In the Priestly Code, c. 400 B.C., there is no reference to angels apart from the possible suggestion in the ambiguous plural in Genesis i. 26.

During the Persian and Greek periods the doctrine of angels underwent a great development, partly, at any rate, under foreign influences.  In Daniel, c. 160 B.C., angels, usually spoken of as “men” or “princes,” appear as guardians or champions of the nations; grades are implied, there are “princes” and “chief” or “great princes”; and the names of some angels are known, Gabriel, Michael; the latter is pre-eminent,[26] he is the guardian of Judah.  Again in Tobit a leading part is played by Raphael, “one of the seven holy angels."[27]

In Tobit, too, we find the idea of the demon or evil angel.  In the canonical Old Testament angels may inflict suffering as ministers of God, and Satan may act as accuser or tempter; but they appear as subordinate to God, fulfilling His will; and not as morally evil.  The statement[28] that God “charged His angels with folly” applies to all angels.  In Daniel the princes or guardian angels of the heathen nations oppose Michael the guardian angel of Judah.  But in Tobit we find Asmodaeus the evil demon, [Greek:  to poneros daimonion], who strangles Sarah’s husbands, and also a general reference to “a devil or evil spirit,” [Greek:  pneuma].[29] The Fall of the Angels is not properly a scriptural doctrine, though it is based on Gen. vi. 2, as interpreted by the Book of Enoch.  It is true that the bn[=e] Elohim of that chapter are subordinate superhuman beings (cf. above), but they belong to a different order of thought from the angels of Judaism and of Christian doctrine; and the passage in no way suggests that the bne Elohim suffered any loss of status through their act.

The guardian angels of the nations in Daniel probably represent the gods of the heathen, and we have there the first step of the process by which these gods became evil angels, an idea expanded by Milton in Paradise Lost.  The development of the doctrine of an organized hierarchy of angels belongs to the Jewish literature of the period 200 B.C. to A.D. 100.  In Jewish apocalypses especially, the imagination ran riot on the rank, classes and names of angels; and such works as the various books of Enoch and the Ascension of Isaiah supply much information on this subject.

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In the New Testament angels appear frequently as the ministers of God and the agents of revelation;[30] and Our Lord speaks of angels as fulfilling such functions,[31] implying in one saying that they neither marry nor are given in marriage.[32] Naturally angels are most prominent in the Apocalypse.  The New Testament takes little interest in the idea of the angelic hierarchy, but there are traces of the doctrine.  The distinction of good and bad angels is recognized; we have names, Gabriel,[33] and the evil angels Abaddon or Apollyon,[34]