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August 10, 2005

Ch. XIII. Q. 79. Their Nature

THE angels (αγγελος, messenger) constitute a great host of personal spirits,1 rational, free, incorporeal and immortal. Although possessed of similar natures, they do not appear to be mutually related, as men are, by the laws of ancestry or descent.2 They seem to be at least as ancient as mankind, but the time of their creation is not revealed.3

2. The fact of angelic probation, and that of the moral accountability of evil angels for their fall, 4 establish the freedom of angels, who are described in Holy Scripture as acting like free agents 5 and as possessing moral characters which pertain to such agents. 6

3. Freedom involves rational intelligence and personality. AngeIic intelligence exceeds that of man in this life, 7 but is necessarily finite. Angels cannot directly discern our thoughts, 8 and their knowledge of the mysteries of grace is limited to what is revealed to the Church. 9 They do not know the time of the judgment. 10

4. Being by nature incorporeal 11 the bodies in which angels appear to men must be either docetic or temporarily assumed. 12 Although immortal, as all spirits are, their existence and continuance is derivative, being caused by the will of God and by His creative and sustaining power. 13

5. The power which men have to manipulate the forces and operations of nature for their own purposes appears to be possessed in higher degree by the angels; 14 and they exercise some power over human organisms, 15 over physical death. 16

6. The lack of that community of nature which organic relationship imparts to mankind is thought to explain the fact that some of the angels fell without involving the rest in their ruin. 17 It is also thought to explain why the Saviour did not take the nature of angels for their salvation. 18

7. The number of angels is very great, and they are revealed as organized in hosts. 19 Following the speculative conclusions of pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, scholastic writers divide the angels, according to the names given to them in Scripture, into three hierarchies, each containing three orders : 20—(a) Thrones,21 cherubim22 and seraphim;23 (b) Dominations,24 virtues25 and powers;26 (c) Principalities,27 archangels28 and angels.29 The first hierarchy is supposed to attend immediately on God;30 the second to operate in nature 31 and in warfare; the third to fulfil special missions and minister to men. Holy Scripture seems to teach the existence of seven archangels. 32 Four of them are named in the canonical and deutero-canonical Scriptures, viz.: SS. Michael,33 Gabriel,34 Raphiel35 and Uriel.36 Three others are named in Jewish tradition,37 viz.: SS. Chamuel, Jophiel, and Zadkiel.


1 Neh. ix. 6; Psa. xxxiii. 6; civ. 4; Heb. i. 7: Col. i. 16; Revel. xxii. 8-9; 2 Macc. vii. 28. Cf. refs. given in n. 1 of Q. 78.

2 St. Matt. xxii. 30.

3 St. Thomas. I. lxi; Bp. Bull, Works, Vol. I., pp. 270- 272: F.X. Schoppe, Elem. Theol. Dogm., Tr. VII. 58; Darwell Stone; Outlines, pp. 34-35, 281.

4 St. Jude 6; Revel, xii. 7-9.

5 E. g. 1 Kings xxli. 19-22; 2 Tim. ii. 26.

6 Dan. iv. 13, 23; viii. 13; St. Matt. xxv. 31; Revel. xv. 6. St. Thomas, 1. lix; F.X. Schouppe, T.R. VII. §§ 49, 67.

7 2 Sam. xiv. 20. St. Thomas, I. liv-lviii; Rich. Hooker, Eccles. Polity, I. vi. 1.

8 I Kings viii. 39; Jerem. xvii. 9-10.

9 Ephes. iii. 10; 1 St. Pet. i. 12.

10 St. Matt. xxiv. 36; St. Mark xiii. 32.

11 Ephes. vi. 10: Heb. i. 7, 14. St. Thomns. I. l. 1; li. 1-3; Bp. Bull. pp. 270, 277.

12 Judges xiii. 6; Tobit xii. 19.

13 St. Luke xx. 36.

14 Acts xii. 7-10; Revel. vii. 1-3; viii. 5-12; xvi. 1-14.

15 Dan. x. 18; St. Matt iv. 11; St. Luke i. 20-22; xxii. 43; St. John v. 4.

16 2 Sam. xxiv. 16; Acts xii. 23.

17 St. Thomas, I. 1. 4: A.J. Mason, Faith of the Gospel, ch. iii. 6, Bp. Andrewes, Serrnons on the Nativity, I.

18 Heb. ii. 16. Cf., however, B. F. Westcott, in loc.

19 Gen. xxxii. 2; St. Matt. xxvi. 53; St. Luke ii. 13; Heb. xii. 22.

20 Pseudo-Dionysius Areop., Coelesti Hierarchia; St. Thomas, I. cviii. Cf. J.B. Lightfoot, Coloss.; i. 16. T.K. Abbott, Ephes., i. 21 (note).

21 Col. i. 16.

22 Gen. iii. 24; Exod. xxv. 20; Psa. Ixxx. I; xcix. I.

23 Isa. vi. 1-3.

24 Ephes. i. 21.

25 Psa. ciii. 20.

26 Ephes. i. 21; iii. 10, Col. ii. 10.

27 Idem.

28 Dan. x. 20, 21; xii. 1; I Thess. iv. 16.

29 Heb. i. 14, etc.

30 Cf. however, St. Matt. xiii. 10.

31 Psa. civ. 4; Acts xii. 7-10; Revel. vii. 1; xvi. St. Thomas, I. cx; cxiv. 4; III (suppl.) xci. vel xciii; J.H. Newman, Paroch. Sermons, xxix.

32 Zech. iii. 9; Revel. i. 4; iii. 1; iv. 5; v. 6. Cf. Tobit xii. 15.

33 Dan x. 13; xii. 1; St. Jude 9; Revel. xii. 7.

34 Dan. viii. 16; ix. 21; St. Luke i. 19, 26.

35 Tobit iii. 17; xii. 15.

36 2 Esdras iv. 1.

37 On later Jewish speculations, Hastings, Dic. of Bible, extra vol., pp. 285-290; A. Edersheim, Life and Times of Jesus, App. xiii.

Posted by AKMA at August 10, 2005 12:22 PM

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