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Angel of Yahweh
from Wikipedia
The word Angel found numerous times in the scriptures simply means ‘messenger’ and can either refer to a heavenly entity who delivers a message from God or a human messenger. There is a difference between an angel and the Angel of the Lord: the Angel of the Lord is the only angel appearing continually throughout the Old Testament referring to himself as the Lord and God in the first person, while the other angels mentioned in the scripture reference to the Lord God as a hallowed third person always humbling themselves and not accepting any type of glory.
Examples of use of the Hebrew term מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה are found in the following verses, here given in the King James Version translation:
- Genesis 16:7–14. The angel of the Lord appears to Hagar. The angel speaks as God himself in the first person, and in verse 13 Hagar identifies “the LORD that spoke to her” as “The God Who sees”.
- Genesis 22:11–15. The angel of the Lord appears to Abraham and refers to himself as God in the first person.
- Exodus 3:2–4. The angel of the Lord appears to Moses in a flame in verse 2, and God speaks to Moses from the flame in verse 4, both instances referring to himself in the first person, the text seemingly conflates the two as one.
- Numbers 22:22–38. The angel of the Lord meets the prophet Balaam on the road. In verse 38, Balaam identifies the angel who spoke to him as delivering the word of God.
- Judges 2:1–3. The angel of the Lord appears to Israel.
- Judges 6:11–23. The angel of the Lord appears to Gideon, and in verse 22 Gideon fears for his life because he has seen the angel of the Lord face to face, which is similar to when others in the Tanakh (Old Testament) fear they will die because they have seen God.
- Judges 13:3–22. The angel of the Lord appears to Manoah and his wife and, in verse 16, tells them to offer to the LORD if they are to make an offering (“And the angel of the LORD said unto Manoah […] if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, thou must offer it unto the LORD. For Manoah knew not that he was an angel of the LORD.”). Later Manoah thought he and his wife will die for they “have seen God”
- Zechariah 1:12. The angel of the Lord pleads with the Lord to have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah.
- Zechariah 3:4. The angel of the Lord takes away the sin of the high priest Joshua.
The Greek translation of the Old Testament known as the Septuagint[4] translates the Hebrew phrase מַלְאַךְ יְהוָה as ἄγγελος Κυρίου, “angel of the Lord” or as ὁ ἄγγελος Κυρίου, “the angel of the Lord”. “Owing to the Hebrew idiom, this may mean no more than ‘an angel of God’, and the Septuagint renders it with or without the article at will.”[5]
The KJV and NKJV capitalize “Angel” in the Old Testament references to “the Angel of the Lord”, while using lower-case “angel” in the Old Testament references to “an angel of the Lord” (and in the New Testament references). Most versions, including NASB, RSV, ESV, etc., do not capitalize “angel” in the mentions of “angel of the Lord”.
Angel of Elohim
The term “angel of God” (Heb. mal’akh ‘Elohim) occurs 12 times (2 of which are plural). The following are examples:
- Genesis 31:11. The angel of God calls out to Jacob in a dream and tells him “I am the God of Bethel“.
- Exodus 14:19. The angel of God leads the camp of Israel, and also follows behind them, with the pillar of fire.
- Judges 13:9. The angel of God approached Manoah’s wife after the Lord heard Manoah.
