Angels in ancient myths were actually pretty terrifying
Far from the baby-cheeked cherubs of Renaissance art, they were fiery beings who inspired fear.
Angels are among the most comforting religious figures in the modern imagination, radiant winged beings who hover peacefully above Nativity scenes each December. Indeed, their presence in the Christmas story is integral to the unfolding of events. In the Gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel announces both the birth of John the Baptist to his father, Zechariah, and the miraculous birth of Jesus to his mother, Mary. It is angels who proclaim “good news of great joy” to the shepherds under the night sky. And, critically, it is an angel who visits Joseph in a dream to explain the nature of his fiancée’s otherwise scandalous pregnancy and then instructs him to take the child to Egypt to avoid Herod’s wrath. Without angelic intervention, Jesus would not have made it to adulthood.
But angels in the ancient world were far stranger, more varied, and often more intimidating than the Nativity story and modern portrayals suggest. And even Gabriel, the Christmas angel, had a punitive side.
Messengers, warriors, and fiery beings
The word angel (Greek angelos, a translation of the Hebrew malak) means “messenger.” This is an accurate description of what the earliest angels in the Bible do: they carry messages from God and appear unexpectedly in human affairs. In Genesis, three angelic visitors arrive to announce Isaac’s birth; others later lead Lot out of the doomed city of Sodom. Christy Cobb, associate professor of Christianity at the University of Denver says that “in the Bible…angels guard the Garden of Eden, bring a message to Abraham, stand beside the Lord in Heaven, deliver the news of miraculous births, and even fight against Satan.” These angels are unmistakably anthropomorphic, they speak, walk, and even eat.
These roles, Cobb explains, develops over time. Later books of the Hebrew Bible introduce named figures who play specific roles. The book of Daniel refers to two figures who became central to later tradition as archangels: Gabriel, a heavenly interpreter of visions, and Michael, a military commander who fights on behalf of Israel. By this period, angels had become more than messengers; they are administrators of a complex heavenly realm. By the 2nd century BCE, angels act as operatives in the heavenly bureaucracy, keeping records of human deeds for the Day of Judgement.
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Other biblical texts describe celestial beings that stretch the limits of human imagination. The prophet Isaiah described a vision of heaven in which God sits on a throne surrounded by seraphim. The seraphs had faces, but also three sets of wings. Writing several centuries later, Ezekiel, describes angelic “living beings” (ḥayyot) with four faces, four wings, and human bodies. Accompanying them are the enigmatic ophanim, wheels within wheels made of fire and covered in eyes.
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Despite their varied appearances, the human reaction to celestial beings in the Bible is consistent. Nearly every human who encounters an angel is terrified. When Gabriel appears to Zechariah and Mary, the first words they hear are “do not be afraid.” Yet the fear of those encountering them is well-placed. In the Hebrew Bible the angel of the Lord kills 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in a single night during a siege of Jerusalem. Zechariah experiences a glimpse of this angelic discipline: when he doubts that he and his aging wife would conceive a child, Gabriel punishes him by rendering him mute until John was born.
Scribes and 'Watchers' in ancient Judaism
Outside the biblical canon, angels take on even more elaborate identities and histories. Ancient Jewish texts such as 1 Enoch describe vast ranks of angels governing everything from cosmic cycles to human destiny. Some angels, like the fallen Watchers, who had engaged in sexual relations with women and revealed technological secrets to humankind, become cautionary tales about divine beings who cross forbidden boundaries. Other angels in this period serve as heavenly scribes, recording human deeds, or as guides who escort souls between realms.
In the early medieval Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew, says Cobb, angels take on a supportive role during Mary’s pregnancy: the speak daily with her and protectively surround Jesus during his birth. In other texts they play a more active role in Jesus’ conception. Late antique Christians thought that at the annunciation Mary conceived Jesus merely by listening to Gabriel. “Through her ear,” writes Ephrem the Syrian, “the Word of the divine Father entered and secretly dwelt in her womb.”
In her work Angels in Late Ancient Christianity, historian Ellen Muehlberger argues that early Christians viewed angels as essential participants in how the world worked. Angels filled the late ancient cosmos, creating what she calls an “angelic worldview”—a sense that the universe was crowded with invisible beings whose actions affected every aspect of life.
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The evolution of 'guardian angels'
By the Middle Ages, angels had acquired ranked hierarchies, thanks in part to the influential writings attributed to Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, who divided them into nine choirs—from seraphim and cherubim down to ordinary angels. Medieval theologians elaborated on their abilities, nature, and duties, imagining angels as pure intellects capable of moving rapidly between heaven and earth. The 13th-century theologian Thomas Aquinas argued that “each man has an angel guardian appointed to them.”
Renaissance painters humanized angels further, softening their features and adding flowing robes, musical instruments, and gentle expressions. Cherubs—plump winged infants artistically derived from Cupid—emerged from a blend of biblical language, classical imagery, and artistic whimsy. By the Enlightenment, angels had become moral symbols as much as theological beings, embodying virtue and sentimentality.
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Yet the Christmas angels many people visualize today owe as much to Victorian aesthetics and popular culture as to church tradition. Holiday art and literature in the 19th century placed angels at the center of Nativity scenes, often as glowing, comforting presences rather than terrifying messengers of divine power. In modern media angels appear in forms that emphasize gentleness, guidance, and personal protection.
Despite their evolution from fiery, composite beings to gentle, winged guardians, angels remain powerful symbols of connection between the human and the divine. For ancient Jews and Christians, angels explained how an all-powerful God interacted with the world; for later believers, they offered comfort, protection, and beauty. Today angels continue to appear across religious traditions, popular culture, and personal spirituality, reflecting both ancient ideas and contemporary longings—a deeply humans desire to understand the unseen forces that shape their world.
