De Moor IX:4: Angels as Creatures, Part 1

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Angels are defined, etc.[1]  ATHANASIUS, de Communione Essentiæ Patris, Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, opera, tome I, page 238:  Τὶ ἐστιν ὅρος οὐσίας Ἀγγέλου;  Ἄγγελος γὰρ ζῶον λογικὸν, ἄϋλον, ὑμνολογικὸν, ἀθάνατον, What is the definition of the essence of an Angel?  An Angel is living being, rational, immaterial, hymn-singing, and immortal.  JOHN OF DAMASCUS, Concerning the Orthodox Faith, book II, chapter III near the beginning:  Ἄγγελος τοίνυν ἐστὶν οὐσία νοερὰ, ἀεικίνητος, αὐτεξούσιος, ἀσώματος, Θεῷ λειτουγοῦσα, κατὰ χάριν ἐν τῇ φύσει τὸ ἀθάνατον εἰληφυΐα·  ἧς οὐσίας τὸ εἶδος καὶ τὸν ὅρον μόνος ὁ κτιστὴς ἐπίσταται, Therefore, an Angel is a being intelligent, perpetually moving, free, incorporeal, serving God, by grace receiving immortality in its nature:  the form and definition of which nature the Creator alone understands.

They were created, or produced by a transient operation of God, and so are by no means co-eternal with God, as the Peripatetics among the Gentile Philosophers maintained, while Plato more correctly thought Angels to have been produced by τῷ ἐπὶ πᾶσι Θεῷ, God, who is over all.  The Simonians,[2] Saturninians,[3] and Manicheans[4] are said to have imitated the Peripatetics; nevertheless, the Manicheans are regarded at the same time to have attributed to Angels an origin from the ultimate principle of Evil:  see comparing HEINRICH ALTING’S[5] Theologiam problematicam novam, locus V, problem VII, page 321; VOSSIUS’ de Idololatria Gentili, book I, chapter VII, opera, tome 5, page 18.

Now, that Angels were created by God, is readily apparent, α.  from Reason, since, 1.  whatever exists is either God or a creature; but there is only One God; and, that there are not multiple gods, was seen above, Chapter IV, § 23.  2.  The Dependent Nature of Angels and their Subjection to God argues the Creation of the same by God; since, if they were uncreated, they would also be independent.  3.  But, if they were created by God, then they are not able to be co-eternal with God, since to be created presupposes non-being, but to be eternal implies always being.

β.  The same is taught by Scripture here and there, Psalm 104:4a, ‎עֹשֶׂ֣ה מַלְאָכָ֣יו רוּח֑וֹת, who maketh His angels spirits, from which words both the Creation of Angels, and their Spiritual Nature, are proven.  And one may affirm with our AUTHOR, Exercitationibus Textualibus XXXVII, § 13, Part VI, page 404, that this saying of the Psalm is tortured and twisted by Thomas Bartholin, expounded quite differently and more correctly by Paul; when, of course, BARTHOLIN, a Danish Physician,[6] in his Paralyticis Novi Testamenti, pages 85-87, writes in the words cited in that place:  I set forth the text of Psalm 104:4….  It is to be understood of the wind, not of an incorporeal substance….  Let my sanity be questions, if they are able to extract the mention of a true Angel from the whole context, etc….  Doubt remains from Hebrews 1:7, where the same words of the Psalm are repeated, but applied to true Angels….  But…it was not the intention of the Apostle to expound what the Psalmist meant in that place, where he clearly weaves together the classes and series of natural things; but with easy freedom he shifted to the analogy between the obedience that the winds openly and in a sensible manner yield to God, and that which He receives from Angels, etc.  But it is forbidden to us thus to trifle in the interpretation of Scripture.  1.  Paul expressly affirms that this was said of Angels, Hebrews 1:7,[7] repeating hence also the article τοὺς before ἀγγέλους/angels and λειτουργοὺς/ministers as the subject of the speech:  and to this he again has regard and appeals in verse 14, teaching at the same time that רוּחוֹת is not to be expounded as Winds, but as rational Spirits:  as in that passage in context the Apostles is also completely in this, that he might demonstrate the dignity and excellence of Christ, not above winds and fire or lightning, but above the Angels:  but now we have confidence in Paul as interpreter, rather than in Bartholin.  2.  The simplicity of the text in Psalm 104:4, with the other member of the same verse collated, teaches that מַלְאָכָיו, His angels, is to be considered the subject, רוּחוֹת/spirits the predicate, and not the other way around:  otherwise, with flaming fire in the singular, if it pertains to the subject of the speech, is not correctly constructed ‎מְשָׁרְתָיו, His ministers, in the plural.  3.  Where we are able to retain the solemn signification of מַלְאָכָיו, His angels, one may not flee to this sort of unusual exposition of that term concerning Winds.  4.  Now, these words concerning Angels are best to be explained by the context:  for, where the Psalmist enumerates God’s heavenly ministers and attendants to magnify God’s glorious majesty, and shows that all creatures in the heavens ought to serve the interests of His Magnificence, after the review of all the other irrational things and, among those, the ‎רוּחַ/wind also, verse 3; it was not fitting that the principal, rational ministers of God should be ignored, verse 4:  consult also ODÉ’S Commentarium de Angelis, section VIII, chapter I, § 1, pages 734, 735; SURENHUSIUS’[8] Βίβλον καταλλαγῆς on Hebrews 1:7, page 597.  Similarly in Psalm 148 the Angels of the Lord or His Hosts are called to the praise of Jehovah, because they were created at His command, if you compare verses 2 and 5.  In Colossians 1:16, τὰ ἀόρατα, the things invisible, lead us especially to spiritual creatures, which are altogether invisible, just as in verse 15 God is called Θεὸς ἀόρατος, the invisible God;[9] and so to Angels, set forth more distinctly then under multiple metaphorical and metonymical names; and, moreover, comprehended under the general name of τὰ πάντα, all things, which follows, concerning which it is affirmed that ἔκτισται, they were created.  And, although Moses does not so explicitly narrate the Creation of Angels in the beginning of the book of Genesis, yet he did not completely pass over the same, writing in Genesis 2:1, ‎וְכָל־צְבָאָם, and all the host of them:  now each of the Heavens has its own Host, but the Hosts of the highest Heaven are the Angels, who are not only called the Angels of heaven, but also often go under the name of the Host of heaven; more particularly, on account of the great multitude of Angels, the undoubtedly optimal order of the same, and their subjection under God and the Archangel, the Prince of the host of Jehovah, Genesis 32:1, 2; 1 Kings 22:19; Psalm 103:21; Luke 2:13.  Neither does Moses any less expressly teach us to conclude the Creation of Angels, when he recounts the words of God Himself in Exodus 20:11.  Indeed, ‎וְאֶת־כָּל־אֲשֶׁר־בָּם, and all that in them is, is not able to be referred to the sea alone, mentioned immediately before, but in the singular; but it is to be referred to the heaven, the earth, and the sea together:  and so either Angels are to be driven from heaven and the created universe, or, if they pertain to those things that are in the heavens, they also were created by God in the first Hexameron.

[1] Marckius’ definition, Compendio, chapter IX, § 4:  They are Spiritual Creatures, whole and complete, specifically designated for the Service of God.

[2] According to Acts 8, Simon was a Samaritan magician of considerable influence.  Although he professed faith and was baptized into the Church, his conversion proved spurious, showing himself more interested in the miraculous gifts of the Spirit than in saving grace.  He is remembered by the early Church Fathers as the father of all heresies, including a second century sect bearing his name.

[3] Saturninus of Antioch (c. 150) was an early Gnostic teacher of the Simonian school.  He taught that matter was impure, and that the universe was created by seven renegade angels.

[4] Manichæism, arising in the third century, was a form of Gnostic dualism, teaching the co-eternality of good and evil.  Human history is the long process of the separation of spiritual light (the good) from material darkness (the evil).

[5] Heinrich Alting (1583-1644) was a German Reformed divine, specializing in Ecclesiastical History and Historical Theology.  He served as Professor of Theology at Heidelberg (1613-1622), and then Professor of Historical Theology at Groningen (1627-1644).

[6] Thomas Bartholin (1616-1680) was a Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian.

[7] Hebrews 1:7:  “And of the angels he saith, Who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire (καὶ πρὸς μὲν τοὺς ἀγγέλους λέγει, Ὁ ποιῶν τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ πνεύματα, καὶ τοὺς λειτουργοὺς αὐτοῦ πυρὸς φλόγα).”

[8] Willem Surenhuys (1666-1729) was a Dutch Reformed scholar and Hebraist.  He was Professor of Oriental and Greek Languages at Amsterdam (1704-1729).

[9] Colossians 1:15:  “Who is the image of the invisible God (τοῦ Θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου), the firstborn of every creature…”