Herein we conclude, from part 1, part 2, part 3, providing quotations and citations on Angels from Philo of Alexandria (20 BC-50 AD). The fuller complete result consists of quotations of those sections within the text that refer to Angels, Cherubim, Seraphim, Devil, Satan, demons, serpent and dragon. The point is not to elucidate these references but to provide relevant partial quotations and citations. See my section on Angels here, Cherubim and Seraphim here, Satan here and Demons here.
Angels in Philo of Alexandria’s A Treatise Concerning the World, On the Virtues, On the Birth of Abel and the Sacrifices Offered by Him and by His Brother Cain, On the Posterity of Cain and His Exile, Concerning Noah’s Work as a Planter, On Abraham and The Special Laws.
A Treatise Concerning the World
III Moses, giving them a most felicitous appellation, calls Angels, acting as they do the part of ambassadors and messengers, announcing to the subjects all kinds of blessings from their rulers…Therefore, if you look upon souls, and daemones, and Angels, as things differing indeed in name, but as meaning in reality one and the same thing…For as people in general speak of good daemones and bad daemones, in the same manner also do they speak of good and bad souls; and so they speak of some Angels as being by their title worthy ambassadors from men to God…he speaks as follows: “He sent among them the anger of his wrath, by the operation of evil Angels.”
On the Virtues
XI he sang his hymn of praise in the middle of them all, with every description of harmony and symphony which men and ministering Angels hear.
On the Birth of Abel and the Sacrifices Offered by Him and by His Brother Cain
II …for Abraham also, leaving mortal things, “is added to the people of God,” having received immortality, and having become equal to the Angels; for the Angels are the host of God, being incorporeal and happy souls.
On the Posterity of Cain and His Exile
XXV And in another passage he says, “Ask thy father, and he will tell thee; ask thy elders, and they will make it known to thee, how the Most High, when he divided the nations, dispersed the sons of Adam, and fixed the boundaries of the nations according to the number of the Angels of God.
XXVI When God was dividing and drawing a wall between the nations of the soul, separating those who spoke different languages; and when establishing the sons of the Earth in their abodes, he dispersed them and removed to a distance from himself those whom he called the sons of Adam; then he fixed the boundaries of the offspring of virtue, making them equal in number to the Angels; for as many Angels of God as there are, so many nations and species of virtue are there. What, then, are the portions of his Angels, and what is that share which is the inheritance of the ruler and governor of all?
Concerning Noah’s Work as a Planter
IV For it is said that some are assigned to mortal bodies, and are again subjected to a change of place according to certain defined periodical revolutions; but that others which have received a more divinely prepared habitation, look down upon the region of the Earth, and that in the highest place, near the other itself, the purest souls are placed, which those who have studied philosophy among the Greeks call heroes, but which Moses, by a felicitous appellation, entitles Angels; souls which go as ambassadors and messengers of good from the ruler of all things to his subjects, and messengers also to the king respecting those things of which his subjects have heard.
XIV And on this account, indeed, it is said in the greater prayer, “Inquire of thy father, and he will tell thee; of thy elders, and they will reply to thee, when the Most High divided the nations, when he separated the sons of Adam, he fixed the boundaries of the nations, according to the number of the Angels of God, and the portion of the Lord himself was his people Israel.”
XIII And what is said in the scriptures appears to coincide with this, for Shem is planted as a root of excellence and virtue; and from this root there sprang up a tree bringing forth good fruit, namely, Abraham, of whom the self-instructed and self-teaching offspring, Isaac, was the fruit, by whom again the virtues which are displayed in labour are sown, the practiser of which is Jacob, the man trained and exercised in wrestling with the passions, having the admonitions of Angels for his gymnastic trainers.
On Abraham
XXII …he appears to me to have begun to entertain a different opinion of his guests from that which he conceived at first, and to have imagined that they were either some of the prophets or of the Angels who had changed their spiritual and soul-like essence, and assumed the appearance of men.
XXIII I know not what excess of happiness and blessedness, I should say, existed in that house in which Angels condescended to tarry and to receive the rites of hospitality from men, Angels, those sacred and divine natures, the ministers and lieutenants of the mighty God.
The Special Laws, I
XII We ought to look upon the universal world as the highest and truest temple of God, having for its most holy place that most sacred part of the essence of all existing things, namely, the heaven; and for ornaments, the stars; and for priests, the subordinate ministers of his power, namely, the Angels, incorporeal souls, not beings compounded of irrational and rational natures, such as our bodies are, but such as have the irrational parts wholly cut out, being absolutely and wholly intellectual, pure reasonings, resembling the unit.
In the next segment, we will consider Philo on Cherubim.
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