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Philip C. Almond, Emeritus Professor in the History of Religious Thought, The University of Queensland

Terror, androgyny and benevolence: a brief history of angels in Christianity

Jesus Dante Gabriel Rossetti Luke Satan Wikimedia Commons

Leonardo da Vinci, Annunciation, circa 1472 Wikimedia Commons

Christianity began with the appearance of an angel. In the gospel of Luke, Mary is told by the angel Gabriel she will conceive and bear a son and call him Jesus.

Angelic messengers such as Gabriel bookmarked Jesus’s life. After his baptism by John the Baptist, Jesus was taken by the Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days (according to the gospel of Matthew) where he was tempted by the Devil. When the Devil finally left him, “suddenly angels came and waited on him”.

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