Journal: Southern Baptist Journal of Theology
Volume: SBJT 25:2 (Summer 2021)
Article: Angels In Scripture
Author: John R. Gilhooly

SBJT 25:2 (Summer 2021) p. 9

Angels In Scripture

John R. Gilhooly

John R. Gilhooly is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Theology and Director of the Honors Program at Cedarville University, Cedarville, Ohio. He earned his PhD from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, Texas. He is the author of several books, including 40 Questions About Angels, Demons, and Spiritual Warfare (Kregel, 2018). Gilhooly has written articles in Journal for Septuagint and Cognate Studies and Philosophia Christi, as well as translations of medieval texts. He is married to Ginger and they have three children.

The angels are minor characters in the story of Scripture. Even so, they frequently adorn the narratives and the relative paucity of information about them in Scripture has sometimes led to excesses in popular theology and culture. Fewer places in Christian theology seem more apt for superstition than angelology and demonology. A remedy for much of this speculation is a firmer grasp on what the Scripture does (and does not) say about the angels. Of course, the place to start is with the word “angel,” which—at the risk of sounding unbelievable—is not itself a word in the biblical languages. Angel is a theological word: indeed, a Christian one—it arises through the process of translation. This fact gives us no reason to be suspicious of it. Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek simply do not have a specific term for angel—that is, for a purely spiritual rational creature, as English does. Each of the biblical languages uses other words that also have other meanings to refer to the creatures that we call angels. The most common term that is translated “angel” in English is the word for “messenger” in each of those languages (Heb/ Ara. mal’akh; Gk. angelos). Angel enters the English translations by way of Latin, which has distinct words for messenger (nuntius) and the creature called angel (angelus).1 So, in the biblical texts, we see frequent reference to a kind of messenger or messengers who are not human and yet are like us in many ways—they are moral, rational beings.2

SBJT 25:2 (Summer 2021) p. 10

The history of the angelic beings is not as complete in the record of Scripture as people have sometimes wished or claimed. For example, there is no narrative in Scripture about the creation of the angels nor about the event that precipitated the moral fall of the demons, demon being the word in Christian theology that is used to refer to angels whose moral character has been corrupted by sin. That the angels are created by God is clear (e.g., Ps ...