Angels in the Bible exist because God is so far above humanity that intermediaries are needed to communicate special messages from God. Even Moses is told that he can’t see God “face to face” or it would kill him. Angels remain anonymous messengers until the time of the Babylonian Exile when the Jewish people encounter the highly developed angelology of the Persians. In Biblical and extra-Biblical literature (e.g. Book of Enoch) angels get personalities. The Catholic Bible names three angels: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael. Later in Christian tradition pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite develops a whole hierarchy of angels (“thrones, dominions, principalities, powers”) which situates both natural and spiritual realties on a continuum. Humanity might be the highlight of creation but made “little lower than the angels” (Psalm 8:5).
