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
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!
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.