Are angels as described in the Bible (specifically the OT) male or neuter, or does it vary? What’s the source for this also, please.
Also, does Hebrew have gender specific articles (like der/die/das in German or el/la in Spanish) or is it gender neutral like English?
Thanks for any info.
IANA Biblical Scholar, but IIRC, all angels are male. I cannot recall any female “angels.” Depending on how far back you go in Judaic history, there are some female dieties, I believe.
Everything I’ve learned about ancient hebrew religion comes from this book. I highly recommend the author (but the book is quite … thick and it’s a tough read.)
Oh, and I got nothin’ on the articles.
The angels are a different order of being and so don’t have a gender. They may appear as men (e.g., Gabriel to Mary) but gender is meaningless.
Contrary to many people’s, and Hollywood’s, assumption, angels are not some manifestation of dead humans, so again gender doesn’t apply.
I don’t think that follows at all–since God clearly has a gender in the Bible–male.
Gabriel is the only angel who is specified as being female.
Okay, so that link doesn’t show what I thought it would. I’ll find a better cite.
I’m afraid someone else will have to confirm the gender of the Hebrew words in question.
The “Sons of God” of Genesis 6:1-4 and the angels that judged Sodom in Genesis 19:1-22 are undoubtedly male. The angel that wrestled with Jacob in Genesis 32:24-40 is described as “a man”, and I think we can take this fairly literally. The angel that appeared to Manoah and his wife in Judges 13:2-23 (predicting the birth of Samson) is described as “a man of God”, and “he” and “him” are used as pronouns for most other OT angels (Numbers 22:31, Judges 6:13, Daniel 4:13, etc), including those angels that are explicitly named (Gabriel, Michael and Raphael). As far as I know, there are no references to female angels.
That being said, there’s nothing in the Bible that definitely says all angels are male. We have Matthew 22:30, but I don’t really think it settles the issue one way or another:
Not that it’s in any way helpful in terms of actual theology, but it was the ruling of my teacher on this matter that led me to vigorously decline the part of the angel Gabriel in my school nativity (in favour of Augustus Ceaser), age 9.
She was of the opinion that Angels are not one gender or the other, but both at the same time.
??
Hebrew is – like most languages (other than English)-- saturated with gender. Every noun is either masculine or feminine, and the adjectives and verbs change their last letters to match the nouns.
I can’t answer the language question, but theologically, Chrisitanity (and I presume Judaism) assert that sex is meaningless when referring to spiritual beings - God, or angels. Sex is a characteristic of a physical body. Although angels may appear to take human form (such as the ‘man’ who wrestled with Jacob), maleness or femaleness is not an inherent part of their being.
God and angels may be referred to using male pronouns, but that was not understood to mean that they are equipped with penises.
Cite, please.
Also, note that your implication that God has no physical body would seem to be at odds with the idea of the resurrected Jesus having a very definite physical body–something sects of Christianity have fought vigorously over.
I’ll find a cite, but I wasn’t referring to Jesus. The person of Jesus is both fully God and fully human - but he is male by virtue of his humanity, not his divinity. He’s sort of a special case.
In Jewish thought, angels are manifestations of divine thought…the messengers of God. They therefore manifest themselves however God wants them to manifest, whether as men (or women, hypothetically), as fire in a bush, as a pillar of fire and clouds, as lightning. There are three mentioned by name in the bible…Michael, Gabriel, and Satan, none of whom are given any gender, and then others in later, post biblical books (Uriel, Raphael, Peniel, Metatron)
I’ll admit that one reason I was wondering about this is the Sodom story and how it’s used to justify homophobia (‘man on man rape=gay’ [if it was rape rather than literally “knowing them” the mob was demanding). If angels have no definite gender, why would the mob’s desire to rape them be considered homosexual?
To me, even as a kid it always made more sense that the mob literally wanted to “know them” as in “Who are these people? Bring 'em out here and let us talk to them”. Angels clearly have something that sets them apart in appearance from humans- one of the most common things they say in the Bible is “don’t be afraid” and everybody who sees one knows instantly that they’re not a human. To paranoid fortified community dwellers, the presence of “not exactly human” entities (brought in by a non-native no less) would seem to warrant a “let us get to know these people” more than a “ooh yeah! bring the ball gags… that’s what I’m talkin’ about!” reaction.)
I may be completely wrong.
True, but the definite article (Hebrew has no indefinite article) is gender-neutral.
I’ve only ever seen Gabriel portrayed as male. That’s the position of the Catholic Encyclopaedia.
As for the sex of angels, I’d agree with what **gigi ** said.
Angels don’t make love: angels ARE love.
Well, in the Sodom story, whether the angels actually had a gender really isn’t relevant to that. It’s clear in the story that they took the form of men, and that the people of Sodom thought they were men.