was God Almighty Called an Angel (meaning Messenger) ?
Genesis 48:15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
16 The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
RESPONSE:
Bishop Reckart The problem here and in other places is the translation as well as conveying the actual word. The Old Testament you are quoting is from the Aramaic Babylonlian text translated from the Paleo-Hebrew around 300BC. Since we no longer have the Paleo-Hebrew text to compare the wording, we must be careful how we interpret.
The word "angel" first and foremost means a "spirit." It also means a "spirit being" that God created. So an angel is both a spirit and a being. The word "angel" must be understood within those two meanings. The word "angel" cannot always refer to a being God created. God himself is the first "Spirit Being" but this does not make him a self created angel. Many think it does. And because of this they have developed the false doctrine of the Jehovah Angel. They claim this created Jehovah Angel is none other than the pre-existing Jesus Christ. So when they say Jesus is Jehovah come in the flesh, they are actually saying Jesus is a created Angel that came in the flesh. This Jehovah is far different than the other Jehovah they claim is the one true God who created all things, including the Jehovah Angel.
It appears to me from the text, both the Aramaic and the Septuagint, that when we read about God and the word "angel" is used, it can only mean the "Spirit" of God. In this case, in your text they proper understanding would be like this:
Genesis 48:15 And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day,
16 The (Spirit) which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.
It is only in the Babylonian Aramaic text that many rabbis and other scholars want to apply the word "malak" as a created being and then use this definition and apply it to God. And if they use "malak" from the Babylonian religious useage, then it would mean Elohim or God was just one of several gods all of whom were "malak." As monotheist, and believing in the one God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: we cannot conceive of God being a created angel being. He is uncreated. He is not an angel being. His Spirit is the whole essense of his being. But to say his Spirit makes him an angel in the sense of a created being, this is as false as it gets.
We must be very careful in our use of the word "angel" that we do not get tangled up in two or more gods, or that Jesus was a pre-existing Jehovah Angel created by God. If we keep the Oneness of God in our focus and not interpret anything about him in a plural manner, we can easily see that the use of the word "angel" in reference to God can only mean his Spirit.
Bishop Reckart
A Man God Made
No comments:
Post a Comment