By Water & Blood

On angels

On angels.

As for the angels, we neither deify them according to the poets and philosophers of the Greeks, and divide the incorporeal nature into female and male, and accuse the invisible powers of unchaste unions; nor do we define them as makers of creation according to the heretics’ fables, nor do we say that they are co-eternal with the God of all.

For for human beings the female is useful for the increase of the race. For the God of all, foreseeing this, fashioned this nature thus. Therefore he also offered this blessing to the race, saying: “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth, and rule over it.” For since death lays waste the nature of human beings, and like a reaper cuts down not only the old but also the young, nature necessarily needed those who till and sow and introduce other ears in place of those cut down, and who by tillage overcome the hands of the reaper.

But for the immortal nature the division of the race is superfluous; for they neither need increase, since they are not diminished, nor mixing, being freed from bodies. And of this divine Scripture is the teacher. For he did not create angels at the beginning as two only, as he did human beings, but he brought forth as many myriads as he willed. For a nature free from corruption has no need of increase. But human beings, having a mortal body and being under death, necessarily need the female.

And let none of those who love pleasure, from ignorance, make accusation against the angels, taking as a pretext for blasphemy what was narrated by the all-wise Moses: that “the sons of God, seeing that the daughters of human beings were fair, took from them as wives.” For it is the height of madness to attach to the angels the unchastity of human beings. For there were two races at that time, that of Cain and that of Seth; and that of Cain was under a curse, while that of Seth practiced piety. For Enosh, his son, hoped to call upon the name of the Lord God. From then on those born from him, being called sons of God, fled mixing with the race of Cain. But when many years had passed, the descendants of the pious, seeing those women’s daughters as delightful, were overcome by beauty, and transgressed the ancestral law, and embraced kinship with them. Then the mixing introduced wickedness.

When, therefore, we hear divine Scripture saying: “The sons of God went in to the daughters of human beings,” let us not accuse the incorporeal angels; for human beings, called sons of God, dared the lawlessness. And that these things are so, the God of all himself is witness, speaking thus: “My Spirit shall not remain in these human beings, because they are flesh.” And again the historian: “And the Lord saw the earth, and it was corrupted, because all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth.” And to Noah the God of all said: “Behold, I am destroying all flesh.” And having commanded him to prepare an ark, he added: “For I have found you righteous in this generation.” And the lawgiver of righteousness would not have punished human beings when angels had sinned—and human beings, not ten or twenty or a hundred, but countless myriads.

The nature of the angels, then, needs the female neither for the sake of increase nor for the sake of mixing. And divine Scripture teaches that there are many myriads of angels: “For a thousand thousands,” it says, “ministered to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him.” And the ministry of the angels is hymnody. For concerning the Seraphim the blessed Isaiah says that they cried out and said: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of his glory.” And concerning the Cherubim the divine Ezekiel said that he heard them saying: “Blessed be the glory of the Lord from its place.”

And they not only hymn, but also serve in the divine economies. And the all-wise Paul taught us this, saying: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent out for service for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?” And the Lord himself said in the sacred Gospels: “See that you do not despise one of these little ones, the least of those who believe in me; for truly I say to you, every day their angels see the face of my Father who is in heaven.”

And the divine Daniel the prophet also says that there are certain rulers of nations—or rather not he himself, but an angel conversing with him. For “The ruler of the Persians,” he says, “stood opposite me.” And he mentions the ruler of the Greeks, and added that no other cooperated with him when he was interceding with God for the freedom of the Jews, except Michael their ruler. And the great Moses also said in the song: “When the Most High divided the nations, when he scattered the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the angels of God.” And these things, and what was said in Daniel, and what was said by the Lord, also give evidence that some of the angels preside over nations, and that some have been entrusted with the care of each individual human being, so that the destructive demons may not harm and injure them.

And we believe that the angels have been made by the God of all; for thus we have been taught. For the hymn-writer David, having urged the angels and the heavenly powers to hymn the God of all, added: “For he spoke, and they came to be; he commanded, and they were created.” And again: “He who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire.” And the three youths, blessing God in the furnace, called all creation into fellowship of the hymnody, and first the angels. And the prologue of the hymnody runs thus: “Bless the Lord, all works of the Lord; hymn and exalt him forever.” Then immediately they add: “Bless the Lord, angels of the Lord”—teaching that these too are a part of the divine works.

And the divine Apostle trained us in this more clearly. For having mentioned our Lord Jesus Christ, he added: “That in him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, whether visible or invisible.” And leaving the visible things as clear, he names the ranks of the invisible: “Whether Thrones or Dominions or Principalities or Authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.”

These things we have been taught to think also concerning the angels.