Angels
The knowledge of angels obtained from Scripture, including the guardianship of angels over Moses and the sacred books, and the role of angelic revelation in scriptural understanding. Without Scripture depicting angels, no eye or investigation could have traced their outlines.
Preface and Praise of Sacred Scripture
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Chapter II: On the Object and Breadth of Sacred Scripture
— Without Scripture depicting angels, no eye or investigation could have traced their outlines; Dionysius studied the celestial hierarchy from Scripture.
"if the Sacred Scriptures did not portray the angels for us, what Apelles, what eye, what keenness of investigation could have traced their outlines?"
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I. The Old Testament Establishes Faith
— Tobit establishes the nature, office, guardianship, and invocation of angels more clearly than any other Scripture.
"Who in all of Scripture more clearly establishes the nature, office, guardianship, and invocation of angels than the book of Tobit?"
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Moses and the Beatific Vision
— Moses was buried by angels; Michael the archangel disputed with the devil about the body of Moses.
"Moses, having died, was buried by angels on Mount Abarim... this was the reason why Michael the archangel disputed with the devil about the body of Moses"
Chapter I (The Six Days of Creation)
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Heaven and Earth: Four Interpretations
— Angels were created simultaneously with the world at the beginning of time, in the empyrean heaven, against those who thought they were created before or after the world.
"I say that they were created simultaneously with the world at the beginning of time, and indeed in the empyrean heaven: for they are its citizens and inhabitants; so with Saint Augustine, Gregory, Rupert, and Bede teach the Master and the Scholastics."
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Heaven and Earth: Four Interpretations
— The Lateran Council under Innocent III defines that God created from nothing both spiritual and corporeal creatures at once from the beginning of time.
"It must be firmly believed that God from the beginning of time created from nothing both creatures at once: the spiritual and the corporeal, the angelic and the worldly."
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Heaven and Earth: Four Interpretations
— Moses did not mention the creation of angels because the Jews were prone to idolatry and would have worshipped them as gods; but he tacitly implies them in Gen 2:1.
"Moses does not mention the creation of the angels, because he was writing for uneducated and dull Jews who were prone to idolatry, and who would easily have worshipped angels as gods"
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Verse 4: And God saw the light that it was good
— The angels sinned on the first day and were thrust from heaven into hell, which God prepared in the center of the earth immediately after their sin.
"since the Angels are most swift and have instantaneous acts, it is altogether probable that they sinned on the first day, not long after their creation, and therefore were immediately thrust from heaven into hell, which God immediately after their sin prepared for them in the center of the earth"
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Verse 4: And God saw the light that it was good
— Allegorically, on the first day the good Angels were confirmed in good and grace while the evil ones were confirmed in evil and segregated.
"on the first day, when light was made and divided from darkness, the good Angels were confirmed in good and in grace, while the evil ones were confirmed in evil and segregated from the good"
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Verse 3: And God said: Let there be light
— Before the sun was created, the luminous body was moved by an angel from east to west, circling both hemispheres in twenty-four hours.
"this luminous body, during the first three days of the world -- that is, before the sun was created on the fourth day -- was moved by an angel from east to west, and in the same manner and time as the sun, namely in twenty-four hours"