What Did Jesus Christ Believe About the Heavenly and Fallen Angels?

Jesus of Nazareth (c. 6–4 BCE—c. 30 CE) is described as speaking of both “heavenly” and “fallen” angels on a number of occasions. These teachings coalesce to provide the following:

  • He had no doubts about their existence; he accepted without question, and proclaimed as an ontological given, both their reality and their division into categories of “heavenly” and “fallen” (Matt 25:41);
  • He believed that angels were numerous, that they were arrayed in ranks and in hierarchies (Matt 26:53), and that “fallen” angels were led by, and were minions of, a “prince of demons” (Mark 3:23–26);
  • That in the present age, angels were superior to human beings, though, like men, they were limited in their knowledge of God’s ultimate secrets (Mark 13:32/Matt. 24:36); but in the world to come, the righteous shall stand as their equals (Luke 20:36);
  • “Heavenly” angels act as advocates of the pious (Matt 18:10; 26:53; cf. Luke 16:22) and that “fallen” angels, and especially their leader, strive to separate the faithful from God (Matt 6:13; Mark 8:33/Matt 16:23; Luke 22:31–32).
  • The rebelliousness of the “fallen” angels and their work were doomed to defeat.

According to scholar Jeffrey B. Gibson (2008), it is possible that Jesus might not to have shared all of his co-religionists’ (or even the evangelists’) beliefs about angelic functions,

“While he accepts the ideas that “heavenly” angels act as advocates of the pious (Matt 18:10; 26:53; cf. Luke 16:22) and that “fallen” angels, and especially their leader, strive to separate the faithful from God (Matt 6:13; Mark 8:33//Matt 16:23; Luke 22:31–32), we find no (recorded) emphasis placed by Jesus on their known roles as “messengers,” “protectors,” and intermediaries between God and men. Indeed, in contrast with the views of his co-religionists, it is only the “fallen” angels that he envisages as active among men. For Jesus, the work of “heavenly angels” is, rather, carried out in the realms above and at the dawning of the world to come.”

References

Daube, David. 1990. “On Acts 23: Sadducees and Angels.” Journal of Biblical literature 109:493–497.

Gibson, Jefrey. 2008. “Angels.” In The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Historical Jesus, edited by Craig A. Evans, 63-70 (Apple Books). Routledge.

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