chy of angels belongs to the Jewish literature of the period 200
B.C. to A.D. 100. In Jewish apocalypses especially, the imagination
ran riot on the rank, classes and names of angels; and such works as
the various books of Enoch and the _Ascension of Isaiah_ supply much
information on this subject.

[v.02 p.0006]

In the New Testament angels appear frequently as the ministers of God
and the agents of revelation;[30] and Our Lord speaks of angels
as fulfilling such functions,[31] implying in one saying that they
neither marry nor are given in marriage.[32] Naturally angels are most
prominent in the Apocalypse. The New Testament takes little interest
in the idea of the angelic hierarchy, but there are traces of the
doctrine. The distinction of good and bad angels is recognized; we
have names, Gabriel,[33] and the evil angels Abaddon or Apollyon,[34]
Beelzebub.[35] and Satan;[36] ranks are implied, archangels,[37]
principalities and powers,[38] thrones and dominions.[39] Angels
occur in groups of four or seven.[40] In Rev. i.-iii. we meet with
the "Angels" of the Seven Churches of Asia Minor. These are probably
guardian angels, standing to the churches in the same relation that
the "princes" in Daniel stand to the nations; practically the "angels"
are personifications of the churches. A less likely view is that the
"angels" are the human representatives of the churches, the bishops or
chief presbyters. There seems, however, no parallel to such a use
of "angel," and it is doubtful whether the monarchical government of
churches was fully developed when the Apocalypse was written.

Later Jewish and Christian speculation followed on the lines of the
angelology of the earlier apocalypses; and angels play an important
part in Gnostic systems and in the Jewish Midrashim and the Kabbala.
Religious thought about the angels during the middle ages was much
influenced by the theory of the angelic hierarchy set forth in the
_De Hierarchia Celesti_, written in the 5th century in the name
of Dionysius the Areopagite and passing for his. The creeds and
confessions do not formulate any authoritative doctrine of angels; and
modern rationalism has tended to deny the existence of such beings,
or to regard the subject as one on which we can have no certain
knowledge. The principle of continuity, however, seems to require the
existence of beings intermediate between man and God.

The Old Testament says nothing about the origin of angels; bu