anthony rogers-the malak yahweh-jesus, the divine messenger of the old testament

7/29/2019 Anthony Rogers-The Malak Yahweh-Jesus, The Divine Messenger of the Old Testament

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The Malak Yahweh:

Jesus, the Divine Messenger of the Old Testament1

Part I

ByAnthony Rogers

Introduction

A diverse body of writings attests the belief among pre-Christian Jews that the Malak Yahweh,who features so prominently in the Old Testament, was a divine figure, properly denominated

Yahweh, but nonetheless distinct from another called Yahweh.2The earliest Christians,

3as well

as many other Christian worthies throughout the centuries,4have also viewed theMalak

Yahweh as a distinct divine person within the Godhead, further explicating it as a Christophany,

that is, an appearance of the pre-incarnateLogos or Word of God the Lord Jesus Christ. The

Scriptural basis for this view, beginning with the Old Testament and concluding with the New,is the subject of the following articles.

Theophanies in General

To begin with, the Bible clearly teaches not only the possibility but the willingness and reality of

Gods condescending to reveal Himself to His creatures. Although God has surely revealedHimself in other ways, such as through the created order and the internal disposition of man

(Psalm 19:1-7; Romans 1:18ff., 2:14-16), as well as in more special ways such as by thecommunications of created angels to the prophets (e.g. Daniel 8:1-27), and by means of

inspiration, inclusive of dreams (e.g. Genesis 37:1-11), visions (e.g. Obadiah 1:1), and putting

His words in a persons mouth (e.g. 2 Samuel 23:2), none of this implies any lack of ability orvolition on the part of God to do so in more direct and extraordinary ways, such as by means of

an audible voice (e.g. 1 Kings 19:9-18), or through visible means like a smoking firepot

(Genesis 15:1-21), a burning bush (Exodus 3:1-14), a pillar of fire and cloud (Exodus 13:21),the Shekinah glory in the Tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-38) and later in the Temple (2 Chronicles

5:11-14), and even human form, the latter of which is sometimes attended by an outward display

of glory (Ezekiel 1:22-28) and at other times is very unassuming (Genesis 18), without any

outward pomp or comeliness.

Divine manifestations and revelatory experiences of the latter sort are commonly called

theophanies (i.e., appearances of God). One of the most important forms that theophanies take inthe OT is that of theMalak Yahweh, commonly translated as the Angel of the LORD or the

Angel of Yahweh. According to the Old Testament Scriptures, this figure is an appearance ofYahweh in human form.
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The Meaning of the Word Angel

The way the word angel is commonly understood creates no little confusion when it comes to

this subject. In common usage, the word has come to refer exclusively to created heavenlybeings or spirits who inhabit heaven. For this reason it is important to point out that the wordangel is not actually found in the Hebrew Old Testament and is not even a translation into

English of any word found in the Bible. The word angel is simply a transliteration intoEnglish of the Greek word angelos(Gr. ), which is used in the Septuagint (LXX), i.e.

the Greek translation of the Old Testament, and in the Greek New Testament.

The word that is used in the Hebrew text is malak( ). The lexical sources are unanimous thatthe Hebrew word malak, in its original signification and as it is used in the Bible, means onesent; a messenger (e.g. Gesenius; Brown, Driver and Briggs;5et al.), as such it refers to the

function rather than to the nature of an agent, and could just as well refer to one who is divine or

human rather than just to a supernatural being as the word angel is normally understood. In otherwords, the nature of the agent is something that cant be determined by the word alone and has

to be determined by other factors. Accordingly, after discussing the etymology of the word,

James Battenfield concludes: "The root idea of [malak], then, is one sent, a messenger, or

an envoy. Only in context does the term take on specificity."6

This is why the word malakis used for any messenger or message-bearer in the Hebrew Old

Testament, whether the Angel of Yahweh, whom we will see exists in a class of His own,created angels, or human beings. In fact,

The Hebrew term (malak) is used some 214 times7in the Old Testament. Nearly 50

percent of these occurrences clearly have reference in their context to human messengers whobore the messages of ordinary men such as Jacob (32:3) and of kings and military leaders (1Sam. 19:11-21). Sometimes, even Gods prophets are termed His messengers (2 Chron. 36:15-

16 cf. Jer. 25:3-7; 26:20-23; Hag. 1:13; Mal. 3:1a). The postcaptivity priests are also calledGods messengers in Malachi 2:7.

The remaining Old Testament usages of messenger are divided between references to the

Messenger of Jehovah (approximately 33 percent) and references to finite, created messengers,commonly called angels (about 17 percent). Thus, only the context can clearly reveal whetherthe term messenger, orangel, refers to the office of the one who is sent (in which case it could

be Christ) or to the nature of created angels as finite beings. The term may denote office,function, or responsibility, rather than the nature of the being ...

8(Emphasis original)

The same thing is true of classical Greek, where the word angelos is used, for example, of

Hermes, the messenger god, as well as of angels and humans.

This is less the case in the New Testament (q.v. Thayer; Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich, Danker; et. al.),

which uses the word angel at a time when the process of associating the word exclusively withcreated heavenly beings was already well underway, a process that began with (or at least isalready seen in) the Septuagint, which occasionally uses another wordpresbus to translate the

Hebrew malakwhen a human messenger is believed to be in view.9As Balz and Schneider say,In the great majority of occurrences is used for the (heavenly)messengerof God, but

can also designate a human messenger10The rare exceptions in view here are Luke 7:24,
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9:52, James 2:25, Matthew 11:10, and Mark 1:2 (the last two are quotations of the OT), all ofwhich use the word angelos for human messengers.

This shows that the word does not tell us anything specifically about the nature of an angel,

particularly in the inspired Hebrew Scriptures, and is something that has to be discerned fromcontext and other relevant factors.

But even this may not say it all, for a strong case can be made, and has been by a number ofscholars, that even the idea of messenger as it is commonly understood does not quite capturethe full implications of the word as it is used for the Angel of the LORD, especially as the wordis used for Him in the book of Genesis. So Juncker:

First, a fairly persuasive case can be made that the word [malak] in the OT does not mean

angel at all, at least not in the modern sense of a distinct, creaturely spirit. Instead, the word

means only presence or manifestation with the ontological status of the one presentcontextually determined. But second, and more importantly, a variety of recent literary analyses

of the OT have tended to confirm the view that the Angel of the LORD is YHWH or a

narratologically sophisticated and theologically subtle way of speaking about him. Perhaps themost fascinating recent literary analysis involves a careful comparison of the Angel of the

LORD texts in Genesis with [t]he entirety of the narrative material of the Sumerian,Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Ugaritic, and Egyptian literature. The main conclusion of this

analysis is noteworthy: when the angel in the Genesis narratives acts he performs the functions

of the deity in the extra-biblical narratives rather than those of the messenger or agent of thedeity; and when the angel in the Genesis narratives speaks he speaks as the deity in the extra-

biblical narratives and not as the messenger or agent of the deity. The narratives in the ANE thatmost closely resemble those in Genesis are the epiphany narratives where the deity himself

appears.

Juncker then goes on to quote Dorothy Irvin:

[W]hen the messenger of Yahweh or Elohim speaks, he is not understood to be acting as a

messenger, even though he is called a messenger. On the basis of comparable narrative material,

it can be said that no delivery of a message takes place. It can be concluded that the messenger

of Yahweh or Elohim is notthought of in these Genesis stories as being, in fact, a messenger [I]n the Genesis messenger stories the wordmessenger is used, but theconceptof the being,

brought out by what he does, is the conceptof a god The wordmalakas used there is empty

of content, other than the concept identical to the role played by the deity in similar extra-Biblical stories. Nothing of the belief in the angel as we know it from post-exilic thought, theangel functioning as intermediary, is found in our stories. (Italics and brackets as found in

Juncker)11,12

In any event, neither the lexical meaning of the word nor the way it is used in the Scripturesrules out the application of the term to an appearance of God.

Definite or Indefinite?

When it comes to the Angel of Yahweh, the definite article sets Him off from other angels andalso ties together the various episodes featuring someone called the Angel of the Lord,showing that the Angel is one and the same person in all of these divine-human encounters.
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Some have argued that since there is no definite article in the Hebrew phraseMalak Yahweh,then it should be translated into English as anAngel of the LORD, but this is surely mistaken.

In Hebrew, nouns and their modifiers are in agreement, such that if Yahweh is definitethenMalakis definite as well. Since Yahweh is a proper noun indeed, it is the distinctive name

of the God of Israelaccording to the rules of Hebrew grammar it is intrinsically and therefore

always definite. In other words, the grammatical construction ofMalak Yahweh in Hebrew,where the second noun, a proper noun, Yahweh, is definite, requires that the first noun, which is

in the construct state, be understood in a definite way as well.13

In response to this, some have argued that the phrase then is determinate merely because this isrequired by the construction in Hebrew, such that the inspired authors could not have spoken of

the Angel as an angel of Yahweh even if they wanted to. But this is also mistaken. In such a

case, if the author wanted to render the phrase indefinite, all that he would need to do is includea lamedpreposition betweenMalakand Yahweh. Theologian Gerhardus Vos14speaks to thiserror:

The objection, that before a proper noun the preceding noun standing in the construct state

becomes inevitably determinate, in other words that it would be impossible to make Angel of

Jehovah undeterminate, even though it may have been intended so, does not hold good. The

Hebrew has a way of saying an Angel of Jehovah. All that is necessary is to insert thepreposition lamed between Angel and Jehovah: an Angel to Jehovah.15

It is highly instructive therefore that the Hebrew Old Testament never employs such aconstruction: the phrase that is used is invariablyMalak Yahweh.

The fact that this phrase refers to one and only one is underscored by the fact that the phrase is

never used of angels in the plural; in all of the writings of the Old Testament, the Biblicalauthors never speak ofmalakim Yahweh, i.e. angelsof Yahweh. It may be replied that theydo, however, even if only on certain rare occasions, speak of angels ofGod (e.g. Genesis

28:12; 32:1; and 2 Chronicles 36:16), but in this case it needs only to be pointed out that onceagain a distinction is drawn between angels of God in general and the Angel of God in

particular. Whereas the phraseMalak Yahweh does not permit using the definite article, for its

definiteness is determined by the use of the proper name of God, Yahweh, the phraseMalak

Elohim, which uses the more general term for deity, does permit such a construction, as in

Genesis 31:11 (q.v. Exodus 14:19; Judges 6:20, 13:6, 9; 2 Samuel 14:17, 20, 19:28; and 2Chronicles 36:16), but for all that it never uses the definite article when speaking of angels in

the plural. It speaks of theAngel of God and angels of God, but never does it speak oftheangels of God, thereby once again drawing a clear distinction between this Angel and allothers.

One and the Same Angel

Even if the question of whether the phrase is definite or indefinite could not be settled on

grammatical grounds alone, and from the above it can be seen that available evidence says that itcan, it would still be possible to deduce that God was not dispatching many different angels on

the occasions when the Bible uses the phraseMalak Yahweh, and that one specific and specialAngel is in view throughout:
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After God tested Abrahams faith by commanding him to sacrifice Isaac, which Abrahampromptly set out to obey, we are told that the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham from

heaven (Genesis 22:11) telling him not to harm Isaac, for Abrahams faith had been proved;after Abraham sacrifices a ram in the place of his son, we are then told The angel of the LORD

called to Abraham from heaven a second time (Genesis 22:15), showing that it was the same

Angel as at the first. Of course it might be argued that this is ambiguous, as it might just indicatethat Abraham heard a second time from an angel and not that it was the same angel, or that it is

of minimal significance since this doesnt entail that the same Angel appeared to Hagar beforehim or that it was the same Angel who appeared later to Isaac, Jacob and others under the nameangel of Yahweh, but even if this is granted no such ambiguity or insignificance attaches to

the following.

When Jacobof whom we read many times that the Angel of the LORD appeared to him prays in Genesis 48 that God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the Godwho has fed me all my life long to this day, the Angel who has redeemed me from allevil will

bless his descendants after him, it is clear that he thinks that one and the same Angel, the one

before whom His Fathers Abraham and Isaac walked and by whom they were shepherded, wasresponsible for delivering him from all his afflictions (and also, given that this is a patriarchal

benediction, that he confidently expects the Angel to play the same role in the lives of his

descendants). Moreover, this was the very thing the Angel of Yahweh promised to Jacob at

Bethel in Genesis 28: Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bringyou back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.Furthermore, when the Angel of Yahweh appears to Jacob in a dream in Padan-aram, He

identifies Himself as the same one who appeared to him at Bethel (Genesis 31:11-13).Accordingly, every time we are told theAngel of the LORD appeared or spoke to Jacob or tohis fathers before him, even though these encounters are separated by time and place, it was the

self-same Angel. As well, this passage also leads us to expect future engagements of the Angelas the shepherd and redeemer of Jacobs descendants. The passage is both retrospective and

prospective in its deliverances about the Angel.

In the book of Exodus we read that the Angel of the LORD appeared to Moses in the burningbush, saying of the name Yahweh, This is My name forever, and this isMy memorial-name toall generations (Exodus 3:1, 15); and in the book of the prophet Hosea we are told by way of a

strong implication that the Angel who appeared to Moses is the same one who wrestled with

Jacob before his encounter with Esau in Genesis 32, and who later appeared to Jacob after hisreturn to Bethel from Paddan-aram as recorded in Genesis 35:9-15:

In the womb he [i.e. Jacob] took his brother by the heel, and in his maturity he contended with

God. Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought His favor. He foundHim at Bethel and there He spoke with us, even the LORD, the God of hosts,theLORD is Hismemorial name. (Hosea 12:4-5).

Since the Angel who appeared to Moses said, [Yahweh] is My memorial-name to all

generations, and since Hosea says of the Angel, the one with whom Jacob wrestled and whose

favor he sought, Yahweh is His memorial name, then the Angel who appeared to Moses can

be none other than the Angel who appeared to Jacob (and the other patriarchs) before him.

Moreover, the Angel who appeared to Moses is the same name-bearing Angel who accompanied

Israel in her wilderness wanderings and eventually brought her into the land of Canaan:Behold, I send an Angel before you to keep you in the way and to bring you into the place


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which I have prepared. Beware of Him and obey His voice; do not provoke Him, for He will notpardon your transgressions;for My name is in Him (Exodus 23:20ff.). [We are already led to

expect this very thing in the story of the patriarchs, where God promises to bring the children ofIsrael up out of Egypt, and foreshadows it in the story of Jacob, who is redeemed by the Angel

(more on this later).]

Since the Angel who appeared to Jacob is the same Angel who appeared to his fathers before

him, and since the Angel who appeared to Moses is the same Angel who appeared to Jacob, andsince the Angel who appeared to Moses is the same Angel who brought the children of Israel up

out of Egypt, and who also accompanied them through the wilderness and led them into the landof Canaan, then the Angel of the patriarchs is the Angel of the Exodus and Conquest.

When the book of Judges later speaks of one called the Angel of the LORD, it records himsaying: I brought you up out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your

forefathers (Judges 2:1), thus showing continuity of identity between the Angel of the Exodus -

Wilderness-Conquest period and the Angel of the time of the Judges. [It is also of interest thatthe Angel in the book of Judges acts very much like the Angel who appeared to Jacob, for when

Jacob asks the Angel for His name, He replies, Why do you ask My name? (Genesis 32:29),

which is similar to the reply given to Manoah when he asks the same question: Why do you ask

My name? It is beyond understanding [Lit. Wonderful] (Judges 13:18).]

Since the Angel of the patriarchs is the Angel of the Exodus, and since the Angel of the Exodus

and Conquest is the Angel who appeared in the time of the Judges, then the same Angel is inview in all three periodsPatriarchal, Exodus-Wilderness-Conquest, and Judges.

Thus, even if the grammatical issue above could not be settled, copious evidence exists in

Scripture that one agent in particular is in view in the Angel of Yahweh passages and that thisone stands uniquely apart from all other angels and is intimately involved with the whole courseof Old Testament history.

It is with good reason, then, that Jews and Christians as well as most scholars down to the

present day, even those who do not otherwise agree on other points that swirl about this

discussion, have viewed the various mentions of the Angel of the LORD to be references to

the same Angel.

Other Names for the Angel

While The Angel of the LORD is by far the most common designation for Him, the Angel is

referred to in other ways as well. He is called: the Angel of God (Judges 13:9); the Angel of

His Presence/Face (Isaiah 63:9); the Angel of Great Counsel (Isaiah 9:6 (LXX)); the Angelof the Covenant (Malachi 3:1); the Angel (Genesis 48:15-16); My Angel (Exodus 23:23);

the Captain of the Lords Host (Joshua 5); and Wonderful (Judges 13:18).

That these names all refer to the Angel of Yahweh can be seen from the following:

The Angel of God is used interchangeably with the Angel of the LORD in Judges 6:20 and21 as well as in 13:9 and 13:13, which shows that the two titles are synonymous; the Angel ofHis presence is obviously derived from passages like Exodus 23:20-23 and 33:12-23;16the

Angel of Great Counsel is based on the observation that wonderful, counselor in the Hebrew
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text of Isaiah 9:6 is treated by some as one title (i.e. wonderful-counselor), and the wordwonderful is only otherwise used of the Angel of Yahweh (Judges 13:18); the Angel of the

Covenant is obviously the Angel of Yahweh since He is the one who sovereignly establishesthe covenant and even refers to it as My covenant (Judges 2:1-3). That the Angel is a

reference to the Angel of Yahweh follows from the observations already made above on

Genesis 48 which speak of Him as the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaacwalked and as the one who redeemed me from all evil. Finally, given the conspicuous

parallels between Moses encounter with the Angel of Yahweh in the burning bush in Exodus 3and Joshuas encounter in Joshua 5, the Captain of the LORDs host most naturally refers tothe Angel of Yahweh.

Many of these names are quite significant in themselves, and the divine and messianic overtones

are hard to miss (but more will be said about this later).

It will also be argued in the course of this series that GodandLordand above all Gods

Covenant Name, Yahweh, are also among the Angels names (some glimpses of this havealready been seen above but will be discussed at greater length in what is to come).

The Central Importance of the Angel

The central importance of this Angel is pointed up by the frequent mention made of Him in theOld Testament, particularly in the patriarchal period and in Israels early history: Genesis 16:7-

14, 21:14-20, 22:1-18, 24, 28, 32, 48; Exodus 3, 13 (cf. 14:19), 23, 32; Numbers 20, 22; Judges2:1-3 (cf. Exodus 34:10-14), 6, 13; 2 Samuel 14:15-20, 19:26-28, 24:15-17; 1 Kings 19; 2 Kings

1, 19; 1 Chronicles 21; 2 Chronicles 32; Isaiah 9 (LXX), 37, 63; Zechariah 1, 2, 3, 12; Hosea 12

(cf. Genesis 32); Malachi 3; and Psalms 34, 35. Strong reasons also exist for thinking the Angelof the Lord is the one in view in Genesis 18-19; Exodus 24; Joshua 5; Isaiah 6; Ezekiel 1; and inevery other theophany in the Old Testament.

Although the Angel of Yahweh appears less frequently as the Old Testament winds to a close,

He never completely withdraws until the inter-testamental period, the same time period when

the Glory (i.e. the Shekinah) and the Spirit of prophecy are said to have departed from Israel.

Unspecified Theophanies

In some cases where a theophany occurs no mention is made of the Angel of the LORD;however, as seen in passages like Joshua 5 which link the Captain of the LORDs host to the

Angel of Yahweh who appeared to Moses, this does not mean that these theophanies are not the

Angel of Yahweh. Moreover, in a number of these cases we are told elsewhere (or later by aprophet) that it was the Angel. For example, Genesis 28:10-22 says Yahweh appeared to Jacob

in a dream, and later in Genesis 31:11-13 we are told the one who appeared to him in his dream

was the Angel of God; Genesis 32:24-30 tells us that God appeared to Jacob in the form of aman, and speaking of this event some time later the prophet Hosea, in chapter 12:4-5 of his

prophecy, tells us it was the Angel. The same thing is also seen in reverse in 1 Chronicles

21:14-20, which says that David saw the Angel of Yahweh who told him to erect an altar, and 2Chronicles 3:1-2 which tells us that it was Yahweh who appeared to David on that occasion.


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This creates a precedent for viewing other theophanies, which only mention that Yahweh or Godappeared, to be in fact appearances of the Angel of Yahweh. This would include passages like:

Genesis 15 where the Word of Yahweh appears to Abraham; Genesis 18-19 where Yahwehappears to Abraham with two angels; Exodus 24 where Moses and the elders of Israel see God;

Isaiah 6 where Isaiah sees a vision of Yahweh upon His throne; and Ezekiel 1 where the prophet

Ezekiel has a vision of the Lord.

Conclusion

At this point we can arrive at the following conclusions about the Angel of Yahweh:

1. The wordMalakdoes not rule out His deity, for the word could just as well refer to a divine

messenger as it can to one of the heavenly host (or even to a human messenger).

2. The phrase the Angel of Yahweh refers to a distinct and specific being and not to angels ingeneral. The Angel of Yahweh exists in a class all of His own, i.e. He is unique.

3. The Angel of Yahweh spans the entire Old Testament period as seen in His appearances toHagar, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Balaam, Joshua, Gideon, Manoah, Elijah, David and

Zechariah.

4. The Angel of Yahweh is the central figure of the Old Testament, not only because He isfrequently mentioned, but because of the role He plays in the lives of the patriarchs and the

nation of Israel.

5. The Angel of Yahweh has many exalted titles, such as the Angel of His presence, the

Angel of Great Counsel, the Angel of the Covenant, and Wonderful.

6. The Angel of Yahweh on various occasions, only a modicum of which have been explicitly

referred to up to this point, refers to Himself or is referred to by others as God.

7. The Angel is likely the one in view every time a theophany occurs.

These observations enable us to rule out that the Angel is either an impersonal emanation

from/of God or merely a human messenger, and strongly incline away from taking Him to be a

creature-angel (particularly if the divine titles already mentioned are given their full due). As apermanent, standing figure that spans the ages, He cannot be an emanation of God, for no

permanent character belongs to such,17

and for this reason also He cannot be a mere humanbeing, for He does not appear to be subject to the power of death.

As the central figure of the Old Testament, the one who shepherded and redeemed the patriarchs

as well as the entire Jewish nation at the time of their deliverance from Egypt and translationinto the promise land and beyond, it would be altogether unexpected if it turned out that the

Malak Yahweh was just a very special creature-angel and not God. On such a supposition not

only would it mean that a creature-angel in the Old Testament occupies center stage; it would

mean that God is upstaged by a creature-angel.

Continue withPart II.
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Footnotes1Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture citations are from the New American StandardVersion.2Aside from the fact that the Targums, such asthe Targum of Pseudo Johnathan, Onkelos,

and Fragments of the Jerusalem Targum, mention the Angel of Yahweh, and even identifyHim as the Word (Hebrew, dabar; Aramaic, memra; Gr. logos) of Yahweh, and that the

Septuagint, although to a much lesser degree, provides some interesting evidence of His divinityand distinct identity as well, as in its rendition of passages like Isaiah9:6, mention can be made

here of the testimonies that abound in 1 Enoch. After the coming of Christ, when apostate Israel

rejected Jesus as the Messenger (Heb.Malak; ) of the Covenant (Malachi 3:1), all talk oftheMemra or Word of the LORD, the predominant way the targumim referred to the Angel ofYahweh, and which was the way the apostle John spoke of Jesus in his Gospel, providing

thereby a most potent link between Jesus and passages about the Angel of the LORD in the

Hebrew text, was expunged from certain rabbinic teachings. For example, theMemra/Word ofthe Targums is nowhere to be found in the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmud (though the

Talmud, in the nature of a hostile witness, does provide some relevant indirect evidence in its

discussions of heresies pertaining to Metatron), which often reflect, among other things, the

polemical interests of post-Christian and anti-Messianic Jews. For more on this issue as itpertains to the Talmud (and other early Jewish writings), consult the now standard work by AlanF. Segal, Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and

Gnosticism (Leiden: E. J. Brill., 1977), p. 3133Justin Martyr,Dialogue withTrypho,58,59,60,61,76,86,116,126,127,128;Irenaeus,Against Heresies,3.6.1-5,

Fragments,53;Tertullian,Against Praxeas,16,De Carne,14,AgainstMarcion2.27,3.9;Novatian, On the Trinity,18,19,31;ApostolicConstitutions,5.3.20;Clementof Alexandria, The Instructor,1.7;Eusebius, The Proof of the

Gospel,1.5,4.10,5.10,Church History,1.2.7-8,Preparation for the Gospel, VII. 5, 14-15; Origen, ContraCelsus,5.53,8.27;Methodious, Symposium,3.4;Melito,New Fragments,

15; Ambrose,Exposition of the Christian Faith,1.13.83;Athanasius,Against theArians,3.25.12-14;Gregoryof Nyssa,Against Eunomius,11.3. (For an excellent discussion ofthe views of Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Theophilus and Tertullian, see the following: Gnther

Juncker, Christ as Angel: the Reclamation of a Primitive Title, which originally appeared

in the Trinity Journal15:2 [Fall 1994], p. 221-250; for additional discussion of patristic teachingon this subject, see Joel Ira Hoffstutler's dissertation,He Who Dwelt in the Bush: A Biblicaland Historical Theology of the Angel of the Lord[Bob Jones University, 2007], p. 17-44.)4Martin Luther, John Calvin, Jonathan Edwards, John Gill, Matthew Henry, Matthew Poole,

Adam Clarke, E. H. Hengstenberg, Pye Smith, A. H. Strong, John Wesley, Keil, Delitzsch, F. F.

Bruce, and Walter Kaiser are only a small number of well-known individuals from theReformation to more modern times who taught/teach this view.5BDB even includes a section on the theophanic angel when providing the meaning of the

term. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs,A Hebrew and English Lexicon of theOld Testament with an Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson,

1979), p. 5216James Battenfield,An Exegetical Study of the [Malak Yahweh] In the OldTestament(Postgraduate Seminar: Old Testament Theology, Grace Theological Seminary,

1971), p. 3
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7Due to a variant, other sources give 213 occurrences.

8James Borland, Christ in the Old Testament: Old Testament Appearances of Christ in Human

Form (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 1999), p. 36-379According to Karen H. Jobes and Moises Silva: the noun in Classical Greek

meant messenger in a fairly general sense. When the LXX translators used it to represent

Hebrew , which often specifically designated a (superhuman) messenger sent by God, anew acceptation or definition was created. The use of this specialized Greek term in the NT

doubtlessly reflects the strong influence of the LXX.Invitation to the Septuagint(GrandRapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2000), p. 19910Horst Balz and Gerhard Schneider, ed.,Exegetical Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. 1

(Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1990), entry: .11Gnther Juncker,Jesus and the Angel of the LORD: An Old Testament Paradigm for New

Testament Christology (Deerfield, Illionois: A Dissertation, submitted to the faculty in partial

fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theological StudiesNew Testament Concentration at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 2001) p. 52-53. In a

footnote, Juncker also adds the following: These conclusions have been independently

confirmed by S. A. Meier who, unlike Irvin, did not restrict himself to narratives: It must beunderstood that the angel of YHWH in these perplexing Biblical narratives does not behave like

any other messenger known in the divine or human realm. Although the term messenger is

present, the narrative itself omits the indispensable features of messenger activity and presentsinstead the activities which one associates with Yahweh or the other gods of the ancient near

east (S. A. Meier, Angel, in DDD, 88 [art. =81-90]; cf. idem, The Messenger in the AncientSemitic World[HSM 45; Atlanta Scholars, 1988]).12

In light of the above conclusions of scholars like Irvin, Meier and Juncker, it is interesting to

observe the words of German Biblical scholar Johann David Michaelis, a justly esteemedteacher of Hebrew and other Semitic languages in his day, who wrote the following over a

century before their findings: the inquiry may perhaps arise whether I now believe, as I didtwenty years ago, when I wrote my annotations on the Book of Exodus, that the Angel of the

Lord, who calls himself to Moses,Jehovah the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and who

brought Israel out of Egypt, was the Second Person in the Godhead. My answer is, I canscarcely conceive how the matter can be explained otherwise, unless by assuming that thephrase Angel of J ehovah is equivalent to a manifestation [or appearance] of Jehovah;butsuch an assumption has not yet been established by philological evidence. See my Suppl. ad

Lexica Hebr. p. 1255. (As cited in John Pye Smith, D.D., F.R.S., The Scripture Testimony tothe Messiah: An Inquiry With a View to a Satisfactory Determination of the Doctrine Taught in

the Holy Scriptures Concerning the Person of Christ[Edinburgh: William Oliphant and

Company, 1859], Vol. 1, p. 299, fn222.) (Bold mine)13John M. Baze, Jr., The Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament Part I,Conservative

Theological Journal3 (Dec., 1997), p. 272: This construct relationship would substantiate that

the only possible literal translation ofmalak YHWHis theAngel of the Lord while

eliminating the indefinite translation, anangel of the Lord. For further discussion of this,see:here.14Gerhardus Vos, Ph.D., D.D., was Professor Emeritus of Biblical Theology at Princeton

Theological Seminary. In addition to his other academic accomplishments, Vos held a doctoratein Arabic studies from Strassburg University. His dissertation advisor was the well known

Theodor Noldeke.15Vos,Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B.

Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1948), p. 86
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16It is clear that God is promising to lead Israel and to go with him; the angel of Exodus 32:34

is called in 33:14f. Gods presence, lit. His face. The two terms are combined in Isaiah 63:9 as

the angel of His presence, i.e., the angel who not only stands in Gods presence but in whomGod is seen. Merrill C. Tenny, Gen. Ed.,Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol.

5, Q-Z (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Regency Reference Library, 1976). Entry: theophany.17Hengstenberg,ibid., vol. 1, p. 125

http://www.answering-islam.org/authors/rogers/malak_yahweh2.html

The Malak Yahweh:

Jesus, the Divine Messenger of the Old Testament

Part II

ByAnthony Rogers

[Continued fromPart I]

Introduction

The Old Testament puts the divinity of the Malak Yahweh beyond all peradventure of a doubt,

not only by supplying premises from which, by good and necessary consequence, such aconclusion can be deduced, but also by providing unequivocal, plainspoken declarations to this

effect. Theologian Herman Bavinck summarizes some of the most important lines of evidencefor this that can be found in the Old Testament:

This much is clear: that in theMalakh Yhwh who is preeminently worthy of that name, God

(esp. his Word) is present in a very special sense. This is very evident from the fact that though

distinct from Jehovah this Angel of Jehovah bears the same name, has the same power, effectsthe same deliverance, dispenses the same blessings, and is the object of the same adoration. This

exegesis is supported by the entire Old and New Testament[s], 1

The evidence is also summarized in a similar way by the late Princeton Theologian CharlesHodge:

We find throughout the Old Testament constant mention made of a person to whom, thoughdistinct from Jehovah as a person, the titles, attributes, and works of Jehovah are nevertheless

ascribed. This person is called the angel of God, the angel of Jehovah, Adonai, Jehovah, and

Elohim. He claims divine authority, exercises divine prerogatives, and receives divine homage

since this is a pervading representation of the Bible since we find that these terms areapplied, not first to one and then to another angel indiscriminately, but to one particular angel;that the person so designated is also called the Son of God, the Mighty God; and that the work

attributed to Him is elsewhere attributed to God Himself it is certain that by the angel ofJehovah in the early books of Scripture we are to understand a divine person 2

At the same time, as the above writers also state, the Angel is not only identified as Yahweh but

He is juxtaposed with Yahweh, a fact that throws the truth of the Trinity in the Old Testament

into bold relief, at least as touching on two of the Trinitarian persons. Speaking of the evidence
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of the Angels distinct divine identity, which, in part, is grounded in the observation that theAngel speaks as God in the first person and also speaks of God in the third person, theologian

Gerhardus Vos says:

The most important and characteristic form of revelation in the patriarchal period is that throughthe Angel of Jehovah or the Angel of God. The peculiarity in all these cases is that, onthe one hand, the Angel distinguishes himself from Jehovah, speaking of Him in the third

person, and that, on the other hand, in the same utterance he speaks of God in the first person The problem is how to do justice to both. There is but one way in which this can be done: we

must assume that back of the twofold representation there lies a real manifoldness in the innerlife of the Deity. If the Angel sent were Himself partaker of the Godhead, then He could refer to

God as his sender, and at the same time speak as God, and in both cases there would be reality

back of it. Without this much of what we call the Trinity the transaction could not but have beenunreal and illusory.3

These two basic issues1) the divine identity of the Angel; and 2) the Angels distinction from Yahwehwill be considered in turn in this and the next several papers in this series.

The Malak Yahwehs Divine Identity

The Self-Identification of the Angel

When it comes to the self-identification of the Angel, some significance attaches to the fact that

He never calls Himself the Angel of Yahweh; this is always a title given to Him by others,

such as (and almost always) the sacred author or (more rarely) someone else in the narrative. In

fact, quite often the Angel does not identify Himself by any title, and sometimes appears almostallusive when directly questioned, such as when Jacob and Manoah, on two separate occasions,

ask Him for His name: to the former, He replies, Why is it that you ask my name? (Genesis32:29); and to the latter, in a reply that is somewhat more informative but yet still cryptic, Hesays, Why do you ask my name, seeingit is wonderful, which is to say, beyond understanding(Judges 13:18).4In most cases, then, the Angel simply lets His words and actions speak for

themselves, a fact that virtually forces the person to recognize Him solely on this basis, and

these are usually of such a nature that they lead the person having the encounter to identify Himas none other than Yahweh or the Lord God.

On those occasions when the Angel does openly identify Himself, He does so by using divinetitles. To Jacob, the Angel says, I am Yahweh, the God of your father Abraham and the God of

Isaac (Genesis 28:13) and I am the God of Bethel (Genesis 31:13). He told Jacob later in hislife to go up to Bethel and "build an altar there to God, who appeared to you..." (Genesis 35:1).

He also said to Jacob: "I am God Almighty" (Genesis 35:11). To Moses, the Angel says: I am

the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Exodus3:6); I Am that I Am (Exodus 3:14); and Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of

Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob (Exodus 3:15). The only other title that He

gives Himself is Captain/Prince of the Host of Yahweh (Joshua 5:14).

This shows that the individuals who initially encountered the Angel, to the extent that He eversays His name, or to the extent that they are left to judge by His words and works, which, as we

will see, are divine in quality, only know by the facts immediately before them, i.e. by the factsthat are present to them, which doesnt include the words of the sacred authors who later record
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what took place and call Him the Angel of Yahweh, that the Angel is none other than GodHimself. In other words, the fanciful theories that suggest themselves to people on the basis of

the title the Angel of Yahweh, which we have already seen in part one of this se ries does notrule out the deity of the Angel anyway, simply were not available to those who directly

encountered Him. For all they knew, the Angel was an appearance of God, just as He always

demonstrated and sometimes openly and emphatically declared.

The Identity of the Malak Yahweh According to People in the Narratives

The evidence that people who encountered the Angel concluded and believed that He was Godis plentiful.

After the Angel of Yahweh appeared to Hagar, she gave this name to Him: You are a Godwhosees (Genesis 16:13). After Jacob awoke from a dream in which the Angel appeared to him, he

said, Surelythe LORD is in this place, and I did not know it and this is none other than thehouse ofGod. (Genesis 28:17). On another occasion, Jacob says, I have seen Godface to face,yet my life has been preserved (Genesis 32:30). Still later, when reflecting upon the providence

of God in his life as well as that of his fathers, Jacob refers to Him as The Godbefore whommy fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this

day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil (Genesis 48:15-16).

Speaking to the Angel who appeared to him in the burning bush, the Angel who told him todeclare His name to the children of Israel, Moses said: Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel,

and I will say to them, The Godof your fathers has sent me to you (Exodus 3:13). Still later,God says of the Angel, MyNameis in Him (Exodus 23:21).

When the Angel converses with Gideon, who at first did not recognize who He was, heeventually calls Him Lord (Judges 6:15) and LORD God (6:22). Manoah, who, along with

his wife, also did not recognize the Angel at first, finally exclaims, We will surely die, for wehave seen God! (Judges 13:22), to which his wife responds, Ifthe LORD had desired to killus, He would not have accepted a burnt offering and grain offering from our hands (Judges

13:23)

For a final testimony, Malachi records the words of God concerning the Angel of the covenant,where these words are spoken about Him: the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to

His temple (Malachi 3:1).

Coupled with all of this is the fact that, at least in the case of the patriarchs, memorials namesare given to commemorate a number of these events, each of which point to the fact that they

experienced a divine encounter:

Hagar names the place where she encountered the Angel, Beer-lahai-roi, which means, the

Well ofthe Living OneWho sees me (Genesis 16:14); Abraham names the place where theAngel of Yahweh countermands the divine command to slay Isaac, which itself bespeaks theAngels divinity, Yahweh-Yireh, meaning the LORDWill Provide (Genesis 22:14); Jacob

names the location of one divine encounter Bethel, which means the house ofGod (Genesis

28:19), and he names another place - Peniel, the Face ofGod (Genesis 32:30); and finally,when Gideon erects an altar in the place where the Angel of Yahweh speaks peace to him, henames it Yahweh-Shalom, Yahweh is Peace (Judges 6:24).


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The Identity of the Malak Yahweh According to the Sacred Authors

In response to this, some have objected that certain Biblical characters mentioned above such

as Hagar, Manoah and Gideon were mistaken when they concluded that the Angel was God

and LORD. Aside from the fact that the above testimonies provided within the narrative includethe testimonies of prophets like Moses, the sacred authors would not be expected to include suchtestimonies if they were not in fact true, especially since they did not fence these remarks in

such a way as would prevent readers from making the same mistake. If it be objected that thevery use of the phrase the Angel of Yahweh by the Biblical authors does this very thing, i.e.

this phrase provides a literary clue that this is really a creature-angel and not a manifestation ofGod, at least two considerations dispel this.

In the first place, on one of the rare occasions when someone within the narrative actually callsHim the Angel of Yahweh, namely in Judges 6 where the Angel appears to Gideon, it is quite

apparent that Gideon, drawing upon previous revelation where the authors of Scripture speak of

these visible manifestations to people under the name the Angel of Yahweh, understands thisphrase to be a circumlocution for God.

Then the angel of the LORD came and sat under the oak that was in Ophrah, which belonged to

Joash the Abiezrite as his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the wine press in order to save itfrom the Midianites. The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, the LORD is

with you, O valiant warrior. Then Gideon said to him, O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why

then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about,saying, Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt? But now the LORD has abandoned us and

given us into the hand of Midian. The LORD looked at him and said, Go in this your strengthand deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you? He said to Him, O Lord, how

shall I deliver Israel? Behold, my family is the least in Manasseh, and I am the youngest in myfathers house. But the LORD said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeatMidian as one man. So Gideon said to Him, If now I have found favor in Your sight, then

show me a sign that it is You who speak with me. Please do not depart from here, until I come

back to You, and bring out my offering and lay it before You. And He said, I will remain untilyou return. Then Gideon went in and prepared a young goat and unleavened bread from an

ephah of flour; he put the meat in a basket and the broth in a pot, and brought them out to himunder the oak and presented them. The angel of God said to him, Take the meat and the

unleavened bread and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so. Then the

angel of the LORD put out the end of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the

unleavened bread and fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavenedbread. Then the angel of the LORD vanished from his sight. When Gideon saw that he was the

angel of the LORD, he said, Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the LORDface to face. The LORD said to him, Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die. ThenGideon built an altar there to the LORD and named it The LORD is Peace. (Judges 6:11-23)

At first, Gideon does not appear to recognize who it is he is speaking to. This is seen in the

manner by which he initially addresses the Angel, apparently supposing him to be only a man or

prophet, calling Him only my lord [Heb.adon] (Judges 6:13). But after the Angel speaks as

God in the first person, Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand ofMidian.Have I not sent you? (Judges 6:14), the form of address changes to the Lord[Heb. adonai] (Judges 6:15), which is usually the form of the word reserved for deity. This

again is followed by the Angel speaking as God in the first person, saying, Surely I will be with


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you, and you shall defeat Midian as one man (Judges 6:16). And once again this promptsGideon to surmise that it is the Lord Himself who is speaking to him, as is indicated by his

request, If now I have found favor in Your sight, then show me a sign that it is You who speakwith me. Seeking confirmation that it really is the Lord, Gideon asks the Angel to wait until

he returns with aminchah, a present, a word that could either refer to a feast or to a meat-offering

for God (Leviticus 2:1). The significance of this is captured by Matthew Henry, who says, that word [minchah, present] is used which signifies both because Gideon intended to leave it to

this divine person to determine which it should be when he had it before him: whether a feast ora meat-offering, and accordingly he would be able to judge concerning him

5In other words,

if He accepted it and ate of it as a common meal, then it would prove He was a man and

therefore just a prophet; but if He received it as a sacrifice, then it would prove He was a divineperson.6

The Angels action furnished a decisive response, thereby settling Gideons lingering doubt andconfirming Him to be the Lord, a fact that caused Gideon to exult: Alas, O Lord God! For now

I have seen the angel of the LORD face to face.

The reaction of Gideon shows how he understood the title the Angel of Yahweh. Since the

Angel does not here call Himself by that name in this story, it is evident that Gideon is drawing

upon the previous Scriptures when he speaks of what has been determined to be a divinetheophany as an appearance of the Angel of Yahweh: When Gideon saw that he was the angelof the LORD, he said, Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the LORD face to

face. The LORD said to him, Peace to you, do not fear; you shall not die (Judges 6:22). Thefact that Gideon feared that he would die upon seeing the Angel of Yahweh further proves thathe understood the Angel to be God.7

In addition to the above, the fact that the sacred authors were not trying to correct any supposederror on the part of Biblical figures when they, i.e. the sacred authors, denominate Him by thetitle the Angel of Yahweh, is proved further by the fact that the most copious references to the

Angel as God and LORD come from the sacred authors themselves.

Repeatedly throughout the Torah Moses tells us who it was who was speaking to people on

these occasions, even if they did not at first recognize Him for who He was. When Hagar called

the Angel God who sees, the sacred author prefaces these remarks with the following: She

gave this name to the LORD[i.e. Yahweh] who spoke to her (Genesis 16:13). In the dreamthat Jacob had where the Angel, standing above a latter that reached from heaven to earth, says,

I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac, the sacred author onceagain provides prefatory remarks identifying Him as Yahweh: And behold,the LORD stoodabove it and said, I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham (Genesis 28:13). Of theAngel who appeared to Jacob in Bethel, the sacred author explained that Jacob on that earlier

occasion renamed the place Bethel (i.e. house of God) and built an altar there "because it wasthere that God revealed himself to him when he was fleeing from his brother" (Genesis 35:7; seealso, 14-15). When Moses later writes about the conversation he had with the Angel who spoke

to him from the bush, the very one who declared Himself to be the great I AM, he says things

like: WhentheLORD saw that he [i.e. Moses] turned aside to look, God called to him from

the midst of the bush (Exodus 3:4); then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God(Exodus 3:6); TheLORDsaid (Exodus 3:7); But Moses said toGod (Exodus 3:11);Then Moses said toGod (Exodus 3:13); Godsaid to Moses (Exodus 3:14); God,

furthermore, said to Moses, (Exodus 3:15).
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As with the writings of Moses, so it is with the rest of the Old Testament writings; the inspiredauthors refer to the Angel by one or another divine title. And so, for example, when the Angel

appears to Joshua, the sacred author precedes His words with: The LORDsaid to Joshua (Joshua 5:13-6:2). Before Gideon realizes it is the Angel of Yahweh who is standing before him

and talking with him, the sacred author says, speaking of the Angel: TheLORD [i.e. Yahweh]

looked at him [Gideon] and said, (Judges 6:14); and just two verses later the Angels wordsto Gideon are recorded in this wise: But the LORDsaid to him, (Judges 6:16). And, finally,

the prophet Hosea, emphatically and climactically, says of the Angel: ... the LORD [i.e.Yahweh], the God of hosts, the LORD[i.e. Yahweh] is His name (Hosea 12:5).

If we include the testimony of other passages that do not use the phrase the Angel of Yahweh

but which do speak of divine theophanies (e.g. Genesis 15, 17, 18-19, 26; Exodus 24; Isaiah 6;

Ezekiel 1, etc.), and the previous study has shown something of the evidence that these shouldalso be viewed as appearances of the Malak Yahweh, then the proof of the Angels divinitycould be easily extended. The following will briefly illustrate with two examples.

First, in Genesis 18 we are told of what appeared to be three men visiting Abraham (Genesis

18:2). Later in the story when two of them depart for Sodom we are told they are angels

(Genesis 19:1). The Jerusalem Targum and the Targum of Pseudo Jonathan even use the word

angel for all three of them. While it is apparent to the reader all along that at least one of thethree is Yahweh (He is called Yahweh by the sacred author in vss. 1, 13, 17, 20, 22, 26 and 33),this is a growing realization on the part of Abraham, as seen by the fact that he initially

addresses Him only as Lord [adon], which at that point in the context appears to be little morethan a term of respectful address and a token of Abrahams hospitality. Later in the story, after ithas been made plain that one of the visitors is God, Abraham adjusts his language accordingly,

and he even calls Him the judge of all the earth (vs. 25). Dr. John Pye Smith gives the

following terse summation:

Three persons in human form appeared to Abraham. Two of them passed on to Sodom, on a

mission of righteous judgment; and they are called angels. The third had remained with

Abraham; and He repeatedly assumes and receives the name JEHOVAH. Though He is notexpressly denominated the Angel, yet the attendant circumstances are such as agree with other

manifestations in which that appellation is used. Upon this passage, the Jerusalem Targum says;the Word [Memra] of Jehovahappeared to him in the valley of vision. Other Jewish

writings have the following explications: The Shekinah was associated with them, and

detained Abraham until the angels departed. He said not who he was: but, in all these

[appearances], it was the Angel of the covenant.8(Upper case original; bold mine)

In fact, it is evident from the rest of the story that this person who appeared to Abraham andwho is identified as Yahweh is yet distinct from another person called Yahweh, just as we see in

the case of the Angel of Yahweh, for we read the following taking place after Yahweh departsfrom Abraham and goes to Sodom:

Then the LORD [Yahweh] rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD

[Yahweh] out of heaven. (Genesis 19:24)

The distinction drawn in the passage between one person who rains down the fire from another,both of whom are called Yahweh, is quite stark.9
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A second example of a theophany that could be included which doesnt mention the Angel ofYahweh by name but which is evidently an appearance of the Angel all the same, is found in

Genesis 26:

Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine that had occurred in the days ofAbraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. The LORD appeared tohim and said, Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land of which I shall tell you. Sojourn in

this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to your descendants I will give allthese lands, and I will establish the oath which I swore to your father Abraham. I will multiply

your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your descendants all these lands; and byyour descendants all the nations of the earth shall be blessed; because Abraham obeyed Me and

kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and My laws. So Isaac stayed in Gerar.

(Genesis 26:1-6)

Once again there can be no question in this passage that God is the one who has appeared to

Isaac. The sacred author says, The LORD appeared to him, and the LORD speaks as God inthe first person, issuing divine commands and promises that only God could make.

While there are many identifying marks in the passage that enable us to determine that it is the

Angel of Yahweh, it is enough to point out that God in verse 3, says, I will establish the oathwhich I swore to your father Abraham, which we know from Genesis 22 was in fact made by

the Angel of Yahweh:

Then the Angel of the LORD called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, ByMyself I have sworn, declares the LORD, because you have done this thing and have not

withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply

your seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seedshall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed,because you have obeyed My voice. (Genesis 22:15-18)

The author of Hebrews was surely correct, when He said, For when God made the promise to

Abraham, since He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, (Hebrews 6:13)

Conclusion

The pointed testimony of Hagar, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Gideon and other Biblicalfigures, along with the inspired say-so of the Biblical authors and the self-testimony of theAngel, are more than sufficient to prove that the Bible teaches the Angels divine identity in no

uncertain terms. If they are not sufficient to this end, then one must wonder how it would be

possible to communicate such an idea at all. Of course the very fact that everyone understandswhat the present thesis aims to prove, namely that the Angel of Yahweh is the God of Abraham,

Isaac and Jacob, is proof positive that people are engaging in cognitive dissonance if and when

they refuse to acknowledge what the Biblical authors mean when they say the same thing.

Continue withPart III.
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Footnotes1Herman Bavinck, The Doctrine of God(Carlisle, PA: the Banner of Truth Trust, 1991 reprint),

pp. 257-2582Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Abridged Edition (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Book

House, 1992), p. 1773Gerhardus Vos,Biblical TheologyOld and New Testaments (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B.

Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1948), p. 854However, as Niehaus says: The angel may be saying, My name is beyond understanding (cf.

NIV).But his words may also be a divine asseveration: My name is Wonderful. Jeffrey J.

Niehaus, God At Sinai: Covenant and Theophany in the Bible and the Ancient Near East(GrandRapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1995), p. 241 (Emphasis mine)5Matthew Henrys Commentary on the Whole Bible (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers,

1991), Vol. 2, p. 1246This also appears to be what is going on in the encounter between Manoah and the Angel of

Yahweh (Judges 13).7

Lord willing, this passage (along with others) will be considered at greater length later in theexegetical portion of this series. These first several articles aim to be more systematic and give

the lay of the land and show that Jesus is the divine Messenger spoken of throughout the Old

Testament.8Dr. John Pye Smith, D.D., F.R.S., The Scripture Testimony to the Messiah: An Inquiry With a

View to a Satisfactory Determination of the Doctrine Taught in the Holy Scriptures Concerningthe Person of Christ(Edinburgh: William Oliphant and Company, 1859), Vol. 1, p. 297. This

quote has the following in a footnote (#216): Gen. xviii. And Jehovah appeared to him,

etc.polygl. Walton. vol. iv.Midrash Tehilim. et.Zohar. ap. Schottgen.Hor. Heb. vol. ii. 442.9For more on Genesis 19:24, see the following articles:1,2,3,4.

http://www.answering-islam.org/authors/rogers/malak_yahweh3a.html

The Malak Yahweh:

Jesus, the Divine Messenger of the Old Testament

Part IIIa

ByAnthony Rogers

[Continued fromPart II]

Introduction

Continuing our look at the evidence for the deity of the Malak Yahweh (i.e. theMessenger/Angel of the LORD) in the Old Testament, several other considerations may be

added to that of the last paper. In addition to the Angel identifying Himself and being identifiedby others as God through the use of divine titles, as we saw in part two, which will also prove

relevant in this article, the fact that the Angel speaks as God in the first person, possesses divineattributes, performs divine works, exercises divine prerogatives, receives divine honors, as wellas the fact that death is feared upon seeing Him, also evince the Angels true and proper
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divinity. The first of these additional or supporting reasons will be taken up in this and thefollowing article.

First Person Speech

The air about the Angel, the way He speaks in the first person, saying things that only God can

properly say, and the entire way He conducts each conversation, exude divinity. Indeed, theAngel speaks with such unprecedented authority, commanding assent in His words, obedienceto His commands, and issuing astounding promises, that those who do not initially know whoHe is are quickly led by His words to surmise His deity.

To Hagar

The first recorded appearance of the Malak Yahweh to someone in the Hebrew text was to

Hagar, the maidservant of Sarai, sometime subsequent to fleeing from her mistress.1After theMalak Yahweh orders Hagar to return and submit to the authority of Sarai, and before He tells

her she is with child and that she is to name the boy Ishmael, the Angel said to her: Iwillgreatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count (Genesis 16:10), astatement that is similar to what the Angel said in a later appearance to Hagar some time afterthe birth of Ishmael: Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him by the hand, for

anthony rogers-the malak yahweh-jesus, the divine messenger of the old testament

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