Why did biblically accurate angels fall out of fashion?

by Chaozekra

Whenever most people now imagine angels, they most likely picture a kind looking, humanoid angel with wings on the back not the terrifying abominations that are said to be biblically accurate. Why is that?

KimberStormer

You might check out this answer by u/sunagainstgold while waiting for others to arrive.

ncsuandrew12

(1/3) I don't know whether this will be considered in-depth enough for this subreddit, but I'm going to give it a shot.

Disclaimers

  1. I'm not a scholar, nor do I have any familiarity to speak of with biblical Greek or Hebrew. In particular, this could mean my assertions regarding the word "angel" are incorrect. For reference, I will be using the English Standard Version here. This is purely for reasons of familiarity; it is not necessarily the best translation for this sort of discussion.
  2. I have very little familiarity with books outside the 66 books typically considered canon by Protestants. So there could be something I'm not taking into account from, for example, the Book of Enoch.
  3. I can't really address your core question about historical changes in popular imaginings of angels, beyond regurgitating the point that Renaissance artists seem to have popularized the winged human image. What I can do is address the biblical accuracy of various angelic imagery (keeping the above disclaimers in mind).

The short version is that winged humans are not entirely biblically accurate. Still, they are much, much closer than the terrifying eldritch creatures that have (recently?) come to embody "biblically accurate angels" to the meme-smiths of Reddit and the Internet. The terrifying creatures are not described as "angels" in the Bible, though angels are often terrifying. The eyeball-covered wheels aren't even described as creatures per se. Angellic physical descriptions are limited, but generally indicate (wingless) humans, albeit often with something "special" about their appearance.

Let's take a look at various passages where angels (or characters/creatures that might be angels) appear in the biblical narrative.

Sodom

In Genesis 18, "the Lord" appears to Abraham:

And the Lord appeared to [Abraham] by the oaks of Mamre, [...] three men were standing in front of [Abraham]. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. [...] So they said, “Do as you have said.” And Abraham went quickly [...] and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.

None of these individuals are described as "angels", but to classify them as such seems reasonable when one continues reading:

Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.” So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord.

A somewhat lengthy back-and-forth between the Lord and Abraham ensues. Ultimately, "the Lord went his way" and the remaining two "men" continue to Sodom:

The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.

The story of Sodom is too lengthy to recount here, but hopefully this is enough to demonstrate that these angels were hardly eyeball-festooned creatures of terror. If it is not, one need only consider this particular part of the story:

And [the men of Sodom] called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”

Note that the Bible here is, unsurprisingly, using "know" in the "biblical" sense (as evidenced by Lot offering his daughters in their place in his response). In other words, the Sodomites wanted to sodomize the angels.

These angels are consistently described as "men". One can reasonably conclude that there was something not entirely normal about their appearance, but they are unlikely to have wings and certainly don't resemble "terrifying abominations".

Balaam

In Numbers 22, a prophet known as Balaam is riding a donkey when an angel appears several times.

But God's anger was kindled because [Balaam] went, and the angel of the Lord took his stand in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding on the donkey, and his two servants were with him. And the donkey saw the angel of the Lord standing in the road, with a drawn sword in his hand. And the donkey turned aside out of the road and went into the field. And Balaam struck the donkey, to turn her into the road. Then the angel of the Lord stood in a narrow path between the vineyards, with a wall on either side. And when the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she pushed against the wall and pressed Balaam's foot against the wall. So he struck her again. Then the angel of the Lord went ahead and stood in a narrow place, where there was no way to turn either to the right or to the left. When the donkey saw the angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam. And Balaam's anger was kindled, and he struck the donkey with his staff. Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, “What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?” And Balaam said to the donkey, “Because you have made a fool of me. I wish I had a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you.” And the donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey, on which you have ridden all your life long to this day? Is it my habit to treat you this way?” And he said, “No.”

Then the Lord opened the eyes of Balaam, and he saw the angel of the Lord standing in the way, with his drawn sword in his hand. And he bowed down and fell on his face. And the angel of the Lord said to him, “Why have you struck your donkey these three times? Behold, I have come out to oppose you because your way is perverse before me. The donkey saw me and turned aside before me these three times. If she had not turned aside from me, surely just now I would have killed you and let her live.” Then Balaam said to the angel of the Lord, “I have sinned, for I did not know that you stood in the road against me. Now therefore, if it is evil in your sight, I will turn back.” And the angel of the Lord said to Balaam, “Go with the men, but speak only the word that I tell you.” So Balaam went on with the princes of Balak.

The Bible is clear on this point: the donkey is female and therefore is unlikely to have the voice of Eddie Murphy.

More importantly, this depiction of an angel, as with Sodom, clearly indicates they are not to be trifled with, but neither are they these "terrifying abominations". This one is not quite called a "man", but his behavior is more consistent with a human (or at least humanoid) than, say, an eyeball-covered "wheel within a wheel" - he stands, he has hands, etc.

Gideon

In Israel's pre-monarchy days of the judges, an angel appears to Gideon in Judges 6.

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.”

The angel and Gideon converse a bit and the angel charges Gideon with leading Israel against the Midianites. This part of the conversation ends with Gideon requesting a supernatural sign that the angel (or the Lord?) is who he says he is.

And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” And he said to him, “If now I have found favor in your eyes, then show me a sign that it is you who speak with me. Please do not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”

Gideon prepares some meat and "cakes" and then:

Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. And fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord.

Setting aside that "the Lord" and "angel of the Lord" seem to be used interchangeably here (a recurring theme in such passages), note that the text explicitly states that it was the supernatural events that convinced Gideon this was indeed an angel. That would be rather odd if he were conversing with a creature that was convincingly supernatural in its very physical appearance.

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