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NASB | John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 1:1 In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself. [Gen 1:1; Is 9:6] |
Subject: The origin of God and His identity. |
Bible Note: Harper’s Bible Dictionary edited by Paul J. Achtemier (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1985) angel (Gk. angelos, ‘messenger’), a spiritual being, subordinate to God, who serves at God’s command and pleasure to deliver his messages, help his people, and punish his enemies. In the ot, angels appear in the stories of the patriarchs (e.g., Gen. 16:7-14; 19:1-22; 22:11, 15-18; 28:12; 31:11-13; 32:1-2) and elsewhere (e.g., Exod. 3:2; 23:20-23; 33:2; Judg. 13:3-5; 1 Kings 19:5-7; 2 Kings 19:35; Isa. 37:36; Pss. 34:7; 35:5-6; 91:11). There is some ambiguity, however, about what form these messengers take, exactly what type of beings they are, and just what their relation to God is, especially in the earlier materials. Since God frequently confronts humans directly in the ot texts, the appearance of angels is somewhat sporadic. As religious thinking developed, and as God came to be understood as increasingly transcendent, the perceptions about angels also began to change. Ideas developed about good and bad angels, a hierarchy of angels before God, and specific duties assigned to each angel or group of angels. Many of these ideas can be found in the apocryphal and pseudepigraphical writings (e.g., Tobit, 2 Esdras, 1 Enoch, and The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs). By the nt period, angels were understood as suprahuman or spiritual beings who were allied with God in opposition to Satan and his angels, the demons. Angels had many functions. They praised God (Ps. 103:20), served as his messengers to the world (Luke 1:11-20, 26-38; 2:9-14), watched over God’s people (Ps. 91:11-12), and were sometimes instruments of God’s judgment (Matt. 13:49-50). KJV English Concordance for "mal'ak (Strong's 04397) " 1) messenger, representative a) messenger b) angel c) the theophanic angel AV angel 111, messenger 98, ambassadors 4, variant 1; 214 KJV English Concordance for "aggelos (Strong's 32) " aggelos (ang'-el-os) from aggello [probably derived from 71, cf 34] (to bring tidings) a messenger, envoy, one who is sent, an angel, a messenger from God AV angel 179, messenger 7; 186 So I guess my question is even more stirring since we see angels deliver God’s messages. Who are they delivering the messages to? Who were they ambassadors for? If their purpose is to deliver God’s message to us, was there a need for them prior to God creating us? I wasn’t really expecting an answer to my last post but since you have directed, my question seems to run deeper now. terrib’s reference to Ephesians 1:4 reminds me that God did choose us before the foundation of the world, but God did not “create” us prior to laying those foundations. Since angels are ministering “spirits”, they too could have been chosen prior to the foundation of the world and prior to us, (and maybe even existed since they didn’t need this world to exist) but then they would have no one to minister to, or to be an ambassador to or to deliver God’s message to. WOS |