03 — The Archangels

Three angels are named in the Orthodox Scriptures — Michael and Gabriel in the protocanon, Raphael in the book of Tobit — and the tradition venerates them by name with their own feasts. Beyond these three stands a tradition of seven archangels, but four of the seven names (Uriel, Selaphiel, Jegudiel, Barachiel, with Jeremiel sometimes added as an eighth) reach us only through late or apocryphal channels. This section treats the three named archangels and then, as its source-critical centerpiece, pins each of the further names to its actual source, distinguishing sharply what Scripture gives from what later tradition supplied.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Files

• michael-gabriel-and-raphael.md — The three named archangels: Michael the Chief Commander and the miracle at Chonae; Gabriel of the Annunciation; Raphael of Tobit and the canonical status of that book.
• the-seven-archangels.md — The “seven who stand before God”: the source-critical treatment of the four further names, each pinned to its earliest attestation.

See Also

• Angels in Scripture — the angelophanies in which Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael appear
• The Bodiless Powers in the Calendar — the feasts of the archangels
• The Orthodox Scriptures: the anagignoskomena — the canonical status of Tobit