Note 239 — Chapter III

Footnote 239:

(return)

"Angel" is a very old designation for Christ (see Justin's Dial.) which maintained itself up to the Nicean controversy, and is expressly claimed for him in Novatian's treatise "de trinit." 11. 25 ff. (the word was taken from Old Testament passages which were applied to Christ). As a rule, however, it is not to be understood as a designation of the nature, but of the office of Christ as such, though the matter was never very clear. There were Christians who used it as a designation of the nature, and from the earliest times we find this idea contradicted (see the Apoc. Sophoniæ, ed. Stern, 1886, IV. fragment, p 10: "He appointed no Angel to come to us, nor Archangel, nor any power, but he transformed himself into a man that he might come to us for our deliverance." Cf. the remarkable parallel, ep. ad. Diagn. 7. 2: ... ου, καθαπερ αν τις εικασειεν ανθρωπος, 'υπηρετην τινα πεμψας η αγγελον η αρχοντα η τινα των διεποντων τα επιγεια 'η τινα των πεπιστευμενων τας εν ουρανοις διοικησεις, αλλ' αυτον τον τεχνιτην και δημιουργον των 'ολων. κ.τ.λ.). Yet it never got the length of a great controversy and as the Logos doctrine gradually made way, the designation "Angel" became harmless and then vanished.