What Is Angel?
The word angel renders the Hebrew 'mal'akh' and Greek 'angelos', meaning 'messenger'. In the Bible angels are spiritual beings in God's service: they carry news, protect and worship God. In the Old Testament they come to Abraham as guests, Jacob dreams of angels ascending and descending between heaven and earth, and in Isaiah's vision the exalted ones cry 'Holy, holy, holy'. Angels are prominent in the New Testament birth narratives: Gabriel brings word to Zechariah and to Mary, and the birth is announced to shepherds with the praise of an angelic host. Angels minister to Jesus in the wilderness and in Gethsemane, and angels announce the empty tomb. The letter to the Hebrews calls angels 'serving spirits, sent out to do service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation' and directs attention not to them but to the supremacy of the Son. Scripture refuses the worship of angels; in Revelation an angel warns John, who bows before him, 'Worship God!'