Angels are Men?

[dragon]

Are angels always portrayed as men in the bible?  why?

[shrekandogre]

coughmenarebettercough.  jk.

[dragon]

 

[Bronzesnake]

 Angels are sometimes described as creatures...

 Rev 4:7 And the first beast [was] like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast [was] like a flying eagle.  


 Rev 4:8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about [him]; and [they were] full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.  


 Rev 4:9 And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,  

Bronzesnake

[ajjessadams]

They must be men.  I've never found anywhere in the bible where on the way down from Heaven that they stopped to ask for directions.

[shrekandogre]

Of course.  And if heaven had a kitchen im sure they would have female angels but hey they never went hungry so that idea can be thrown out.  

[Willowbirch]

They must be men.  I've never found anywhere in the bible where on the way down from Heaven that they stopped to ask for directions.

     Yes, there are several places in the Bible where angels took the form of men (or riders, or soldiers); they are also described as invisible (being of spirit, rather than flesh), and when many of the prophets were given a glimpse of angelic hosts attending the Lord, the angels appeared like fiery, or flame-colored, winged serpents; they had several faces and straight legs with hooves; there were also many-eyed wheels, and the "living creatures" of Daniel and Revelation who appeared as leopards, eagles, etc. and had various types of faces. Ezekiel 1:4-25 is an interesting passage to read.
Nahum describes God's warriors as having red shields and crimson garments, and flashing like lightening and torches.
A missionary camp in Africa was preparing for an attack from a warring tribe. They prayed all night in the house, and hid the women and children in the safest area, but the attack never came. A few years later, one of the missionaries was treating an African who had fallen ill; the African told this missionary that he had formerly been a part of the warring tribe, and that the tribe had actually come to the borders of the camp where the Christians were praying. Suddenly, fiery monsters raced out of the woods and raced around and around the camp, and the attackers were too terrified to destroy the mission village as they had planned.

In all but one instance (from what I've read), the angels tend to be masculine, but there is a mention of "women with heron (or stork) wings" in Zachariah 5:9. This is the only case I've found so far where our modern-day interpretation of the appearance of angels (ladies with bird wings) exists.

[dragon]

  thanks, everyone.

why do you guys suppose angels take on these shapes?

[Willowbirch]

Just a funny...

I was in the grocery store yesterday morning, and one of the tabloid headlines read: "Angel Shot Down by Iraqis!" and beneath was a smudgy photo of a dead guy with outspread wings, and one of the wings had a bomb-hole in it...

One of the pictures scripture gives us of angels, besides their invisibility and immortality, is their incredible power; I was told that, when the angel "rolled away the stone" at Jesus's grave, not only was he moving a massive rock (uphill!) that usually took four men to roll, but the language used in that passage suggests that this angel actually flicked the stone into the next field...

Angel shot down by Iraqis?  

[Symphony]

Angel shot down by Iraqis ?

'Where there's suspicion in the wind, [Willow], it's going to be a dry summer."        (--Burt Lancaster, in The Rainmaker)

   

Seriously, I believe the term 'angel(s)' generally in the bible is used interchangeably with words 'the Lord'.  I believe it is this way in Acts, and in the OT, as in Genesis, in the visit to Abraham, by two or three angels, immediately b4 the destruction of Sodom.

It's not always totally clear whether such references therefore are literal beings, or the Spirit moving in someone's awareness, as in Peter's liberation from jail, by the angel, in Acts, which then becomes a 'vision' - nevertheless he is quite literally rescued from Herod's jailers - who subsequently are then put to death, with then Herod himself delivering his famous oratory, to then himself be eaten by worms.

There is a constant shifting from angel to Lord, in such passages, as with, also, i believe, Moses' witness of the burning bush, so the 'takeaway' effect is only an ethereal, slippery 'moving target' difficult to nail down precisely - tho that quite realistically is what happened to our Lord.  They were very precise in nailing Him down.  

 

[Willowbirch]

Dr. David Jeremiah gave an excellent series on angels, and published it in book form "What the Bible says about Angels"...