Hey everyone, welcome to Mythology Explained. In today’s video, we’re going to discuss Michael,
unequivocally the most famous angel and widely regarded as the most powerful
angel in Christianity, one of the few angels actually named in the bible and
one of the only angels who features on every archangel list, of which there are many.
Most notable are his martial triumphs, personally dueling the demon who presided over the Persian
Empire, and leading the host of heaven against Satan and his rebel angels, the result of which
was the precipitous expulsion of the insurgents down from heaven to earth, where prior to
subsequent defeats, they would wreak havoc in the years leading up to God’s final judgement.
We’re going to begin with a miscellaneous assortment of information, then focusing on
Michael’s role in the bible, and finally, examining how he fits into the angelic
hierarchy - this last discussing how he’s considered the most powerful angel when the
archangel choir is one of the lowest ranked angelic choirs in the celestial hierarchy.
Alright, let’s get into it.
Discussed in either secular or religious works, in any of the three Abrahamic religions (Islam,
Judaism, and Christianity), Michael is generally viewed as the greatest of the angels. His honors,
titles, and offices include: prince of the presence, head of the archangels, principal
of the order of virtues, and angel of mercy, sanctification, righteousness, and repentance.
Furthermore, he is the angelic prince of Israel, sovereign over the 4th heaven, the protector of
Jacob, and the angel who leads the forces of heaven against Satan and his rebel angels,
banishing Satan and those who follow him from heaven. In 2 Kings, the Assyrian army is described
as mounting a campaign against the Jewish people, capturing city after city. When Jerusalem was
finally assailed, becoming encircled and besieged, Hezekiah prayed to God for divine intervention.
In answer, an angel later entered the Assyrian camp in the dead of night,
smiting the army with his holy power. The entire army, 185,000 strong, was exterminated,
and when the sun rose the next morning, its light didn’t reveal a sea of soldiers,
but a charnel display of blood, corpses, and flock upon flock of carrion birds.
Though the angel who executed this act of mass slaughter isn’t named, Michael is commonly
identified with them. Similarly, Michael is also identified with the angel sent by God at the last
moment to intervene on his behalf, preventing Abraham from sacrificing his son, Isaac.
According to some Jewish lore, the flaming bush Moses saw burned with the likeness of Michael,
though Zagzagel is usually the angel said to appear in this way. The ancient Persians called
Michael ‘Beshter’, meaning something like “one who provides sustenance for mankind”, in this respect
linking him with Metatron. Called St Michael by Christians, Michael is viewed as the angel of
death, but not one shrouded in the grave garb of gloom and fear, instead, in this capacity, viewed
as a benevolent guide, leading people - those who placed their faith in god - to imperishable
paradise. In appearance, Michael is depicted with wings, sword in hand, this latter detail
harkening to his role as a warrior, leading the forces of heaven and casting Satan down to earth.
one of the works recovered from the Dead Sea scrolls is called War of the Sons of Light
Against the Sons of Darkness; in it, Michael is given the epithet “Prince of Light'',
and is described leading God's angels against the rebelling angels, here led by the demon Belial.
Both in occult and mystic writings, Michael has been associated with a number of forces
and figures, including Metatron and the Holy spirit. According to an early Islamic
tradition expounded in the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, Michael resides in the
7th heaven nearby the boundary of the Full Sea; there, hemmed in by a throng of angels,
in number said to be beyond count, Michael is described as having wings the color of emerald,
his form covered in myriad saffron hairs; and that, in turn, each of these hairs is host to
a million faces speaking a million languages, all of them beseeching God to pardon them.
Michael’s most famous contribution to scripture comes in the New Testament, in
the Book of Revelation, an apocalyptic narrative that describes the war between Heaven and Satan,
good pitted against evil, as well as God’s final judgement, which sees the souls of every person,
living or dead, judged, the righteous consigned to heaven and eternal exultation and the sinful
condemned to the lake of fire and perpetual punishment. Michael leads the angels faithful
to God against Satan and his rebel angels, and the outcome of this celestial clash is Satan’s defeat,
which is punctuated by his expulsion from heaven - however, it should be said that
this is not a final defeat, but, at this juncture, a banishment to the mortal plane,
to earth, where Satan sets his wicked will against humanity. Here’s the passage that describes this:
“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon
fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the
dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world,
he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him… And when the dragon saw
that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child…
and the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed,
which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”
Also in the New Testament, this time in the Book of Jude, Michael is mentioned by name in relation
to the body of Moses, here contending with Satan for the bodily remains of the deceased prophet.
An interesting point about this passage is that it features the only instance in
the entirety of the bible in which the term archangel is used in connection
with an angel mentioned by name - certainly a testament to Michael’s power and prominence,
and goes a long way in explaining why Michael features on every archangel list - at least,
every archangel list that I’ve seen personally. Here’s the passage:
“Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses,
durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.”
The third instance in which Michael is addressed by name is in the Book of Daniel,
wherein his name is used three times.
Daniel, after receiving a troubling vision, falls into a profound state of
mourning in which he ceases to eat and anoint himself. Then, after three weeks of this,
when Daniel is by the bank of a river, an angel appears before him. Here’s the passage:
“Then I lifted up mine eyes and looked, and behold a certain man clothed in linen,
whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz:
his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes
as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his
words like the voice of a multitude. And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with
me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.”
This angel - commonly believed to be Gabriel - explains that he was instructed to seek Daniel out
three weeks passed, the time Daniel first became heavy-hearted over the words of prophecy imparted
to him, but that he was delayed, withstood for 21 days by the prince of the Kingdom of Persia.
This Prince, also unnamed, is generally believed to be a malevolent force, a demon that presides
over the empire of Persia. This makes sense for a couple of reasons: first, no human or anything
contrived by humanity could possibly withstand and detain an angel, and second, there are many
other examples of great powers in the form of angels and demons presiding over other kingdoms
and territories. As said earlier in the video, Michael is the prince of Israel, and similarly,
the enemies of Israel are thought of as being under the influence of evil forces, which is why
Rome has been said to be the province of Samael and, likewise, Persia the province of Dubbiel.
Michael comes to Persia to help fight against the prince of the Kingdom of Persia, allowing Gabriel,
or whoever this nameless angel is, to find Daniel. Here’s the passage from Daniel 10:
“But the prince of the Persian Kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael,
one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the King
of Persia. Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future,
for the vision concerns a time yet to come… Soon I will return to fight against the prince of Persia,
and when I go, the prince of Greece will come; but first I will tell you what is
written in the Book of Truth. No one supports me against them except Michael, your prince.”
With Michael’s role in scripture examined, we’re going to spend the rest of the video
discussing Michael with respect to the angelic hierarchy, how he fits into it.
Michael is an archangel, which is actually quite an ambiguous title, as,
per most conceptualizations in which the heavenly choirs are stratified from lowest to highest,
the rank of archangel is positioned near the bottom of the angelic hierarchy. This can be seen
in the account of pseudo-Apollodorus, who wrote an influential treatise on this subject in the 6th
century. According to him, there are nine angelic choirs: Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones, the first
order of choirs, Dominations, Virtues, and Powers, the second order of choirs, and Principalities,
Archangel, and Angels, the third order of choirs. Those ranked highest (the Seraphim, Cherubim,
and Thrones), are those closest to God’s throne, and by contrast, the choirs that occupy the bottom
tier of this hierarchy (Principalities, archangels, and angels) are closest to the
mortal plane and, thus, most involved in earthly matters, such as guiding and protecting humanity.
This is confounding because, on the one hand, Michael, an archangel, ostensibly belongs to
the second lowest angelic choir, yet, on the other hand, he, based on how he is treated in the Bible,
is one of the most powerful angels in heaven, if not the most powerful - this idea given
credence by his prominence in the bible relative to other angels, as well as several of his titles,
such as “the Great Prince”, and roles, including: the angel who presides over Israel and the angel
who leads heaven against Satan. Additionally, it should be said that the conceptualization
put forward by Pseudo-Apollodorus is far from the only one; indeed, there are a multitude of others,
such as those espoused by St. Jerome, Isadore of Seville, Moses Maimonides - to name a
few - and many others; and what’s more, many of these assert there to be more than
nine choirs, these conceptualizations comprising 10, 11, or even 12 choirs.
However, despite there being many configurations, the rank of archangel is almost always eighth.
Reconciling Michael’s preeminence with his position is another interpretation of what
is meant by archangel, which is that it’s a general term that applies to all angels above
the bottom rank of angel within the celestial hierarchy. Applying this interpretation seems
to be more consistent with the greatness and exaltation ascribed to Michael in scripture.
Generally there are said to be seven archangels, the basis for this number thought to stem from
Revelation 8:2 when seven angels stand before God, all seven of them given trumpets. As well,
the number seven is a holy number, representing completeness and perfection,
for God created the world in six days and took the seventh to rest.
Of these seven there are many permutations, each one featuring its own proprietary combination.
According to Christian Gnostics, the seven archangels are: Michael, Gabriel,
Raphael, Uriel, Barachiel, Sealtiel, and Jehudiel; according to Gregory the Great,
also called St. Gregory the Great, a 6th century Pope, as well as a prolific theologian,
the seven archangels are: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Simile, Orifiel, and Zachariel;
and according to the Testament of Solomon, a pseudepigraphical work ascribed to King Solomon,
they are: Michael, Gabriel, Uriel, Sabrael, Arael, Iaoth, and Adonael. And though most
conceptualizations feature seven archangels, this isn’t always the case, as is shown by the
Islamic reckoning, which has only four: Gabriel, Michael, and two angels that, while not mentioned
by name in the Quran, are said to be Azrael, the angel of death, and Israfel, the angel of music.
And that’s it for this video. If you enjoy the content,
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