The Angel of Death (Hezekiah 3:18): A Misunderstood and Theologically Vital Non-Entity

Note: A post for the day after Easter Sunday. 

It’s now time to address that scythe wielding, six winged, cherub whose coming heralds fear in the heart of humanity; 

[Read that reference again]

The black-robed psychopomp who culls and carries souls from this reality to the next; 

[Read that reference one more time]

The smoother of baby-breath and divine emissary of plug-pulling: the Angel of Death.

[Something doesn’t seem off to you?] 

Click here to read Hezekiah 3:18.

Death Angels in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament

There is no “Angel of Death” in the Bible. Not really. 

There are multiple angels/messengers (מַלְאָךְ - ma’lak) in the Hebrew Bible who take lives, but none of them are ever called “THE angel of death."  Those angels have been mostly conflated into one being through Western literature and pop culture. These include:

  • The Adversary (הַשָּׂטָן - has-satan) in Job's story, who kills his family, as well as a stupid amount of his servants and animals,  and

Some argue that the Bible includes other mentions of savage seraphs, but each have textual issues. Proverbs 16:14 mentions "angels of death" (plural). However the context of the metaphor leaves open the possibly that these are not referring to divine beings, but court assassins/hit-men. Some interpret Job 33:22 as referring to “killers” or “dealers of death” who are angels. However, the Hebrew translation may be referring to death itself. 

But beyond arcane biblical nerdity (which we love), why is this even important? What is the deeper meaning or message that this all conveys? We believe it is this: In the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, Death is not a function outside of God's control. 

In all of the cases above, the deaths are caused by beings whose actions are directed by God, or whose action is synonymous with God’s action. What do we mean (esp. that last part)? Re-read the story about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. Gen 19:13 records the angels as saying that they will be the ones who destroy the region. However, Gen 19:24 places that action directly in the hands of YHWH. This is actually a reoccurring issue in the Hebrew Bible: a passage will sometimes say that an angel carried out an action acting on behalf of God, but will later say that it was handed by Godself. This happens in the Passover story, as well as the "angel of the Lord" narratives referenced above.

This is important, in part, because a shift took place in the biblical consciousness between the time of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament: 

People began to view the relationship between God and Death differently.

A New Outlook on Death

In antiquity, Jewish thought held no concept of life after death aside from residing in Sheol (the ubiquitous abode of the dead). When you died, you went to Sheol, and done. This is one of the reasons that the Hebrew Bible has little to no discussion of Hell and eternal punishment, or Heaven and eternal rewards, as the New Testament does.

This theological pattern held until the fall of The First Temple. A change in the view of the afterlife was influenced by interactions with the Assyrians, Babylonians, Medes, and Persians before, during, and after the Exiles. Because, when the excrement hits the air conditioning, theology changes. Late in Second Temple Judaism (the second century B.C.E.) the change in afterlife theology (eschatology) can be seen in the rise and content of the apocalyptic literature of the era, including what made it into the Bible (c.f. Daniel, Ezekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Joel, & Zechariah). 

By the time the New Testament was being written, these shift in eschatological thought had taken root, and are very apparent in the New Testament (NT). Overall the NT views death as the work of the devil/Satan (who also got a serious biblical makeover during this period, but that's a Card Talk for another day). The NT writers return to the Garden of Eden as the source of physical death in ways NEVER explicated in the Hebrew Bible (Eden is not mentioned in the Hebrew Bible outside of Genesis, and once in Ezekiel, but never in the ways the NT writers do. More on that below). To summarize the drastic shift we're explicating:

death became an enemy to God's plans, not a tool God employs.

Death became something that people feared in a new way. After the utter devastation at the hands of foreign invaders and the fall of the Temple, the people of God could no longer simply believe that their misfortune was completely at the hands of God. They wrestled with the concept of evil, especially deaths that seems untimely, insensible, and outside of God's ubiquitous kindness (c.f. Job, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Psalm 88 & 137). 

Religious thinkers and the common person returned to Genesis chapter 3 for answers. And Death was seen as a disruption of God's intended good for His creation, despite the overwhelming witness of the rest of the Torah. But if Death was now an enemy, death needed to be defeated. 

Coming Back from the Dead

One result in the war against Death was the belief that death is not the end, that Sheol was not the end: we, or at least the holy, will make a come back. During this era, the notion of the resurrection of the dead became a hotly contested source of theological debate. 

Consider Jesus' conversation with the Sadducees in Mark 12, which is predicated on their belief that there was no resurrection of the dead. Consider Paul's brilliant ploy while on trial before the Sanhedrin in Acts 23:6-10: he pits the resurrection-believing Pharisees against the resurrection-denying Sadducees in order to cause chaos and clear the room. That turned into a full-on brawl. 

The NT also records that during His ministry, Jesus brought a few people back from the dead. But (as we had beaten into us during in Sunday School) we should not confuse "resuscitation" with "resurrection": the former brings people back to life, but they die again. The latter is a perpetual state of eternal living. A distinction at the heart of the conversation between Jesus and Martha moments before He resuscitated His good friend Lazarus. It also reveals the import of the theological difference between the two, and the shifting paradigm of death between Old Testament and New.

When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.” (John 11:20-27)

Death, instead of a divinely dealt solution, has become a problem.

Enter Christ and the victory He brings through the Resurrection, defeating the Devil's death power.

The death of Death

Turn to Romans chapter 5 and Paul's discussion of the "first" and "second" Adam (Adam and Jesus respectively). Consider:

Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death came through sin, and so death spread to all because all have sinned (vs 12) . . . But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died through the one man’s trespass, much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. (vs 15) . . . If, because of the one man’s trespass, death exercised dominion through that one, much more surely will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness exercise dominion in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. 

Therefore just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. For just as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous. But law came in, with the result that the trespass multiplied; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, just as sin exercised dominion in death, so grace might also exercise dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.  (vs 17-21)

The power of the Resurrection over death is something the New Testament can't stop taking about it:


Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14,15).

 

He who does what is sinful is of the Devil, because the Devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the Devil's work (1 John 3:8).

 

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades. (Revelation 1:17-18)


1 Corinthians 15 stands as Paul's grand treatise on the Resurrection of Christ, the hope of the saved, the present and future work to be done, and it's power to conquer death. It contains many "THE RESURRECTION IS AWESOME AND KICKS DEATH'S BUTT!" statements including:

But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.(vs 20-22)

Death has been swallowed up in victory. / Where, O death, is your victory? / Where, O death, is your sting?” (vs 55)

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (vs 56-57) 

 

Amen. 

World without end.