About Rabbinical Writings and References to Angels and Gems

In Rabbinical writings we are told that if a man fulfilled one of the commandments, one angel was bestowed upon him; if he fulfilled two commandments, he received two angels; if, however, he fulfilled all the commandments, many angels were given him. This was a literal construction of the text Ps. xci, 11: "For he shall give his angels charge over thee." These angels were believed to shield the believer from the attacks of evil spirits.

The Mohammedan Atlas, the angel appointed by God to bear the earth on his shoulders, was given a rock of ruby to stand upon. Beneath this ruby-rock, were, successively a huge bull, an immense fish, a mass of water, and lastly darkness. Thus the grand vision of "the face of the deep" over which hovered the Spirit of God, before the creative words were spoken, giving form to the earth, is not altogether lost sight of in this Mohammedan fancy.

Luther was a firm believer in the existence of guardian angels, and he even goes so far as to assert that the angels assigned to men differed in rank and ability as did the men themselves. Of this he says:

Just as among men, one is large and another small, and one is strong and another weak, so one angel is larger, stronger, and wiser than another. Therefore, a prince has a much larger and stronger angel, one who is also shrewder and wiser, than that of a count, and the angel of a count is larger and stronger than that of a common man. The higher the rank and the more important the vocation of a man, the larger and stronger is the angel who guards him and holds the Devil aloof.

Our idea of a guardian angel is so spiritual and so pure that it is difficult for us to understand the curious results this belief has occasionally produced among the primitive peoples. A weird tale is told of a Congo negro who killed his mother so as to gain an especially powerful guardian spirit. The dreadful deed was perpetrated in the full conviction that the mother's love would remain unshaken, while her power for good would be increased. Such ferocious egoism does not find an exact parallel among civilized peoples, but the underlying principle is unfortunately too often illustrated in our midst at the present day.

The belief in guardian angels has the best of Scripture warrant as offered by the text Matthew, chapter xviii, v. 10, where Christ speaking of little children says: "Their angels do always behold the face of my Father who is in Heaven." Another New Testament passage testifying distinctly to the existence of this belief in the Apostolic Age, is in the Acts of the Apostles (xii, 15), where we read that after the miraculous rescue of Peter from his imprisonment, his friends could not believe the report that he had been seen standing at the door of their dwelling, and exclaimed: "It is his angel."

That not only individuals but nations also had special guardian angels was, as we have already noted, a belief held to a certain extent among the Jews after the Babylonian Captivity. To the trace of this in the tenth chapter of Daniel (vs. 13, 21), where Michael stands for Israel, may be added the evidence afforded by the Greek Septuagint version of Deuteronomy xxxii, 8, part of the "Song of Moses." Here the Revised version based on our Hebrew text reads:

He set the bounds of the peoples,

According to the number of the children of Israel.

The Septuagint translators, however, must have had a slightly different text before them for they render the last words: "According to the number of God's angels." It therefore seems probable that they read in Hebrew bene Elohim instead of bene Yisrael. Of the bene Elohim or "Sons of God" we read in Genesis, chapter vi, verse 2, that they wedded with the "Daughters of Men." This has been given a poetic form by Thomas Moore in his "Loves of the Angels." The Book of Job also, in its Prologue in Heaven (i, 6-12), introduces the "Sons of God" among whom appeared Satan, the "Adversary." Of angel names, as has been noted, there is Biblical warrant only for Gabriel, Michael, and Raphael, the last-mentioned, in the Apocryphal Book of Tobit; to these IV Esdras (not a canonical book) adds Jeremiel and Uriel, names not admitted by the Church.

There has been preserved for us a most interesting calendar for the city of Rome, written by Furius Dionysius Filocalus in 354 A.D., and containing a series of drawings by his hand showing the symbolical figures of the months of the year. Though the original manuscript is lost, several apparently faithful copies exist, one of which is in the Imperial Library in Vienna. Much of this work deals with matters referring to the Roman calendar, but perhaps its most valuable part is a list of the early Christian saints and martyrs. As this is the earliest list of the kind, of even earlier date than the rest of the work, we give it here unabridged, as a most interesting documentary proof of the veneration in which the saints were held in the fourth, or, we should probably say, in the third century.

ITEM DEPOSITIO MARTIRUM

VIII kal. Jan. natus Christum in Betleem Judeae.

mense Januario.

XIII kal. Feb. Fabiani in Callisti

et Sebastiani in Catacumbas.

XII kal. Feb. Agnetis in Nomentana.

mense Februario.

VIII kal. Martias natale Petri de cathedra.

mense Martio.

non. Martias. Perpetuae et Felicitatis, Africae.

mense Maio.

XIIII kal. Jun. Partheni et Caloceri in Callisti,

Diocletiano VIIII et Maximiano VIII

[304].

mense Junio.

III kal. Jul. Petri in Catacumbas

et Pauli Ostense, Tusco et Basso cons.

[258].

mense Julio.

VI idus Felicis et Filippi in Priscillae

et in Jordanorum, Martialis Vitalis Alexandri

et in Maximi Silani. hune Silanum martirem

Nouati furati sunt.

et in Praetextatae, Januari.

III kal. Aug. Abdos et Semnes in Pontiani, quod est

ad ursum piliatum.

mense Augusto.

VIII idus Aug. Xysti in Callisti

et in Praetextati Agapiti et Felicissimi.

VI idus Aug. Secundi Carpofori Victorini, et Seueriani

Albano.

et Ostense VII ballisteria Cyriaci

Largi Crescentiani Memmiae Julianetis

et Ixmaracdi.

IIII idus Aug. Laurenti in Tiburtina.

idus Aug. Ypoliti in Tiburtina.

et Pontiani in Callisti.

XI kal. Septemb. Timotei, Ostense

V kal. Sept. Hermetis in Basillae Salaria uetere.

mense Septembre.

non. Sept. Aconti, in Porto, et Nonni et Herculani

et Taurini.

V idus Sept. Gorgoni in Lauicana.

III idus Sept. Proti et Jacinti, in Basillae.

XVIII kal. Octob. Cypriani, Africae. Romae celebratur

in Callisti.

X kal. Octob. Basillae, Salaria uetere, Diocletiano

IX et Maximiano VIII consul. (304)

mense Octobre.

pri. idus Octob. Callisti in via Aurelia. miliario III.

mense Nouembre.

V idus Nou. Clementis Semproniani Claui Nicostrati

in comitatum.

III kal. Dec. Saturnini in Trasonis.

mense Decembre.