Re: Angel Wiki Download
Irmgard Verzi
Liam's body was buried; at some point during the night, he rose again. Darla visited his grave, where he had his first taste of blood when a groundskeeper caught them and accused them of being grave robbers. In response to Darla's assertion, Liam set about slaughtering his entire village. First, he massacred his own family, whose blood he later described as the "sweetest of all." Liam's little sister, Kathy, had believed her brother had returned to her as an angel, and ignorantly invited him inside the family home. He killed her first, and then murdered his mother. As he killed his father, Liam boasted that despite his father's disapproval, he had managed to make something of himself after all. Whilst gloating over his father's corpse, Darla cruelly deflated Liam, claiming that in the end, his father had claimed the victory because his condemnation would haunt Liam for the remainder of his existence, while his father's suffering, while painful, had been very brief.[11]
Liam took the name "Angelus," presumably inspired by his sister's mistaken belief that he was an angel.[11] He was later described in historical volumes as the "one with the angelic face,"[2] and the "demon with the face of an angel."[25] After leaving Ireland behind, Angelus and Darla cut a bloody swath through Wales and Northern England before reaching London in 1760. During Angelus' first meeting with Darla's sire, the Master, he openly mocked the older vampire, despite the Master's greater age, power, and authority. Angelus expressed no interest in the Order of Aurelius' plan to destroy the human world and bring about the return of the Old Ones, as he preferred the hedonistic pleasures of the world above. The Master confronted Darla about her decision to remain underground, and she chose to leave with Angelus.[14]
Angel was considered physically attractive, noted especially for his title as the "one with the angelic face."[2] After his first meeting with Buffy, which left her with a bad impression, she still described him as "gorgeous,"[46] calling him a "honey," claiming most girls would find him attractive "if they [had] eyes," describing him as a "hunk," and saying that his eyes were "penetrating."[2] Cordelia,[180][83] Faith, Fred,[citation needed] Kendra Young,[47] Anya Jenkins[59] had also praised him physically. Men had also complimented his appearance; Xander, though in anguish, commented that Angel was "buff" and "a very attractive man" when first seeing him,[181] Oliver Simon stated that Angel was a "beautiful man,"[16] and a commercial director assumed he was a model.[182]
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (Creator of all) (or Heaven) and humanity.[1][2] Other roles include protectors and guides for humans, such as guardian angels, and servants of God.[3] Abrahamic religions describe angelic hierarchies, which vary by religion and sect. Some angels have specific names (such as Gabriel or Michael) or titles (such as seraph or archangel). Those expelled from Heaven are called fallen angels, distinct from the heavenly host.
The word angel arrives in modern English from Old English engel (with a hard g) and the Old French angele.[8] Both of these derive from Late Latin angelus, which in turn was borrowed from Late Greek ἄγγελος angelos (literally "messenger").[9] Τhe word's earliest form is Mycenaean a-ke-ro, attested in Linear B syllabic script.[10] According to the Dutch linguist R. S. P. Beekes, ángelos itself may be "an Oriental loan, like ἄγγαρος (ángaros, 'Persian mounted courier')."[11]
The rendering of "ángelos" is the Septuagint's default translation of the Biblical Hebrew term malʼākh, denoting simply "messenger" without connoting its nature. In the Latin Vulgate, this meaning becomes bifurcated: when malʼākh or ángelos is supposed to denote a human messenger, words like nuntius or legatus are applied. If the word refers to some supernatural being, the word angelus appears. Such differentiation has been taken over by later vernacular translations of the Bible, early Christian and Jewish exegetes and eventually modern scholars.[12]
The notion of angels was first introduced in the Zoroastrianism faith. The Zoroastrian legend of the cosmic clash between Ahura Mazda, the benevolent deity, and Angra Mainyu, the hostile deity, along with their armies of angels and demons, had a profound impact on the angelology and demonology found in Hebrew scriptures and the Apocrypha. These, in turn, influenced subsequent Jewish, Christian, and Islamic beliefs. Similar to Ahura Mazda, the God of the Old Testament, Yahweh, is surrounded by a host of angelic beings. He is referred to as the "Lord of Hosts", and his warrior angels engage in battle against the forces of evil led by Satan, who gradually assumes the characteristics of the archfiend, Angra Mainyu. Judaism adopted the Zoroastrian concept of dividing the universe into three realms: heaven, earth, and hell. Heaven represents the celestial realm inhabited by God and his angels, while earth symbolizes the material world of humanity. The primary role of angels is to bridge the cosmic divide that separates God and humanity. In Zoroastrianism, this divide originated from the primordial clash among the gods, leaving humanity stranded in an unfamiliar world.[13]
In the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, the separation between God and humanity is believed to have occurred due to the sin and fall of mankind. As a result, humans have become estranged and no longer comprehend their relationship with their creator or the purpose of their existence. However, angels, being capable of taking on human form, serve as intermediaries between heaven and earth, revealing the divine plan, will, and law. This emphasis on the role of angels as messengers aligns with the influence of Zoroastrianism. In Zoroastrian belief, Vohu Manah, known as the "good mind", one of the holy immortals called Amesha Spentas, appeared to Zarathushtra and unveiled the true nature of God and his covenant with humanity. [13]
In Zoroastrianism there are different angel-like figures. For example, each person has one guardian angel, called Fravashi. They patronize human beings and other creatures, and also manifest God's energy. The Amesha Spentas have often been regarded as angels, although there is no direct reference to them conveying messages,[14] but are rather emanations of Ahura Mazda ("Wise Lord", God); they initially appeared in an abstract fashion and then later became personalized, associated with various aspects of creation.[15]
Michael D. Coogan notes that it is only in the late books that the terms "come to mean the benevolent semi-divine beings familiar from later mythology and art."[22] Daniel is the biblical book to refer to individual angels by name,[23] mentioning Gabriel in Daniel 9:21 and Michael in Daniel 10:13. These angels are part of Daniel's apocalyptic visions and are an important part of apocalyptic literature.[22][24]
In Daniel 7, Daniel receives a dream-vision from God. [...] As Daniel watches, the Ancient of Days takes his seat on the throne of heaven and sits in judgement in the midst of the heavenly court [...] an [angel] like a son of man approaches the Ancient One in the clouds of heaven and is given everlasting kingship.[25]
Philo of Alexandria identifies the angel with the Logos inasmuch as the angel is the immaterial voice of God. The angel is something different from God himself, but is conceived as God's instrument.[32]
Four classes of ministering angels minister and utter praise before the Holy One, blessed be He: the first camp (led by) Michael on His right, the second camp (led by) Gabriel on His left, the third camp (led by) Uriel before Him, and the fourth camp (led by) Raphael behind Him; and the Shekhinah of the Holy One, blessed be He, is in the centre. He is sitting on a throne high and exalted[33]
According to Kabbalah, there are four worlds and our world is the last world: the world of action (Assiyah). Angels exist in the worlds above as a 'task' of God. They are an extension of God to produce effects in this world. After an angel has completed its task, it ceases to exist. The angel is in effect the task. This is derived from the book of Genesis when Abraham meets with three angels and Lot meets with two. The task of one of the angels was to inform Sara and Abraham of their coming child. The other two were to save Lot and to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.[23]
... This leads Aristotle in turn to the demonstrated fact that God, glory and majesty to Him, does not do things by direct contact. God burns things by means of fire; fire is moved by the motion of the sphere; the sphere is moved by means of a disembodied intellect, these intellects being the 'angels which are near to Him', through whose mediation the spheres move ... thus totally disembodied minds exist which emanate from God and are the intermediaries between God and all the bodies [objects] here in this world.
Maimonides had a neo-Aristotelian interpretation of the Bible. Maimonides writes that to the wise man, one sees that what the Bible and Talmud refer to as "angels" are actually allusions to the various laws of nature; they are the principles by which the physical universe operates.
In the early stage, the Christian concept of an angel characterized the angel as a 'messenger' of God. The word "angel" can be drawn to the term or role of a "messenger" throughout the Bible in both old and new testaments - (Hebrews 1:14) calls them "ministering [or serving] spirits", sent by God to aid the "heirs of salvation".[34] Later came identification of individual angelic messengers: Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and Uriel.[35] Then, in the space of slightly over two centuries (from the 3rd to the 5th) the image of angels took on definite characteristics both in theology and in art.[36] Ellen Muehlberger has argued that in Late Antiquity, angels were conceived of as one type of being among many, whose primary purpose was to guard and to guide Christians.[37]
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