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Who is the Angel of the Lord?

Why are some angels referred to as God and speak as God in the first person?
Austin James
11/6/2023
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What Makes The Angel of the Lord Special?

This particular angel is under a lot of debate because there are mentions of an angel in modern translations that identified as "THE Angel" who refers to himself as God in the first person and takes away sins. The people who see him also call him God. For this reason, people assume that it must be Jesus since all other angels are identified as "AN Angel". So what we need to find out is if this "the" translation is a bias translation based on the "Angel of the Lord is Jesus" doctrine. 

Greek vs Hebrew

The old testament was written in Hebrew but translated to Greek when the Septuagint was created. So to say the Hebrew words describing an angel don't appear in the New Testament makes sense because the New Testament was written in Greek. What we can do though, is compare the Septuagint Old Testament with the Greek writings of the New Testament to see if " The Angel of the Lord" is actually missing from the New Testament or if we added doctrine to help understand misunderstood concepts in scripture.

Old Testament: The Angel of the Lord

In greek, the  Angel of the Lord  is Aggelos Kurios. Using this, we can compare a few of the most common references of the angel to determine what the Greek parallel of the Hebrew word is:

In Genesis 22:11-15 , The Angel of the Lord appears to Abraham and refers to God in the first person. 'The Angel of the Lord' in Hebrew is written as  "Malak Yhvh", and  in the Greek Septuagint it is, "Aggelos Kurios"   which does not contain a definite article (which would be the word "The") in front of the word 'angel', therefore a more direct translation would be "AN angel of the Lord" in English.

In Exodus 3:2-4 , The Angel of the Lord appears to Moses in a flame and God speaks from the flame.  'The Angel of the Lord' in Hebrew is written as  "Malak Yhvh", and  in the Greek Septuagint it is, "Aggelos Kurios". Once again, this does not contain the definite article in front of the word "Angel", and thus it is "An Angel of the Lord". 

Being that these two are the biggest arguments for "The Angel of the Lord" being Jesus, we can now look into the Greek writings in the New Testament to see this "Aggelos Kurios" matches other angels and if it was translated differently for man's doctrine rather than scriptural doctrine.

New Testament: The Angel of the Lord

Matthew 1:20 Behold, Anggelos Kurios in a dream appeared to him, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. She has conceived from the Holy Spirit." 

So right off the bat, we have that same Anggelos Kurios with no definite article in front identical to the Old Testament writings, but the issue here is that this passage refers to Mary being pregnant with  Jesus. So if Jesus was in the womb at this time, then the angel could not have been also  Jesus because Jesus was a fetus. The angel also continues and says you are to name HIM Jesus, rather than you are to name ME Jesus. This makes things very confusing and the Bible is not a book of confusion. 

Matthew 28:2 Behold, there was a great earthquake for Anggelos Kurios descended from the sky, and came and rolled away the stone from the door, and sat on it. 

At the time of Matthew 28, Jesus was inside the tomb - he had just risen from the dead and Anggelos Kurios rolled away the stone so he could walk out. If Jesus was the Anggelos Kurios, then why would he need to move away the stone? Wouldn't appearing outside of the tomb that was heavily guarded not be miraculous enough?! Then we continue on to see the Angel clearly denying that he is Jesus.

Matthew 28:5 And the angel answered and said to the women, "Fear not, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he laid.

So to say Anggelos Kurios doesn't appear in the Old and New testament seems to be based on the claims that translators included the words "The" and "An". Even further research shows that the translators themselves don't even agree with when/who the "The Angel" is because we have a variety of "The/An" being used in multiple translations. Here is one of many examples pulled from both the Old & New Testament:

Matthew 2:13

Genesis 22:11

It seems that this doctrine that Jesus must be "THE Angel of the Lord" was built by people using our own textual insertions and we can't even agree on when  to add the inserted texts. If the Jewish people were trying to tell us there is a distinction between "THE Angel" and "AN Angel" they would have made it very clear, but this is just reading our self-created doctrine into the text. But while these texts are in reference to "The/An Angel of the Lord", there is another verbiage used when talking about angels yet again, which is "The Angel of God". 

The Angel of God

Genesis 31:11 The Angel of God tells Jacob "I am the God of Bethel".  'The Angel of God' in Hebrew is written as  " Malak Elohim ", and  in the Greek Septuagint it is, " O Aggelos tou Theos ". Now the ' O ' and ' Tou ' ARE the definite articles, so it is more directly translated as " The Angel of The God " unlike "The Angel of the Lord" where the word definite article is non-existent. When 'the God' is in scripture, it is commonly translated as God with a capital G rather than saying "the God" because it reads better and it refers to the one true God. "The Angel" is now a new piece of this though since we had a generic "Aggelos" previously, we now have an "O Aggelos" which is specifying a particular angel.  In  Exodus 14:19 , we also have 'The Angel of God' leading the camp of Israel and also follows behind them with a pillar of fire.

Before we get into the New Testament, let's find out what "The Angel" (with the definite article) does in the Old Testament.

None of these examples of what the Angel does is too concerning, except that an angel is called God which out of context seems very peculiar. We also have "The Angel of God" in other places like Genesis 21:17 which makes things even more confusing. 

Genesis 21:17 And God heard the voice of the lad, and the angel of God  called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, "What's wrong, Hagar? Don't be afraid for God has heard the boy crying from the place where he is.

The interesting note here is that "the angel of God" who was called "God" but identified as an angel - says "Don't be afraid for God has heard the boy from where he is", this makes a clear distinction that there is the angel and there is God, but also the angel is referred to as God. This creates a very confusing narrative which is why we have to dig into why  an angel might be called "God" or referred to as "God". If the authors thought the angel was  God, they clearly would not identify God  as a messenger of God first. 

Why was the Angel called "God"?

In Jewish customs dating as far back as history, there was the principle of agency. This principle said that the messenger (a Shaliah) was to be regarded as the person himself. We see this throughout the Bible where the messenger is referred to as the person who sent him and the person who sent the messenger is the messenger. This is a 'lost-in-time' custom that needs to be understood to really understand why someone who was an "Angel OF God" was always identified as an angel first and then talked to as being "God" himself. According to the oldest records of Jewish history, we see a common phrase that says, "the one who is sent is the one who sent him" and "a man's agent is equivalent to himself" as well as, "when one deals with the messenger, it is as if one is dealing with the one who sent him". We see these example throughout scripture as well:

God speaking to Moses making Moses "God" to Pharoah. Not literally turning him into a god, but he would be the representative of God and acting in the total authority of God.

Exodus 7:1 "Behold, I have made you God to Pharoah, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet"

God says that He is Holy and therefore we will be holy. This doesn't mean we are God or partly God. This means that because we are representatives of God we are to be holy as well.

Leviticus 19:2-18: Ye Shall Be Holy: For I the Lord your God am Holy.

And then there are two great verses used together that imply that the angels of God were called "God" but are not God, and also not identified as Jesus:

Exodus 24:12-13 The Lord said unto Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and I will give you tablets of stone, and the law and commandments which I have written, that you may teach them."
Exodus 33:11 YHWH would speak to Moses face to face as one man speaks to another.

Galatians 3:19 Why then was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions unit the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was given through angels and entrusted to a mediator.

The writers of the New Testament knew God did not talk with Moses face-to-face to receive the law, but rather an angel did - for it is written "No man has seen God - John 1:18". If the writers of the New Testament knew Jesus was this angel who spoke to Moses, they certainly would refer to Jesus as Jesus and not 'an angel' who gave the law to Moses. Even the writers of the New Testament write in Hebrews 1:5, "Which of the angels did he ever say, 'You are my son, today I have become your father' or 'I will be his father and he will be my son?"

Final Notes

Some may argue that they didn't know what to call Jesus and thus they called him Angel God, but that also doesn't seem to read plainly with the context. While we don't have a great equivalent of 'agency' today, it would be like saying that John's note is actually "Note John". The note/message is not John, but the note in all senses contains the words of John and if I were to message John back, I would also write as if the note sent was John himself. We also have a plain claim by Paul that Jesus was not an angel or identified as one at any time as well which helps solidify the argument.

Hebrews 1:5-6, 13 But to which of the angels has God ever said, "You are my son, today I have begotten you?" And again, "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son"? But when he again brings the firstborn into the world, He says "Let all the angels of God worship Him." .... But to which of the angels has God said, "Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?"

This verse is also powerful because Jesus was exalted above the angels. If there was a chief angel or the 'head' angel that was referred to as God because he was the authority above authorities under God, then Jesus would have taken that place as the authority above the angels. We see this come through in the story of the centurion where Jesus commands healing and someone is healed:

Matthew 8:5-13  Then Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. "Lord," he said, "my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly." Jesus said to him, "Shall I come and heal him?" The centurion replied, "Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go,' and he goes; and that one, 'Come,' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, "Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour.

It was from the authority that God gave Jesus that he was able to command his soldiers (the angels) and heal the servant.


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