The worship of angels (or angelolatry) primarily relates to either excessive honouring (or possibly invoking the names of) angels.
The worship of angels (or angelolatry) primarily relates to either excessive honouring (or possibly invoking the names of) angels.
The Greek word angelos ("messenger") has some use in Greek religion relating to divine messengers. [1] The Hypsistarians worshipped the Hypsistos ("Most High)" and acknowledged the gods of traditional Greek religion as angels [2] but some modern scholars identify the Hypsistarian groups, with gentile God-fearers, to Hellenistic Judaism. [3]
In 1981, A.R.R. Sheppard published an inscription (from near Kotiaion) related to Holiness and Justice, personifications honoured, or worshipped, in areas of Phrygia and Lydia. [4] The significant discovery in the inscription was Sheppard's reading: ΦΙΛΑΝΓΕΛΩΝ (”Friends-of-angels”) an apparent evidence of pagan reverence of angels:
In 1996, Clinton E. Arnold, based on Sheppard's inscription, advanced the theory of a pagan, not Jewish, background to Colossians 2:8-23. Arnold argued for the general importance of angels in Asia Minor as a common folk practice in this region. He suggested that pagans were invoking the names of angels for protection following Jewish influences. [5]
However, in 2005 Hasan Malay revisited the inscription and argues that Sheppard likely misread a phi (Π) as a gamma (Γ) and the inscription should read ΦΙΛΑΝΠΙΛΟΙ, "Friends-of-the-vine" or "Vine-lovers", with no angels. Malay also published a second inscription, dated 161 CE, confirming the existence of associations devoted to the vine from nearby Katakekaumene in Cappadocia, now in the Manisa Museum. [6] Hence the Kotiaion inscription should read:
The Hebrew Bible strictly prohibits worship of idols made in the likeness of anything in heaven, according to the first commandment found in Exodus 20:4. For this reason actual "worship" of angels is not documented in Judaism beyond the following:
One can theorize that the worship of angels was occurring in Ancient Israel, hence a law was made to prohibit this activity. [11]
Stephen, in Acts 7:42, comments on Old Testament worship of the Host of Heaven without making any connection to angels.
The primary contact point in the New Testament is the condemnation of the “worship of angels” in Colossians:
There is however a question as to whether the word used here in fact means "worship". The word used is simply the common word for "religion" (θρησκεία thrēskeia, Acts 26:5, James 1:26,27) not the word "worship" (λατρεία latreia, cf. verb form in Acts 7:42) used of God or pagan deities. This leaves open the possibility that what Paul meant was not actually Christians who bowed down and literally worshipped angels, but a wider range of uses perhaps including: [12]
and so on.
In the Latin Vulgate this had been rendered et religione angelorum, and this was rendered "religioun of aungelis" by Wycliffe.
Toward the end of the Book of Revelation, John of Patmos begins to worship an angel. The angel rebukes him, telling him to worship God instead (see Revelation 22:8–9).
The Angelici were a heretical sect of the 3rd century. Augustine supposes them thus called from their yielding an extravagant worship of angels. However Augustine provides no evidence for this charge and Epiphanius derives their name from the belief that God created the world through the angels.
While falling short of actual worship of angels 3rd century Gnosticism developed heavily ideas concerning the archons. Celsus repeats the charge of worship of angels against Aristides. [14]
The Yazidi religion has as its object beings that are generally referred to as angels. These are agents of a single god, which are worshipped in its stead. [15] The most relevant of these angels is Melek Taus, to which God has entrusted the world, but other figures of worship include Jabra'il, Mikha'il, Israfil, Dadra'il, Azrafil and Shamkil.
Colossae was an ancient city of Phrygia in Asia Minor, and one of the most celebrated cities of southern Anatolia. The Epistle to the Colossians, an early Christian text which identifies its author as Paul the Apostle, is addressed to the church in Colossae. A significant city from the 5th century BC onwards, it had dwindled in importance by the time of Paul, but was notable for the existence of its local angel cult. It was part of the Roman – and then Byzantine – province of Phrygia Pacatiana, before being destroyed in 1192/3 and its population relocating to nearby Chonae.
Christianity is rooted in Second Temple Judaism, but the two religions diverged in the first centuries of the Christian Era. Christianity emphasizes correct belief, focusing on the New Covenant as mediated through Jesus Christ, as recorded in the New Testament. Judaism places emphasis on correct conduct, focusing on the Mosaic covenant, as recorded in the Torah and Talmud.
In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term saint depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Oriental Orthodox, and Lutheran doctrine, all of their faithful deceased in Heaven are considered to be saints, but some are considered worthy of greater honor or emulation. Official ecclesiastical recognition, and consequently a public cult of veneration, is conferred on some denominational saints through the process of canonization in the Catholic Church or glorification in the Eastern Orthodox Church after their approval.
Judaism considers some names of God so holy that, once written, they should not be erased: YHWH, Adonai, El ("God"), Elohim, Shaddai ("Almighty"), and Tzevaot ; some also include Ehyeh. Early authorities considered other Hebrew names mere epithets or descriptions of God and wrote that they and names in other languages may be written and erased freely. However, some moderns advise special care even in these cases, and many Orthodox Jews have adopted the chumras of writing "G-d" instead of "God" in English or saying Ṭēt-Vav instead of Yōd-Hē for the number fifteen or Ṭēt-Zayin instead of Yōd-Vav for the number sixteen in Hebrew.
Yahweh was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier. In the oldest biblical literature he possesses attributes typically ascribed to weather and war deities, fructifying the land and leading the heavenly army against Israel's enemies. Most scholars are of the view that at that time the Israelites were polytheistic and worshipped him alongside a variety of Canaanite gods and goddesses, including El, Asherah and Baal. In later centuries, El and Yahweh became conflated and El-linked epithets such as El Shaddai came to be applied to Yahweh alone, and other gods and goddesses such as Baal and Asherah were absorbed into Yahwist religion. According to other scholars, however, the exclusive worship of Yahweh was widespread before the Babylonian exile, and such Israelite monolatry may have even existed before the rise of the United Monarchy. In Iron Age I, Yahweh's cult center appears to have been Shiloh; by Iron Age II, it had been supplanted by Jerusalem, where the deity was enshrined in a Temple containing the Ark of the Covenant.
The Unknown God or Agnostos Theos is a theory by Eduard Norden first published in 1913 that proposes, based on the Christian Apostle Paul's Areopagus speech in Acts 17:23, that in addition to the twelve main gods and the innumerable lesser deities, ancient Greeks worshipped a deity they called "Agnostos Theos"; that is: "Unknown God", which Norden called "Un-Greek". In Athens, there was a temple specifically dedicated to that god and very often Athenians would swear "in the name of the Unknown God". Apollodorus, Philostratus and Pausanias wrote about the Unknown God as well.
An archangel is an angel considered to be of the highest rank in popular consciousness, due to John Milton's Paradise Lost, though theological works actually place them as the second lowest amongst nine orders. The word archangel itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other religious traditions. Archangels also appear in the religious texts of Gnosticism. The four most common archangels are Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Uriel.
Religious pluralism is a set of religious world views that hold that one's religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus recognizes that some level of truth and value exists in other religions. As such, religious pluralism goes beyond religious tolerance, which is the condition of peaceful existence between adherents of different religions or religious denominations.
Asherah, in ancient Semitic religion, is a mother goddess who appears in a number of ancient sources. She appears in Akkadian writings by the name of Ašratu(m), and in Hittite writings as Aserdu(s) or Asertu(s). Asherah is generally considered identical with the Ugaritic goddess ʾAṯiratu.
Biblical cosmology is the biblical writers' conception of the cosmos as an organised, structured entity, including its origin, order, meaning and destiny. The Bible was formed over many centuries, involving many authors, and reflects shifting patterns of religious belief; consequently, its cosmology is not always consistent. Nor do the biblical texts necessarily represent the beliefs of all Jews or Christians at the time they were put into writing: the majority of the texts making up the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament in particular represent the beliefs of only a small segment of the ancient Israelite community, the members of a late Judean religious tradition centered in Jerusalem and devoted to the exclusive worship of Yahweh.
In Christian angelology, thrones are a class of angels. This is based on an interpretation of Colossians 1:16. According to 1 Peter 3:21-22, Christ had gone to Heaven and "angels and authorities and powers" had been made subject to him.
Celsus was a 2nd-century Greek philosopher and opponent of early Christianity. His literary work, The True Word, survives exclusively in quotations from it in Contra Celsum, a refutation written in 248 by Origen of Alexandria. The True Word is the earliest known comprehensive criticism of Christianity. Hanegraaff has argued that it was written shortly after the death of Justin Martyr, and was probably a response to his work. Origen stated that Celsus was from the first half of the 2nd century A.D., although the majority of modern scholars have come to a general consensus that Celsus probably wrote around 170 to 180 A.D.
Ancient Semitic religion encompasses the polytheistic religions of the Semitic peoples from the ancient Near East and Northeast Africa. Since the term Semitic itself represents a rough category when referring to cultures, as opposed to languages, the definitive bounds of the term "ancient Semitic religion" are only approximate.
The biblical term "proselyte" is an anglicization of the Koine Greek term προσήλυτος (proselytos), as used in the Septuagint for "stranger", i.e. a "newcomer to Israel"; a "sojourner in the land", and in the Greek New Testament for a first-century convert to Judaism, generally from Ancient Greek religion. It is a translation of the Biblical Hebrew phrase גר תושב. "Proselyte" also has the more general meaning in English of a new convert to any particular religion or doctrine.
Shalim is a god in Canaanite religion, mentioned in inscriptions found in Ugarit in Syria. William F. Albright identified Shalim as the god of dusk and Shahar as god of the dawn. In the Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, Shalim is also identified as the deity representing Venus or the "Evening Star" and Shahar the "Morning Star". His name derives from the triconsonantal Semitic root Š-L-M. The city of Jerusalem was named after him.
Hypsistarians, i.e. worshippers of the Hypsistos, and similar variations of the term first appear in the writings of Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa, about AD 374. The term has been linked to a body of inscriptions that date from around 100 AD to around 400 AD, mostly small votive offerings, but also including altars and stelae, dedicated to Theos Hypsistos, or sometimes simply Hypsistos, mainly found in Asia Minor and the Black Sea coasts that are today part of Russia.
Criticism of Jesus has existed since the first century. Jesus was criticised by the Pharisees and scribes for disobeying Mosaic Law. He was decried in Judaism as a failed Jewish messiah claimant and a false prophet by most Jewish denominations. Judaism also considers the worship of any person a form of idolatry, and rejects the claim that Jesus was divine. Some psychiatrists, religious scholars and writers explain that Jesus' family, followers and contemporaries seriously regarded him as delusional, possessed by demons, or insane.
God-fearers or God-worshippers were a numerous class of Gentile sympathizers to Hellenistic Judaism that existed in the Greco-Roman world, which observed certain Jewish religious rites and traditions without becoming full converts to Judaism. The concept has precedents in the proselytes of the Hebrew Bible.
This is a glossary of terms used in Christianity.
The True Word is a lost treatise in which the ancient Greek philosopher Celsus addressed many principal points of Early Christianity and refuted or argued against their validity. In The True Word, Celsus attacked Christianity in three ways: by refuting its philosophical claims, by marking it as a phenomenon associated with the uneducated and lower class, and by cautioning his audience that it was a danger to the Roman Empire. All information concerning the work exists only in the extensive quotations from it in the Contra Celsum written some seventy years later by the Christian Origen. These are believed to be accurate as far as they go, but may not give a fully comprehensive picture of the original work.