Posted on 10/02/2014 1:27:34 AM PDT by markomalley
Msgr Pope ping
Can’t angels assume a physical form? Blanking on the verse, but didn’t Jacob wrestle with an angel (who surely could have won with little effort, but that was not the point)? And weren’t there angels who appeared in Sodom before its cleansing by fire? Or were those metaphysical encounters? /asking in sincerity - want to learn
Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:
Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.
Angels W98 L64 .605
Bookmarking to read later on today.
Can’t angels assume a physical form?
Also verse 12 shows that they were men.
Guardian angels may be a complete different story, it would be interesting to know more about this.
In several places in the Bible, angels appear in visible form and perform physical actions. An angel with a flaming sword guarded the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve were expelled. Jacob wrestled with an angel. The Gospels say an angel rolled the stone from the empty tomb of Jesus and sat upon it.
In all these situations, there’s not enough information to say whether the angel was “embodied,” we could say, or whether he was simply visible and acting with non-bodily powers.
The account of Abraham is more difficult, because the text says “the Lord” appeared to Abraham, accompanied by “two men.” There is a variety of interpretation on this passage!
All things are possible with the Lord.
The comments of others are quite correct. #1 is way off. The normal representation is scripture of an angel is with physical form. You wrestle with them, they eat, speak, walk, hold swords, are mistaken for people etc. You can try to imagine miraculous ways for a spirit to do all that, but there is no reason to twist the obvious, they had physical form.
Also, just because it says they do not marry nor are given in marriage does not mean they are sexless. In fact quite the contrary. There would be no point in even making such a statement if they were not capable of such. My wife argues that the female angels are the ones around the throne worshipping, and the male angels are the soldiers that do God’s bidding on earth.
Further, it is widely believed the nephalim giants were children of fallen angels which cohabited with earth women. That would require fully functional bodies, or once again you can take it upon yourself to assume unspoken miraculous conceptions.
Finally let’s consider singing. Unfortunately I don’t have my Greek resources available right now to see the use of the word “Saying”. However in Revelation 5 four beasts and 24 elders having harps sang ...and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders ...saying with a loud voice
While it doesn’t explicitly in English say the angels sang, it is implied and, there was certainly a large gathering of many creatures all together which were singing and using musical instruments. You may try to argue that because of the word “saying” in the verse that the angels were the only ones NOT singing, but I sure wouldn’t want to walk out on that thin branch.
The topic of angels has always fascinated me.
Ping!
In the Book of Tobit. Tobit, a devout and wealthy Israelite living among the captives deported to Nineveh from the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722/721 B.C., suffers severe reverses and is finally blinded. Because of his misfortunes he begs the Lord to let him die. But recalling the large sum he had formerly deposited in far-off Media, he sends his son Tobiah there to bring back the money. In Media, at this same time, a young woman, Sarah, also prays for death, because she has lost seven husbands, each killed in turn on his wedding night by the demon Asmodeus. God hears the prayers of Tobit and Sarah and sends the angel Raphael in human form to aid them both.
but I sure wouldn’t want to walk out on that thin branch.
For instance I believe (but would not bet on it) that there were two parts to the creation, therefore the sons of god being Adam and his descendants being the sons of God who married the daughters of men who were created in the first part of the creation, Oh well.
Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
I’m picking the Royals.
In the Book of Tobit. Tobit,
I was driving down a a remote country road one night a few years ago and this car started to tailgate me. He had plenty of room to pass but stayed on my tail with his brights on. So I pulled over into a large dirt turnout and he followed me. I figured he was up to no good and braced myself for the worst. Just as the car pulled up beside me the driver gunned the engine as hard as he could and did a spinning 180 degree turn the other way and hauled out of there. I never did see the driver but there was an arm hanging out the window on the passenger side.
I could not figure out what had caused him to turn around like that in a panic, but I was sure relieved. Later the thought occurred to me that the people in the car really were up to no good and my guardian angel appeared to them in some fearsome image and that caused them to get the hell out of there as fast as they could.
I agree with the comments that Angels can and do appear in human bodies to do whatever needs to be done here on earth, and also that they sing, and sing beautifully. Many people who have had near death experiences report angels singing.
My first couple of wives were angels when we got married, and then later they became spawns of satan.
Never fully trust an angel.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.