Are angels male or female?
2 views
Are angels male or female? Do angels have a gender? Why do angels seem to always appear as men?
Source Article: https://www.gotquestions.org/angels-male-female.html
- 00:00
- Are angels male or female? We're going to answer that question. You can also discover more on GotQuestions .org.
- 00:08
- The question of whether angels are male or female is likely moot. Angels are spirit beings and therefore assigning them a gender is pointless.
- 00:18
- The most we can say is that scripture depicts angels as if they were male. Every reference to angels in scripture is in the masculine gender.
- 00:27
- The Greek word for angel in the New Testament is in the masculine form. In fact, a feminine form does not exist.
- 00:35
- There are three genders in grammar, masculine, feminine, and neuter. Angels are never referred to in any gender other than masculine.
- 00:45
- In the many appearances of angels in the Bible, never is an angel referred to as she or it.
- 00:52
- Furthermore, when angels appeared, they were always dressed as human males. No angel ever appears in scripture dressed as a female.
- 01:00
- The only named angels in the Bible, Michael and Gabriel, are referred to in the masculine. Michael and his angels.
- 01:08
- Mary was greatly troubled at his, Gabriel's, words. Other references to angels are always in the masculine gender.
- 01:16
- In Judges, the angel holds a staff in his hand. Zechariah asks an angel a question and reports that he answered.
- 01:24
- The angels in Revelation are all spoken of as he and their possessions as his.
- 01:31
- The devil, whom we assume is a fallen angel, is also referred to in masculine terms.
- 01:37
- He is a father in John 8 .44. Some people point to Zechariah 5 .9
- 01:43
- as an example of female angels. Then I looked up and there before me were two women with the wind in their wings.
- 01:50
- They had wings like those of a stork and they lift up the basket between heaven and earth.
- 01:56
- The problem is that the women in this prophetic vision are not called angels.
- 02:02
- They are called Nashiyim, as is the woman in the basket representing wickedness in verses 7 and 8.
- 02:09
- By contrast, the angel that Zechariah was speaking to is called a malak, a completely different word meaning angel or messenger.
- 02:18
- The fact that the women have wings in Zechariah's vision might suggest angels to our minds.
- 02:25
- But we must be careful about going beyond what the text actually says. A vision does not necessarily depict actual beings or objects.
- 02:34
- Consider the huge flying scroll Zechariah sees earlier in the same chapter. In Matthew 22 .30,
- 02:40
- Jesus says that there will be no marriage in heaven because we will be like the angels in heaven.
- 02:47
- This verse states that angels do not marry, but it stops short of commenting on their gender.
- 02:53
- Nothing in Jesus' statement can be taken to imply that angels are masculine, feminine, or neuter.
- 03:01
- God is spirit and does not have a gender any more than angels do. At the same time,
- 03:06
- God almost always refers to himself in masculine terms. The exceptions are in certain metaphors and in a couple of constructions in which the
- 03:17
- Holy Spirit is referred to with a neuter intensive pronoun in grammatical agreement with the neuter noun, spirit.
- 03:25
- In like manner, scripture refers to angels, which are spirit beings, using masculine terminology.
- 03:31
- That answers the question, are angels male or female? On our website, gotquestions .org, you'll find a deeper discussion and recommended resources.
- 03:41
- If this helped you, give us a thumbs up and click subscribe. Meanwhile, if you'd like to study more, click the bell and check out these other questions.