Who is Michaél? Jewish Encyclopedia: Angelólogy “The 70 nations of Gen.10 each had their guardian angel in heaven; Michael, the guardian angel of Israel, ranks above the rest.” ReligionWiki “Roman Catholic tradition calls [St] Michael, Gabriel and Raphael archangels.” Wikipedia: Michael “Within Protestantism, Anglican and Methodist tradition recognizes four archangels: Michael, Raphael, Gabriel and Uriel.”
However, some Protestants and other groups don’t position Michael in the order of angels. They don’t believe Michael is a created angel. This topic examines their view from the Bible.
Writers of the Bible books occasionally would use a symbolic, poetic, secondary or changed name for a place, instead of its usual name. For example, a poetic name for Israel is Jeshurún, meaning ‘upright one’. De.33:5 “He was king in Jeshurun, the tribes of Israel together.” It appears a poetic or symbolic name for Jerusalem is Ariel, ‘lioness of God’. Is.29:1 “Woe to Ariel, the city where David dwelt.” Jerusalem also came to be called Zion. Ps.51:8 “Do good to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem.”
And some Bible characters have more than one name. For example: Abrám/Abrahám Ge.17:5 “Your name is no more called Abram, your name shall be Abraham.” Jacob/Israel Ge.32:28 “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel.” Saul/Paul Ac.13:9 “Saul, who was also known as Paul.”
In the Bible, our Savior (Lk.2:11) has many, many titles and names. e.g: Jesus/Yeshúa Mt.1:21, Emmanuél Mt.1:23, Christ/Messiah Mt.1:16/Jn.1:41, Word/Lógos Jn.1:1,14, Branch Je.23:5, Angel/Messenger Ga.4:14, Rock 1Co.10:4, Son of Man Mt.12:8, Son of God Mt.8:29. And more.
A theóphany is an appearance of the Deity to man. Many believe that Melchisedek, who appeared to Abram in Ge.14:18-20, is a theophany. He.7:1-4 “Melchisedek, likened to the Son of God, how great this (one) was, to whom Abraham gave a tenth.” He was even Abraham’s superior! Many think the theophany or christophany Melchisedek was a manifestation of the Word/Logos before becoming Jesus.
The name “Michael” (Strongs h4317, Hebrew) occurs 13 times in the Old Testament (OT), 10 times as a theophóric (a human name with the name/title of God embedded in it). The 3 verses where Michael doesn’t refer to a human are in Daniel 10:13, 21, 12:1. There are 2 New Testament (NT) occurrences of this Michael (g3413, Greek); Jude 9, Re.12:7. Michael means ‘Who is like God’.
In Daniel 10, it is thought that the angel Gabriel (cf. Da.8:16, 9:21) came to help Daniel. Gabriel said in Da.10:13 Youngs Literal Translation (YLT), “Michael, first of the chief heads [or princes h8269 sar], has come to help me”. Barnes Notes Da.10:13 “The first in rank.” The reformers’ Geneva Bible 1599 “Michael, that is, Jesus Christ the head of angels.” Benson Commentary “Michael, whose name is sometimes given to Christ Himself.” Matthew Poole Commentary “Michael, this we take to be Christ.”
Da.10:20-21 YLT “There is not one strengthening himself with me, concerning these, except Michael your head [h8269 prince].” Gill Exposition Da.10:21 “Michael your Prince; Christ the Prince of the kings of the earth, he was the Prince, Protector, and Guardian of the people of the Jews; he is the Angel [of the Lord/YHVH] that went before them in the wilderness, their King and their God.”
The Hebrew “sar” (h8269) is translated as “head, prince, commander, chief, captain, ruler”.
Da.12:1-2 YLT “’At that time Michael the great head [h8269], is standing up for the sons of thy people. And the multitude of those sleeping in the dust of the earth do awake.” He stands prior to resurrection. Matthew Henry Commentary “Michael signifies the Divine Savior. Christ stood for the children of our people.” Gill Exposition “The Archangel, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who is as God, as the name signifies, truly and really God.” Benson Commentary “The Messiah, not…a created angel.”
The five commentaries above say Michael is another of Jesus’ names. Let’s compare other scriptures to see if Michael could indeed have been another name of Jesus (Yeshua in Hebrew & Aramaic).
Is.9:6 is a messianic prophecy about the “Sar Shalom”, the Prince (h8269) of Peace. “A Child will be born to us. His name will be called Wonderful, Mighty God, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace.” Jesus is the prophesied Prince of Peace, the Sar Shalom.
We saw a mighty spiritual Prince/Head/Commander (sar h8269) in Da.10:13, 20-21. Another passage about the “Commander” (or Prince/Head h8269) of the “host” (h6635) is Da.8:11. “The little horn even set itself up to be as great as the Commander [h8269] of the host of the Lord.” Da.8:25 “He will even oppose the Prince of princes [Commander of commanders, all are h8269]. Yet he will be shattered, but not by human hands.” The great Commander/Prince/Head of the Lord’s army does the shattering!
In Jsh.5:13-15, the Commander (Prince/Head/Chief h8269) of YHVH’s angelic host appeared to Joshua, saying, “I have come as Commander of the Lord’s army [host h6635]. Remove your sandals, for the place where you stand is holy”. Orthodox Bible note, “The chief whom tradition holds to be the Archangel Michael.” Pulpit Commentary “The majority supposed it to have been the archangel Michael. He who spoke to Joshua was a Divine Person.” So it was mandatory that Joshua remove his sandals. The place where the Commander stood was holy. Joshua fell on his face in reverence.
Moses’ experience in Ex.3:1-6 is similar to Joshua’s in that respect. “The Angel [Messenger h4397 malákh] of YHVH appeared to him in a blazing fire from a bush. God called to him from the midst of the bush. ‘Remove your sandals for you are standing on holy ground. I Am the God of your fathers.” The Angel or Messenger of YHVH is also God! Moses must remove his sandals, as Joshua must!
Alfred Edersheim The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Appendix 13, 1:2:b “Michael is also supposed to have been the Angel in the bush.” Orthodox Bible “God the Word revealed Himself to Moses in the burning bush. He is called the Angel of the Lord because He is the Angel or Messenger of the Father.” Is.9:6 Septúagint/LXX “His name will be called the Messenger of Great Counsel, and of His peace there is no end.” Paul wrote of his own welcome in Ga.4:14. “You received me as an angel [or messenger g32 ángelos] of God, as Christ Jesus.” Yet Jesus is God and not a created angel.
Humans aren’t to worship the angelic order. John said regarding the angel in Re.19:10, “I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, ‘Don’t do this, I am a fellow-servant.” Re.22:8-9 “I, John, fell down to worship at the feet of the angel. But he said to me, ‘Don’t do this.” Yet God/Jesus is to be worshiped! He.1:6 “Let all the angels of God worship Him.” Joshua fell on his face and must remove his sandals in the presence of Commander Michael. Again, Michael means ‘Who is like God’.
In scripture, a spiritual being of the angelic order is an attendant, agent, or messenger for God. Jesus said in Re.22:16 YLT, “I, Jesus, did send [g3992 pémpo] My messenger [angel g32 angelos] to testify these things”. But beings of the angelic order aren’t the only messengers.
Humans too can be messengers. Ge.32:3 “Jacob sent messengers [malakh h4397] to Esau his brother.” Homing pigeons are used as messengers. There’s messenger dogs (e.g. German Shepherd, Doberman, Airedale). The term angel/messenger/angelos doesn’t always refer to the angelic order (ref Ga.4:14).
Jesus is Father God’s Messenger! Jesus said in Jn.8:16, “I and the Father who sent [g3992] Me”.
The Messenger of YHVH was sent by Father YHVH. God’s Word transl Ge.16:7, 13 “The Messenger of the LORD found her by a spring in the desert….Hagar named the LORD, who had been speaking to her, ‘You Are the God Who Watches Over Me.” The Messenger was God! Jacob in Ge.31:11-13, “In a dream the Messenger of God called to me, ‘I Am the God who appeared to you at Bethél”.
In the Péntateuch, the Angel or Messenger of God…is God! cf. Ex.13:21 & 14:19! Zec.12:8 LXX “The house of David will be as the house of God, as the angel of the Lord before them.”
Zec.3:1-2 “He showed me Yehoshúa [Joshua] the chief priest standing in front of the Messenger of the Lord. Satan was standing at Yehoshua’s right side to accuse him. The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you.” The Messenger or Angel of the Lord who spoke was the Lord (YHVH)!
Those exact words (“The Lord rebuke you”) were spoken in only one other verse of the Bible. Jude 9 “When Michael the archangel disputed with the devil over the body of Moses, he said, ‘The Lord rebuke you.” Michael is the archangel or Chief Messenger, the great Head/Prince (Da.12:1). Perhaps their dispute had to do with whether or not Moses was guilty for killing the Egyptian (Ex.2:11-15)? Only Michael’s words in Jude 9 parallel the words of the Messenger/Angel of the Lord (“the Lord”) in Zec.3:1-2. Gill Exposition Jude 9 “By whom is meant the Lord Jesus Christ, not a created angel, as appears from His name Michael, who is as God, the Son of God.”
The only archangel (g743 archángelos, Greek) named in our Bible is…Michael! The term archangel is never plural in scripture. Gabriel & Lucifer aren’t specifically called archangels in the Bible. Edersheim op.cit. “The superiority of Michael over Gabriel [Strong Man of God] is asserted in Ber.4 b.”
Michael again opposes satan the devil/dragon in Re.12:7. “There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought.” Matthew Henry Commentary “The parties were Christ, the great Angel of the covenant, and his faithful followers; and Satan and his instruments.” Michael is the Commander or leader of his angels (or host). And in Mt.25:41, Jesus spoke of “The agelong [aiónios g166] fire prepared for the devil and his angels”.
Similar is Mt.13:41. “The Son of Man will send forth His angels.” Both Michael and Jesus the Son of Man is Commander of the angelic order. Mt.24:30-31 “The Son of Man will send forth His angels with a great trumpet blast.” Do Jesus and Michael the Archangel command two separate groups of ‘good’ angels…or is it the same innumerable group? And satan the devil/dragon commands over all the ‘bad’ angels. From those verses, Jesus the Son of Man and Michael appear to be the same.
We saw back in Da.12:1-2 that Michael stands up and resurrection occurs. “Many to everlasting life but others to shame and everlasting abhorrence.” In Mt.24:30-31, the elect are gathered as that great trumpet sounds. 1Th.4:16 “The Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel [g743], and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise.” The Lord blows the great trumpet. (cf. Zec.9:14 “The Lord God shall blow the trumpet.”) At the time the dead rise (Da.12:1-2 Michael), we see whose voice is heard, who the Archangel or Chief Messenger is….
Jesus follows-up on Da.12:1-2 in Jn.5:25-29, where He said “The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. All who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; those who have done good to a resurrection of life, those who done evil to a resurrection of judgment.” Jesus said the voice heard is that of He Himself, the Son of God! In 1Th.4:16, the voice heard is that of the archangel, the Lord Himself descending. Jesus and the Archangel appear one and the same…Michael (in Da.12:1-2)!
The term archangel (archangelos g743) or Chief Messenger occurs only twice in the entire Bible, in 1Th.4:16 and Jude 9. (The term doesn’t appear in the Greek OT LXX).
A broad angelology and demonology with ranks & functions emerged in Judaism during the time of the Babylonian and Persian periods. Two angels of note are Raphael (‘God heals’) and Uriel (‘Flame of God’). Tobit 12:15 “I am Raphael, one of the seven holy angels who report the prayers of the saints, and enter before the glory of the Holy One.” 2Esdras 4:1 “The angel Uriel had been sent to me.” (The apocalyptic 2Esdras was written in the 100s AD, too late to be included in the old Greek version, written 270–132 BC.) In the decades prior to Jesus’ human birth, near the time of the Greek translation (which became the LXX), the Jews developed the more detailed angelology with names and categories of angelic beings. ref 1Eno.9:1 Michael, Uriel, Raphael, Gabriel. 1Eno.40:8-10 has Phanuel (‘Face of God’), not Uriel. 2Eno.22:6 (written late 1st century AD), “Michael, the Lord’s greatest archangel”.
But to the Jewish philosopher Philo (20 BC – 50 AD), the Lord/Word/Logos is the one supreme archangel. Philo On Dreams, Book 1:25:157 at the top of Jacob’s ladder [Ge.28:12-13] stood “The archangel, the Lord Himself; the living God stands above all things”. In Philo, there’s no indication of plural archangels. He didn’t subscribe to four or seven archangels, seen elsewhere in Jewish thought.
Philo Who is the Heir of Divine Things 42:205 “The Father who created the universe has given to His archangelic and most ancient Logos a pre-eminent gift. This same Word is continually a suppliant to the immortal God on behalf of the mortal race.” That Archangel is Jesus. In the Bible (e.g. Jn.1:1, 14), Jesus is referred to as the Logos in Greek, the Word in English (the Mémra in Aramaic Targums).
Philo On the Confusion of Tongues 28:146 “His firstborn Logos, the eldest of the angels, the great archangel of many names, for He is called the Authority, and the Name of God, and the Word.” (Again, Jesus has well more than a dozen names/titles in scripture.)
Also, the Dead Sea Scrolls 11Q13 document has Melchisedek as the leader of God’s angels, instead of Michael. This DSS passage refers to Melchisedek as Elohím (God). Wikipedia: 11Q13 “11QMelch is a fragmentary manuscript among the DSS which mentions Melchisedek as leader of God’s angels in a war in heaven [cf. Re.12:7] against the angels of darkness instead of the more familiar Archangel Michael…date of composition is circa 100 BCE. (Isa. 52:7) Melchizedek is ‘Your Elohim’ who will deliver the sons of righteousness from Belial [satan].” (see the topic “Melchisedek Order Priesthood”.)
To summarize, comparing the above passages in the light of each other, many similarities are apparent:
Jesus is the prophesied Prince of Peace, and the Prince or Commander of the (angelic) host. Michael is the first chief head, Commander, the Prince of princes. Michael is the great Prince. Michael means ‘Who is like God’. The Angel/Messenger of the Lord, often seen in the Pentateuch, is ‘like God’.
In Jsh.5:15 & Ex.3:5, there was holy ground around both the Commander of the host and the Angel/Messenger of the Lord (who is like God) theophany.
In Zec.3:1-2 & Jude 9, the Angel/Messenger of the Lord who is “the Lord” and Michael the archangel both said to satan the devil, “The Lord rebuke you”.
In Mt.24:30-31 & Re.12:7, Jesus the Son of Man & Michael are both the leader of (the ‘good’) angels.
In Jn.5:25 & 1Th.4:16, the Voice heard when the dead rise is that of both Jesus the Son of God and the Archangel.
In Da.12:1-2 & Jn.5:27-29, both Michael & the Son of God connect to the rising of the just & unjust.
The 1st century AD thought of Philo was…There exists only one supreme Archangel who is the Word or Logos, the Name of God, the Lord Himself. The Bible passages support the Hellenist Philo’s view.
The DSS 11QMelch document refers to Melchisedek as God, and substitutes Melchisedek as leader of God’s angels instead of Michael (Re.12:7)/Son of Man (Mt.24:30-31).
Five Protestant commentaries were quoted (near the top) who endorsed the view that Michael is Jesus. There’s more than those five. conversationalfaith.org Michael the Archangel is Jesus “The belief that Michael is the Son of God is shared by many influential Protestants throughout history. John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole, Charles Spurgeon, John Gill, John Wesley all believed this to be true. As do the Geneva Study Bible and International Standard Bible Encyclopedia.”
Gill Exposition Da.10:13 “Michael…called in the New Testament an Archangel, the Prince of angels, the Head of all principality and power; is no other than Christ the Son of God; the first of the chief Princes; superior to angels in nature, name and office; the General of the armies in heaven.” Jesus is God…He’s not an angelic being. Jonathan Edwards Christ Exalted “This Michael is Christ (Da.10:21 and 12:1).” John Wesley Notes Da.10:13, 21 “Michael here is commonly supposed to mean Christ. Michael-Christ alone is the protector of His church.” According to Wesley, Protestants commonly believed Michael was Jesus Christ. Charles Spurgeon Our Lord’s Transcendant Greatness “Our Lord, who is the true Michael, the only Archangel.” Spurgeon The Angelic Life “Michael is the Lord Jesus.”
Jewish Encyclopedia: Michael “Michael is identified with Melchisedek. Michael, the high priest, is the standard-bearer of God. He announced to Sarah that she should bear a son (Gen.18:10). Michael prevented Isaac from being sacrificed by his father. It was Michael who wrestled with Jacob and afterward blessed him. Michael led the Israelites through their 40 years in the wilderness. Michael is on the right hand of God’s throne, at the right hand of God, occupying the first place near God.”
The above things attributed to Michael in the Jewish Encyclopedia are all attributed to God & Jesus in the Bible! ref: Ge.14:18-19, He.7:1-4, 4:14 Jesus is high priest; Ge.18:1, 10 the announcement to Sarah was made by YHVH/the Lord; Ge.22:1, 10-12 the Angel of YHVH saved Isaac; Ge.32:24, 29-30 Jacob said he wrestled with God face-to-face; Ex.14:19 & 13:21 the Angel of God and YHVH in a pillar cloud led the Israelites; Ac.2:32-33 & Col.1:18 Jesus is at the right hand of God and is in first place.
Though our minds don’t fully comprehend theophanies/christophanies, the scriptural case can be made that supports the view…Michael is one of the many names/titles of Christ Jesus. Again, one of Jesus’ names is Emmanu-el. Micha-el is Jesus’ warrior name, as He fights & defeats the powers of darkness.
The scriptures (but not religious traditions/presuppositions) indicate that “Michael” may well be another or a symbolic or poetic name for Jesus the sole Archangel or Chief Messenger, who Father God sent. also see the topics “Jesus Was the Old Testament God”, “Jesus Is God…Jesus Has a God”, “Heavenly Host Authorities and Powers”.
Lastly, this exposition isn’t based upon, nor did I utilize the literature of, any church or denominational teaching (such as Jehovah’s Witnesses or Seventh Day Adventist).
Bible Topic Exposition 