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Uriel

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For other uses, see Uriel (disambiguation)}}}.
An Image of Uriel
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An Image of Uriel

Uriel (אוּרִיאֵל "Flame of God", Standard Hebrew Uriʾel, Tiberian Hebrew ʾÛrîʾēl) is one of the archangels of post-Exilic Rabbinic tradition, and also of certain Christian traditions. His name may have analogies with Uriah.

The angels mentioned in the older books of the Hebrew Bible are without names. Indeed, rabbi Simeon ben Lakish of Tiberias (AD 230-270), asserted that all the specific names for the angels were brought back by the Jews from Babylon, and some modern commentators would tend to agree. Of seven archangels in the angelology of post-Exilic Judaism, only three, Gabriel, Michael and Raphael, are mentioned by name in the scriptures that gradually became accepted as canonical. The four others, however, are named in the 2nd century BC Book of Enoch (chapter xxi): besides Uriel they are Reguel, Sariel, and Remiel. In Enoch they testify on behalf of Humankind during the reign of the Fallen Watchers, (the Nephilim); they represent humanity's case for divine intervention, since the Watchers, led by Samyaza, were devouring mankind and all its fruits.

Where a fourth archangel is added to the named three, to represent the four cardinal points, Uriel is generally the fourth (Jewish Encyclopedia).

Uriel also appears in the Second Book of Esdras, an apocryphal addition in the tradition of apocalyptic literature made to Esdras, in which the prophet Ezra asks God a series of questions, and Uriel is sent by God to instruct him.

Uriel is often identified as the cherub who "stands at the Gate of Eden with a fiery sword," or as the angel who "watches over thunder and terror" (1 Enoch). In the Apocalypse of Peter he appears as the Angel of Repentance, who is graphically represented as being as pitiless as any demon. In the Life of Adam and Eve Uriel is regarded as the spirit (i.e.,one of the cherubs) of the third chapter of Genesis. He is also identified as one of the angels who helped bury Adam and Abel in Paradise.

Stemming from medieval Jewish mystical traditions, Uriel has also become the Angel of Sunday (Jewish Encyclopedia), Angel of Poetry, and one of the Holy Sephiroth. He wrestled Jacob at Peniel and is depicted as the destroyer of the hosts of Sennacherib. He told Noah about the upcoming Great Flood which is described in the Book of Enoch.

Then said the Most High, the Holy and Great One spake, and sent Uriel to the son of Lamech, and said to him: " and tell him in my name 'Hide thyself!' and reveal to him the end that is approaching: that the whole earth will be destroyed, and a deluge is about to come upon the whole earth, and will destroy all that is on it." - Enoch 1917 R. H. Charles (1 Enoch 10:1)
He checked the doors of Egypt for lamb's blood during the plague. He also holds the key to the Pit during the End Times and led Abraham to the West.

In modern, only marginally Christian angelology, Uriel is identified variously as a seraph, cherub, regent of the sun, flame of God, angel of the Divine Presence, presider over Tartarus (hell), archangel of salvation, and, in later scriptures, identified with Phanuel "face of God". He is often depicted carrying a book or a papyrus scroll (for his wisdom). Uriel is a patron of the Arts.

In apocryphal and kabbalistic works Uriel has been equated or confused with Nuriel, Uryan, Jeremiel, Vretil, Sariel, Puruel, Phanuel, Jehoel and Israfel.

Contents

Uriel in angelology and the occult

Uriel is associated with the color Green, the direction North (or East), the element Earth.

Uriel in literature

In Milton's Paradise Lost Book III, Uriel, in charge of the Orb of the Sun, serves as the eyes of God, but unwittingly steers Satan towards the newly-created earth. He also fills the role of fourth cardinal point (see above). Milton describes him as the "sharpest sighted spirit in all of Heaven."

In Ralph Waldo Emerson's poem Uriel, Uriel is a young god in Paradise, who upsets the world of gods by proclaiming relativism and the eternal return.

In George Eliot's Middlemarch, ch. XLI, Uriel is mentioned "watching the progress of planetary history from the sun,the one result would be just as much of a coincidence as the other".

Uriel in modern culture

See also

  1. redirect

Further reading

External links

 

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