the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
free while helping to build churches and support pastors in Uganda.
Click here to learn more!
Bible Dictionaries
Archangel
Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary
or I should not have thought it necessary, in a work of this kind, to have noticed this name, but for the purpose of noticing at the same time an error, into which, as I humbly conceive, not a few have fallen. I cannot find in all the Bible, the name archangel but twice; once in 1 Thessalonians 4:16; and once in Jude 1:1:9. And as for archangels, as if there were more than one, or many, the very name itself implies that it is an error. For arch-angel signifies the first, or prince of the order of angels, consequently, there cannot be many firsts, without making it necessary to altar the term. So that, what is said of angels and archangels, together in hymns of praise, seems to be founded in a misapprehension of Scripture in relation to one arch-angel only, for the word of God speaks of no more, and the name is not plural.
The question is, who is this archangel, twice, and but twice only, noticed as such in Scripture? if the reader will consult both places, he will find that of whomsoever it be spoken of it is only spoken of him in office. And if the reader will compare the passage, particularly in Jude, with what the prophet Daniel saith, (Daniel 10:13-21) I conceive that both together will throw light upon the subject. "Lo!" saith the prophet, "Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me." And again, he calls the same person, (Daniel 10:21) "Michael, your prince." In the passage of the apostle Jude's Epistle, he saith,"Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil, he disputed about the body of Moses." It should seem, therefore, pretty plain, that this Michael is one and the same person. In one he is called prince, in the other, archangel. But in both, it is evident, that the name is a name of office. For my own part, I do not hesitate to believe that it is Christ himself, which is meant by the name archangel in Scripture; and of whom it is said, in relation to his coming at the last day, that "he shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels." (2 Thessalonians 1:7) And elsewhere, the Lord Jesus describes this advent in similar words. (Matthew 25:31; Zechariah 14:5; Matthew 16:27) And whether this appearing of Christ hath respect to his coming in his thousand years' reign upon earth, or to the universal judgment, the sense of the words (in reference to the subject of the archangel we are now considering) is the same. Some have thought that the archangel spoken of by Jude cannot mean Christ, because it is there said, that he durst not bring against Satan a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee. But this is not an objection in the smallest degree. The Lord Jesus durst not do it; not because he dared not, or had not the power, but because it belonged not to the Redeemer's character, "who, when reviled, reviled not again, but committed himself judgeth righteously." (See Zechariah 3:1-4) Here we have a similar contest. Now that he who spake was the Lord, appears by his saying, "Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with a change of raiment." Hence, therefore, it is plain from this passage, that the angel before whom Joshua, as a type of the church, stood, was Christ, who is elsewhere called the angel of the covenant; (Malachi 3:1) the same as Jacob spake of. (Genesis 48:16) So that both the angel of the covenant and the archangel are one and the same; and both spoken of in the nature of the office and character of Christ, for Christ "took not on him the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham." (Hebrews 2:16)
From the whole view of this subject, I venture to believe, that, as Scripture speaks but of one arch-angel, and that officially, that archangel is Christ. For on the supposition, that it be not so, it becomes a matter of greater difficulty to say, who this arch-angel can be. If it be not Christ, it must be some created angel. And is there a created angel higher than Christ. If, while Jesus is called the angel of the covenant, is there an archangel also, above this angel of the covenant? I leave these questions with any one, not satisfied with my former observations, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the person spoken of twice in Scripture as the arch-angel.
See Malachi and Michael
These files are public domain.
Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com. Used by Permission.
Hawker, Robert D.D. Entry for 'Archangel'. Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance and Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/pmd/a/archangel.html. London. 1828.
