The word angelic is often used to describe someone as exceptionally beautiful, innocent, and kind. It also relates to angels who throughout history have often been portrayed as supernatural beings that we aspire to emulate. Angels are present in various religions, including Christianity. They have appeared in both the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. In various Christian artwork, angels are often painted as human figures with wings, halos, and emanating divine light. But the Bible actually has a very different image of what angels actually looked like. If you take a closer look at how they're portrayed in those pages, it might make you rethink the word angelic.
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00:00If you've ever been told you look like an angel, you probably took that as a compliment.
00:04But a closer look at the Bible reveals that maybe you should have felt insulted.
00:08Today, there's a stereotypical look that most angels have when shown in works of art or
00:12popular culture.
00:13Generally, angels are depicted as beautiful, pale-skinned humans with wings, wearing white
00:17robes, carrying a harp, and sporting a halo.
00:20But this look is far from the actual version of angels described in the Bible.
00:24Biblical angels were generally strange, frightening creatures, ranging from human-lion-ox-eagle
00:29hybrids to floating wheels with eyes.
00:31Biblical angels struck fear into the hearts of anyone who witnessed them.
00:34One of the most vivid descriptions of angels in the Bible comes from the prophet Ezekiel's
00:38inaugural vision.
00:39Ezekiel, of course, is probably best known in pop culture for this.
00:43And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
00:51Quentin Tarantino slightly altered the original text, but you get the idea.
00:55Besides that famous line, Ezekiel also wrote extensively about angels.
00:59He describes two main types of angels.
01:01The first are the cherubim, which is plural, the singular is cherub.
01:04Today, cherubs are typically depicted as chubby little babies, but the Bible disagrees.
01:09According to Ezekiel's vision, every cherub had the face of a human being, and on the
01:13right side, each had the face of a lion, and on the left, the face of an ox.
01:17Each also had the face of an eagle.
01:19If the combined faces of four different species aren't frightening enough, cherubs also have
01:23two sets of wings, one for flight and the other to conceal their bodies.
01:27Additionally, per medium, cherubs have straight legs and shiny, bold hooves.
01:31Weird, right?
01:33But the second type of angel described in Ezekiel 1 is even more bizarre.
01:36Meet the ophanim.
01:38According to Medium, ophanim comes from the Hebrew word for wheels.
01:41It's a fitting name, because Ezekiel's vision suggests that some of God's angels are actually
01:45floating, eye-covered wheels that sparkle like jewels.
01:49Each appeared to be made like a wheel intersecting a wheel.
01:51Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.
01:56Then there are the seraphim, which are described in the Book of Isaiah as floating around God's
02:00throne singing his praises.
02:01"'I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne.
02:05Above him were seraphim, each with six wings.
02:08With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two
02:11they were flying.'"
02:13If you're keeping count, that means that the seraphim have one more set of wings than the
02:16cherubim, but lack the extra faces.
02:18There is one other type of angel that's more human-looking, though, which are God's messenger
02:22angels.
02:23According to the New Letter Bible, the angels that God chose to deliver his messages could
02:26take a variety of corporeal forms.
02:29Most commonly, they would appear nearly identical to a human male.
02:32This is true for the warrior archangel Michael, who first appears in the Book of Daniel.
02:36It likewise applies to the archangel Gabriel, who informed Mary that she would give birth
02:39to Jesus.
02:40In fact, most of the angels referenced in the New Testament appear to be more human-like
02:44and tame than their frightening Old Testament counterparts.
02:47For example, Luke describes the angels at Jesus' tomb as, quote, "'two men in shining
02:51garments.'"
02:52This might give you the impression that the angels you see in popular culture are accurate
02:56depictions of angels as they're described in the New Testament, but not so fast.
03:00In the Bible, cherubim and seraphim are the only types of angels described as having wings.
03:05Messenger angels like Gabriel have none.
03:07Similarly, the classic depiction of cherubim as flying babies was adopted from an ancient
03:11Italian art of carving winged babies into child sarcophagi.
03:15More modern, still, is the idea of angels playing the harp, which was popularized by
03:18John Milton in his 1667 epic Paradise Lost.
03:22And they said you couldn't reinvent the wheel.