War in Heaven

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The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

The Book of Revelation, which opens with the words, "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what must soon take place", includes in those events a War in Heaven:

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world - he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.[1]

Contents

[edit] Association with the motif of the Fall of Satan

Bible commentaries view this passage as an eschatological vision of the end of time or as a reference to spiritual warfare within the church, seeing it as "not (as in Milton's Paradise Lost) the story of the origin of Satan as an angel who rebelled against God in primeval times."[2]

This motif of the fall of Satan and his angels is found in Jewish, Christian and Islamic angelology and Christian art, and the concept of fallen angels, angels who for their evil actions, in particular for directly rebelling against God, were degraded and condemned to a life of mischief or shame on earth or in a place of punishment is widespread.[3]

As a result, the casting of Satan down from heaven, which in other versions of this motif is an action of God himself, is in this interpretation attributed to the Archangel Michael at the conclusion of a war between two groups of angels.

The concept of a war among angels is absent from the account in Quran 7:11-12, which speaks only of the refusal of Satan (Iblis) to submit to Adam and his immediate condemnation by God.

[edit] Fallen angels

All three Abrahamic religions have stories about angels cast down from heaven by God, often presenting the punishment as inflicted in particular on Satan. The name Lucifer, the Latin name (literally "Light-Bringer") for the morning star (the planet Venus in its morning appearances), is often given to Satan in these stories. The brilliancy of the morning star, which eclipses all other stars, but is not seen during the night, may be what gave rise to myths such as the Babylonian story of Ethana and Zu, who was led by his pride to strive for the highest seat among the star-gods on the northern mountain of the gods (an image present also in Ezekiel 28:14), but was hurled down by the supreme ruler of the Babylonian Olympus.[4] Stars were then regarded as living celestial beings,[5][4] and the Jewish Encyclopedia states that the myth concerning the morning star was transferred to Satan by the first century before the Christian era, citing in support of this view the Life of Adam and Eve and the Slavonic Book of Enoch 29:4, 31:4, where Satan-Sataniel is described as having been one of the archangels. Because he contrived "to make his throne higher than the clouds over the earth and resemble 'My power' on high", Satan-Sataniel was hurled down, with his angels, and since then he has been flying in the air continually above the abyss.[4] The picture of the morning star "fallen from heaven" and "cast down to the earth" appears in Isaiah 14:4-17, where it is used to describe the fate prophesied for the King of Babylon, who is described as aiming to rival God. This passage too has been applied to the fall of Satan, and it is on this basis that the name "Lucifer" (Morning Star) was given to him.

[edit] War in heaven

A number of sources mention a war between God and his armies and Satan's host. In Paradise Lost, John Milton vividly recounted a war in heaven following rebellion by Satan and other angels before the Fall of Man.[6] Jonathan Edwards in his sermon Wisdom Displayed in Salvation speaks of Satan and his angels as having rebelled against God before the fall of man and tested their collective strength against him, ultimately failing and resorting to other methods of thwarting him.

"Satan and his angels rebelled against God in heaven, and proudly presumed to try their strength with his. And when God, by his almighty power, overcame the strength of Satan, and sent him like lightning from heaven to hell with all his army; Satan still hoped to get the victory by subtilty(sic)"[7]

The Book of Revelation consists principally of eschatological visions.[8] Among its visions of things to come is one of "a great sign in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars",[9] and of "another sign in heaven: a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems, whose tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth", and which unsuccessfully planned to devour the pregnant woman's child.[10] This is followed by:

"Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him."[1]

This image of a war in heaven at the end of time became added to the story of a fall of Satan at the beginning of time,[11] including not only Satan but other angels as well, in view of the phrase "the dragon and his angels".[12] The number of angels involved was taken to be a third of the total number because Revelation 12:4 speaks of the dragon's tail casting a third of the stars of heaven to the earth, before the start of the "war in heaven" Revelation 12:7.

In 1273, Pope John XXI, then Bishop of Tusculum, estimated that the total number of angels who sided with Lucifer's revolt numbered 133,306,668, which would suggest that they were fighting against a force of 266,613,336 angels who remained loyal to God.[13] This number was later affirmed by 15th-century scholar Alphonso de Spina.[14] In going through the opinions on the number of fallen angels, [15] theologian John Gill shows no awareness of the existence of this very precise idea of their number (bringing the total of angels in existence to 399,920,004 i.e. 79,996 short of 400 million), which a book by R. N. Leonard Ashley and a number of websites attribute to two famous figures, one of the thirteenth, the other of the fifteenth century, without indicating in what writings they made the statement.

[edit] Causes of Satan's rebellion

Lucifer thrown down from Heaven, as described in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Gustave Doré, 1866
Lucifer thrown down from Heaven, as described in John Milton's Paradise Lost. Gustave Doré, 1866

The Muslim tradition draws on Quran 7:11-12, which claims that Satan's rebellion was seen in his proud insistence that he was better than Mankind, being forged from fire, rather than clay. Some Sufi traditions assert that Satan espoused a great love of God – and that he had sworn to never bow to anyone except God. (See section on Persian and Sufi Traditions in article on Lucifer)

Other catalysts proposed to explain the rebellion of Satan include a refusal to bow down to mankind on the occasion of the Creation of Man (as in the Muslim tradition), a disagreement about God's plan of salvation (as in the teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), a declaration by God that all were to be subject to his Son, the Messiah (so John Milton)[16] and the culmination of a gradual distancing from God through use of free will (an idea of Origen).[17]

[edit] In Mormonism

According to the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Lucifer fomented the revolution after God rejected his alternative plan of salvation, wherein he had volunteered to take Jesus' place as God's emissary to humanity. Lucifer believed that mortals should have their free will revoked to prevent them from committing sins, to ensure their entry into Heaven.[18][19] Mormons interpret the Fall as an account of an event in the far distant past,[20] linked to a myth about the origin of Satan that "had developed in pre-Christian Judaism (1 Enoch, 2 Enoch), and there are fragmentary echoes of it in the New Testament (Jude 6; 2 Peter 2:4)".[21]

[edit] Similar motif outside Abrahamic faiths

The fall of superhuman beings punished for opposing gods is a common motif, even outside of the Abrahamic faiths. Homer's Iliad says Hephaestus was cast down from the heavenly threshold by Zeus and landed on the island of Lemnos nearly dead.[22] Hesiod 's Theogony recounts that the gods, after defeating the Titans, hurled them down to Tartarus as far beneath the earth as earth is beneath the sky.[23]

[edit] Gallery

The Fall of the Rebel Angels from Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry (miniature), c. 1410

Hieronymus Bosch, detail showing the Fall of the Rebel Angels, from a larger painting, c. 1500

Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Fall of the Rebel Angels - detail (1562, oil on panel)

Guido Reni, St Michael binding Satan, c. 1636

Luca Giordano, Fallen Angels

Fallen Angels, part of an altar decoration, Naples, 18th century; ivory, wood, gilded copper

William Blake, The Casting of the Rebel Angels into Hell, illustration for Paradise Lost

The Fallen Angel (1877) by Ricardo Bellver (1845-1924)

St Michael's Victory over the Devil, by Jacob Epstein

Fall of the Rebel Angels, in St Francis Church, Neuendettelsau

[edit] Bibliography

  • Christoph Auffarth, Loren T. Stuckenbruck (Hrsg.): The Fall of the Angels. Brill, Leiden 2004 (Themes in Biblical Narrative, 6), ISBN 90-04-12668-6.
  • Mareike Hartmann: Höllen-Szenarien. Eine Analyse des Höllenverständnisses verschiedener Epochen anhand von Höllendarstellungen. Lit, Münster 2005 (Ästhetik – Theologie – Liturgik, 32), ISBN 3-8258-7681-0.

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Revelation 12:7-9
  2. ^ The People's New Testament Commentary, by M. Eugene Boring, Fred B. Craddock (Westminster John Knox Press 2004 ISBN:0664227546), p. 800; cf. Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible; Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary; Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible.
  3. ^ Jewish Encyclopedia: Fall of Angels
  4. ^ a b c Jewish Encyclopedia: article Lucifer
  5. ^ Job 38:7
  6. ^ Paradise Lost, Book VI
  7. ^ The Works of President Edwards
  8. ^ Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article Revelation, Book of
  9. ^ Revelation 12:1
  10. ^ Revelation 12:3-5
  11. ^ War in Heaven
  12. ^ The phrase "the devil and his angels" in the probably earlier Matthew 25:41 shows that the idea of angels associated with the devil preceded the writing of Revelation.
  13. ^ Ashley, R. N. Leonard. "The Complete Book of Devils and Demons", ISBN:1-56980-077-4
  14. ^ The War in Heaven
  15. ^ A Body of Doctrinal Divinity, book 3, chapter 5, 2b3
  16. ^ Paradise Lost, Book V, lines 600-615
  17. ^ Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article Origen
  18. ^ LDS Church Bible Dictionary
  19. ^ Moses 4:1
  20. ^ War in Heaven, by Brent L. Top
  21. ^ The People's New Testament Commentary, by M. Eugene Boring, Fred B. Craddock (Westminster John Knox Press 2004 ISBN:0664227546), p. 800
  22. ^ Iliad 1:590-594, translation
  23. ^ lines 718-726, translation

[edit] External links

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