Читать книгу An Angel in Your Pocket - Rosemary Guiley Ellen - Страница 9

Spiritual beings who inhabit a plane of existence between the human and the divine – this is an ancient concept familiar to many religions and cultures.

The angel as it is popularly depicted is a crossbreed, descended from the unearthly entities of Babylonian, Persian, Egyptian, Sumerian, and Greek faiths. Its popular image as a heavenly messenger is generally limited to those monotheistic religions that divide the cosmos into Heaven, Earth, and Hell, requiring couriers to shuttle back and forth between the divisions. This particular brand of angel originated in Persia’s Zoroastrian faith and was then handed down to Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

The word angel itself is a mutation of the Greek angelos, a translation of the Persian word ‘angaros,’ or ‘courier.’ The Hebrew term is mal’akh, meaning ‘messenger’ or ‘envoy.’ Even this definition is ambiguous, for ‘messenger’ or ‘envoy’ is used in five different senses in Scripture. It can mean:

1 the Word, given by Cod to the world

2 St. John the Baptist, the precursor of the messiah

3 priests, who act as Cod’s ambassadors to people

4 prophets

5 angels

Generally, the term messenger or envoy is used in Scripture to mean angels. But messenger is only one of their functions, and these enlightened spirits can be found worldwide, throughout history, playing many roles.