The New Testament records Jesus’s astounding and unique statement that the ancient Jewish Tanakh (the Old Testament)[1] contained references to him:
“You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me” (John 5:39).
“Then Jesus took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:25–27).
Skeptics write this off as merely wild invention, but it is difficult to explain why anyone (either Jesus himself or his followers) would have fabricated such an outrageous and blasphemous claim — a claim that was never made by any other Jewish teacher, and which led to violent conflict with fellow Jews.
Instead of simply rejecting Jesus’s words as deliberate lies or later exaggeration, it is worth looking at the ways in which Jesus does seem to have been prefigured in ancient Jewish scripture. Two previous series (Prophecies of a Triumphant Messiah and Prophecies of a Suffering Messianic Figure) explored how Jesus’s nature and work were depicted in a wide range of Old Testament prophetic verses, which many Jewish interpreters applied to the promised Messiah. This series will now consider how Jesus’s claim, “He who has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9) seems to be embodied in the biblical figure known as the Angel of God.
The Hebrew word malakh (Latin: angelus) means both “messenger” and “angel.” The most mysterious angelic messenger found in any ancient writings is the Angel of YHWH or the Angel of the Lord (malakh Adonai). This intriguing angelic figure takes on physical form, yet he also represents the very presence of God. He is distinguished from all other angels in that he is never provided with a personal name, speaks with personal divine authority, and is sometimes explicitly identified with God. Samuel Meier, a professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures, comments that this figure acts in highly unusual ways:
“The angel of YHVH in these perplexing biblical narratives does not behave like any other messenger known in the divine or human realm. Although the term “messenger” is present, the narrative itself omits the indispensable features of messenger activity, and presents instead the activities which one associates with Yahweh and other gods of the ancient Near East.[2]
In an analysis based on her Ph.D. dissertation, Camilla Von Heijne also concludes that the Angel of YHWH/Elohim is unique among angelic messengers in Ancient Near Eastern literature because of his “merged identity” with God.[3] Shenotes that while this ambiguous messenger is sometimes distinct from God, in other instances he is depicted as an extension of God Himself — a form of divine manifestation that is interchangeable with YHWH in that he accepts worship and is acknowledged as divine.
There are therefore intriguing links between the Angel of the Lord and Jesus, who claimed to be one with the God of creation. The following articles will explore this fascinating figure under three headings:
1. In what ways was the Angel of the Lord identified with God?
2. How did Jewish interpreters view the Angel of the Lord?
3. What are the implications for Christianity?
[1]. Tanakh is an acronym of the three sections of the Hebrew Masoretic Text: Torah (Instruction or Law), Nevi’im (Prophets), and Ketuvim (Writings).
[2]. Meier, “Angel of Yahweh, Destroyer, Mediator”; Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, 81–90.
[3]. Von Heijne, The Messenger of the Lord in Early Jewish Interpretations of Genesis, esp. 49–50.