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Bible Dictionaries
Michael
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or MICHAEL (‘Who is like God?’). 1. Father of the Asherite spy ( Numbers 13:18 ). 2. 3. Two Gadites ( 1 Chronicles 5:13 f.). 4. The eponym of a Levitical guild of singers ( 1 Chronicles 6:46 ). 5. Name of a family in Issachar ( 1 Chronicles 7:3; 1 Chronicles 27:18 ). 6. Eponym of a family of Benjamites ( 1 Chronicles 8:10 ). 7. A Manassite chief who joined David at Ziklag ( 1 Chronicles 12:20 ). 8. A son of king Jehoshaphat ( 2 Chronicles 21:2 ). 9. The father of Zebadiah ( Ezra 8:8 , 1Es 8:34 ). 10. The archangel. See next article.
MICHAEL (‘the archangel’). Although reference to angels and their visitations is common in the OT, especially during transition periods ( e.g . the period of the Judges and that of the Captivity are specially noticeable for angelic appearances), the name Michael is not found until the later period, when the angelic office was divided into two parts, which were assigned to individual angels. In the Rabbinical traditions Michael figures considerably. He is connected with many incidents in the history of Moses, especially his burial (cf. Deuteronomy 34:6 ), when he disputed with Satan, who claimed the body by reason of the murder of the Egyptian ( Exodus 2:12 ). In the OT he is alluded to several times in the Book of Daniel ( Daniel 10:13; Daniel 10:21; Daniel 12:1 ) as ‘one of the chief princes,’ ‘the prince,’ and ‘the prince which standeth for the people,’ and he is opposed to the prince-angels of Persia and of Greece. He is here regarded as the guardian of the Israelites in their opposition to polytheism and foreign innovations.
In the NT Michael is found fighting in heaven (Revelation 12:7 ) against the dragon, ‘him that is called the devil and Satan,’ and is typical of the warfare which is the special work of the Church on earth. In the passage in Jude ( Judges 1:9 ) a definite reference is made to the tradition already mentioned, ‘Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee’ (cf. Zechariah 3:1 for a similar incident).
T. A. Moxon.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Michael'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/m/michael.html. 1909.
