[[this page is not meant to be a replacement for learning about this stuff yourself, i'm only writing about it because i find it interesting and i would like to share this information with people in a way that is hopefully entertaining and not as dry as reading a bunch of wikipedia pages. i could easily be wrong about anything i put here, so if you're really interested in this stuff, i encourage you to seek out other sources of information.]]
for some reason, around the year 2015, i got really interested in angels. it's actually a really long story that i don't feel like telling right now.
i also got interested in the bible, but not for religious reasons. i was mostly interested in its lore and finding out more about what angels are and their purpose.
i don't know if you know this, but there actually is hardly jackshit about angel lore in the bible. as it turns out, christians were more interested in their religion stuff than worldbuilding. a waste if you ask me.
the other thing is, the term "biblical angel" that people use all the time is a redundancy. every pop culture angel is accurate to the bible*, with perhaps exception to cherubim being depicted as trumpet-bearing toddlers. as far as i'm aware, there are no canon angels that look like human infants. anyway, the point is, an angel being depicted as Just A Dude With Wings is actually what a whole class of angels looks like. "dude with wings" is biblicly accurate. maybe people just really like the feeling of calling something "biblical." it does have a ring to it.
[*correction: there are actually very few described angels in the bible. angels that look like human beings are popular in scholarly religious interpretations, but are never described anywhere in the bible.]
i'm getting distracted.
so it turns out, there is a dearth of angel lore in the bible, and it's so spread out that you have to go digging for it. what a pain in the ass. i don't care about all this other "moses" and "noah's ark" stuff, or whatever the hell the pope, or whoever, thinks is relevant or important. who cares about all that.
i'm here for COOL MONSTERS.
so, obviously, i like to try to hunt down information on angels that sources the bible and uses quotes from it so it looks legitimate. someone could write anything and put a name and some numbers by it and call it a bible passage, and i'd believe them without question. actually, more poeple should do that. it would spice things up, i think.
why do i care about whatever info i use being "canon?" you know, that's a good question. maybe i get a little thrill out of perverting the supposed word of god (lol). eh, not really. i'm just one of those types of guys that thinks having rules and trying to be creative within their scope is fun. i don't care too much about it, though. a lot of the lore i've written for my angel characters is based off misunderstandings i had about The Canon that i didn't care enough to fix, and their actual designs are certainly not based on any canon descriptions.
anyway, if you want to see a cool video about angels as an introduction, i got one for you right here:
that youtube channel actually has a bunch of videos about the bible and other cool shit, which is very fun and good.
so, anyway, what's an angel?
what's an angel??
good question!
angels are described as "agents of god." this, according to theologians and the like, means that they did a bunch of stuff for god, but their main job was telling humans how fuckin cool and awesome their bro of a dad is. but don't get it twisted, they had a LOT of jobs, especially depending on who you ask. all religions which share angels in their theology all have different ideas of the exact scope of angelic duties. ultimately, it's not that important. all you need to know is that they're exclusively lackeys to god, and if they decide they don't wanna be anymore, they get their shit mixed and become demons. that's just how it is when you're born to be an asskisser.
spheres, choirs, orders: angel hierarchy
i don't know exactly why the terminology differs so much, but the different classes of angels (levels of the hierarchy) are referred to as spheres, choirs or orders. these all mean the exact same thing. a sphere is a choir is an order. you can use whichever of these is your favorite. i personally like to use "choir," but on this page i will use "sphere."
first sphere: seraphim (singular: seraph)
these guys are the highest ranked angels in christian lore. if you thought that title went to archangels because of pop culture, you would be wrong. however, in jewish hierachy, seraphim are actually ranked fifth, below ophanim.
saraph means "burning" in hebrew, and seraph means "the burning one." apparently they fly around god singing "holy, holy, holy" (which is called the trisagion) and are the only sphere of angels who have direct contact with god (this is debatable depending on whether you think ophanim are sapient or not).
something you learn quickly about bible lore is that every guy has his own ideas about what's going on in the bible, and everybody's just supposed to take certain people seriously based off whatever-the-hell. some guys think seraphim only exist to sing the trisagion, some guys think they're divine beings near to god, and some guys got super pissed off about all that. it's a whole lot of guys arguing and having visions and shit.
pretty much everybody agrees, though, that the main defining feature of seraphim is fire or heat. they're always described as either literally burning, or being filled with a passionate energy which is like burning. the obvious symbolism of fire follows, eg. cleansing, fervor, brightness, enlightenment, et cetera. it seems that their primary virtue is also charity.
the physical description of these angels differs between christianity and islam. in christianity, they are described as burning six-winged beings and usually depicted as humans with two wings folded above the head, two wings sprouting from the back which are used for flight, and two wings which cover the legs. in islam, they are depicted as a six-winged being with four faces.
and that's basically it.
i told you there's hardly jackshit in the bible about these fuckin guys. well, all the more reason to make up your own stuff about them, i guess. or maybe ask somebody who, like, studies this stuff for a living? if anyone like that is reading this, please know that i am deeply sorry for putting you through the experience of this web page.
anyways. moving on, to...
great news everybody, i dont have to finish this web page cuz a guy on youtube FINALLY made a video about angelology that isn't completely inaccurate garbage and talks about all of the stuff i wanted to talk about here while being better researched than what i would have done and going into more detail than i even care about.
am i actually going to cop out on this page by just linking a youtube video? um... maybe not... i do want to finish this page myself but i hate researching things (reading is hard and my brain is small). maybe eventually. i will try my best.