“Angel” is a transcription of the Gr. [Greek:  angelos], messenger. [Greek:  angelos] in the New Testament, and the corresponding mal’akh in the Old Testament, sometimes mean “messenger,” and sometimes “angel,” and this double sense is duly represented in the English Versions.  “Angel” is also used in the English Version for [Hebrew:] ’Abbir, Ps. lxxviii. 25. (lit. “mighty"), for [Hebrew:] ’Elohim, Ps. viii. 5, and for the obscure [Hebrew:] shin’an, in Ps. lxviii. 17.

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In the later development of the religion of Israel, ’Elohim is almost entirely reserved for the one true God; but in earlier times ’Elohim (gods), bn[=e] ’Elohim, bn[=e] Elim (sons of gods, i.e. members of the class of divine beings) were general terms for superhuman beings.  Hence they came to be used collectively of superhuman beings, distinct from Yahweh, and therefore inferior, and ultimately subordinate.[1] So, too, the angels are styled “holy ones,"[2] and “watchers,"[3] and are spoken of as the “host of heaven"[4] or of “Yahweh."[5] The “hosts,” [Hebrew:] Sebaoth in the title Yahweh Sebaoth, Lord of Hosts, were probably at one time identified with the angels.[6] The New Testament often speaks of “spirits,” [Greek:  pneumata].[7] In the earlier periods of the religion of Israel, the doctrine of monotheism had not been formally stated, so that the idea of “angel” in the modern sense does not occur, but we find the Mal’akh Yahweh, Angel of the Lord, or Mal’akh Elohim, Angel of God.  The Mal’akh Yahweh is an appearance or manifestation of Yahweh in the form of a man, and the term Mal’akh Yahweh is used interchangeably with Yahweh (cf.  Exod. iii. 2, with iii. 4; xiii. 21 with xiv. 19).  Those who see the Mal’akh Yahweh say they have seen God.[8] The Mal’akh Yahweh (or Elohim) appears to Abraham, Hagar, Moses, Gideon, &c., and leads the Israelites in the Pillar of Cloud.[9] The phrase Mal’akh Yahweh may have been originally a courtly circumlocution for the Divine King; but it readily became a means of avoiding crude anthropomorphism, and later on, when the angels were classified, the Mal’akh Yahweh came to mean an angel of distinguished rank.[10] The identification of the Mal’akh Yahweh with the Logos, or Second Person of the Trinity, is not indicated by the references in the Old Testament; but the idea of a Being partly identified with God, and yet in some sense distinct from Him, illustrates the tendency of religious thought to distinguish persons within the unity of the Godhead, and foreshadows the doctrine of the Trinity, at any rate in some slight degree.