Gen 16:7
The bearer of the divine word is described as “an angel of the LORD.” Hebrew malʾakh derives from a stem l-ʾ-k, “to send,” which is used as a verb in Ugaritic, Arabic, and Ethiopic. Malʾakh, like the Greek angelos, from which the English “angel” is derived, means nothing more than “messenger.” It is used of ordinary humans, as in Genesis 32: 4, Judges 9: 31, and 1 Kings 19: 2, as well as of spiritual beings. A prophet or priest may also be called “an angel of the LORD,” as in Haggai 1: 13 and Malachi 2: 7. No special importance attaches to angels in preexilic biblical literature. Information about the nature of belief in them is very sparse. They are nameless; they are without any mythological qualities; they enjoy neither individuality nor free will, and there is no hierarchy among them. Their sole function is as the emissary of God to carry out His specific charge. From several texts it is clear that the demarcation between God and His angel is often blurred. Hagar is addressed by the angel (16: 7– 8, 9, 11) but she responds directly to God (v. 13). The same interchange of speakers occurs in Genesis 22: 11– 12, 15– 18 and at the incident at the burning bush in Exodus 3: 2, 4. At the Exodus from Egypt it is now God (Exod. 13: 21), now His angel (14: 9) who goes ahead of the Israelite camp. In the story of Gideon (Judg. 6: 11– 23) God and His angel speak interchangeably. On the other hand, angels most frequently assume human form so that the individuals to whom they appear are at first unaware of their angelic nature. Such is the case, for instance, in Genesis 18– 19. The three who visit Abraham are variously described as “men” (18: 1, 16, 22; 19: 5, 10, 12, 16) and as “angels” (19: 1, 15), and the Sodomites certainly perceive them to be humans (19: 5, 9). In the case of the mother of Samson (Judg. 13), the one who appears to her is “an angel of the LORD” (v. 3) whom she describes as “a man of God” who “looked like an angel of God, very frightening” (v. 6). When the angel reappears to her husband, Manoah does not recognize him as such (v. 16) until he disappears in the flames on the altar (vv. 20f.). Several suggestions have been made to account for the presence of angelology in Israel. Some see a borrowing from Near Eastern mythology in which deities are surrounded by ministers semidivine, semihuman. In Ugaritic the messenger who goes back and forth between the gods is termed mlʾk. It is hypothesized that Israel borrowed, refined, and monotheized the notion. Another view regards the angel as the personified extension of God’s will, or the personification of His self-manifestation. A third theory sees the angel as a conceptual device to avoid anthropomorphism. He serves as a mediator between the transcendent God and His mundane world. Angelology largely disappears with the advent of classical prophecy in the middle of the eighth century B.C.E., only to reappear in postexilic times in highly developed and complex forms.