Seven Archangels
[2] The term archangel itself is not found in the Hebrew Bible or the Christian Old Testament, and in the Greek New Testament the term archangel only occurs in 1 Thessalonians 4 (1 Thessalonians 4:16) and the Epistle of Jude (Jude 1:9), where it is used of Michael, who in Daniel 10 (Daniel 10:12) is called 'one of the chief princes,' and 'the great prince'.
[9][10] This narrative is affiliated with the Book of Giants, which also references the great archangels[11][12] and was made part of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church's scriptural canon.
Babylonian folklore and cosmology,[13] and early Mesopotamian beliefs under the dualistic influence of Zoroastrianism, centered around anthropomorphic and zoomorphic representations of stars, planets, and constellations, including the four sons of the Sky Father carrying the Winged Sun, the throne of Wisdom.
First the prophet Daniel, then authors such as Ezekiel hebraized this mythology, equating the Babylonian constellations with abstract forms held to be "sons of the gods", angels of the Lord of Israel, and heavenly animal cherubim.
The earliest specific Christian references are in the late 5th to early 6th century: Pseudo-Dionysius gives them as Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Camael, Jophiel, and Zadkiel.
Raphael appears in the deuterocanonical Book of Tobit, where he is described as "one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of the lord of spirits",[17] a phrase recalled in Revelation 8:2–6.
[21] As well as Michael, Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel, the Book of Enoch, regarded as canonical by the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, mentions (in chapter 20) Raguel, Saraqâêl, and Remiel;[22] however, apocryphal sources give instead the names Izidkiel, Hanael, and Kepharel.
[34] In Yazidism, there are seven archangels, named Jabra'il, Mika'il, Rafa'il (Israfil), Dadra'il, Azrail, Shamkil (Shemna'il), and Azazil, who are emanations from God entrusted with care of the creation.
According to Rudolf Steiner, four archangels govern the seasons: spring is Raphael, summer is Uriel, autumn is Michael, and winter is Gabriel.
[38] In the early Gnostic text On the Origin of the World, the aeon named Sophia sends seven archangels to rescue the Archon Sabaoth and bring him to the eighth heaven.
