SERAPHIM-CHERUBIM-THRONES

SERAPHIM
A seraph (Hebrew שׂרף, plural שׂרפים Seraphim) is one of a class of celestial beings mentioned once in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh or Old Testament), in Isaiah. Later Jewish imagery perceived them as having human form, and in that way they passed into the ranks of Christian angels. In the Christian Hierarchy of angels, seraphim represent the highest rank of angels.

Seraphim in the Book of Revelation
While there are no explicit references to seraphim in the New Testament, in the Book of Revelation (4:8) is a description clearly drawn from Isaiah:
"And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to sing 'Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty who was and is and is to come!".
Like the seraphim of Isaiah, these angels sing the Trisagion and bear six wings. If the first hearers of Revelation were intended to bring the Seraphim to mind in this description, then they are again identified with animals.
However, this citation could refer to the Ophanim/Thrones or the Cherubim, as there are indeed apparently 4 Cherubim that move along side the 4 Ophanim ("wheels") in Ez.10:17, which are sometimes described covered with eyes.
The Seraphim and the living creatures are often thought of in Medieval Christian theology as two separate ranks/types of angels although the six-winged entities singing "Holy, holy, holy", sometimes thought of as Seraphim, are also referred to as "living creatures". The descriptions of the Seraphim, Cherubim and Ophanim are often similar to the point of being confused, leading some, if not most modern theologians to suspect they are different designations of the same "living creature".

CHERUBIMCherubim in the Hebrew Bible
Descriptions in the Bible vary, but in general all describe cherubim as winged creatures combining human and animal features. In the book of Genesis cherubim are described as guarding the way to the Tree of Life, east of the Garden of Eden armed with flaming swords (Genesis 3:24): "So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."
According to Exodus 26:1, cherubim were embroidered on the curtains of the tabernacle. In Solomon's Temple, two olivewood sculptures of cherubim plated with gold, ten cubits high, stood wingtip-to-wingtip guarding the Ark of the Covenant; in the tabernacle, two smaller cherubim sculpted from solid gold are described as standing on the cover of the Ark facing each other (Ex 25:18). The Ark of the Covenant stood in the Holy of Holies, where the shekhinah of God was said to reside; for this reason God is referred to in the Tanakh as "God who dwells between the cherubim".
The Cherubim in Solomon's Temple are described in 1 Kings 6:23-29 and 2 Chronicles 3:10-13.

THRONES

About the Thrones
Thrones are angels of the Sixth Order and are beings of tremendous power and movement. They are the keepers of higher more expanded energies. They ensure that these energies maintain connections and flows through the realms. They are known as Thrones. They act as the conduits of the physical worlds and tend to be more stationary in their existence.

According to Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite
"The name of the most glorious and exalted Thrones denotes that which is exempt from and untainted by any base and earthly thing, and the super mundane ascent up the steep. For these have no part in that which is lowest, but dwell in fullest power, immovably and perfectly established in the Most High, and receive the Divine Immanence above all passion and matter, and manifest God, being attentively open to divine participations."
Known in scripture as the bringers of justice, but their status in hierarchy is often confused, sometimes placing them above the Seraphim, and sometimes placing them as the Cherubim. They do however, come in the second Choir, and are assigned to planets.
This position makes them some of the most powerful angels in service to the Lord. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, the Thrones have the task of pondering the disposition of divine judgments. In other words, they carry out or fulfill the divine justice of the Lord.
They create, channel and collect incoming and outgoing positive energies. Dispensation of justice is important to the Thrones and they send healing energies to victims while shining a light on injustice to bring it's presence to our attention.
Like their counterparts in the second angelic triad, they come the closest of all Angels to spiritual perfection and emanate the light of God with mirror-like goodness. They, despite their greatness, are intensely humble, an attribute that allows them to dispense justice with perfect objectivity and without fear of pride or ambition. Because they are living symbols of God's justice and authority, they are called Thrones and have as one of their symbols the throne.

Function and Philosophy of Ophanim
This group of Angelic Princes are often also called "Ophanim, Wheels or Galgallin." It is said that they were the actual wheels of the Lord's Heavenly Chariot (Merkabah). "The four wheels had rims and they had spokes, and their rims were full of eyes round about." They are also frequently referred to as "many-eyed ones."
God's spirit is conveyed in a certain manner to these angels, who in turn pass on the message to men and the inferior angels

HIERARCHY OF ANGELS

According to medieval Christian theologians, the Angels are organized into several orders, or Angelic Choirs.
The most influential of these classifications was that put forward by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the Fourth or Fifth century, in his book The Celestial Hierarchy. However, during the Middle Ages, many schemes were proposed, some drawing on and expanding on Pseudo-Dionysius, others suggesting completely different classifications (some authors limited the number of Choirs to seven).

In The Celestial Hierarchy, the author drew on passages from the New Testament, specifically Ephesians 6:12 and Colossians 1:16 (considered by modern scholars to be very tentative and ambiguous sources in relation to the construction of such a schema), to construct a schema of three Hierarchies, Spheres or Triads of angels, with each Hierarchy containing three Orders or Choirs. In descending order of power, these were:

First Hierarchy:
Seraphim
Cherubim
Thrones or Ophanim

Second Hierarchy:
Dominions or Kyriotetes
Virtues or Dynameis
Powers or Exousiai

Third Hierarchy:
Principalities or Archai
Archangels
Angels

Further description will be explained in my next post tomorrow evening, see yaa people...!

APPEARANCE OF ANGELS

In the Hebrew Bible, angels often appear to people in the shape of humans of extraordinary beauty, and often are not immediately recognized as angels (Genesis 18:2, Genesis 19:5; Judges 6:17, Judges 8:6; 2 Samuel 29:9). Some fly through the air, some become invisible, sacrifices touched by some are consumed by fire, and some may disappear in sacrificial fire. Angels, or the Angel, appeared in the flames of the thorn bush (Genesis 16:13; Judges 6. 21, 22; 2 Kings 2:11; Exodus 3:2). They are described as pure and bright as Heaven; consequently, they are said to be formed of fire, and encompassed by light Job 15:15, as the Psalmist said (Psalm 104:4): "He makes winds His messengers, burning fire His ministers." Some verses in the Apocrypha/Deuterocanon depict angels wearing blue or red robes but no such reference occurs in the Protestant books.
Though superhuman, angels can assume human form; this is the earliest conception. Gradually, and especially in post-Biblical times, angels came to be bodied forth in a form corresponding to the nature of the mission to be fulfilled—generally, however, the human form. Angels bear drawn swords or other destroying weapons in their hands—one carries an ink-horn by his side—and ride on horses (Numbers 22:23, Joshua 5:13, Ezekiel 9;2, Zecheriah 1:8 et seq.). A terrible angel is the one mentioned in 1 Chronicles 21:16,30, as standing "between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand". In the Book of Daniel, reference is made to an angel "clothed in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz: his body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in color to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude" (Daniel 10:5-6). This imagery is very similar to the description of Jesus in the book of Revelation. Angels are thought to possess wings (Daniel 9:21), as they are described in the Bible, and depicted in Christian, Jewish and Zoroastrian art. They are commonly depicted with halos.
In Christian iconography, the use of wings is a convention used to denote the figure as a spirit. Depictions of angels in Christian art as winged human forms, unlike classical pagan depictions of the major deities, follow the iconic conventions of lesser winged gods, such as Eos, Eros, Thanatos and Nike.
Angels are portrayed as powerful and dreadful, endowed with wisdom and with knowledge of all earthly events, correct in their judgment, holy, but not infallible: they strive against each other, and God has to make peace between them. When their duties are not punitive, angels are beneficent to man (Psalms 103:20, Psalms 78:25; 2 Samuel 14:17,20, 2 Samuel 19:28; Zecheriah 14:5; Job 4:18, Job 25:2).
The number of angels is enormous. Jacob meets a host of angels; Joshua sees the "captain of the host of the Lord"; God sits on His throne, "all the host of heaven standing by Him on His right hand and on his left"; the sons of God come "to present themselves before the Lord" (Gen. xxxii. 2; Josh. v. 14, 15; I Kings, xxii. 19; Job, i. 6, ii. 1; Ps. lxxxix. 6; Job, xxxiii. 23). The general conception is the one of Job (xxv. 3): "Is there any number of his armies?" In the book of Revelation, the number is "a thousand thousands, and many tens of thousands".
Though the older writings usually mention one angel of the Lord, embassies to men as a rule comprised several messengers. The inference, however, is not to be drawn that God Himself or one particular angel was designated: the expression was given simply to God's power to accomplish through but one angel any deed, however wonderful.
Angels are referred to in connection with their special missions as, for instance, the "angel which hath redeemed," "an interpreter," "the angel that destroyed," "messenger of the covenant," "angel of his presence," and "a band of angels of evil" (Gen. xlviii. 16; Job, xxxiii. 23; II Sam. xxiv. 16; Mal. iii. 1; Isa. lxiii. 9; Ps. lxxviii. 49, R. V.). When, however, the heavenly host is regarded in its most comprehensive aspect, a distinction may be made between cherubim, seraphim, chayot ("living creatures"), Ofanim ("wheels"), and Arelim (another name for Thrones). God is described as riding on the cherubim and as "the Lord of hosts, who dwelleth between the cherubim"; while the latter guard the way of the Tree of Life(I Sam. iv. 4, Ps. lxxx. 2, Gen. iii. 24). The seraphim are described by Isaiah (vi. 2) as having six wings; and Ezekiel describes the ḥayyot (Ezek. i. 5 et seq.) and ofanim as heavenly beings who carry God's throne.
In post-Biblical times, the heavenly hosts became more highly organized (possibly as early as Zechariah [iii. 9, iv. 10]; certainly in Daniel), and there came to be various kinds of angels; some even being provided with names, as will be shown below.

WHAT IS ANGELOLOGY

Angelology is a branch of theology that deals with a hierarchical system of angels, messengers, celestial powers or emanations, and the study of these systems. It primarily relates to kaballistic Judaism and Christianity, where it is one of the ten major branches of theology, albeit a neglected one.
Many secular scholars believe that Judeo-Christianity owes a great debt to Zoroastrianism in regards to the introduction of angelology and demonology, as well as the fallen angel Satan as the ultimate agent of evil, comparing him to the evil spirit Ahriman. As the Iranian Avestan and Vedic traditions and also other branches of Indo-European mythologies show, the notion of demon had existed long before.
It is believed that Zoroastrianism had an influence on Jewish angelology, and therefore modern Christian angelology, due to the appearance of elements from Zoroastrianism in Judaism following Israel's extended contact with the Persian Empire while in exile in Babylon, which have led some to believe that Zoroastrianism borrowed these beliefs from Judaism. Borrowed notions may include, the introduction of Satan as a supreme head over the powers of evil (present mainly in Christian and Islamic theology), in contrast to God: comparing Satan to Angra Mainyu (also known as Ahriman) of Zoroastrian faith, who was the arch-enemy of Ahura Mazda, the supreme Universal God of mankind. Angels, some also believe, may have first been depicted as God's helpers in Zoroastrianism, and their hierarchy is comparable to modern Angelology's hierarchy.
This view is questioned though by those who point out that the Torah, the Book of Job, and other Jewish books depicting angels as messengers of God predate the time of Persian influence.
In contrast to the first view, some critics believe that it was Judaism and Christianity that had an influence on Zoroastrianism. They purport that similarities, such as those between Zoroaster and Jesus, and the incorporation of other motifs, were created by priests in an attempt to exalt Zoroaster, and deter those of Zoroastrian faith from converting to other faiths.
That is, however, problematic as some historians date Zoroastrianism back more than ten thousand years before the birth of Christ, but with little physical evidence. The main source of Zoroastrian lore comes from the Shāhnāma of Firdowsi, which the author claims to be truthful to the ancient legends, but which was written after the Islamic conquest of Persia.

CORPUS DEL ANGELUS

Hay, in nomine Sanctus!
As you assume, this blog contain of many list of angels in this universe that comes from a bunch of sources like Bible, Koran, Wedha and Tripitaka...
Enjoy and hope this could make some addition in knowledge and faith of yours!!!