Why Bible Accurate Angels Are So Creepy — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:02[Music]
2. 0:06angels
3. 0:08even if you haven't touched the bible
4. 0:09you probably have an idea on what they
5. 0:11look like
6. 0:12they're those elegant heavenly beings
7. 0:13with long white robes
8. 0:15swan like wings and perhaps a halo on
9. 0:16top for good measure we also know what
10. 0:18angel babies or cherubs look like
11. 0:21those small chubby cute infants clasping
12. 0:23a bow and arrow
13. 0:24the kind of thing you might see on a
14. 0:25valentine's day card except well
15. 0:27that's not what angels actually look
16. 0:29like not according to the bible
17. 0:31these are biblically accurate angels
18. 0:46these horrifying abominations are more
19. 0:47suited to an h.b lovecraft novel
20. 0:49not really the bible so what are these
21. 0:51things why do they look this way
22. 0:54and how have we got angels so wrong
23. 0:57okay so angels come from the old
24. 0:59testament the first half of the bible
25. 1:01for christians
26. 1:01or the whole bible known as the tanakh
27. 1:03for jews the old testament was written
28. 1:06down in modern-day israel and palestine
29. 1:08from about the 6th century bce to the
30. 1:103rd century bce
31. 1:12although many scholars believe the
32. 1:13biblical stories themselves are much
33. 1:15older
34. 1:15we get the word angel from the greek
35. 1:17angelos originally from the hebrew word
36. 1:19malach
37. 1:20which roughly translates to messenger
38. 1:22these messengers
39. 1:24appear in the old testament a number of
40. 1:25times they carry god's messages from
41. 1:27heaven and earth
42. 1:28and sometimes act on his behalf for
43. 1:30example you might recognize the angel of
44. 1:32death in the passover story
45. 1:34that slaughtered all the first sons of
46. 1:36the egyptians
47. 1:37or perhaps the angel that struck 70 000
48. 1:39israelites to death
49. 1:40and the angel that single-handedly
50. 1:42killed 185
51. 1:44000 assyrian soldiers in one night when
52. 1:46they appear in the bible they are
53. 1:47described as having wings
54. 1:49in fact they look like any ordinary
55. 1:51person
56. 1:52in the later biblical texts such as
57. 1:54daniel some even get names
58. 1:56gabriel raphael and michael okay
59. 2:00this all sounds familiar but they're not
60. 2:01quite the nightmare material
61. 2:03freak abominations we saw before the
62. 2:05angels
63. 2:06known as malach are not the only
64. 2:08heavenly beings in the bible
65. 2:10there's a hierarchy of them and
66. 2:11depending on who you ask your classic
67. 2:13humanoid angels
68. 2:14are actually pretty far down the ladder
69. 2:17in the middle ages
70. 2:17a jewish scholar known as my modernities
71. 2:19drew up a hierarchy of angels and if you
72. 2:22look here
73. 2:22your classic humanoid angels the malach
74. 2:25are pretty low down
75. 2:27but not quite as low as cherubim forget
76. 2:29those chubby winged angels
77. 2:31according to the bible cherubim are
78. 2:33animal human hybrids
79. 2:34the first time we see them is in the
80. 2:36book of genesis right after adam and eve
81. 2:38have been kicked out the garden
82. 2:40their job is to guard the garden of eden
83. 2:42from mankind
84. 2:43our best description of cherubim comes
85. 2:45to the book of ezekiel
86. 2:47it opens with a prophet experiencing a
87. 2:49profound vision in his vision
88. 2:51ezekiel describes them as living
89. 2:52creatures but they are later revealed in
90. 2:54chapter 10
91. 2:55as cherubim his account is as follows
92. 2:58in the middle of it was something like
93. 3:00four living creatures
94. 3:02this was their appearance they were of
95. 3:04human form
96. 3:05each had four faces and each of them had
97. 3:08four wings
98. 3:09their legs were straight and their soles
99. 3:11of their feet were like the sole of a
100. 3:13calf's foot
101. 3:14and they sparkled like burnished bronze
102. 3:18under their wings on their four sides
103. 3:20they had human hands
104. 3:22and the four had their faces and their
105. 3:24wings thus
106. 3:25their wings touched one another each of
107. 3:28them moved straight ahead without
108. 3:29turning as they moved
109. 3:31as for the appearance of their faces the
110. 3:33four had the face of a human being
111. 3:35the face of a lion on their right side
112. 3:37the face of an ox on their left side
113. 3:39and the face of an eagle such were their
114. 3:42faces
115. 3:43their wings were spread out above each
116. 3:45creature had two wings
117. 3:48each of which touched the wing of
118. 3:49another while two covered their bodies
119. 3:53each moved straight ahead wherever the
120. 3:55spirit would go
121. 3:56they went without turning as they went
122. 3:59in the middle of the living creatures
123. 4:01there was something that looked like
124. 4:02burning coals of fire
125. 4:04like torches moving to and fro among the
126. 4:06living creatures
127. 4:08the fire was bright and lightning issued
128. 4:10from the fire
129. 4:11the living creatures darted to and fro
130. 4:14like a flash of lightning
131. 4:16the cherubim don't look like your
132. 4:17average angel instead
133. 4:19they look more like the mythical beasts
134. 4:21in ancient mesopotamia
135. 4:23especially the babylonian iamasu which
136. 4:25is the wings of an eagle
137. 4:27the body of a lion and the head of a
138. 4:28king these would act as guardians to
139. 4:31sacred places like temples
140. 4:32or the palace or city walls and
141. 4:34performed a similar role to the biblical
142. 4:36cherubim
143. 4:37they look similar to their egyptian
144. 4:39cousin the sphinx or the hittite griffin
145. 4:41many believed that these biblical angels
146. 4:43were descendants of these mythological
147. 4:45creatures from mesopotamia
148. 4:47there would have been a lot of cultural
149. 4:48exchange and the same sorts of mythical
150. 4:50creatures would crop
151. 4:51up across these regions
152. 4:55cherubim and later christianity may have
153. 4:56been imported from greek and roman myths
154. 4:59borrowing from the shapes of cupid or
155. 5:01pluto
156. 5:04moving up the list we get these guys
157. 5:06seraphim
158. 5:07they have six wings two used for flying
159. 5:10and the other pair for covering the
160. 5:11angel's face
161. 5:12and the third pair for covering the
162. 5:14angel's feet they're described in the
163. 5:16book of isaiah
164. 5:17as follows seraphs were in attendance
165. 5:19above him
166. 5:21each had six wings with two they covered
167. 5:23their faces
168. 5:24and with two they covered their feet and
169. 5:26with two they flew
170. 5:28and one called the other and said holy
171. 5:31holy holy is the lord of hosts
172. 5:33and the whole earth is full of his glory
173. 5:36in medieval christian theology
174. 5:38seraphim is the highest choir of the
175. 5:40angelic hierarchy
176. 5:42they are the caretakers of god's throne
177. 5:44again continuously singing
178. 5:46holy holy holy all day
179. 5:49every day so seraphim their name comes
180. 5:52from the word seraph
181. 5:54to burn so seraphim may mean something
182. 5:56like the burning ones
183. 5:58okay where do they come from going
184. 6:00further into seraphine's name
185. 6:02reveals its origins the hebrew word for
186. 6:04a venomous serpent of the desert
187. 6:06is saraf in ancient egypt the cobra was
188. 6:09often referred to as the flaming one
189. 6:12an image of which called urayus was worn
190. 6:14by the pharaoh
191. 6:15thus saraf may be the hebrew term for
192. 6:18cobra
193. 6:19and perhaps where our seraphim get their
194. 6:20winged appearance from
195. 6:22now we're getting to the strangest
196. 6:24beings in the bible the ophanim
197. 6:26or simply known as the wheels they're a
198. 6:29pair of interlocking gold wheels
199. 6:31with eyes around the outside and they
200. 6:34hover and float in the sky
201. 6:36in the same vision as before ezekiel
202. 6:38describes them alongside the cherubim
203. 6:40quote as i look to the living creatures
204. 6:43i saw a wheel on the earth beside the
205. 6:45living creatures
206. 6:46one for each of the four of them as for
207. 6:49the appearance of the wheels and the
208. 6:50construction
209. 6:51their appearance was like the gleaming
210. 6:53of beryl and the four had the same form
211. 6:56their construction being something like
212. 6:58a wheel within a wheel
213. 7:01when they moved they moved in any of the
214. 7:03four directions without veering as they
215. 7:05moved
216. 7:06their rims were tall and awesome for the
217. 7:08rims of all four
218. 7:10were full of eyes all around when the
219. 7:13living creatures moved
220. 7:14the wheels moved beside them and when
221. 7:17the living creatures rose from the earth
222. 7:19the wheels rose wherever the spirit
223. 7:21would go
224. 7:22they went and the wheels rose along with
225. 7:25them
226. 7:26for the spirit of the living creatures
227. 7:28was in the wheels
228. 7:30the wheels are beings who are meant to
229. 7:31carry god's throne making them some of
230. 7:34the holiest
231. 7:34and certainly the strangest beings in
232. 7:36the bible where do these wheels come
233. 7:38from
234. 7:39well no one really knows this one
235. 7:41conspiracy theorists believe that
236. 7:43ezekiel is describing ufo
237. 7:45due to its strange shape and movement or
238. 7:48perhaps
239. 7:49seeing that this all takes place in a
240. 7:50trippy vision it could be the product of
241. 7:52the prophet ingesting a psychedelic
242. 7:54plant
243. 7:56more grounded scholars interpret the
244. 7:57wheels metaphorically a stand-in for
245. 7:59god's unknowability
246. 8:01or some other often quite elaborate
247. 8:02interpretation
248. 8:04but ultimately no one really knows much
249. 8:06more about the wheels
250. 8:07they're never mentioned anywhere else
251. 8:10there is some confusion about whether
252. 8:12these eldritch abominations known as
253. 8:14cherubim
254. 8:14seraphim or ophanim are really actually
255. 8:17angels
256. 8:18perhaps heavenly being is a better
257. 8:20description of them
258. 8:22whatever it may be the bible's view of
259. 8:24heaven is not the exclusive domain of
260. 8:26these beautiful winged humanoids
261. 8:28if heaven is in fact real you'll likely
262. 8:30be spending a literal eternity alongside
263. 8:33these winged monstrosities instead
264. 8:36hey thanks to the end of this video i
265. 8:38enjoyed this one about angels and their
266. 8:40creepy origins
267. 8:41if you want more like comment but most
268. 8:43will subscribe to this channel