Angels through the Ages

History of Angels

We cannot be certain where the idea of angels as winged beings originated, but it seems likely that they evolved from the winged deities of Sumerian, Egyptian and Semitic belief.

Angels - A History by David Albert Jones

These beings were depicted and sometimes described as "messengers of the gods".

The earliest representation of an angelic being has been discovered on a Sumerian stele, an ancient upright stone slab decorated with figures and inscriptions, which archaeologists believe could date as far back as 4000 BCE. This would date it to 1,000 years after the founding of Sumeria, the world's first civilization.

The stele shows a winged figure, an inhabitant of the seven heavens, pouring the water of life into a king's cup.

The concept of seven heavens inhabited by a hierarchy of celestial beings persists to this day in the teachings of Islam and in the mystical aspect of the Judaic-Christian traditions, which gave rise to the secular saying, to be "in seventh heaven", now used to describe exaltation.

It therefore seems relatively safe to assume that Sumeria was at least the front, if not the source, from which these other tributes sprang and were sustained.

The belief in winged messengers as a celestial species, distinct from the gods themselves was propagated throughout the ancient world with the migration of the Semitic tribes in the 2nd century BCE.

In their wake came the itinerant mystics and the self-proclaimed prophets, who adopted regional deities mostly to endorse their apocalyptic pronouncements.

It is from the Semitic tradition that we inherited the angels and archangels that are known by name.

In the ancient world the celestial messengers of the gods remained anonymous.

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