What is the difference between an angel and a (minor) deity?

[Helm]

There are some ancient polytheistic deities depicted with halos and/wings so that's that blurs the line between them in purely physical terms, not that they would be physical beings. Also angels seem to have different roles to play and aspects of the world/life/afterlife to govern over much in the same way as the polytheistic gods will have done back in the day. Isn't this essentially be polytheism through the back door?

[♔Goodguy1066♔]

Angels are messengers for God, people just gave them names because the postal service hadn't been invented yet so it was easier to personify them rather than explain it to the average Church/Synagogue/Mosque goer. In my personal opinion all angels were one and the same, and they had about as much consciousness as an E-Mail.

[Helm]

There is an angel called Seakel who rules over fruit trees and Metatron the most powerful of all angels who sits by the throne of God on the of the 900 levels of heaven who teaches young dead children, he has 32 pairs of wings and many eyes apparently. So they're a bit more than a messenger service. It's probably to make up for the fact that monotheism is a bit boring, you want something a bit more for your money.

[♔Goodguy1066♔]

There is an angel called Seakel who rules over fruit trees and Metatron the most powerful of all angels who sits by the throne of God on the of the 900 levels of heaven who teaches young dead children, he has 32 pairs of wings and many eyes apparently. So they're a bit more than a messenger service. It's probably to make up for the fact that monotheism is a bit boring, you want something a bit more for your money.

Ah, so it's a Christian thing. I don't know enough about the religion to comment.

[Helm]

Ah, so it's a Christian thing. I don't know enough about the religion to comment.

It's a Jewish/Christian/Muslim thing, perhaps Zoroastrainism as well I'm not too sure. I don't know where they got 900 levels of heaven from I thought there were only meant to be 7.

[CamilleBonparte]

Ah, so it's a Christian thing. I don't know enough about the religion to comment.

Neither does Helm but does that stop him?

[Helm]

Neither does Helm but does that stop him?

I was asking a question about angels rather than commenting, the kind of thing you do when you don't know about something.

An angel is kind of like a creature made by God, they're kind of like animals in the sense they don't posses free-will like humans do. They don't create things. Their job is to worship God eternally, and on occasion some of them come to deliver messages.

How then do you explain and his followers who had the freewill to rebel against God? Not that it did them much good.

BTW I've googled and wiki'd Seakel and have found nothing about it, which leads me to believe it's probably a character from folk lore that got assocaited with Christianity

I probably didn't spell the name correctly but I'm thinking he may have been a some kind of pagan nature spirit/god to start out with.

[CamilleBonparte]

I was asking a question about angels rather than commenting, the kind of thing you do when you don't know about something.

Oh that's okay I wasn't referring to this thread in particular.

[Squiggle]

I was asking a question about angels rather than commenting, the kind of thing you do when you don't know about something.

Did you really think you could get away with this bold face lie? You made a comment in your second post, about how it was "made up" to make up for how monotheism is "boring".

[basics]

" Ah, so it's a Christian thing. I don't know enough about the religion to comment. "

Goodguy1066,

That's the very last thing it is.

[♔Goodguy1066♔]

" Ah, so it's a Christian thing. I don't know enough about the religion to comment. "

Goodguy1066,

That's the very last thing it is.

Well I've never heard about this Seakel who's in charge of fruit trees or any angel with 32 pairs of wings. I deduced it must be Christian.

[Helm]

Well I've never heard about this Seakel who's in charge of fruit trees or any angel with 32 pairs of wings. I deduced it must be Christian.

http://www.angelicartistry.com/metatron1.htm

That's Metatron there, though with only one pair of eyes and wings. Being an archangel I'm guessing he can look the what he likes. You'll notice the small child on his knee.

[Col. Tartleton]

Angels are Divine, but they are not the Deus.

If you want to draw parallels Zeus had a ton of Angels. Some were Gods, many were lesser Gods.

Zeus if you notice very rarely shows up in person. He has a good number of messengers in his entourage though:

Iris
Hermes
Nike
Zelus
Kratos
Bia
Athena
etc.

Seven... weird.



@Helm Also those are non gospel Mysticism angels. That's just occult nonsensical ramblings/folklore.

[The Million Dollar Prons]

An angel is kind of like a creature made by God, they're kind of like animals in the sense they don't posses free-will like humans do. They don't create things. Their job is to worship God eternally, and on occasion some of them come to deliver messages.

BTW I've googled and wiki'd Seakel and have found nothing about it, which leads me to believe it's probably a character from folk lore that got assocaited with Christianity

[Helm]

This about all I can really find for Serakel the fruit tree angel, he does seem a bit obsurce. But you would think the most powerful archangel Metratron would be a little more well known.

http://babynamesworld.parentsconnect...161560_20.html

[Col. Tartleton]

Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away. [Genesis 5:24 NIV.]

This Enoch, whose flesh was turned to flame, his veins to fire, his eye-lashes to flashes of lightning, his eye-balls to flaming torches, and whom God placed on a throne next to the throne of glory, received after this heavenly transformation the name Metatron. [Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (1941/1961) p. 67. Extract of 3 Enoch.]

Metatron appears to have been a deified Enoch. Much like Quirinus was a deified Romulus or Herakles was a deified Alkaios.

[Asgath]

Angels are pretty much definitely not real. Nor are any (even minor) deities.
Thread over?

But surely it depends on which religion you're talking of?

[godol shmok]

Isn't this essentially be polytheism through the back door?

It's a left-over of primitive court ceremonials, a social situation that turned into a metaphor that expresses complex relations between persons.

[Claudius Gothicus]

Minor deities in Christendom can be much better assimilated to the figures of Patron Saints.

[MaximiIian]

thread title

Gods are divine entities with divine powers in their own right.
Angels are semidivine entities whose powers are channelled through an actual divine entity, and whom operate as messengers of those divine entities. Similar concept as daemons in Greek folklore and philosophy.

So, no; theologically, they're entirely different things.
In practice...varies on time and place.