The Seven Archangels
The tradition speaks of seven archangels who “stand before God,” and Orthodox iconography and piety fill out the seven (sometimes eight) with the names Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Selaphiel, Jegudiel, Barachiel — and, added as an eighth, Jeremiel. This file is the collection’s source-critical centerpiece: it pins each name to its actual, earliest attestation, and finds that beyond the three named in Scripture the sources thin out sharply — Uriel and Jeremiel come from an apocalyptic book outside the received canon, and Selaphiel, Jegudiel, and Barachiel have no scriptural attestation at all but reach us through late liturgical and iconographic tradition. The point is not to unsettle devotion but to weigh honestly what stands on what.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox
The “Seven” — Where the Number Comes From
That there are seven pre-eminent angels who stand in God’s immediate presence is itself a scriptural idea, and a firm one. In the book of Tobit, Raphael reveals himself as “one of the seven holy angels, which present the prayers of the saints, and which go in and out before the glory of the Holy One” (Tobit 12:15 — one of the anagignoskomena; see Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael). The Apocalypse sees “the seven angels which stood before God” (Revelation 8:2; cf. the “seven Spirits which are before his throne,” Revelation 1:4; 4:5). The number seven, then, rests on genuine scriptural ground: a company of seven chief angels in God’s presence.
What Scripture does not do is name all seven. It names three: Michael, Gabriel (protocanon), and Raphael (Tobit). The remaining four names — and thus the full roster of “the seven” — come from elsewhere, and the honest task is to say from exactly where.
The Named Three (recap)
- Michael — Daniel 10:13, 21; 12:1; Jude 9; Revelation 12:7. (Protocanon.)
- Gabriel — Daniel 8:16; 9:21; Luke 1:19, 26. (Protocanon.)
- Raphael — Tobit 3:17; 12:15. (Anagignoskomena — read as Scripture in the Orthodox Church, of the wider canon.)
These three are treated in the companion file. Their veneration stands on the Church’s received Scriptures. What follows stands on progressively slighter ground.
Uriel — from an Apocalyptic Book Outside the Received Canon
Uriel (Hebrew ’ûrî-’ēl, “fire of God” or “light of God”) is the fourth name most commonly added, and he is much loved in devotion as the angel of light and of divine fire. His name, however, does not occur in the protocanonical or anagignoskomena Scriptures. Its earliest and principal attestation is in 2 Esdras — the apocalyptic book also called 4 Ezra, the Jewish apocalypse of the late first century A.D. — where “the angel that was sent unto me, whose name was Uriel,” is the heavenly interpreter who answers Ezra’s questions and guides the visions (2 Esdras 4:1; 5:20; 10:28). Uriel also appears in the non-canonical 1 Enoch, which lists him among the holy angels set over the world (1 Enoch 20).
[Apocryphal: Uriel is named in 2 Esdras / 4 Ezra (esp. 4:1; 5:20; 10:28) and in 1 Enoch 20 — books that stand *outside* the received Orthodox canon. 2 Esdras (4 Ezra) is not among the protocanonical books nor among the Greek *anagignoskomena*; it survives in the Slavonic Bible only as an appended book ("3 Esdras" in the Slavonic numbering) and is absent from the Greek Septuagint tradition (see the numbering discussion in [The Orthodox Scriptures](../../the-orthodox-scriptures/02-the-canon-of-scripture/the-wider-old-testament-and-the-anagignoskomena.md)). 1 Enoch is canonical only in the Ethiopian tradition. Uriel's name therefore rests on apocryphal attestation, not on the Scriptures the Church reads. The Orthodox tradition nonetheless received Uriel into the roster of the seven archangels and honors him at the Synaxis of 8 November (OCA synaxarion, oca.org).]
The caution the ancient Church itself felt about names beyond the scriptural three is worth recording, from the other side of the schism: in the West, a Roman synod under Pope St. Zachary (Zacharias) in 745 rebuked a wandering teacher (Aldebert) who invoked angels by non-scriptural names, and the incident is often cited as an early instance of ecclesiastical reserve toward angelic names not given in Scripture — Uriel among them (the episode is recorded in the acts of the 745 Roman synod; reported in the Catholic Encyclopedia, “St. Michael the Archangel,” newadvent.org). The Orthodox East did not follow the same restrictive course and kept Uriel in the seven; but the Western caution shows that the thinness of the attestation was noticed early and was not a modern discovery.
Jeremiel — the Eighth, from 2 Esdras
Jeremiel (also Jerahmeel, Remiel; “God’s mercy” or “God’s exaltation”), when he is counted, is usually the eighth name, added to round the seven when Uriel is included. His single attestation is again 2 Esdras: to Ezra’s question about the souls of the righteous, “the archangel Jeremiel answered and said…” (2 Esdras 4:36). He appears as Remiel in 1 Enoch 20 as well.
[Apocryphal: Jeremiel is named in 2 Esdras / 4 Ezra 4:36 (and as Remiel in 1 Enoch 20), both outside the received Orthodox canon (see the Uriel note above). His place in the roster is as the eighth of the "seven-plus-one," honored on 8 November where the local tradition includes him (OCA synaxarion, oca.org).]
That the two names drawn from Scripture-adjacent apocalyptic — Uriel and Jeremiel — both come from the same book, 2 Esdras, and that this book is not in the received canon, is the plain source-critical fact. It should be said cleanly: two of the “seven” (or of the “seven-plus-one”) stand on an apocryphal apocalypse, not on the Church’s Scriptures.
Selaphiel, Jegudiel, Barachiel — No Scriptural Attestation
The last three of the classic seven — Selaphiel (Sealtiel; “prayer of God”), Jegudiel (Jehudiel; “praise of God,” the glorifier), and Barachiel (“blessing of God”) — have no scriptural attestation whatever, neither in the protocanon, nor the anagignoskomena, nor even in the surviving apocalyptic books that supply Uriel and Jeremiel. Their names, and the offices assigned to them — Selaphiel the angel of prayer, depicted with hands folded on his breast; Jegudiel the angel who glorifies God, bearing a crown and a scourge; Barachiel the angel of God’s blessings, bearing roses — belong to the developed Byzantine and Slavic liturgical and iconographic tradition, in which the seven archangels received a settled visual and devotional form (the iconography is described in the standard treatments of the seven-archangel image; and see How Angels Are Depicted).
[Apocryphal: the names Selaphiel, Jegudiel, and Barachiel are not attested in Scripture (canonical or anagignoskomena) or in the earlier apocalyptic literature that names Uriel and Jeremiel; they are names of the later Orthodox liturgical and iconographic tradition, where they fill out the seven with assigned offices (prayer, praise, blessing). A common devotional claim ties Selaphiel to the "Salathiel" of 2 Esdras 5:16 — but that figure is the human *Salathiel/Shealtiel* (there identified with Ezra himself), not an archangel; the association is a later folk-etymology, not an attestation, and is flagged here as such. These three names are received in Orthodox piety and honored on 8 November, but they carry the slightest attestation of all the archangelic names and should be presented as pious tradition, not as scriptural fact (OCA synaxarion, oca.org, listing the seven; the iconographic sources).]
The Roster, Weighed
Laid out by strength of attestation, the seven (or eight) stand as follows:
| Name | Earliest / principal source | Standing |
|---|---|---|
| Michael | Daniel 10; 12; Jude 9; Rev 12 | Protocanon — firm |
| Gabriel | Daniel 8–9; Luke 1 | Protocanon — firm |
| Raphael | Tobit 3; 12 | Anagignoskomena — read as Scripture in the Church |
| Uriel | 2 Esdras (4 Ezra) 4; 5; 10; 1 Enoch 20 | Apocryphal — outside the received canon |
| Jeremiel | 2 Esdras (4 Ezra) 4:36; 1 Enoch 20 | Apocryphal — outside the received canon |
| Selaphiel | Later Orthodox tradition | No scriptural attestation |
| Jegudiel | Later Orthodox tradition | No scriptural attestation |
| Barachiel | Later Orthodox tradition | No scriptural attestation |
Two further honest notes. First, the Enochic seven are not the Orthodox seven: 1 Enoch 20 names Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Sariel (Saraqael), Gabriel, and Remiel — a list that includes Raguel and Sariel, whom the Orthodox tradition did not keep, and omits Selaphiel, Jegudiel, and Barachiel, whom it added. The number seven is inherited; the particular Orthodox roster is a later selection, not a single received list (Daniélou, The Angels and Their Mission, 1957, on the fluidity of the archangelic names in early tradition). Second, the reserve of the early Church toward non-scriptural angel-names — seen in the Western synod of 745 and, more sharply, in the Council of Laodicea’s canon against the worship of angels (canon 35; see The Boundary of Veneration) — is part of the record and belongs beside the later devotional flowering.
None of this is meant to strip the seven from Orthodox piety, which honors them and finds in their assigned offices a devout meditation on the ministries of prayer, praise, and blessing. It is meant to keep the piety truthful about its own foundations: three names the Church reads in Scripture, two from an apocalypse she does not receive as canonical, and three from her own later iconographic tradition. The honor is real; the attestations are unequal; and a tradition confident in its dogma can afford to be exact about its theologoumena (see Dogma and Pious Opinion).
See Also
- Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael — the three named in Scripture
- How Angels Are Depicted — the iconographic form of the seven and their emblems
- The Boundary of Veneration — Laodicea 35 and the honoring-vs-worship line
- Dogma and Pious Opinion — the seven names as pious tradition, mapped on the dogma/opinion boundary
- The Orthodox Scriptures: the anagignoskomena — the canon, and the standing of Tobit and the Esdras books
References
- Scripture and wider canon: Tobit 12:15; Revelation 1:4; 4:5; 8:2; Daniel 8–12; Luke 1; Jude 9.
- 2 Esdras (4 Ezra) 4:1; 4:36; 5:16; 5:20; 10:28 (Uriel, Jeremiel; the human Salathiel at 5:16) — a book outside the received Orthodox canon; on its status, The Orthodox Scriptures: the anagignoskomena.
- 1 Enoch 20 (the seven holy angels: Uriel, Raphael, Raguel, Michael, Sariel, Gabriel, Remiel) — canonical only in the Ethiopian tradition.
- Orthodox Church in America, synaxarion for 8 November, oca.org (“Synaxis of the Chief Commander Michael and the other Bodiless Powers,” listing Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, Uriel, Selaphiel, Jehudiel, Barachiel, and Jeremiel).
- Catholic Encyclopedia, “St. Michael the Archangel,” newadvent.org (the Roman synod of 745 under Pope Zachary and the rebuke of non-scriptural angel-names). — Cited for the Western datum; the ecclesiology is not imported.
- Daniélou, Jean. The Angels and Their Mission According to the Fathers of the Church. Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1957. (The fluidity of the archangelic names in early Christian tradition.)
- Pentiuc, Eugen J. The Old Testament in Eastern Orthodox Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. (The Esdras numbering and the boundaries of the Orthodox canon.)