Gabriel- Hebrew/Jewish AngelAngel"Archangel"

The Man in Swift Flight

Gabriel first appears by name in the Book of Daniel. Daniel has seen a vision of a ram and a goat, empires clashing in symbolic form, and cannot fathom its meaning. Then he perceives one having the appearance of a man, and a voice commands: "Gabriel, make this man understand the vision" (Daniel 8:16). When Gabriel approaches, Daniel falls prostrate in terror. The angel touches him, raises him to his feet, and explains: the ram is Media and Persia, the goat is Greece, the great horn its first king.

He returns in Daniel 9, this time unbidden. Daniel has been praying and confessing the sins of Israel, pleading for Jerusalem's restoration. "While I was speaking in prayer," Daniel recounts, "the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the first, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice" (Daniel 9:21). He delivers the prophecy of the seventy weeks: seventy sevens of years until an anointed one comes, Jerusalem is rebuilt and destroyed again, and desolation ends. The vision stretches from Babylon's ruins to the end of days.

The Angel of Fire

When three angels visited Abraham at the oaks of Mamre, they were Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, each dispatched for a specific purpose. The Talmud records that Michael came to announce the birth of Isaac, Raphael to heal Abraham, and Gabriel to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Gabriel proceeded from Abraham's tent to the cities of the plain and rained fire and sulfur from heaven.

When Nebuchadnezzar threw Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah into the furnace for refusing to worship his golden image, it was Gabriel who walked with them in the flames. The fire turned cool around their bodies while the heat consumed the soldiers who had stoked it. Michael was made of snow and Gabriel of fire, the Midrash records, yet they stood beside each other without harm.

Seventy Tongues in a Single Night

When Joseph languished in Pharaoh's prison, Gabriel came to him and taught him the seventy languages of the nations in a single night. Without this gift, Joseph could not have served as vizier of Egypt, could not have interpreted for foreign delegations, could not have saved his family from famine. The Talmud records that Gabriel also added a letter of God's name to Joseph's name, transforming it to Yehosef, marking him as prepared for his role.

Earlier still, when the young Abraham smashed his father's idols and Nimrod sentenced the boy to death by fire, Gabriel descended to carry the child from the flames. The patriarch who would become the father of nations survived his first trial because the angel of fire pulled him out.

The Coal and the Crown

When the infant Moses was brought to Pharaoh's court, his reaching for the royal crown alarmed Pharaoh's advisors, who saw in the gesture a portent of rebellion. They devised a test: a platter bearing gold and glowing coals was set before the child. If he reached for the gold, he understood value and was dangerous; if he grasped the coal, he was merely a child attracted to brightness. Moses's hand moved toward the gold. Gabriel pushed it to the burning coal. The child seized it and brought it to his mouth, scorching his tongue.

From that moment Moses became "heavy of mouth and heavy of tongue," his speech impaired by the act that saved his life. Pharaoh, convinced the boy was harmless, let him live. The wound would later require Aaron to speak in Moses's place. The angel of fire once again used his element to save, though this time the fire left its mark on the one it protected.

The Mark of the Righteous

In Ezekiel's vision of Jerusalem's coming destruction, God commands a figure clothed in linen to pass through the city and set a mark, a tav, upon the foreheads of the righteous, those who "sigh and groan over all the abominations" committed in the city (Ezekiel 9:4). The Talmud identifies this figure as Gabriel. Those bearing the mark were spared while the destroying angels slew all others.

The Talmud adds a challenge: the attribute of justice questioned whether even the righteous deserved protection, since they had failed to protest effectively against the sins of their generation. Gabriel's mark was necessary. Whether it was sufficient was argued before God's throne.

The Trumpet That Will Sound

Tradition places a trumpet in Gabriel's hand at the end of days. When history reaches its culmination, Gabriel will blow the shofar to announce the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and the gathering of the nations. The trumpet that sounded at Sinai when the Torah was given will sound again when the world that received it is remade.