heavens” (II Cor. 5:1) (in what heavens, unless in those that praise Thee, the “Heaven of Heavens” (Psalm 148:4), because this also is the “Heaven of Heavens,” which is the Lord’s) — although we find not time before it, because that which hath been created before all things also precedeth the creature of time, yet is the Eternity of the Creator Himself before it, from Whom, having been created, it took the beginning, although not of time, — for time as yet was not, — yet of its own very nature. (The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book XII, chapter 15, paragraph 20, by Blessed Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D., vol. 1, pp. 180-181, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series)
According to Blessed Augustine, this verse is talking about the creation of the intellectual nature, which occupies the Heaven of Heavens. This intellectual nature contemplates the Light of God and becomes light. This, in my opinion, is talking about the angels. According to Ecclesiasticus 1:4, then, God created the angels before He created anything else.
It appears, indeed, that even before this world an order of things existed of which our mind can form an idea, but of which we can say nothing, because it is too lofty a subject for men who are but beginners and are still babes in knowledge. The birth of the world was preceded by a condition of things suitable for the exercise of supernatural powers, outstripping the limits of time, eternal and infinite. The Creator and Demiurge of the universe perfected His works in it, spiritual light for the happiness of all who love the Lord, intellectual and invisible natures, all the orderly arrangement of pure intelligences who are beyond the reach of our mind and of whom we cannot even discover the names. They fill the essence of this invisible world, as Paul teaches us. “For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers” (Col. 1:16) or virtues or hosts of angels or the dignities of archangels. (The Hexaemeron, Homily I, paragraph 5, by St. Basil the Great, 329-379 A.D., vol. 8, p. 54, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Some, indeed, like Gregory the Theologian, say that these were before the creation of other things. He thinks that the angelic and heavenly powers were first and that thought was their function. Others, again, hold that they were created after the first heaven was made. But all are agreed that it was before the foundation of man. For myself, I am in harmony with the theologian. For it was fitting that the mental essence should be the first created, and then that which can be perceived, and finally man himself, in whose being both parts are united. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, chapter 3, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, page 19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Since the angels are light and derive their light from contemplating light, I think that God created them in His image and likeness.
They are secondary intelligent lights derived from that first light which is without beginning, for they have the power of illumination; they have no need of tongue or hearing, but without uttering words they communicate to each other their own thoughts and counsels. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, chapter 3, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, page 19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
He created them in wisdom.
How great are Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast Thou wrought them all: the Earth is filled with Thy creation. (Psalm 103:24, LXX)
They are created wisdom. (Ecclesiasticus 1:4) God created them to be objects of His love. (Wisdom 11:24) He also created them for Himself (Col. 1:16) and for His glory. (Ecclesiasticus 42:17)
The angels are created spirits. In the 103rd Psalm it says:
Who makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flaming fire. (Psalm 103:4, LXX)
Being spirits, they are made of a substance, but that substance is not the divine essence.
When we speak of the angels, we say that they are bodiless beings. From a human standpoint, they do not have bodies, but from God's standpoint they do have bodies.
An angel, then, is an intelligent essence, in perpetual motion, with free-will, incorporeal, ministering to God, having obtained by grace an immortal nature: and the Creator alone knows the form and limitation of its essence. But all that we can understand is, that it is incorporeal and immaterial. For all that is compared with God Who alone is incomparable, we find to be dense and material. For in reality only the Deity is immaterial and incorporeal. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, chapter 3, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, page 19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Although they are bodiless, they are capable of eating our solid, material food. (Gen. 18:1-8; 19:1-3) They even have food of their own that they eat and we are able to eat it as well.
Yet He commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of Heaven, and rained upon them manna to eat, and gave them the bread of Heaven. Man ate angels’ bread; He sent them provision to the full. (Psalm 77:23-25, LXX)
They are also capable of procreating with humans. (Gen. 6:1-4) They even procreate among themselves, but they do not marry. St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote:
Now here again the true answer, whatever it may be, can be clear to those only who, like Paul, have been instructed in the mysteries of Paradise; but our answer is as follows. When the Sadducees once argued against the doctrine of the resurrection, and brought forward, to establish their own opinion, that woman of many marriages, who had been wife to seven brethren, and thereupon inquired whose wife she will be after the resurrection, our Lord answered their argument so as not only to instruct the Sadducees, but also to reveal to all that come after them the mystery of the resurrection-life: “for in the resurrection,” He says, “they neither marry, nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” (St. Luke 20:35,36) Now the resurrection promises us nothing else than the restoration of the fallen to their ancient state; for the grace we look for is a certain return to the first life, bringing back again to Paradise him who was cast out from it. If then the life of those restored is closely related to that of the angels, it is clear that the life before the transgression was a kind of angelic life, and hence also our return to the ancient condition of our life is compared to the angels. Yet while, as has been said, there is no marriage among them, the armies of the angels are in countless myriads; for so Daniel declared in his visions: so, in the same way, if there had not come upon us as the result of sin a change for the worse, and removal from equality with the angels, neither should we have needed marriage that we might multiply but whatever the mode of increase in the angelic nature is (unspeakable and inconceivable by human conjectures, except that it assuredly exists), it would have operated also in the case of men, who were “made a little lower than the angels” (Psalm 8:5, LXX; Heb. 2:7), to increase mankind to the measure determined by its Maker.
But if any one finds a difficulty in an inquiry as to the manner of the generation of souls, had man not needed the assistance of marriage, we shall ask him in turn, what is the mode of the angelic existence, how they exist in countless myriads, being one essence, and at the same time numerically many; for we shall be giving a fit answer to one who raises the question how man would have been without marriage, if we say, “as the angels are without marriage;” for the fact that man was in a like condition with them before the transgression is shown by the restoration to that state. (On the Making of Man, chapter 17, paragraphs 2-3, by St. Gregory of Nyssa, 331-395 A.D., vol. 5, p. 407, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
There is evidence in the Sacred Scriptures that angels procreate. The Archangel Raphael claimed to have a father whose name is Ananias the Great. (Tobit 5:12) St. Paul said that there is an innumerable company of angels. (Heb. 12:22) Such a vast number of angels is most likely the result of billions of years of procreation.
This is a drawing of angel children. There is very good reason to believe that angels, like humans, procreate and have children.
Since they procreate, they apparently exist in both genders as male and female. In Zechariah, there is a vision of two women who have wings.
And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, two women coming forth, and the wind was in their wings; and they had stork’s wings: and they lifted up the measure between the earth and the sky. (Zech. 5:9, LXX)
In the annotations of the Orthodox Study Bible, it says that these winged women are angelic women.
Although angels eat food and procreate, they are immortal. (St. Luke 20:36)
Angels can speak human languages, but they also have their own language that they use among themselves. (I Cor. 13:1)
Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
When the stars were made, all My angels praised Me with a loud voice. (Job 38:7, LXX)
According to the Genesis account, God created the stars on the fourth day of creation. (Gen. 1:14-19) So, angels were created prior to that time.
In Ecclesiasticus, it says:
Wisdom hath been created before all things, and the understanding of prudence from everlasting. (Ecclesiasticus 1:4)
Blessed Augustine, commenting on this verse of Scripture, says:
For although we find no time before it, for wisdom was created before all things (Ecclesiasticus 1:4), — not certainly that Wisdom manifestly co-eternal and equal unto Thee, our God, His Father, and by Whom all things were created, and in Whom, as the Beginning, Thou createdst Heaven and Earth; but truly that wisdom which has been created, namely, the intellectual nature (Ecclesiasticus 1:4), which, in the contemplation of light, is light. For this, although created, is also called wisdom. But as great as is the difference between the Light which enlighteneth and that which is enlightened, so great is the difference between the Wisdom that createth and that which hath been created; as between the Righteousness which justifieth, and the righteousness which has been made by justification. For we also are called Thy righteousness; for thus saith a certain servant of Thine: “That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.” (II Cor. 5:21) Therefore, since a certain created wisdom was created before all things, the rational and intellectual mind of that chaste city of Thine, our mother which is above, and is free (Gal. 4:26), and “eternal in the heavens” (II Cor. 5:1) (in what heavens, unless in those that praise Thee, the “Heaven of Heavens” (Psalm 148:4), because this also is the “Heaven of Heavens,” which is the Lord’s) — although we find not time before it, because that which hath been created before all things also precedeth the creature of time, yet is the Eternity of the Creator Himself before it, from Whom, having been created, it took the beginning, although not of time, — for time as yet was not, — yet of its own very nature. (The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book XII, chapter 15, paragraph 20, by Blessed Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D., vol. 1, pp. 180-181, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series)
According to Blessed Augustine, this verse is talking about the creation of the intellectual nature, which occupies the Heaven of Heavens. This intellectual nature contemplates the Light of God and becomes light. This, in my opinion, is talking about the angels. According to Ecclesiasticus 1:4, then, God created the angels before He created anything else.
It appears, indeed, that even before this world an order of things existed of which our mind can form an idea, but of which we can say nothing, because it is too lofty a subject for men who are but beginners and are still babes in knowledge. The birth of the world was preceded by a condition of things suitable for the exercise of supernatural powers, outstripping the limits of time, eternal and infinite. The Creator and Demiurge of the universe perfected His works in it, spiritual light for the happiness of all who love the Lord, intellectual and invisible natures, all the orderly arrangement of pure intelligences who are beyond the reach of our mind and of whom we cannot even discover the names. They fill the essence of this invisible world, as Paul teaches us. “For by him were all things created that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers” (Col. 1:16) or virtues or hosts of angels or the dignities of archangels. (The Hexaemeron, Homily I, paragraph 5, by St. Basil the Great, 329-379 A.D., vol. 8, p. 54, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Some, indeed, like Gregory the Theologian, say that these were before the creation of other things. He thinks that the angelic and heavenly powers were first and that thought was their function. Others, again, hold that they were created after the first heaven was made. But all are agreed that it was before the foundation of man. For myself, I am in harmony with the theologian. For it was fitting that the mental essence should be the first created, and then that which can be perceived, and finally man himself, in whose being both parts are united. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, chapter 3, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, page 19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Since the angels are light and derive their light from contemplating light, I think that God created them in His image and likeness.
They are secondary intelligent lights derived from that first light which is without beginning, for they have the power of illumination; they have no need of tongue or hearing, but without uttering words they communicate to each other their own thoughts and counsels. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, chapter 3, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, page 19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
He created them in wisdom.
How great are Thy works, O Lord! In wisdom hast Thou wrought them all: the Earth is filled with Thy creation. (Psalm 103:24, LXX)
They are created wisdom. (Ecclesiasticus 1:4) God created them to be objects of His love. (Wisdom 11:24) He also created them for Himself (Col. 1:16) and for His glory. (Ecclesiasticus 42:17)
The angels are created spirits. In the 103rd Psalm it says:
Who makes His angels spirits, and His ministers a flaming fire. (Psalm 103:4, LXX)
Being spirits, they are made of a substance, but that substance is not the divine essence.
When we speak of the angels, we say that they are bodiless beings. From a human standpoint, they do not have bodies, but from God's standpoint they do have bodies.
An angel, then, is an intelligent essence, in perpetual motion, with free-will, incorporeal, ministering to God, having obtained by grace an immortal nature: and the Creator alone knows the form and limitation of its essence. But all that we can understand is, that it is incorporeal and immaterial. For all that is compared with God Who alone is incomparable, we find to be dense and material. For in reality only the Deity is immaterial and incorporeal. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, chapter 3, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, page 19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
Although they are bodiless, they are capable of eating our solid, material food. (Gen. 18:1-8; 19:1-3) They even have food of their own that they eat and we are able to eat it as well.
Yet He commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of Heaven, and rained upon them manna to eat, and gave them the bread of Heaven. Man ate angels’ bread; He sent them provision to the full. (Psalm 77:23-25, LXX)
They are also capable of procreating with humans. (Gen. 6:1-4) They even procreate among themselves, but they do not marry. St. Gregory of Nyssa wrote:
Now here again the true answer, whatever it may be, can be clear to those only who, like Paul, have been instructed in the mysteries of Paradise; but our answer is as follows. When the Sadducees once argued against the doctrine of the resurrection, and brought forward, to establish their own opinion, that woman of many marriages, who had been wife to seven brethren, and thereupon inquired whose wife she will be after the resurrection, our Lord answered their argument so as not only to instruct the Sadducees, but also to reveal to all that come after them the mystery of the resurrection-life: “for in the resurrection,” He says, “they neither marry, nor are given in marriage neither can they die any more, for they are equal to the angels, and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.” (St. Luke 20:35,36) Now the resurrection promises us nothing else than the restoration of the fallen to their ancient state; for the grace we look for is a certain return to the first life, bringing back again to Paradise him who was cast out from it. If then the life of those restored is closely related to that of the angels, it is clear that the life before the transgression was a kind of angelic life, and hence also our return to the ancient condition of our life is compared to the angels. Yet while, as has been said, there is no marriage among them, the armies of the angels are in countless myriads; for so Daniel declared in his visions: so, in the same way, if there had not come upon us as the result of sin a change for the worse, and removal from equality with the angels, neither should we have needed marriage that we might multiply but whatever the mode of increase in the angelic nature is (unspeakable and inconceivable by human conjectures, except that it assuredly exists), it would have operated also in the case of men, who were “made a little lower than the angels” (Psalm 8:5, LXX; Heb. 2:7), to increase mankind to the measure determined by its Maker.
But if any one finds a difficulty in an inquiry as to the manner of the generation of souls, had man not needed the assistance of marriage, we shall ask him in turn, what is the mode of the angelic existence, how they exist in countless myriads, being one essence, and at the same time numerically many; for we shall be giving a fit answer to one who raises the question how man would have been without marriage, if we say, “as the angels are without marriage;” for the fact that man was in a like condition with them before the transgression is shown by the restoration to that state. (On the Making of Man, chapter 17, paragraphs 2-3, by St. Gregory of Nyssa, 331-395 A.D., vol. 5, p. 407, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
This is a painting of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child and St. John the Baptist. It was painted by Francois Boucher and is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Notice the baby angels in the painting. Photo courtesy: Metropolitan Museum of Art
There is evidence in the Sacred Scriptures that angels procreate. The Archangel Raphael claimed to have a father whose name is Ananias the Great. (Tobit 5:12) St. Paul said that there is an innumerable company of angels. (Heb. 12:22) Such a vast number of angels is most likely the result of billions of years of procreation.
This is a drawing of angel children. There is very good reason to believe that angels, like humans, procreate and have children.
Since they procreate, they apparently exist in both genders as male and female. In Zechariah, there is a vision of two women who have wings.
And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, two women coming forth, and the wind was in their wings; and they had stork’s wings: and they lifted up the measure between the earth and the sky. (Zech. 5:9, LXX)
In the annotations of the Orthodox Study Bible, it says that these winged women are angelic women.
Just as there are male angels, so are there female angels.
Although angels eat food and procreate, they are immortal. (St. Luke 20:36)
Angels can speak human languages, but they also have their own language that they use among themselves. (I Cor. 13:1)
This is a picture of an angel child writing at a desk. There are the tongues of men and also the tongues of angels. (I Corinthians 13:1)
The angels are responsible for protecting God's people and helping them.
The angel of the Lord will encamp round about them that fear Him, and will deliver them. (Psalm 33:7, LXX)
For He shall give His angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up on their hands, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Psalm 90:11,12, LXX)
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? (Heb. 1:14)
They also are responsible for inflicting God's judgments.
Let them that seek my soul be ashamed and confounded: let them that devise evils against me be turned back and put to shame. Let them be as dust before the wind, and an angel of the Lord afflicting them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and an angel of the Lord persecuting them. (Psalm 34:4-6, LXX)
There be spirits that are created for vengeance, which in their fury lay on sore strokes; in the time of destruction they pour out their force, and appease the wrath of Him that made them. (Ecclesiasticus 39:28)
In the Bible, there are nine choirs of angels mentioned.
Moreover, as that most holy, and sacred, and gifted theologian, Dionysius the Areopagite, says, All theology, that is to say, the holy Scripture, has nine different names for the heavenly essences. These essences that divine master in sacred things divides into three groups, each containing three. And the first group, he says, consists of those who are in God’s presence and are said to be directly and immediately one with Him, viz., the Seraphim with their six wings, the many-eyed Cherubim and those that sit in the holiest thrones. The second group is that of the Dominions, and the Powers, and the Authorities; and the third, and last, is that of the Rulers and Archangels and Angels. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, chapter 3, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, page 19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
The angels consider God's people to be their brothers and sisters. (Tobit 5:12; 6:10; Rev. 19:10)
Although we can talk to the angels, they rarely talk to us. We should honor them since we are a little lower than they are. (Heb. 2:7) We must never worship them because they are creatures that God has created.
In the Orthodox Church, there are prayers that we pray to angels. These prayers contain formal requests that we make to the angels. Prayer is a form of communication. It is not necessarily an act of worship. We are supposed to offer our prayers to God as worship. We offer our prayers to the angels to ask for their help or to honor them since they are in closer communion with God than we are. We are not supposed to offer prayers to angels as worship. They do not even want us to worship them. (Judges 13:16; Rev. 19:10)
Steve
The angels are responsible for protecting God's people and helping them.
The angel of the Lord will encamp round about them that fear Him, and will deliver them. (Psalm 33:7, LXX)
For He shall give His angels charge concerning thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up on their hands, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. (Psalm 90:11,12, LXX)
Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation? (Heb. 1:14)
They also are responsible for inflicting God's judgments.
Let them that seek my soul be ashamed and confounded: let them that devise evils against me be turned back and put to shame. Let them be as dust before the wind, and an angel of the Lord afflicting them. Let their way be dark and slippery, and an angel of the Lord persecuting them. (Psalm 34:4-6, LXX)
There be spirits that are created for vengeance, which in their fury lay on sore strokes; in the time of destruction they pour out their force, and appease the wrath of Him that made them. (Ecclesiasticus 39:28)
In the Bible, there are nine choirs of angels mentioned.
Moreover, as that most holy, and sacred, and gifted theologian, Dionysius the Areopagite, says, All theology, that is to say, the holy Scripture, has nine different names for the heavenly essences. These essences that divine master in sacred things divides into three groups, each containing three. And the first group, he says, consists of those who are in God’s presence and are said to be directly and immediately one with Him, viz., the Seraphim with their six wings, the many-eyed Cherubim and those that sit in the holiest thrones. The second group is that of the Dominions, and the Powers, and the Authorities; and the third, and last, is that of the Rulers and Archangels and Angels. (An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, chapter 3, by St. John of Damascus, 645-750 A.D., vol. 9, part 2, page 19, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series)
The angels consider God's people to be their brothers and sisters. (Tobit 5:12; 6:10; Rev. 19:10)
Although we can talk to the angels, they rarely talk to us. We should honor them since we are a little lower than they are. (Heb. 2:7) We must never worship them because they are creatures that God has created.
In the Orthodox Church, there are prayers that we pray to angels. These prayers contain formal requests that we make to the angels. Prayer is a form of communication. It is not necessarily an act of worship. We are supposed to offer our prayers to God as worship. We offer our prayers to the angels to ask for their help or to honor them since they are in closer communion with God than we are. We are not supposed to offer prayers to angels as worship. They do not even want us to worship them. (Judges 13:16; Rev. 19:10)
Steve
Bibliography
Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Alexander Roberts, D.D. & James Donaldson, LL.D., volumes 1-10, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, edited by Philip Schaff, D.D., LL.D. & Henry Wace, D.D., volumes 1-14, Hendrickson Publishers, Inc., Peabody, Massachusetts
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