Angels, The View and Resource on Angels

In the book of Revelation and all through the Bible, there are a lot of references pertaining to “Angels.”  To help understand the Authors views in perspective to the book Revelation, I decided to do a short resource on Angels, because the distinctive meaning and views are very important to the outcomes I present in my documents.

The View and Resources on Angels:

The modern day views of Angels or the trending Angel Mania, has taken on a distinctive place in our anchored traditions in our societies.  The spectacular art displaying statues, figurines, paintings and mass produced pictures has been extensive and profitable.  Our view of the role of Angels with wings has become embedded in the minds of our modern day cultures where as an Angel is not an Angel if it’s without wings.  I myself the Author, too have never known any other view.  Although in the Book of Revelation, the word Angel has a whole different specific ancient meaning, as this resource will explain.

Resource:

In my resource with “Angels,” my interest is about the meaning behind the word “Angel” only.  What I found was a stressed theory about the word “Angels With Wings and Messenger With Wings.”  In ancient Greek Mythology, the wings appeared on a variety of arts going back to 300 B.C.  As a result, I had to dig much deeper than what I wanted.  Where as the first Christian accepted art form of Angels with wings was in 359 A.C.

In religious histories, the definition of Angels are spiritual beings often depicted as messenger mediators between God and man.  They can be found in the Hebrew and Christian Bibles along with the Quran. The Greek word “Angel” in modern English is a fusion of the Old English word “Engel” (with a hard G) and the Old French word “Angele,” derived from the Latin word “Angelus” which in turn is the Romanization of the ancient Greek word “Angelos,” in which case, they are all defined as the word “Messenger” in modern English, which is also related to the Both Greek verb “Angellō,” meaning “Bear a Message, Announce, Bring news of, etc.”  In the ancient Greek day writings, the word “Angel” was a commonly used word to identify any trusted person receiving and/or delivering a message.  We of the 21^st Century address our messengers as delivery man/boy, mailman, postman, e-mail, web messenger, etc.

The study of Angels is known as “Angelology.”  In “Art”, Angels are often depicted with wings.  There are other Spirits involved through out the whole Bible having their own purpose such as “Spirit Angel or Messenger, Spirit Guide, Spirit Comforter, Arc Spirit Warrior Michael, Spirit Companion, Spirit Guardian, etc,” each carrying out God’s tasks and also to serve man kind with a set of very strict rules.  For some reason in the course before or during translating the Bible from Greek to Latin and other languages, the Greek word “Angel,” became the generic word for all spirits from God in the view of Christianity and other folklore, which created a multi-complex understanding.  Now the known origin and use of the English word “Messenger” itself, appeared around the 14th Century give or take a few years or so.  Keep in mind that the Greek word “Angel and the English word messenger” mean the exact same thing, although the views are different for each.

In the authors view of the word “Angel” being used in the book Revelation, strongly suggests that it’s meaning to be “Messenger.”  Where as the Author of these documents being written has found that the word “Angel” is being used to describe something different, other than the original word definition.

So, Where Did the Wings Come From?

There is one strong possibility of where the wings came from.  Getting back to the Ancients, The Romans and Greeks and the surrounding countries were always at war.  The first Christians picked a bad time to expand their beliefs in these areas.  They found themselves confronted by other more established belief systems.  Another drawback was they got pulled into the Roman blood sports.  One thing is that most of these entwining peoples were Romans and Greeks converting to Christianity.

Now focusing on the Greek culture, one fact is, that the ancient Greek symbol for messenger was a wing, and anyone that came into contact with the ancient Greek culture would have come to understand the wing symbol meant “Message Runner,” called “Angel” in the Greek language.  The ancient Greek culture is rich in Mythology.  The first known use of wings in the Greek culture goes back to around 300 B.C.  It only makes sense that when two or more different cultures come together, after time, traditions and beliefs are either weakened out or absorbed through the birth of several generations.  This also happens with religions where as for example; later on in history, Christianity absorbed two holidays, Christmas and Easter where as on one side of the coin it is Christianized and the other side it is considered Paganized.  Another good example is the Bible; where as the first half of the Bible is the Jewish Bible and the second half of the Bible is the Christianized accepted half.  To develop a better view of  how enough time and the entwining of cultures can create change, I developed a time line to prove this possibility.

Timeline:

This reasonable simple time line will decipher a possible time frame of when the spirits from God received their wings.  One fact is that spirits in the Bible did not come with wings, nor can I find written anywhere in the Bible that “Angels/Messengers” have wings.

330-300 B.C.-The Greek winged “Sandal of Hermes” was a icon deity–footed messengers.  There are a lot of other winged artifacts leading back to this time frame, although their meanings are not of the nature of this resource.

146 B.C.-The Romans conquered Greece.  This was the beginning of the intertwining of cultures.

30 to 100 A.D.–The book Revelation surfaced, John the Author.

300 A.D.-Constantine (who professed Christianity) took the pressure off the Christians, allowing them to come out of their secrecies to openly practice their faith ending a 250 plus year Christian blood bath.

325 A.D.-The First Official Christian Bible.

359 A.D.-Rediscovered in 1597, the first known Christian accepted view of a Spirit with Wings found on the marble sarcophagus used for the burial of Junius Bassus who died in 359.  He was a ancient Roman Politician.