Today I have been studying about angels and how they were viewed during the 2nd Temple period. You might notice that the gospels. Particularly the birth narratives, have angels as a very important part of the stories.

When one realizes that angels were quite important in the Dead Sea Scrolls, apocryphal books like Enoch and Tobit, and much of the 2nd Temple period's theology, the understanding of angels is critically important.

One example will suffice in terms of the complexity of understanding angels during this period. In Deuteronomy 32:8 in most English translations (as well as most Hebrew texts) shows the Lord dividing up the world to a group of people. A fragment from the DSS however, has the Lord dividing up the sections of the world to the "sons of God" or the angels. This is one of the areas from which certain theological groups support the idea of a wicked angel who has control over a particular area of the world.

There are other passages in the Hebrew Bible that seem to speak of God gathering together with, and having a council with other supernatural beings (Job 1 being the most obvious).

This leads, of course, to questions like: why are these councils taking place? Who is invited to the councils? Is it fair to call these beings gods of a certain sort (as Satan is called the god of this world)?

For though provoking information on this area see the Dictionary of New Testament Background's article on angels; Anchor Bible Dictionary on angels; the second temple literature mentioned above on angels; Mike Heiser's blog (the Naked Bible) in which he discusses the "divine council;" and of course the text of the Scripture on the function of both evil and good angels. All of these will perhaps cause you to reexamine your view of what angels do and how they should be perceived.

Needless to say, during the second temple period, angels were not seen as friendly little babies who rode on the dashboard of a car, but as incredibly powerful beings who were to be respected and sometimes feared.

Something to think about,
SamLam