Saturday, January 12, 2013

A Question or Two about Angels

Some days ago, I sat snuggled in my husband's comfy recliner looking up at our Christmas tree, unadorned except for some hard to reach ornaments, a strand or two of lights, and the angel sitting in her place of honor atop the fir.  Looking up at her, it occurred to me that contemporary representations of angels tend to be female, lovely or adorable female angels.   Does the Bible mention female angels? 

Angels are a part of many biblical narratives, but once we've stowed away the Christmas ornaments, who thinks about angels? 
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1 comment:

  1. TerenceJanuary 17, 2013 at 2:03 PM

    Zechariah 5:9 (NIV below in some context) speaks specifically of winged women. While the description might be considered allegory, it certainly speaks of winged women coming while he is talking with a male angel.

    Then the angel who was speaking to me came forward and said to me, “Look up and see what is appearing.” 6 I asked, “What is it?” He replied, “It is a basket.” And he added, “This is the iniquity of the people throughout the land.” 7 Then the cover of lead was raised, and there in the basket sat a woman! 8 He said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and pushed its lead cover down on it. 9 Then I looked up—and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth. 10 “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking to me. 11 He replied, “To the country of Babylonia to build a house for it. When the house is ready, the basket will be set there in its place.

    Also, the bible writers probably did not think this way, but why would they often specify that a particular angel was male unless there were female angels. Otherwise, they might just write "an angel" or just use their proper names: archangel Michael, archangel Gabriel, fallen angel Lucifer, fallen angel Abaddon [the destroyer], (Raphael or Uriel).

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