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Angels in Augustine of Hippo, part 10

Herein we continue, from part 1, part 2, part 3, part , part 5, part 6, part 7, part 8, part 9, considering info on Angels in Augustine of Hippo (354-430 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 Augustine of Hippo’s The City of God, Book XVI.

Chapter 5 We might, indeed, interpret God’s descending to the city of the descent of His Angels in whom He dwells; so that the following words, “And the Lord God said, Behold, they are all one race and of one language”…For if He had already gone down, why does He say, “Come, and let us go down and confound?”— words which seem to be addressed to the Angels, and to intimate that He who was in the Angels descended in their descent.

Chapter 6 We might have supposed that the words uttered at the creation of man, “Let us,” and not Let me, “make man,” were addressed to the Angels, had He not added “in our image;” but as we cannot believe that man was made in the image of Angels, or that the image of God is the same as that of Angels, it is proper to refer this expression to the plurality of the Trinity. And yet this Trinity, being one God, even after saying “Let us make,” goes on to say, “And God made man in His image,” and not “Gods made,” or “in their image.”
And were there any difficulty in applying to the Angels the words, “Come, and let us go down and confound their speech,” we might refer the plural to the Trinity, as if the Father were addressing the Son and the Holy Spirit; but it rather belongs to the Angels to approach God by holy movements, that is, by pious thoughts, and thereby to avail themselves of the unchangeable truth which rules in the court of heaven as their eternal law…And to these Angels God does not speak, as we speak to one another, or to God, or to Angels, or as the Angels speak to us, or as God speaks to us through them…Thus He speaks to the holy Angels; but to us, who are far off, He speaks otherwise. When, however, we hear with the inner ear some part of the speech of God, we approximate to the Angels.

Chapter 7 At the same time, it cannot be denied that by the intervention of Angels they might be transferred by God’s order or permission.

Chapter 17 During the same period there were three famous kingdoms of the nations, in which the city of the Earth-born, that is, the society of men living according to man under the domination of the fallen Angels, chiefly flourished, namely, the three kingdoms of Sicyon, Egypt, and Assyria. Of these, Assyria was much the most powerful and sublime; for that king Ninus, son of Belus, had subdued the people of all Asia except India.

Chapter 29 God appeared again to Abraham at the oak of Mamre in three men, who it is not to be doubted were Angels, although some think that one of them was Christ, and assert that He was visible before He put on flesh…For after saying to them in the plural, “Behold, my lords, turn aside into your servant’s house,” etc., yet it is afterwards said, “And the Angels laid hold upon his hand, and the hand of his wife, and the hands of his two daughters, because the Lord was merciful unto him. And it came to pass, whenever they had led him forth abroad, that they said, Save your life; look not behind you, neither stay in all this region: save yourself in the mountain, lest you be caught. And Lot said unto them, I pray you, Lord, since your servant has found grace in your sight,” etc. And then after these words the Lord also answered him in the singular, although He was in two Angels, saying, “See, I have accepted your face,” etc…But that they were Angels the Scripture testifies, not only in this book of Genesis, in which these transactions are related, but also in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where in praising hospitality it is said, “For thereby some have entertained Angels unawares.”

Chapter 30 For what is meant by the Angels forbidding those who were delivered to look back, but that we are not to look back in heart to the old life which, being regenerated through grace, we have put off, if we think to escape the last judgment?

Chapter 31 For his father had laughed when he was promised to him, in wondering delight, and his mother, when he was again promised by those three men, had laughed, doubting for joy; yet she was blamed by the Angel because that laughter, although it was for joy, yet was not full of faith. Afterwards she was confirmed in faith by the same Angel.

Chapter 32 But let us rather hear the divine words spoken through the Angel. For the Scripture says, “And Abraham stretched forth his hand to take the knife, that he might slay his son. And the Angel of the Lord called unto him from heaven, and said, Abraham. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not your hand upon the lad, neither do anything unto him: for now I know that you fear God, and have not spared your beloved son for my sake”…“And the Angel of the Lord called unto Abraham from heaven the second time, saying, By myself have I sworn, says the Lord…”

Chapter 38 When Jacob was going to Mesopotamia, he received in a dream an oracle, of which it is thus written:…”…And behold a ladder set up on the Earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and the Angels of God ascended and descended by it…”…And in the same place He says, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, You shall see heaven open, and the Angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.”

Chapter 39 Now this name was given him by the Angel who wrestled with him on the way back from Mesopotamia, and who was most evidently a type of Christ…And yet he besought a blessing from the very Angel he had overcome; and so the imposition of this name was the blessing…The Angel also touched him on the breadth of the thigh when he was overcoming him, and in that way made him lame.

In the next segment, we will consider more on Angels in Augustine of Hippo.

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