Gabriel

In the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam), Gabriel (/ˈɡeɪbriəl/ GAY-bree-uhl) is an archangel with the power to announce God's will to mankind. He is the messenger of God. He is mentioned in the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and the Quran. Many Christian traditions – including Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism – revere Gabriel as a saint.
In the Hebrew Bible, Gabriel appears to the prophet Daniel to explain his visions (Daniel 8:15–26, 9:21–27). The archangel also appears in the Book of Enoch and other ancient Jewish writings not preserved in Hebrew. Alongside the archangel Michael, Gabriel is described as the guardian angel of the people of Israel, defending it against the angels of the other peoples.
In the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke relates the Annunciation, in which the angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah foretelling the birth of John the Baptist with the angel Gabriel foretelling the Virgin Mary the birth of Jesus Christ, respectively (Luke 1:11–38).
Islam regards Gabriel as an archangel sent by God to various prophets, including Muhammad. The first five verses of the Al-Alaq, the 96th chapter of the Quran, are believed by Muslims to have been the first verses revealed by Gabriel to Muhammad.
The name Gabriel (Hebrew: גַּבְרִיאֵל, Gaḇrīʾēl) is composed of the first person singular possessive form of the Hebrew noun gever (גֶּבֶר), meaning "man", and ʾĒl, meaning "God". This would make the translation of the archangel's name "man of God".
Proclus of Constantinople, in his famous Homily 1, stated that the meaning of Gabriel's name prefigured that Jesus, whose birth was announced by Gabriel, would be both man and God.
After the Jews' exile to Babylon in the 6th century BCE, Jewish beliefs underwent a significant transformation. Exposure to Zoroastrianism, with its intricate angelology and the concept of a cosmic struggle between good and evil, likely influenced this evolution. The striking similarities between "holy immortal" (Amesha Spentas) Vohu Manah (or "good mind") and Gabriel's role as a messenger suggest a potential connection. This exposure to Zoroastrian angelology during the exile period may have played a part in shaping Gabriel's prominent role as a divine messenger in Judaism.
In the Hebrew Bible, Gabriel appears to the prophet Daniel to explain his visions (Daniel 8:15–26, 9:21–27). Later, in Daniel's final vision, an angel, not named but likely Gabriel again, appears to him and speaks of receiving help from prince Michael in battle against the prince of Persia (Daniel 10:13, 21) and also Michael's role in times to come (Daniel 12:1). These are the first instances of a named angel in the Bible. Gabriel's main function in Daniel is that of revealer, responsible for interpreting Daniel's visions, a role he continues to have in later traditions.
Gabriel, (Hebrew: גַּבְרִיאֵל, romanized: Gaḇrīʾēl) is interpreted by Talmudic rabbis to be the "man in linen" mentioned in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Ezekiel. Talmudic Judaism understands the angel in the Book of Ezekiel, who was sent to destroy Jerusalem, to be Gabriel. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, Gabriel takes the form of a man, and stands at the left hand of God. Shimon ben Lakish (Syria Palaestina, 3rd century) concluded that the angelic names of Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel came out of the Babylonian exile (Gen. Rab. 48:9). Alongside the archangel Michael, Gabriel is described as the guardian angel of Israel, defending this people against the angels of the other nations.
In Kabbalah, Gabriel is identified with the sefira of Yesod. Gabriel also has a prominent role as one of God's archangels in the Kabbalah literature. There, Gabriel is portrayed as working in concert with Michael as part of God's court. Gabriel is not to be prayed to because only God can answer prayers and sends Gabriel as his agent.
According to Jewish mythology, in the Garden of Eden there is a tree of life or the "tree of souls" that blossoms and produces new souls, which fall into the Guf, the treasury of souls. Gabriel reaches into the treasury and takes out the first soul that comes into his hand.
In Islam, the tree of souls is referred to as the Sidrat al-Muntaha (and is identified as a Ziziphus spina-christi).
Gabriel's first appearance in the New Testament concerns the annunciation of the birth of John the Baptist. John's father Zachariah, a priest of the course of Abia, (Luke 1:5–7) was childless because his wife Elisabeth was barren. An angel appears to Zacharias while he is ministering in the Temple to announce the birth of his son. When Zachariah questions the angel, the angel gives his name as Gabriel:
After completing his required week of ministry, Zacharias returns to his home and his wife Elizabeth conceives. After she has completed five months of her pregnancy (Luke 1:21–25), Gabriel appears again, now to Mary, to announce the birth of Jesus:
Gabriel only appears by name in those two passages in Luke. In the first passage the angel identified himself as Gabriel, but in the second it is Luke who identified him as Gabriel. The only other named angels in the New Testament are Michael the Archangel (in Jude 1:9) and Abaddon (in Revelation 9:11). Believers are expressly warned not to worship angels in two New Testament passages: Colossians 2:18–19 and Revelation 19:10.
Gabriel is not called an archangel in the canonical Bible. However, the intertestamental period (roughly 200 BC – 50 AD) produced a wealth of literature, much of it having an apocalyptic orientation. The names and ranks of angels and devils were greatly expanded in this literature, and each had particular duties and status before God. This was the period when Gabriel was first referred to as an archangel.
In 1 Enoch 9:1–3, Gabriel, along with Michael, Uriel, and Suriel, "saw much blood being shed upon the earth" (9:1) and heard the souls of men cry, "Bring our cause before the Most High" (9:3). In 1 Enoch 10:1, the reply came from "the Most High, the Holy and Great One" who sent forth agents, including Gabriel—
Gabriel is the fifth of the five angels who keep watch: "Gabriel, one of the holy angels, who is over Paradise and the serpents and the Cherubim". (1 Enoch 20:7) When Enoch asked who the four figures were that he had seen:
The Christian movement of Gnosticism paid special attention to angels as beings belonging to a pantheon of spiritual forces involved in the creation of the world. According to one ancient Gnostic manuscript, the Holy Book of the Great Invisible Spirit, Gabriel is a divine being and inhabitant of the Pleroma who existed prior to the Demiurge.
In a famous early work, the "four homilies on the Missus Est, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153 AD) interpreted Gabriel's name as "the strength of God", and his symbolic function in the gospel story as announcement of the strength or virtue of Christ, both as the strength of God incarnate and as the strength given by God to the timorous people who would bring into the world a fearful and troublesome event. "Therefore it was an opportune choice that designated Gabriel for the work he had to accomplish, or rather, because he was to accomplish it therefore he was called Gabriel."
The feast day of Saint Gabriel the Archangel was exclusively celebrated on 18 March according to many sources dating between 1588 and 1921; unusually, a source published in 1856 has the feast celebrated on 7 April for unknown reasons (a parenthetical note states that the day is normally celebrated on 18 March). Writer Elizabeth Drayson mentions the feast being celebrated on 18 March 1588 in her 2013 book "The Lead Books of Granada".
One of the oldest out-of-print sources placing the feast on 18 March, first published in 1608, is Flos sanctorum: historia general de la vida y hechos de Jesu-Christo ... y de los santos de que reza y haze fiesta la Iglesia Catholica ... by the Spanish writer Alonso de Villegas; a newer edition of this book was published in 1794. Another source published in Ireland in 1886 the Irish Ecclesiastical Record also mentions 18 March.
The feast of Saint Gabriel was included by Pope Benedict XV in the General Roman Calendar in 1921, for celebration on 24 March. In 1969, the day was officially transferred to 29 September for celebration in conjunction with the feast of the archangels Ss. Michael and Raphael. The Church of England has also adopted the 29 September date, known as Michaelmas.
The Eastern Orthodox Church and those Eastern Catholic Churches that follow the Byzantine Rite celebrate his feast day (Synaxis of the Archangel Michael and the Other Bodiless Powers) on 8 November (for those churches that follow the traditional Julian Calendar, 8 November currently falls on 21 November of the modern Gregorian Calendar, a difference of 13 days). Eastern Orthodox commemorate him, not only on his November feast, but also on two other days:
Saint Gabriel the Archangel is commemorated on the vigil of the Feast of the Annunciation by Antiochian Western Rite Vicariate and ROCOR Western Rite.
The Coptic Orthodox Church celebrates his feast on 13 Paoni, 22 Koiak and 26 Paoni.
The Ethiopian Church celebrates his feast on 18 December (in the Ethiopian calendar), with a sizeable number of its believers making a pilgrimage to a church dedicated to "Saint Gabriel" in Kulubi and Wonkshet on that day.
In the Lutheran Churches, Gabriel is celebrated on the Feast of the Archangels on 29 September.
Additionally, Gabriel is the patron saint of messengers, those who work for broadcasting and telecommunications such as radio and television, postal workers, clerics, diplomats, and stamp collectors.
A familiar image of Gabriel has him blowing a trumpet blast to announce the resurrection of the dead at the end of time. However, though the Bible mentions a trumpet blast preceding the resurrection of the dead, it never specifies Gabriel as the trumpeter. Different passages state different things: the angels of the Son of Man (Matthew 24:31); the voice of the Son of God (John 5:25–29); God's trumpet (I Thessalonians 4:16); seven angels sounding a series of blasts (Revelation 8–11); or simply "a trumpet will sound" (I Corinthians 15:52). Likewise the early Christian Church Fathers do not mention Gabriel as a trumpeter; and in Jewish and Muslim traditions, Gabriel is again not identified as a trumpeter. The earliest known identification of Gabriel as a trumpeter comes from the Hymn of the Armenian Saint Nerses Shnorhali, "for Protection in the Night":
In 1455, in Armenian art, there is an illustration in an Armenian manuscript showing Gabriel sounding his trumpet as the dead climb out of their graves.
The image of Gabriel's trumpet blast to announce the end of time was taken up in Evangelical Christianity, where it became widespread, notably in Negro spirituals.
An earlier example occurs in John Milton's Paradise Lost (1667):
It is unclear how the Armenian conception inspired Milton and the spirituals, though they presumably have a common source.
In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints theology, Gabriel is believed to have lived a mortal life as the prophet Noah. The two are regarded as the same individual; Noah being his mortal name and Gabriel being his heavenly name.
Gabriel (Arabic: جِبْرِيل, romanized: Jibrīl; also Arabic: جبرائيل, romanized: Jibrāʾīl or Jabrāʾīl, derived from the Hebrew: גַּבְרִיאֵל, romanized: Gaḇrīʾēl) in many places in Qur'an, is revered as one of the primary archangels and as the Angel of Revelation in Islam. He is primarily mentioned in the verses 2:97, 2:98 and 66:4 of the Quran. However, the Quranic text doesn't refer to him as an angel. In the Quran, the archangel Gabriel appears named in 2:97 and 66:4, as well as in 2:98, where he is mentioned along with the archangel Michael.
Tafsir (Exegetical Quranic literature) narrates that Muhammad saw the archangel Gabriel in his full angelic splendor only twice, the first time being when he received his first revelation. As the Hebrew Bible portrays Gabriel as a celestial messenger sent to Daniel, and in the New Testament to Mary, mother of Jesus, and Zechariah, Islamic tradition holds that Gabriel was sent to numerous pre-Islamic Biblical prophets with revelation and divine injunctions, including Adam, whom Muslims believe was consoled by Gabriel sometime after the Fall, too. He is known by many names in Islam, such as "keeper of holiness". In Hadith traditions, Jibril is said to have six hundred wings.
Muslims believe that Gabriel was mainly tasked with transmitting the scriptures from God to the prophets and messengers, as Asbab al-Nuzul or revelation when Muhammad was questioned which angel is revealing the holy scriptures revelation, and Muhammad told the Jews it is revealed by Gabriel who is tasked to it.
Muslims also revere Gabriel for several events that predate what they regard as the first revelation narrated in the Quran. Muslims believe that Gabriel was the angel who informed Zechariah of the Nativity of John the Baptist, as well as Mary about the future nativity of Jesus; and that Gabriel was one of three angels who had earlier informed Abraham of the birth of Isaac (51:24–30). Gabriel also makes a famous appearance in the Hadith of Gabriel, in which he questions Muhammad on the core tenets of Islam.
Gabriel is also believed to have delivered punishment from God to the Sodomites by leveling the entire city of Sodom with a tip of his wing. According to a Hadith narrated by Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, which is compiled by al-Hakim al-Tirmidhi, Gabriel has the ability to regulate feeling or perception in humans, particularly happiness or sadness.
Gabriel is believed to have helped Muhammad overcome his adversaries significantly against an ifrit during the Night Journey. Gabriel is also believed to have helped Muhammad overcome his adversaries during the Battle of Badr, where according to scholars and clerics of Islam, the various hadiths, both authentics and inauthentics, has mentioned that Gabriel, Michael, Raphael, and thousands of best angels from third level of heaven, all came to the battle of Badr by impersonating the appearance of Zubayr ibn al-Awwam, a Companions of the Prophet and bodyguard of the prophet. This is deemed as Zubayr personal honor according to Islamic belief. Meanwhile, Safiur Rahman Mubarakpuri has recorded in his historiography works of Quran and Hadith revelation in Prophetic biography, that Sa'd ibn Abi Waqqas testified he saw two unidentified warriors clad in white had protected Muhammad during the Battle of Uhud, that later being confirmed by Muhammad those two unidentified warriors were Jibril and Mikail in disguise.
Moreover, he is believed to have further encouraged Muhammad to wage war and attack the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza. Another appearance of Gabriel in Islamic religious texts were found in numerous Hadiths during the Battle of Hunayn, where the Gabriel stood next to Muhammad.
Other Islamic texts and some Apocryphal literature also supported Gabriel's role as a celestial warrior. Though alternate theories exist, whether the occurrence of the Holy Spirit in the Quran refers to Gabriel or not, remains an issue of scholarly debate. However, a clear distinction between apocryphal and Quranic references to Gabriel is that the former doesn't designate him as the Holy Spirit in the First Book of Enoch, which narrates the story of Gabriel defeating the Nephilim.
Yazidis consider Gabriel one of the Seven Mysteries, the heptad to which God entrusted the world, and sometimes identified with the archangel Melek Taus.
Angels are described as pure spirits. The lack of a defined form allows artists wide latitude in depicting them. Amelia R. Brown draws comparisons in Byzantine iconography between portrayals of angels and the conventions used to depict court eunuchs. Mainly from the Caucasus, they tended to have light eyes, hair, and skin; and those "castrated in childhood developed a distinctive skeletal structure, lacked full masculine musculature, body hair and beards ..." As officials, they would wear a white tunic decorated with gold. Brown suggests that "Byzantine artists drew, consciously or not, on this iconography of the court eunuch". Some recent popular works on angels consider Gabriel to be female or androgynous.
Daniel 8:15 describes Gabriel as appearing in the "likeness of man" and in Daniel 9:21 he is referred to as "the man Gabriel". David Everson observes that "such anthropomorphic descriptions of an angel are consistent with previous .. .descriptions of angels", as in Genesis 19:5.
Gabriel is most often portrayed in the context of scenes of the Annunciation. In 2008 a 16th-century drawing by Lucas van Leyden of the Netherlands was discovered. George R. Goldner, chairman of the department of prints and drawings at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, suggested that the sketch was for a stained glass window. "The fact that the archangel is an ordinary-looking person and not an idealized boy is typical of the artist", said Goldner.
In chronological order (to see each item, follow the link in the footnote):
The Military Order of Saint Gabriel was established to recognize "individuals who have made significant contributions to the U.S. Army Public Affairs community and practice". The medallion depicts St. Gabriel sounding a trumpet, while the obverse displays the Army Public Affairs emblem.